Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Y'all see the new Oklahoma "State Record" mule deer????

During the fifteen years I lived here there have been two sightings of individual elk coming through. I have no idea where they came from or where they were going.

I figured it was auto correct

Not disputing you or this study, but less than a 4 sq/mile range sure doesn't seem like much in open country.

A few years back I killed a whitetail buck on my farm that was trail cammed over 3 miles away as the crow flies a couple weeks earlier.

Average is just that, average. It was a good study and the actual average listed was 1200 acres to 3600 acres.

We know they can wander farther and I've seen non migratory deer move a fair bit but again, you'd have to see what was left for where it allegedly went and the terrain covered

I thought last year someone posted that a whitetail buck collared just before the rut was shot several days later about 90 miles away. In Ky, 97 miles away? Anyone remember.

A nice WTail got by me once on a 19,000 acre place south end in archery season. It was killed a few wks later 4 miles north on the same ranch with a gun.

Ive heard of muley bucks bumped while being hunted and found later 8 miles away.

I met a guy a few years ago when I was working in Pinrdale Wyoming who was filming a documentary on the muledeer migrtion thru that area. I never saw the film but he was an interesting guy to visit with!

The deer that I hunt early, above timberline in Montana,fall off to the front to winter,and that can be 10 to 15 air miles. The deer that I hunt in Idaho are mixed. There is a strong resident herd that likely travels less than five air miles,but as the rut, and winter approach,other deer pour in from the back country,and some of those deer likely travel 20 to 30 miles.

OK, so it was a 5.5 yr. old buck. You know that from having watched him mature. He, and the other deer that lived with him, are not known to travel 13 miles to where he was suppose to have been killed. You have sheds, and this evidence. Have you ask state or federal authorities to investigate this ? E

Nice buck.

Nope. I've never claimed he did anything illegal. It's not a crime to say you killed a deer in a different location from where you actually killed him. I just can't figure out where that might be

Muleys in west Texas dont migrate, as i know Drum, but maybe not others, know.

Im thinking it would be very unusual to see one move 10 miles without being bumped or a water source drying up.

I watch the range of a group west of Andrews and they circulate over an area about 2x3 miles.

I dont know how far a buck in rut might travel to find a hot doe or how far away a buck might be able to smell one.

I have followed a small herd of bucks with a muzzle loader west of Chama while trying to get a shot at the big one. They started out in velvet and a week later it was gone. On Wednesday they had bloody horns and hanging velvet. The heard disappeared. I found the smaller bucks traveling nearby ridges. By the grace of God i accidently found the big one still travelling the same ridge and valley area the entire group had previously traveled together. I had been travelling through the original area trying to find him in other areas when i ran into a bunch of cattle and detoured around them when i saw him. He had kicked the others out.

The next and last evening of the hunt i was up a big pine on the side ridge i had seen him on the evening before and well below the main ridgeline he had to be bedded on. He got down to me just before dark.

A 285 gr maxiball out of a Thompson Hawken percussion hit him in the liver. My first 31 incher was a heavy high 5x5 counting brow tines.

I dont know if the rut was on concerning the buck in question, but theres no chance a bigger buck kicked him out or Drum would be aware of it.

The odds of the monster Drum was watching coincidentally disappearing and a different one so similar to it being taken nearby are astronomical.

I know nothing about W Texas, OK or NM mule deer nor their habits...as I generally hunt mule deer that migrate in WY, MT and ID. I do think that one constant factor of mule deer (or any critter) is that regardless of location, it is not necessarily the biggest antlered bucks that kick other bucks out of a herd and do the majority of breeding.

Deer are like people...some are more aggressive than others, regardless of their size or physical attributes. If this buck was only 5 1/2 years old, he was approaching his prime and possibly was kicking other bucks away from does, but one never knows...he could have been a complete pussy and moved on due to other, more aggressive bucks. I kind of doubt it, but who knows?

Huntsonora has made it clear there's no evidence of poaching...just that it is odd this buck moved so far so quickly. Huntsonora, was there a legit hunting season in NM that could have pressured this buck out of the area?

Yep. Lots of times smaller bucks are very aggressive and drive off deer with bigger racks. Especially so with whitetails.

Its been postulated by some students of deer behavior that m any monster deer dont get too excited by the rut and pretty much keep to themselves and become almost totally nocturnal.

I know had i been watching that deer and had herd about its having been taken soon after it happened, I would have been walking fencelines bordering my hunting area.

Coincidently, im not a big believer in coincidences-Devine intervention, yes.

I have some friends and acquaintances that are consistently very successful hunters. I've had people talk trash and make comments about my success, because I've been consistently lucky over the years. I know how hard I work to legally fill my tags and how hard my friends work for theirs. A lot of jealous guys around that don't get out of their trucks, let alone scout.

But...

One acquaintance that constantly kills big animals every year got popped this year filling his dad's tag on a monster in a tough to draw area where the son didn't have a tag.

Makes you question a lot of his trophies.

For an older buck to driven off by a younger buck, the older buck must have much smaller antlers. If they are close in antler development, they usually fight to settle this. However, if the older buck has lost interest in the rut, i.e. he is really old, he won't evn challenge the younger buck.
But no one, to my knowledge, has ever even theorized that younger bucks drive off older ones unless they fight first. Even then, they have to have similar antler development. E

Theres no such thing as consistently lucky, especially if you put in the effort and hours. Deserving and good is not luck.

O, I agree with the age thing, but i was referring to bigger whitetails being run off by smaller racked bucks, not necessarily older bucks.

I witnessed two different instances of medium sized ridge backed 8 points running a huge 8 and nice 10 point off does with some mild posturing.

Last fall I killed this deer 7Mi from where I saw him the 1st time 5 days earlier:



The 1st time I saw him I watched him tending/breeding a doe roughly 150yds away through 15x binocs for about 15min.

FIL and I killed mule deer that are very obviously closely related. They were 1yr apart and the kill sites are 8mi apart but in the same drainage.