I euro mounted both of these bucks and was just blown away by the difference in head size. I have never personally had my hands on a buck from Kansas and had no idea how much larger those deer really are!

wow

It may shock you how much variation you find here in texas from region to region and even amongst deer on the same property.

2 years ago I shot a 5 year old 7 pt and my dad shot a 5 year old 8 pt. Both taken off a small low fence property subjected to the same management weather conditions and feed. My dads weighed more and his head was an inch longer than the deer I shot. Just like some people are 6-5 and some are 5-2.

Of course it varies to a certain extent, but TX deer in general are much smaller.

Yes, I agree. I have seen a lot of variation in Texas deer over the years of doing Taxidermy work but this guy really grabbed my attention. The weight difference of the skull is also huge!

Here is another shot I just took.

wow

Not saying the kansas buck isn't huge, but I have a couple of euro mounts from here in Texas where the difference is pretty close to that.

Except every thing north of plainsveiw and Vernon

There has been some "Kansas Strain" WT showing up in the panhandle. My buddy shot a 22" wide 7 pt (busted up 8) in Shamrock that had a horse head and went 200lbs field dressed. We shot another buck and two does the same weekend and the difference in body size was impressive to say the least.

you should see the head size of a deer from Canada

I have hunted the panhandle and hunted Kansas...I haven't seen a deer in the Panhandle as big as the deer in Kansas. 200# FD doesn't get close to a mature Kansas deer.

There are some big bodied deer in Texas and no doubt a few taken that would rival Kansas deer, but just as that would be an exception, there are exceptions in Kansas that are that much bigger.

Very cool, thanks for sharing

I heard that Dakota whitetails get to 300-350# thats crazy. Anyone here ever taken one?

I wish I could get one! Then I would only have to clean and process one deer per year.

Panhandle is a big area, once you hit the high plains you can get into 250lb plus wt. Seen them all my life. Seen some push 300.

Had a guy bring me a 8 point scored 158 field dressed 208 in south texas just south of plesenton now I aged the deer to be 8.5

Age could be one factor

A 3yr old Kansas buck has the body size of a 5-6yr old Texas panhandle deer, I've killed a good number of bucks in the panhandle that would filled dress 200lbs and seen a few that would push the 250lb mark. Yea there is deer in the panhandle that would compete with a Kansas deer but not as many. Impressive pics thanks for sharing

Big diff

Both red deer (kansas, northern blood) and grey deer (teas deer) in panhandle where I have hunted.
Body size on mature bucks can be extreme.
Gotta be careful judging horns on each. A red deer with a big rack is probably a real brute.

Texas deer are quite small (at least in the areas I've hunted), compared to the deer in eastern Louisiana where I grew up. For a time I hunted in the Texas hill country and also still hunted back in Louisiana. In the same season, I shot a 10 point in Louisiana that weighed about 250. I had to get help to just move him, much less get him in the truck. And I went for the truck when I saw how ridiculous it would be to even think I could get that deer on my ATV. That same year I shot a deer at the lease in Liberty Hill and the deer jumped a fence after I shot him. I dragged him back to the fence with one hand, leaned my rifle against a tree, grabbed front and rear legs of the deer and threw him over the fence.

The very first deer I shot in Texas was a great looking 8 point. I nailed him with the 270 and strolled over to look at him. That was the day I understood what folks meant when they used the term 'ground shrinkage'. The buck was just tiny. We took him back to camp and hung him up with a few other bucks. The game warden showed up and asked who had shot this nice 8 point. I responded that I had shot him. The game warden then said "that's the biggest buck I've seen today". Well, that was a shock. Total body weight of the deer was 125 pounds.

But...and this is an important 'but'...I quickly found that the meat of the Texas deer was finer grained and had a much better flavor. Wife told me to only shoot Texas deer from now on.

We hunt very close to del rio, texas. We have seen through the years that we have two kind of deer in our place, both have very good horns but the body is very different. The small deer weight around 170-180 fully mature the big size can go all the way to 250.

Last week we liked both deer the same morning, same age deer. The difference in the body is amazing to see. The face is different, the big one is taller, larger from tail to nose. One big difference they have is ear size. So we call them big ear deer or small ear deer. We measured the ear to ear spread of both 18"vs20". That can make a very big difference when judging a deer.

We have killed many 170+ deer through the years, and we have like 50-50 small ear and big ear deer. Judging whitetail is an art!!!!

Look on the Internet! Their are many types of WT deer and the farther from the equater the larger body the deer. The Kansas deer are bigger than texas deer. There is several types within tx as well.

I had a similar problem with my KS euro in regards to the fact that I couldn't get his head in my normal boil pot. Glad to see I am not the only one that noticed this.

Nice deer