scales and weights

[MRBB]

OK does anyone else ever feel like folks MAKE up numbers on weights of things they kill,
I mean I have killed a LOT of deer(couple hundred or more) and I have weighted many of them on actual scales, certified scales to boot
I am always seeing and reading of folks CLAIMING to have killed a "X lb buck, when to my EYE"S
there not even in the ball park on weights
call it a pet peeve of mine, but I find it DUMB folks need to lie on weights, all the more so on so called TV show's
its like the old fishing jokes,
he was THIS BIG!

do they really think were dumb?

does this annoy anyone else !!
if you want to list weights, just be honest and say your GUESSING, if your NOT using a scale

200lb 2.5 yr old bucks are NOT really common any where but on forums and tv shows I think LOL

 

[bueller]

I think a lot people think their deer weigh more than they actually do and therefore they aren't actually lying, just overestimating badly. Same for antler scores.

I've never weighed a deer but I did get a scale last year so any deer we harvest from now on will likely get weighed.

 

[j-bird]

I think folks guess.....A LOT! And the further they have to drag it the heavier it gets!!

What I find is interesting is when folks claim their deer dressed at 250 lbs.......and yet the deer doesn't look like it was 250 lbs live weight! A scale of decent calibration will reveal many a liar! The locker I take my deer to have a scale as well if I ever shoot a real tank I will know for sure what the dressed weight is.

I actually weigh every deer harvested on my farm since 2012 as a live weight. My scale isn't certified, but I put things of known weight on it to ensure it isn't off too much. As of last year I even started recording live and dressed weight and the amount of meat I got from it as well. In basic terms you can take the live weight and divide it into thirds. 1/3 for internal organs, 1/3 for pre-butcher (less head, bones, hide and lower legs) and then the final 1/3 in actual meat. These numbers move some as fawns have far less actual meat while a large buck or doe will provide more actual meat, but it's a good general guideline from what I have seen.

All live weights from my place:
Fawns run 75 to 100 lbs
Young deer (yearlings and 2 year olds) run 120 to 160 lbs
Older deer (3 years +) run 175 to 240 lbs

The deer in my avatar is the biggest off my place at 240 lbs live weight - I guess him to be 4 years old.

 

[MRBB]

I agree that MOST folks all over estimate things, wishful thinking and I get that
I just hate seeing folks that just blab out numbers as if were all dummy's and supposed to believe them
all the more so when they say LIVE weight and then dressed weight
as IF they really put them on a scale

YRS back, 80's and into early 90's the STATE Game dept here in PA used to hand out cards that gave weights of deer live and then dressed
but untill you have a REAL number on live, its all a guess

MY biggest deer to date on a REAL scale was field dressed at just under 300 lbs, an absolute HUGE bodied deer, up in Alberta Canada
didn't do a before weight to get a number on it with the guts in, left them in the woods as I think MOST guys do, on all but some private club lands where its NOT allowed!

here in PA< after 30+ yrs of weighing most of my bucks, it was RARE for one to field dress over 150 lbs, biggest one was a SMALL racked scrub 6 point rack, maybe about 70 inches, but was old and was just over 175 on a real scale
My last buck here in PA, a 143 inch score rack and it weight just 145 lbs dressed, almost matched its rack in numbers LOL

but I do think far too many throw numbers out as if there SPOT on
and it makes me laugh and a little annoyed , when it comes from people bragging and making the effort to sound like there pro's or??

he we all add a little extra at times, I'm not preaching here!
but when the pictures don't match the description by even a LITTLE,
its hard to swallow no?

 

[MoBuckChaser]

I have had a certified scale on the farm in MN for over 15 years. I have weighed a lot of deer on it for guys over the years that think they shot 240lb monsters. Most dressed bucks that I have weighed are between 150 and 170lb. With some, not many, maybe 3?, at the 190lb-210lb mark. I have never had one over 210 that I can remember.

 

[Booner21]

I weigh mine in every year because we are in a weight based contest. I have 3 that have weighed 200+

Sent from my SM-G920V using Tapatalk

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I have shot a fair amount of deer in my days, and I personally have just 1 that hit the 200 pound mark, it was a very old deer for our area (guessing 6yo). It ended up having 13 points, but the rack was really messed up, and wasnt very big. To this day, I have only seen 1 other deer in the woods that was bigger then it, but never got it in my sites. This other deer dwarfed the one I shot, that dressed at 205. It looked like a cow!

 

[Jameson]

It is always fun to hang around the scale at the Park hunts and hear hunters guess the weight of the deer. If they were the one to drag it the guess is always over. My biggest deer on scale I think was 175 lbs. A 135 lb doe is a big doe from what I have seen at the scales.

