This oughtta be interesting. Tell about how you got your biggest deer!

1. Location
2. Type of deer
3. Gun type and ammo
4. Fired at what range
5. How far did it run
6. Actual size of deer, details
7. Size of deer after exaggeration
8. Picture of deer if available

Time to brag!!

I used my 7mm Bullberry (20" full bull) Contender carbine to take a gorgeous, symmetrical 8point whitetail with a spread of 18 5/8th inches Monday evening, Nov 18th, in Kimble County, TX (app. 12 miles west of Junction). The load: 130 grain Sierra SSP at 2505 fps. The range: 108 yards. Buck was slightly quartering and gave me only seconds to make up my mind. Bullet took him on the inside part of the right shoulder and lodged in the left ham. The recovered bullet was a perfect mushroom and still weighs an amazing 114.5 grains despite taking out a couple inches of spine along the way. He dropped on the spot. I didn't weigh the buck but would estimate his live weight to be 175 pounds, typical for a mature buck in that region. I am posting links to both the photo of the deer and recovered 130 grain Single Shot Pistol bullet.

http://www.outdoor-search.com/gallery/Free_For_All/abb

http://www.outdoor-search.com/gallery/Free_For_All/abd

http://www.outdoor-search.com/gallery/Free_For_All/abc

[ 11-28-2002, 11:34: Message edited by: Bobby Tomek ]

Oxfordshire
Fallow buck
Oxfordshire
Fallow buck
tikka 243
95gr ballistic silver tip
70yards
Crawled a serious distance in the pooring rain and howling wind through a bramble patch and a ditch then across flat woodland floor in full view of the herd. Got as close as I could and had to kneel up to get backstop. Raised rifle couldn't see a thing. Got out tissue cleaned scope and tried again - still fogged. Contorted body to get to dry tissue in inner pocket and redid lenses. Raise rifle, herd does run off, buck unsure if I'm a pesky pricket. Shoot buck through base of neck/far shoulder, he runs off for 80 yards and falls.
A good buck with nice palmation for around here.

Berkshire
Roe buck
09 actioned 6.5x55
100gr ballistic tip
40yards
Had to call him from 150yards away as that shot was unsafe. Got him to 40yards in the gathering dusk. High crops meant only very top of neck and head visible. Took high neck shot which hit neck/skull junction. When I reached him I realised I'd just shattered the skull of the biggest trophy I'd ever shot!
Borderline silver CIC, luckily the skull is salvagable with a slightly higher cut.

T.C.Guy,
My largest buck is a whitetail I took in West Lebanon New York around 1985. A 9 pointer 21 3/8 inside spread it scored 145 3/8. The deer weighted 174 dressed. I shot the beast with a 7x57 custom Mauser 145 grain hand loads at a distance of 30 yards, it droped on the spot.

Bryan

1-Location, Idaho
2- mule deer
3- MML BK 92 muzzleloader, 310 gr sabot
4- 210 yards
5- spine shot it dropped in it's tracks
6- size 193 B&C gross. 200 pounds quartered
7- 400 B&C 600 pounds quartered
8- here isthe pic. Ron

Vermont
Whitetail buck
Savage 99F, .358 Winchester, 180 gr Speer Flat Point at 2700 fps mv.
70 yards
40 yards. While the bullet hit in the ribs the point of impact was not where the shot went off. I shot thru some branches and I guess the bullet did not hit point on due to the small exit wound and how far the deer ran. What was unusual was that I could not pick out the deers tracks from where it was hit but I could smell the deer and knew the direction to track from that!

190 lbs dressed with liver and heart out. Seven point with an 18" spread. The antlers are typical VT and are thin in cross section. All VT buck pools are based on weight only. This was the largest deer checked in the area.

I don't like to brag and admit that I would rather have got a smaller deer. I could not lift this one into the trunk but finally someone came by and helped. The weather was above freezing from that time thru when it got butchered and that venison is the best that I have ever had. Someone here said that at temperatures above freezing the enzimes keep working to tenderize the meat. It yielded 100 lbs.

