Drummond:

Thanks for posting the pictures. Magnificant Deer! You and your Clients have been very successful.

I have been chasing after "Big Deer", Whitetails, for a number of years and know that it takes locating good areas, a good guide, and having a bit of luck on your side.

In 2004, I was up in Alberta looking for a Big Whitetail (they are up there for sure). Anyway, the first day a had seen a few Whitetails but no shooter then about 2:00p.m. I saw a "beast" of a deer cross the cut lane at appox. 500 yds (laser ranged)...thing was so big I immediately pulled up my rifle but it was a Muley. When I got back into camp that night the Outfitter asked me what I saw...I told him I saw a 190+ class Mule Deer and I needed a Mule Deer tag...which I purchased. Later on in the week I was looking at a Whitetail Doe being trailed by a 150 class Whitetail Buck...I was looking to see if anything bigger was trailing them... when I decided to look down the other side of the cut lane....heading for the timber was a Big Mule Deer, I had very little time to grab my rifle and make a shot through some tall grass...After the shot I ran down the lane to see if I connected...all I saw were antlers high up above the snow...I thought the deer was a good one but really had no idea how good.

When we returned to camp that night, a couple of guys asked how we did...I told them I took an average Muley...one of the guides came in and said it was a "Beast"...the Deer grosses 201 1/8" and nets right at 190...not really wide but very tall, dark horned, with good mass. That Muley was the first one I ever shot at and one of only a dozen I have ever seen....well the old saying "I would rather be lucky than good" certainly applies her.

Between my friend, who went with me on that trip, we saw four big Mule Deer...he did not purchase a tag and told me he had seen one bigger than the one I took...go figure. I had that Muley mounted on a Pedastal...looks great and really makes my 160 class Whitetails look small...

Thanks for sharing the pictures!

Lucky dog!

Did you really think he was just "average" when you shot him?

Post a pic if you can.

No Kidding! Post the pic, I love looking at big old Muleys!

Drum

Drummond,

Would I be correct in guessing that none of those deer was taken on an Atkinson hunt?

Whitetail hunting has always been a passion. Never really had an interest in Mule Deer until I saw the first big Muley last year...so no experience with how big Muley's get, etc...I thought he was good but not that good.

I am not sure how to post a picture, however, would be more than happy to e-mail you a picture. You can post it here, if you would like to do so...

Regards, jjs

Now, first off, understand I come from meat hunting background with my mother telling us "No bucks, their meat is tougher". So don't get all mad and frothy, I'm not downgrading anyone's horns. But I am struck by the diminutive size of some of the bucks. WE hunt in MN and often shoot does running over 200 lbs. SOme of those bucks couldn't approach two hundred lbs even after adding a couple of 6th graders sitting on top!

TED

Mother nature made sure that these deer would not have big bodies, it often approaches 120 degrees in Sonora, the deer in MN are large for a reason, survival.

Drummond

500, You are very correct in your assumption that non of these buck came off of an Atkinson hunt.

I posted the deer from CO so we would have a good measuring point, he is 207" and we also have a 234" posted so I am hoping when he comes back he will be able to share pics of the 2 or 3 bucks in that class that they harvest every year. I did not feel it would have been proper to ask without me posting a few pics first.

Drummond

they are some of the greatest mulie pics i have seen.
Any chance that they were freerange not "Bred behind wire".
if they are free range, these deer are something else!!!!
I shot a mulie in BC many years ago, and he is half that size in antler and i was still over the moon.

quote:

Any chance that they were freerange not "Bred behind wire".

These deer were all free range deer. Any pics I post will be of 100% free range deer.

Drummond

I can count the number of typical 200" mulies I have seen in the last 20 years on one hand. And that is in the heart of Colorado's best mulie country. Most people overestimate deer. One moron that my buddy talked to claimed to have passed up 10 deer that went over 200 before taking his deer that he claimed went 230. We did not see it to verify. I have killed one buck that went over 200 with trash, two bucks in the 190's with trash. Most big bucks top out in the 180's if they can live that long. Takes a hog to hit 190+. I love to go on sites like monstermulies.com and see these guys with their 170 class deer that they claim goes 180-190 gross. The tape doesn't lie. I have a 175 typical mounted that is 30" wide. A few people have seen it and argued with me that it goes bigger than that, especially because they told me about all the 180-190 bucks they saw during the season.

quote:

Originally posted by duggaboybuff:
Any chance that they were freerange not "Bred behind wire".

There are very few fenced ranches that have Mule Deer. Very few indeed. I only know of a small handfull, while the number of fenced ranches with Whitetail are numerous.

Just because you have a fenced ranch doesn't mean you can ship in Mule Deer, and they will survive. Look at their range. The range is not really dependent on temperature as you can find Mulies in the hottest and the coldest climates. I believe the average humidity dictates where Mule Deer can survive. This is just my theory based on knowledge of the range.

There are very few high fences west of the "Mule Deer line". Yes they do exist in Mexico, West Texas and a few other places, but they are more scarce.

I found a way to post a picture of my Muley. If you want to take a look go to the web site below and go to bottom right of front page.

http://www.ronnemetchek.com

This deer was taken close to the most Northern range for Deer, Whitetail and Muley's. Deer are big body up there...this one is not as big as they get up there but we estimated it would go 325+lbs.

This one??



- mike

That him...Thanks!

Congrats on a helluva buck!

Drum

36" Wide with 32" MF
22 scorable points
Good Mass

the mule deer that i got this year, is in the mid 160s .still a very nice deer for a northwestern Montana public land deer .he is heavy beamed and 25 in wide . if he wasn't so old he would proablely have been taller. biggest deer i ever shot , PLUS this is the first big game animal ive taken with my 1886 extralight , first big game ive taken with a cast boolit ,and i designed the boolit myself too . it will be years befor i see a mule deer that big again. i think ive only seen two or three mule deer as big , as this one , in the last 15 years

Must've been a ghostly deer for that boo-lit to light him up.

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Only written in fun. Merry Christmas and I wish I'd shot that buck with my boolit.

I have needed to learn how to post pictures on AR and this seems like a good time.

I got this guy in Colorado last November. I don't know the what he will score, but the outfitter measured him at 230 or so. I think that the outfitter is a little high, but he is well over 200. I will get him back from the taxidermist in a week or two and will have him scored then



He is 10x7 aqnd just over 30 inches.

Doug

Guys, I am impressed to say the least!!! Well done. To have such top quality animals out in the wild just goes to show that "wire bred" bucks are not the only big ones out there.
Fantastic.

A classic beauty Doug! Congratulations.

Doug,

That is one of the more impressive deer that I have seen come out of the west on a couple of years. Congrats on a friggin slug of a mule deer!

Thanks for posting the pic,

Drummond

Drummond,

Thanks for the comments.

I saw this deer and another huge one up on a ridge together on the last morning of our hunt. This one came down my side and another hunter killed the other deer on the backside of the ridge. The other was a perfectly symmetrical 5x5 that was estimated at 195 or so. I doubt that I will ever see two deer like that together again (certainly not while I have a rifle in hand).

The guides had never seen either of the deer before. As a result of our success the price of the hunt went from $3250 (2x1) for a combo elk/mule deer hunt to $4500 (1x1) for mule deer only.

Doug