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Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 7,757
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Feb 2013
Posts: 7,757 |
I have seen some whoppers!
I had one , the meat bags outweighed a calf elk.
When we were walking up to it my buddy accused me of mistaking a moose and shooting it.
"Shoot low sheriff, I think he's riding a shetland!" B. Wills
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 28,263 Likes: 7
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 28,263 Likes: 7 |
We've been hunting our area for 16 years now, and fortunately have taken quite a few big bodied bucks. Not sure why the mature bucks get so big bodied in this arid environment, when the closest bucks to the West (Guadalupe's NM), and Southwest (Trans Pecos), and South of here the mule deer aren't nearly as big. Must be a genetics and food thing. Anyway, we used to weigh most of the really big bucks we killed before we gutted them when possible, and many weighed a bit over 300lbs. They looked alot like this guy.......
It is irrelevant what you think. What matters is the TRUTH.
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Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 21,199
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 21,199 |
My god that’s a salamander necked sumbitch!!!
Ping pong balls for the win. Once you've wrestled everything else in life is easy. Dan Gable I keep my circle small, I’d rather have 4 quarters than 100 pennies.
Ain’t easy havin pals.
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Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 19,179
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 19,179 |
[quote=shrapnel That reminds me of the story about the rancher who said...... "Lady, if you'll let me have my saddle back, you can have your deer!" Regardless of 'HORNS', that is a horse. Jerry
jwall- *** 3100 guy***
A Flat Trajectory is Never a Handicap
Speed is Trajectory's Friend !!
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Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 19,179
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 19,179 |
[quote=JGRaider] WHOAH, that's a moose. FELLAS, I've hunted 4 States in the South and for 47 years and I've NEVER even seen a deer in those categories. Jerry
jwall- *** 3100 guy***
A Flat Trajectory is Never a Handicap
Speed is Trajectory's Friend !!
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Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 19,179
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 19,179 |
I believe that Darner worked for the Dept of Wildlife in CO, or in some State capacity, and was always in the field. He did know a lot about big mule deer because he was around them every day. The guy I hunted in Sonora, MX with actually was involved in the Darner investigations, actively, and he told me all about it. I had been a big Darner believer and was pretty stunned actually. Turns out Darner either shot most all of those big bucks out of season, or it was even proven he bought some of those antlers from very old timers that killed monster bucks back in the 30's and '40's when there were virtually no pictures. As luck would have it there was an old pic or two of some massive bucks killed by these old timers that Darner wound up with, mounted on new capes, and claimed he killed them. He was stripped of all of his numerous B&C entries because of his poaching and lying. His desire for fame and fortune got the best of him. J G, thnx for that post. It disappoints me greatly. He should have lost all credit and credibility !! Jerry
jwall- *** 3100 guy***
A Flat Trajectory is Never a Handicap
Speed is Trajectory's Friend !!
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Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 20,260 Likes: 17
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 20,260 Likes: 17 |
We don’t count eyeguards either, I know even in Idaho they count em. That makes NO sense to me......WTH is wrong with you Westerners? What are points there for, to be ignored?????? About the only guy I know in Montana, Wyoming or Idaho who counts eye guards is originally from Oregon ... I grew up not counting eye guards at all, and nobody I knew did either, at least with mule deer. Some counted them on whitetails, but that's it. I think the main reason we don't count eye guards, especially on mule deer, is that somethings they're gone..sometimes they're on 3x3s or even 2x2s, but they're almost always really small. I've seen mule deer racks pushing 30" wide without a trace of an eye guard, and 18" wide racks with solid eye guards. A basic 3x3 with small, mule deer style eye guards and a 4x4 without eye guards are both 4x4s? That's confusing.
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Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 21,199
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 21,199 |
A lot of our blacktail don’t have eyeguards either Ted, or have just a single...
Ping pong balls for the win. Once you've wrestled everything else in life is easy. Dan Gable I keep my circle small, I’d rather have 4 quarters than 100 pennies.
Ain’t easy havin pals.
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Joined: May 2016
Posts: 1,418
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: May 2016
Posts: 1,418 |
I am in S.E. British Columbia and our count is one side without eyeguards. Boone and Crockett scoring is the defining measurement anyway. A 180 typical mule deer buck is a good one around here. Tines are measured if you can hang a ring on it ordinarily.
