shoot a deer that has the heaviest body weight? I'll add a caveat. In the United States so that you can use a handgun. Ok. I know that Maine holds the record with the Wilson Mills buck taken in the mid 1950's but I am talking today. I read something about a record deer taken out of Minnesota that may rival the Wilson Mills Buck but there is some debate over it.

One reason I was thinking about this is because not too long ago I read an article about Craig Boddington, writer for Petersen's Hunting, who had taken a whitetailed buck near 300 lbs in of all places, Finland. Apparently many years ago whitetails were imported to Finland and they are thriving some parks near Helsinki. You can hunt them but as with most European hunting it is not attainable for the average working man. I believe the subspecies of whitetail in Finland is from the North Dakota area which are noted for large body weights.

So I was wondering if anyone would like to chime in on this thread in respect to where they believe one would have an opportunity to take a truly massive deer without resorting to an enclosure like Cherry Hill in Pennsylvania or the Wilderness in Michigan? Thanks

The heaviest deer I've taken was roughly 230 lb. live wt. - he weighed 183 on a certified scale dressed. I can tell ya it takes a really big deer to go 200lb live wt. That was in VA. Out of thousands of deer taken by my family in VA only one went over 200 dressed and that was my dad's 205 so figure about 50 lbs of guts. They have pretty good food in the area we used to hunt too - lots of beans & corn back then. I think it's very unlikely that you'll find what your looking for in the mid-Atlantic or Southern US.

I harvested a 305 lb (live weight) whitetail in Pike Co., IL a few years ago with a S&W .460 PC @ 175 yards. There are many more that size still roaming. If you need some contacts, PM me.

My largest was a 200 lb doe dressed, but I have a buddy who shot a 230 dressed buck last year, its all about diet like others said, I hunt in farm country but some of my small pieces( 3-4) acres hold some monster deer, and this is in NJ

But for the best opportunity mid-west is the land of giants, there are alot of oufitters to chose from also

Most of the big deer seem to come out of the plains area from Illinois, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Southern MN, etc. My BIL goes to Nebraska every year and comes home with a brute. If I were going to plan a hunt for a big deer, I would look in those areas myself.

Illinois has some big brutes,my biggest we guessed around 230 dressed,so the formula we use for live weight is 30% for guts,blood ect. so that would be very close to 300ibs. live weight and even going 20% would put him at 276 live weight.It was raining very hard the day I harvested the brute so thats why we didn't officially weigh him-john

There was a monster close to 300 taken in southern PA a few years back...I have hunted in PA all my life and would say a 200lb buck is a nice buck here.

Just tie one up and feed him table scraps :-)

I took this one a couple years ago in southern Illinois; he was over 300 lbs.....



...his neck measured 27 1/2" just below the jaw (C measurement).

KRal,

That is one BIG whitetail!

I vote Midwest or N Central as others have suggested. Deer densities, lack of soil quality, and genetics make that size whitetail "unattainable" in the SE under wild conditions.

Kral... no offense but I can't believe you don't have a smile on your face standing next to that guy!

No kidding. He looks like he just got done draggin' it for a mile or two ;-)

Nice buck Kral.

With a handgun in NJ?????

Hunted Fingerlakes Region of NY and shot two big bucks in 3 years, one DRESSED 215.... and the other DRESSED 240 on the Butchers Scale.....

Excatly, but it wasn't even a mile...

My uncle went three years with bucks right at 300 and last year my brother shot a 180 pound doe. my buck a couple years ago went 240 and my brother had one the year before go 255. A lot of th bucks we've taken go between 200 and 220. That's in Kansas. I know a guy though that went to Canada not sure where though and his buck went well over 300.

Here are some pictures to go with the above comment

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cant remember body size on this one but he was a big one. Also about a deer in finlad being around 300 is easy to believe just like to me deer that size in the dakotas and or canada is a norm due to colder weather. I our college mammology class and in our wildlife managment class the farther north you go the bigger the body of the animals, this is also part of what people think is the problem with the wolf sitution in yellowstone since they were brought in from canada where they are much bigger than those that were native to yellowstone.

Nice deer Cookie. If we could handgun Canada I can think of a few places, but for the USA the heartland is hard to beat.