During my first couple years hunting before I had ever seen a deer on a scale I shot a really large doe. It dwarfed the 1.5 year old bucks that were shot. The old man that let us hang deer in the garage wouldn't let us hang that doe, "too heavy for the rafters" he said, and "it would still touch the ground anyways." "You kids don't appreciate the size of that doe, when you get older you will," he said. Looking back that was probably as close to a 200 lb (dressed) doe as I will ever see, it was probably 175 lbs or so.

 

[Buckly]

I used to do a lot of trapping. Over 20 plus years and thousands of beaver caught, the big ones were always weighed on certified scales. Most all hogs were 50-55 pounds and out of the thousands there were two, a 61 and 64 pounder. Every year we ran into guys that caught 5 or 10 and claimed 2 were over 70 pounds. LOL There was always guys catching 70 pounders haha. They never weighed them of course just guessed but, they were always sure they were over 70. I still laugh at those guys.

 

[MRBB]

HAHA< so I guess there is more folks hunting area's like me that don't have all these FAT deer LOL
guess were hunting the wrong places
I know for a fact here in PA< the state record for heaviest deer was a doe, and it had a 6 point rack on it if I recall right, shot up in North central Pa
I think it was up over 350 lbs, I forget 100% details
but makes one wonder

but good to hear I am NOT alone in not killing so many heavy deer?

 

[MoBuckChaser]

LOL!

 

[CheeseCurd]

8.5 bucks per year average!? Good god gurdy

 

[tooln]

Anyone believe him. I've seen the results.

 

[tooln]

Anyone believe him. I've seen the results.
Sorry it should have been everyone.

 

[Fall guy]

Back on weights. Early October bucks have best
Weight they can easily loose 5 percent by gun season here in WI. TV 13 here in western WI had contest was based on weight 70s thru early 90s . The winners were any where from 220 to 240. Buffalo, Sawyer, Trempealeau were always in tops in that order. These were gun season deer. Sawyer unfortunately has huge predator issues now.

 

[Satchmo]

The tendency for over exaggeration not withstanding, there are so many regional differences that contribute to average weight. Nutrition, soil fertility, weather, hunting pressure, predatory stress, and the genetics of the many subspecies of whitetails across the country. Hell, a good sized fawn in MN probably weighs more than an average doe in Texas. I've only shot 4 bucks over 200# in 35+ years of hunting deer, and two of those were in the same week. There are however, always a few true 250 plus shot in MN every year, mostly from the big woods in the northern part of the state where they can put on some years. There are a lot of southern states that don't have a prayer of growing deer that big.

 

[Jameson]

..a good sized fawn in MN probably weighs more than an average doe in Texas.

Most fawns I have seen weighed go around 50-60 pounds dressed. A big one would typically be 70 pounds, and kind of rare. Think I saw an 85 pounder one time. 45 pounders aren't too uncommon, at least in the park hunts.

 

[dsinwi]

I used to get annoyed by it. Well, maybe I still do a little. Especially all the 200lb+ does that got harvested every year. Those same folks wonder why they only got 2 boxes of meat when they pick it up. The largest buck I've ever seen, weighed on a certified scale 3 days after harvest, was 239lbs. That deer was very long. The largest doe, weighed on a certified scale the day of harvest, was 179lbs. Both in WI. Perhaps I've seen some larger, I don't know. Those two I saw and were weighed. There are some very heavy deer harvested every year. Most are in the 120 to 160 range. Takes a lot of deer to hit the 200lb mark. I think the dragging makes them feel heavier.:cool:

 

[Satchmo]

Most fawns I have seen weighed go around 50-60 pounds dressed. A big one would typically be 70 pounds, and kind of rare. Think I saw an 85 pounder one time. 45 pounders aren't too uncommon, at least in the park hunts.

Your right Jameson, and my cousin spent several years in Texas, but never saw a doe brought in that weighed over 100 pounds. Just regional differences and genetics.

 

[Tree Spud]

I agree with folks over estimating weights. Unless you actually weigh them, you are only guessing. I think most folks do not want to actually weigh because they like their story better than the tale the scale would tell.

The last 3 bucks I have taken off our property were (1) 3.5 & (2) 4.5 years olds. We have a scale and they ranged in weight field dressed 208, 213, & 227 lbs.

The buck below was taken off my neighbors property a couple of years ago and weighed in field dressed on a certified scale at 292.45 lbs. For perspective, that is a 75 hp John Deere tractor he is hanging from. His gut pile filled a "contractor" size wheel barrow and the heart was the size of a football. The DNR estimated the live weight 360-370 lbs. Took 4 guys to drag it out of the drainage dike it tumbled into.