Wow nice!! Only five people on this board has ever hunted deer?!!

1. Location: Northern Indiana
2. Type of deer: Whitetail
3. Gun type and ammo: TC Contender 10" 44 Mag.
200 gr. Nosler JHP
4. Fired at what range: 66 yds.
5. How far did it run : 50 yds.
6. Actual size of deer, details:
8 point 16" spread 182 lb. dressed weight at
check station.
Greg

1992 - Panhandle of Texas.
9 point WT scoring 156 3/8
He had a 9" brow tine and a 6.5" brow tine. Plenty of mass and charachter.
Old as the hills, not a single tooth in his mouth!

We figured him at about 12 years old. I bet when he was about 5 years younger he was a monster, more than likely a B&C candidate!

I must say that of all the venison I have eaten, his was the best ... go figure.

i got a nice mulie last season. got him with my 270 and 150 nosler partition. he was about a 125 yards away. he droped at the shot as i hit him in the spine. he grossed in the 180 range but neted in the low 160's and weighed 170 pounds skined out on the butchers scale. he has a 8 inch drop tine on his right antler and his main beam drops down. the forks a long and deep all around. he has arverage mass and short beams. id post the pictures if i knew how.

Miami
Cuban Dear
Bare handed
I couldn't run fast or far enough after
No photos
Not braggin'
Ain't gonna tell you the weight

Wexford PA-USA
11 point Whitetail buck
PSE Mach 4 bow & 125 grain Thunderheads
25 yards
Spine shot-dropped in tracks. Follow up to heart
205 ponds field dressed/ 155 P&Y score (gross)

Biggest deer ever for me was a perfect 8 point with a 20 inch spread when measured shortly after shot, spread is now a smidgen over 19". Taken in Nov. 2000 in my home state on a very cold windy day that kept most hunters in camp and out of the woods. When I spotted him he was bedded in a thickit beside a doe. Also had fresh bark hanging from the base of his anlters and brow tines, my huntin buddys still say I should have at least let him finish his cigarette before I shot him.

1. Location - Indiana
2. Type of deer - Whitetail
3. Gun type and ammo - Ithaca 12ga, mod 37
deerslayer
4. Fired at what range - 70 yards
5. How far did it run - 50 yards
6. Actual size of deer, details - 11 point, 137
B&C gross rack. Dressed weight 185 lb
7. Size of deer after exaggeration - "Old Mossy
Horns"
8. Picture of deer if available - Sorry

I have shot half a dozen or more muleys over 185 B&C two had 37.5" and 34.5 spreads and broke 200...I have two Coues Deer that score 116.5 and I believe the other score over 118. I shot them on the Cap Yates ranch near Marathon, Texas. These are record book Coues..I have shot many 30" plus mule deer...I, myself have not seen a 30" mule deer in Idaho since the winter kill of 92-93.....I book for a ranch in Tex/NM that has more than a few 230 plus B&C muleys...

I have shot my deer at various ranges with various guns...I've also shot a few nice Texas whitetail in the 150 league, not record deer but they sure were nice...

Probably my best muley was shot on a very large ranch one of my uncles was operating north of Dell City, Texas. Most of the ranch was actually in New Mexico. The country there is sort of a high, grassy desert terrain. Hardly a tree in site but the deer grow BIG.

I was just a dumbass kid on vacation from my Sr. year at college and was hunting with the one and only cartridge I ever designed, a silly little thing I called the 7.62X38mm Jackrabbit. It was a 300 Savage shortened to 1.5" case and I was shooting 125gr Sierra SPs. It was about mid-day and my uncle told me a big buck hung out in this area, so I was hunting it out quietly as I could.

To my surprise I came around a big yucca and there 25-30 yds away beneath the shade of the next big yucca, this buck was bedded down. Hard to say who was most surprised. He was getting up when I fired at his shoulder. He spun as if I'd missed and disappeared in some brush behind him.

