Largest bodied black tail you’ve seen?

[roosiebull]

He looks like he has some Hereford genes!

Yeah, pretty crazy. Not my picture, but he certainly seemed deserving of this thread

He is a fatty. The rolls above his knees is kinda funny to see on a deer

 

[<cascadehunter>]

Well I thought I shot a decent one until this thread humbled me…. I’m 5’ 10” 180lbs and I’m certain he weighed more than me. I was pretty blown away by the ass and abdomen on this guy. Not a high elevation buck at all and not a bench. I got 83 pounds of meat off him.

 

[AK Troutbum]

We’ve killed some pretty big Sitka BT on Kodiak, but I can only guess as to what they would have weighed on the hoof. I remember thinking maybe in the low 200 lb range at the time. Here’s one of my bigger ones from about 16 or 17 years ago.

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[Rogue Bay]

We’ve killed some pretty big Sitka BT on Kodiak, but I can only guess as to what they would have weighed on the hoof. I remember thinking maybe in the low 200 lb range at the time. Here’s one of my bigger ones from about 16 or 17 years ago.

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That buck looks like a finished angus!

 

[Loggerdude]

In the 80s I worked on a power line project in southeast Alaska, we flew everywhere in a chopper and there were giants on top of those islands. The ones in the lower ares were about the size of yearling.

 

[Azone]

We’ve killed some pretty big Sitka BT on Kodiak, but I can only guess as to what they would have weighed on the hoof. I remember thinking maybe in the low 200 lb range at the time. Here’s one of my bigger ones from about 16 or 17 years ago.

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That is one healthy looking buck.

 

[AkRyan]

This guy was a TOAD I'm not sure in weight but he was well over 200 untouched. He reminded me of a big ole white tail in rut with how thick his neck is

 

[jdcareyidaho]

I had a friend shoot a giant bodied black tail a couple days ago. Field dressed out at 198lbs but the scale wasn’t high enough to get the deer all the way off the ground. His head and front legs were still touching the ground a bit. After skinning and getting him all cleaned up the carcass came out to 153lbs on the same scale.
What’s the largest black tail you guys have encountered?

would love to have seen that pic..

 

[Lou (Louis)]

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This guy was a TOAD I'm not sure in weight but he was well over 200 untouched. He reminded me of a big ole white tail in rut with how thick his neck is

Nice buck!

 

[AkRyan]

Nice buck!

I forgot to mention this isn't me hahaha I was in Minnesota shooting this guy with my bow

 

[AlpineAssassin907]

Late but here’s one of the biggest Sitka blacktails I’ve seen. Antler wise we have shot way bigger bucks but damn!. Check out the neck on that guy tank

 

[SwiftShot]

My baby boy.

 

[Macro]

I shot a 3pt in 2006 that was over 230lbs hanging in the garage, but that's with the head and hide on. We used a drag sled to get him out and still had to cut him in half. To reduce the dragging weight in the field we cut away all the fat we could reach near his midsection where we halved him, and cut the legs off at the knees. I killed another 3pt in the same spot a few years earlier that was in the same class but that was before I bought a scale.

 

[INTJ]

In my experience, a benchleg or hybrid is what you call your buddies buck that is bigger than yours........

I am skeptical of benchleg/hybrids being at the bottom of the Cascades on the West side. Especially when everything about them looks like a Blacktail. I suppose a DNA test is the final answer, but how much Muley makes it a benchleg?

According to Valerius Geist, IIRC, Mule Deer came about when a Southern Blacktail buck bread a whitetail doe. That makes me wonder if a benchleg could also breed, and if so, it would be possible to have 3/4 Blacktail and 1/4 Mule Deer. At some point, all this interbreeding would dilute the gene pool.

I think they tried to recognize this by creating a "Cascade Blacktail". I don't think B&C recognizes it, but it is a useful category to explain the big Blacktail bucks on the West side of the Cascades--but East of I-5, that look nothing like a Muley.

All that said, I have seen antlers form a buck taken West of Roseburg that had to be 170-180. Think it was shot in the 1940s.

The largest bodied Blacktail I have ever seen was at the bottom of the Cascades near Eagle Point in the late 70s. I didn't get him, but his antlers went horizontally out of his head and were the size of baseball bats. I suppose he would have been a benchleg.

The other two big ones I saw--and were beaten by--were West of Roseburg, well inside the Columbia Blacktail boundary.

My biggest one personally dressed 140 lbs, minus fore legs, so he would have been what, 170-180 on the hoof? I got him West of Grants Pass. Small Antlers. Dad helped me drag him out which was very cool. It was in 2011. I was 51 and he was 76. This pic doesn't show his size well.

 

[bowuntr]

September Sitka Blacktail. I've haven't shot one close to this one. Ed F

 

[InDeep]

September Sitka Blacktail. I've haven't shot one close to this one. Ed F


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That's a great Sitka buck

 

[_Tyler_]

Here’s my 2020 buck from a late hunt tag I got that year. Didn’t weigh him, but he was considerably bigger in terms of body size than any muley I’ve ever shot. I just remember walking up to him and saying “wow” to myself. My dad actually got him on trail cam cruising a couple days before I found him. His body makes his legs look like twigs lol

 

[Lou (Louis)]

Here’s my 2020 buck from a late hunt tag I got that year. Didn’t weigh him, but he was considerably bigger in terms of body size than any muley I’ve ever shot. I just remember walking up to him and saying “wow” to myself. My dad actually got him on trail cam cruising a couple days before I found him. His body makes his legs look like twigs lol

Beautiful buck, sir!

 

[Lou (Louis)]

This is the heaviest one I killed, probably 180 to 200 pounds, also the only Sitka I've killed to make book. It's a scan of a photo. I killed this deer almost 40 years ago.

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Beautiful deer!

 

[Steely6587]

Beautiful deer!

I've never seen and ugly blacktail. My most favorite of all 4 legged things to hunt.