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Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 20,260 Likes: 17
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 20,260 Likes: 17 |
Personally, I think a lot of the really big bucks, especially mule deer, that we see at big buck contests, in magazines and on the internet, are poached. Way more than we all think. There are so many big bucks poached here in SW Wyoming, it's kind of sickening. Every month it seems I hear about how the big buck everyone heard about that was killed up X creek last year, was actually poached up Y creek. They're often poached in hard to draw units, or on the winter range. Some folks in Idaho are just as bad. Posting public land to keep people out, rifle hunting in the archery season, putting general tags on draw unit deer, whatever. The greed runs high when it comes to mule deer.
To be perfectly clear: I am not saying I believe the more respected mule deer hunters on this board are being shady or being illegal. I certainly don't believe that is true.
Monster Muleys on the other hand......
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Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 60,170 Likes: 17
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 60,170 Likes: 17 |
Here's the photo of the Montana buck that Dwayne (BC30cal) mentioned early in this thread. We quartered it and packed it out on horses, so I have no idea of the exact weight, but did measure the body (am a compulsive measurer) and it was a little bigger than a 1-1/2-year-old cow elk my wife killed a couple weeks later. My guess is around 400 pounds on the hoof. I almost didn't shoot it because the body made the antlers look not all that big, but they gross-scored right at 200 inches. Killed another that was about as big-bodied in Alberta around 15 years later. Didn't get to weigh that one either, but the boned meat weighed 130 pounds, and a general rule for deer is that live weight is around 3 times the boned meat. A couple of biological rules affect deer weight, along with feed and growing season. One is latitude: Bergmann's Rule is that mammals tend to grow bigger bodies in more northern latitudes, though this decreases above about 60 degrees north latitude (the upper boundary of British Columbia and Alberta), because feed is reduced. In general, bigger bodies help animals retain more body heat in northern climes, so they survive and reproduce more. The same applies to altitude, to a certain extent. The buck in the photo was taken just above timberline on the Rocky Mountain Front, and the other really big-bodied bucks I've taken in Montana have also come from around timberline in the western mountains. But that was the biggest.
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.” John Steinbeck
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Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 13,770 Likes: 3
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Apr 2005
Posts: 13,770 Likes: 3 |
We don’t count eyeguards either, I know even in Idaho they count em. No one around here counts the eye guards.......we all count the brow tines though. If you said eye guards around here folks would think you were talking about safety glasses.
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Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 10,106 Likes: 3
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Feb 2004
Posts: 10,106 Likes: 3 |
How's the mule deer hunting been on "unoccupied" federal lands?
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Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 21,199
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Dec 2008
Posts: 21,199 |
We don’t count eyeguards either, I know even in Idaho they count em. No one around here counts the eye guards.......we all count the brow tines though. If you said eye guards around here folks would think you were talking about safety glasses. 😂😂
Ping pong balls for the win. Once you've wrestled everything else in life is easy. Dan Gable I keep my circle small, I’d rather have 4 quarters than 100 pennies.
Ain’t easy havin pals.
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Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 4,418
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 4,418 |
[quote=JGRaider] WHOAH, that's a moose. FELLAS, I've hunted 4 States in the South and for 47 years and I've NEVER even seen a deer in those categories. Jerry I grew up hunting the Sandhills where JG hunts and there are some big ones there. I killed one farther North and West a few years ago in Northern NM. I'm not much on measuring antlers but someone in our party measured it at around 170," which is not that impressive. What was impressive was the body size. I usually process my own but was in a hurry and stopped at my parents on the way home and dropped it off at the processer in Slaton, TX. They weighed it at 285 gutted with no hide, head nor horns. It was bigger than 4-5 of the Texas white tails put together laying on the floor. Still trying to eat that nasty buck.
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Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 4,418
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 4,418 |
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 28,263 Likes: 7
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 28,263 Likes: 7 |
Desertmuledeer, Good gracious what a toad! Funny how big they can get in that country isn't it? Another slug here.....
Last edited by JGRaider; 05/29/19.
It is irrelevant what you think. What matters is the TRUTH.
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 28,263 Likes: 7
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 28,263 Likes: 7 |
"Tiny" courtesy of Desertmuledeer.........
It is irrelevant what you think. What matters is the TRUTH.
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Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 4,418
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Feb 2009
Posts: 4,418 |
I've killed smaller cow elk.
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Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 19,179
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 19,179 |
....... Tines are measured if you can hang a ring on it ordinarily. NO offense intended. B & C measures tines by the INCH. If it's not 1", it may be a deduct ? The "ring" thing is used by some here but it's NOT official. Jerry
jwall- *** 3100 guy***
A Flat Trajectory is Never a Handicap
Speed is Trajectory's Friend !!
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