How to Estimate Deer Weight

Stop guessing your deer's weight. This useful chart will help you determine your deer's estimated live weight, field dressed weight and edible meat weight.

Some things to remember:
1. Measure the animal just behind the front legs (girth)
2. Field dressed = body cavity cleaned out (no heart, lungs, ect..)
3. Weight is in pounds (lbs.)

Chest/Girth (in.) Live Wt. Field Dressed Edible Meat
24 55 38 27
25 61 43 29
26 66 49 30
27 71 53 31
28 77 59 34
29 82 64 36
30 90 70 39
31 98 74 42
32 102 80 45
33 110 87 50
34 118 91 54
35 126 99 57
36 135 104 61
37 146 115 66
38 157 126 71
39 169 135 74
40 182 144 80
41 195 156 88
42 210 170 94
43 228 182 103
44 244 198 110
45 267 214 120
46 290 233 130
47 310 251 139
48 340 272 153
 

Mature whitetailed deer can be heavy, but much of their weight is distributed in non-meat areas. Here are some examples of how weight is distributed. Live weights are in parenthesis.

HIDE FACTOR
Fawn (100 pds) 6.7%
Adult doe (140 pds) 7.9%
Adult buck (160 pds) 8.7%
Bucks over 160 pds 9.0%

BONE FACTOR
Fawn (100 pds) 13.8%
Adult doe (140 pds) 13.0%
Adult buck (160 pds) 12.4%
Bucks over 160 pds 11.7%

BLOOD FACTOR
Fawn (100 pds) 6.0%
Adult doe (140 pds) 5.0%
Adult buck (160 pds) 5.0%
Bucks over 160 pds 5.0%

Using the above guide as an example, a 180 pd buck would have 16.2 pds of hide, 21.06 pds of bone and 9.0 pds of blood.

Information provided by Pennsylvania State University, Department of Animal Science and the PennsylvaniaGame Commission.