Naturally I was having some serious doubts about myself and my rifle but I went to look for blood or some sign of a hit. Found a couple of drops and then found him dead 20 yds further. Hit right where I aimed. Horns were a perfect 8 points, 24 wide and 24 tall. Took me, my dad and my uncle to manhandle him into the truck. Certainly he was not a record muley at all, just a big beautiful deer. We hung him up at the ranch house, quarted him and I brought most of him back to college to butcher in my apartment. Never weighed him. Don't know that my uncle had anything to weigh him with. No photograph as I never really expected to shoot anything worthy of a picture.

I kept the horns for many years, but the last time I moved, they and some others stayed behind. Sold the rifle a couple of years after taking this deer. I've always been loyal as a whore to most of my guns and when I felt they had nothing new to teach me, I traded for something different. I've learned a lot this way but it's cost me some dandy weapons that I grieve for now.

OH! Forgot the bullet. It broke up going thru the left shoulder and pieces wandered around thru the heart and lungs. No exit. Probably the biggest piece left was 40 grs. I know, I should have been using 150gr bullets.

[ 11-29-2002, 07:17: Message edited by: Pecos45 ]

Ray Atkinson - You've hunted a lot of desert mule deer, Ray. It seems to me the desert muleys get larger and grow bigger horns than most mule deer taken in the mountains...except in a few areas I can think of. What do you think?

I've jumped a few mule deer bucks when I was working as patrol pilot that had such monsterous racks I thought for a moment they had to be elk!

Your thoughts on the subject, Sir?

1. Location
---Alaska

2. Type of deer
---Moose

3. Gun type and ammo
---.338WM, 230-grain FS, and 250-grain NOS

4. Fired at what range
---Closest: 100 yards, farthest 275 or so

5. How far did it run
---Most have dropped on the spot, but one walked 25 yards.

6. Actual size of deer, details
---The smallest: About 1,000 pounds, and the largest around 1,200 or maybe 1,400 pounds. The smaller antler measured across at the widest point: 32", and the largest: 57".

7. Size of deer after exaggeration
---Take home meat, smaller: Around 700 pounds, largest: About 900 pounds.

8. Picture of deer if available
---I have a few, but I can't post them here unless I can e-mail it to Saeed. I don't have a Web site.

Here in Ut. we may be considered somewhat dyslexic as we only count the points on one side.

My best ever was a 5 point shot @ roughly 200 yds up a very vertical hill in central Utah. Rifle was a 7mm RM Weatherby Vanguard with a 145 gr speer bullet. It rolled down the hill about 5 ft. (allow for exaggeration here )

Where we used to traditionally hunt the racks never got very big, my Dad always said its not the deer but the experience that matters. For the weight and age of that deer the spread should have been much better. Ive shot enough freezer fillers and now my muley hunting is largley a quest for that one big boy that I can look on the wall @ when Im too old to hunt.

I had a look at a candidate this year but the wall space is still vacant.

I have shot two really great Deer in my life.

A White Tail in Northern Michigan:
12Pt
210 lbs.
38 yards,
280 Remington
165 Gr RN Core Lokt right in the throat took out the jugular and he fell over backwards and bled to death.

A Mule Deer in B.C.
10 Pt
29" Wide
Estimated 260 lbs
270 Win
150 gr Factory Norma SP.
125 yards

Western - If you just count the points on one side, how do you know which side to count?

[ 11-30-2002, 08:06: Message edited by: Pecos45 ]

1. Wind River Range, Wyoming
2. Muledeer
3. Browning Stainless Stalker in 7 Mag.
4. Approx. 90-100 yards
5. Dropped to the shot.
6. 36.25" Spread w/ 32.5" Mainframe
213 B&C Gross w/ 22 Scorable points
7. Ditto
8.

