Proper Method of Measuring a Deer Carcass?

[fingers284]

That 450lber you speak of sounds like it could be one of the biggest ones ever.

https://www.deeranddeerhunting.com/content/blogs/dan-schmidt-deer-blog-whitetail-wisdom/deer-pictures-real-slobberknockers#:~:text=From%20what%20we%20can%20gather,of%20more%20than%20540%20pounds.

I only know of one that was comparable (killed by a friend of my old man), shot 5 years prior about 1.5 mi distant from mine...same blood lines probably. When we drug mine out of the bush to the truck (about 200 yards) 3 of us had to use a fencepost like a single-tree wedged in the horns to drag the bugger...and had to stop for a breather quite a few times.

 

[fingers284]

You can use girth measure to estimate weight, and done correctly it's pretty close.

https://www.pgc.pa.gov/Wildlife/WildlifeSpecies/White-tailedDeer/Pages/DeerWeightChart.aspx

There were several small farmer in my district that raised hogs for slaughter back when I was a school kid. When "shipping days' came about some of us school kids would make a bit of spending money helping the old guys "chest measure" all the hogs that were close to market weight. The slaughter houses are very strict on "docking" for overweight "too fat hogs" and chest measuring was the only way that feasible for a small operation.

 

['Boo]

Here is a big old boy.

There is a bit of a back story behind this guy.

A few years ago I had a November doe tag I was waiting to fill as a cold front had moved in and daytime temperatures were in the -20's. On the last day of the season I had no choice to go out and brave the cold to shoot a doe. After I got to my hunting spot - about a half-hour from home - I was trying work into a group of does that had what appeared to be a yearling buck and doe following their mother. The yearling doe was the one I wanted.

As I got near this fellow busted out of a clump of juniper and went bouncing up the mountain. As 4 point season was also open, and we were allowed 2 bucks a season then, I swung through him and put a 165 grain Hornady SP through his lungs. The old bugger then made it to a high bank and jumped off and slid about 200 yards down the mountain. As luck would have it he made it down to a skid trail where I was able to drive the pickup to within 100 yards of him. I was able to fight him into the back of the truck in one piece and decided to take him home in the round and gut him where I had hot water to keep by hands from freezing.

When I hung him on the scale he weighed over 380 pounds whole. After skinning he had very little fat as he must have been rutting hard over the previous month and I suspect he would have broken 400 pound in early November.
,

 

[Isobar1999]

The only measurement that really matters is how many pounds go in your freezer Lol