1. Location - Southern Idaho
2. Type of deer - Mule Deer
3. Gun type and ammo 22-250 (I no longer recommend this round for hunting deer)
4. Fired at what range 200 Yards
5. How far did it run - to far, why I don't recommend the 22-250 for deer.
6. Actual size of deer, details 34" spread 4x5
7. Size of deer after exaggeration 36, opps, I mean 41 inch spread
8. Picture of deer if available
http://www.contender-g2.com\mybuck3.jpg

1. Gibson County, Indiana
2. Whitetail
3. 870 Remington, Hastings slug barrel, Weaver K4W
Winchester Supreme Sabot
4. 27 Steps
5. About 50 yards
6. The buck weighed 217 field dressed, 10 pt, 17 3/4" inside spread, grossed 156 1/8 netted 151
3/8. I hit the buck right above heart, complete penetration.

1. Northern Wisconsin (Nicolet Nat'l Forest)
2. Whitetail
3. 338 Win Mag w/ handloaded 200gr Nos BT's
4. 12 yards
5. Dropped in tracks
6. Typical (very) 10 point, 7 inch brows, 11 inch G2's Gross 155, net 150 7/8, 180lb dressed (would have been 200+ I'm sure before the rut.
7. Within 1% of #6, but give it a few more years

On the 2nd day of gun opener I still-hunted into a large cedar swamp, and rattled the buck in around 10 in the morning and shot him as he walked out from a screen of small pines.

Pecos,
I don't know the answer to that, I have seen some huge desert Muleys and some huge Mountain Muleys but I think the really biggest Mule Deer have been killed in the Pacific North West and Arizonas Kaibab....

However recently it seems the Desert Mule Deer are winning the contest..I believe the winter of 92-93 killed a lot of trophy Mule deer in the Pacific NW, the game depts. kept pounding them and the gene pool is in dire striats...Big Muleys just cannot handle a bad winter, they are comming out of the rut and thin....

Desert Mule deer have fewer adversitys...I think the biggest Mule deer today come out of Southern NM around Jal, and Kermit, Texas and the surrounding area...

Dell City, Texas, I used to Rodeo with Pete and Wayne Lewis, Bob Sheppard from Del City...did you know the Lewis'.....Bob was an El Paso boy..Pete and Bob were both eventually world champion bull riders...

Nickudu - NICE Muley!! Thanks for sharing the pic.

As for my biggest...I haven't been the most successful deer hunter. Deer always take last priority after Sheep, elk, moose...

I did get lucky on my first whitey buck though. This is going back a ways for me. 1991...

1. East Kootenay's, BC
2. Whitetail
3. Rem 700, BDL, 300 Win Mag, 200gr Sierra GK's
4. 35 yard shot, deer was walking, heart shot.
5. Deer ran about 100 yards in almost a full circle. It fell about 20 yards from where it was when I shot it.
6. 4x5, scored just shy of 150".
7/8...


I was pretty happy! They actually printed that picture in Big Buck Magazine in '95 if anyone saves back issues.

Canuck

1. Southwest Wisconsin,1996
2. White Tail
3. Sako AV 30-06, Handloads, 57gr. Imr 4350
180 gr Nos.BT, Rem brass
4. Range, 372 yards
5. Walked about twenty feet before shot 2 broke it down. Shot one, heart, shot two, shoulder and lungs.
6. Dressed weight, 251 lbs, Antlers, 148 1/4. 20 inches inside, 9 points.
7. 180 inches of antler, 500lbs on the hoof, fangs like a tiger and a vicious streak a mile wide.....
I hope to return in late December to put the smack on his sibling who will be firmly into the 170's if not the 180's.


Some of the rest.....


[ 12-10-2002, 18:47: Message edited by: Carnivore ]

Sure a lot of nice deer on this thread, but am I in a nursury, you guys sure are younger than I suspected or am I just older than I oughta be..Oh well ya'll ain't near as pretty as me......

Pa....10 Point...19"....300Rem Ultra Mag shooting 220gr MatchKing's at 2958fps...Shot was 875 yard's and dropped when hit...Dressed at 160 pound's

Ray - I know what you mean about everyone here looking like a bunch of kids. Like you though, I think I got um all beat in the looks department.



Wonder if our looks have something to do with that gene pool stuff?

I used to patrol a lot of oil lines around the Jal area all the way up to Farmington, then into Colorado and then over to Moab, Rock Springs and on west almost to Salt Lake City. I used to encounter some real monster bucks out east of Roswell where few people would even believe deer existed. And again some even bigger monsters living in the flats south of Moab.

As you say, the desert muley's don't have many real adversaries...other than man and dang few of them!

It almost seems to me the desert muley is an elite breed of the mule deer. They keep their numbers pretty low and only the monsters seem to make it. They are mighty cagey critters. Tend to stay in very remote areas and I suspect it's hard to get close to them at all. Country is so open where they hang out, there won't be any sneaking up on them. Almost always bed down on the highest terrain to give them an even better vantage point to watch for trouble. Which ever way trouble comes from, they just duck over the opposite side and few people would ever know the deer were there. I hunted ALL over the desert country of SE New Mexico for many years before I ever glimpsed one. It wasn't till I started flying the region at low altitude that I discovered there is a lot more of them than anyone ever dreamed. But if a fellow don't have some inside information on where they hang out and their habits, his chance of success would be pretty low IMHO.

This would be one time a rancher guided hunt could sure pay off.

Does a bull elk qualify as a deer?

South Western Colorado.Self guided. Public land.(I am cheap!)
5x6 bull elk
Mathews Ultra Max shooting 125 grain Thunder Heads
28 yards. He charged down the mountain to cow calls! Bugleing all the way in and raking trees. It was amazing
He ran about 100 yards down hill after the shot.
It was a long hike hauling the meat.....but worth it!


[ 12-01-2002, 04:50: Message edited by: Iron Buck ]

Damn, Iron Buck....wish I had done that! Beautiful elk.

Pecos 45.........You can! It was all public land. Open for free to all. Isn't this a great country? I end up getting a lot of my big game with a bow because I hate the crowds during the fire arm season. Next year I will try to draw a muzzleloading tag and head to the same area. I would love to rifle hunt that spot, but is so remote and high that I would be afraid that I would end up getting snowed in until spring! As it was I hunted early September and it STILL SNOWED! The Rockies are beautiful. I can't wait to get back!

Pecos, You are a chick magnet!!!! i am glad my girl is a good thousand miles away you swarthy bo-hunk....

Boyd Heaton you had to bring up that you kill that buck with matchking didn't you. Are you sure it was that far and are you sure you killed it. you horrible horrible person.

P Dog......I go with what I know..........

Southwest Missouri, 1965, I was ten years old and on my first deer hunt. Evening of opening day I was watching a saddle on an oak ridge and shot a HUGE (for SW Missouri) 142 B&C 12 pointer between the eyes at about 10 feet with an 8x57 Military Mauser. He was looking under a little cedar bush at me after having pulled the trigger and having it snap on an empty chamber. As I worked the bolt slowly, he kept getting closer and closer, trying to figure out what was making that funny noise.

Bad part is, I still haven't shot another whitetail near as big.

Pecos,
I can show anyone a 225 to 235 B&C buck with 40" plus spreads, on about any give hunt, East of Roswell on the LE ranch or on the Frying Pan Ranch near Kermit...

BUT getting one killed drops the success rate to about 20% average or less...I have two high spots and you can see them on many mornings and watch them bed down, then go after them on a tracking hunt and that tracking hunt may last two or three days, sleeping on the track when it gets dark.

You may bump them a few times but you have to keep on them until THEY make a mistake and they seldom do that...Your walking in soft sand constantly, It is one tough hunt...Cost $3500.00 no guarentees.

I have a few old die hards who come after them every year, they see them every year but the last one shot was 3 years ago...We do not allow lesser bucks to be shot on this ranch...

There are 3 of these big boys on one ranch and 4 on the other that we know of....We take 5 hunters per year on each ranch. Each ranch is about 300,000 acres...The gene pool is safe as you can see...You will see a lot of 28 to 30" bucks on these ranches that will grow into those monsters....Survival is high because no hard winters, and we have worked over the preditors pretty well....