Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Toughest buck to kill??

Another point,
Some areas simply do not have the larger versions of the species.
South Carolina seldom has bragging rights for trophy whitetail as the crop feeding opportunites are not the equal of the midwest. Indiana breaks 170 inches with some regularity and I have seen pics of pick-up heads that are impossible to guess score being very much larger than that.

A non-rutting mature buck of any species in an area with high hunting pressure.

Blacktail and Mule deer. I've been deer hunting in the north east for almost 40 years and I've yet to see one.

The really big muleys are very hard to get. I don't know how many times I've seen one on top of ridge where he can see the whole world. The second you put glass on him, he knows he's been seen and he vaporizes. I don't know how they know they've been seen but there's no doubt that they do.
I have a lot of respect for a hunter who has several of those big heads on the wall.

200" public lands mule deer. There aren't very many of them, and they are in a class all by themselves when it comes to smart.

He's got a very valid point.

I used to know an individual in Maryland , that shot a beautiful buck out a truck window with a flashlight. Bunny cop was behind his truck before he could blink. Like 4 years later his does the same stupid crap, including the Bunny cop and much to his surprise the same deer. Game Commision used his deer to build a robodeer and my used to be aquaintance blasted it again. He laughed , The warden laughed,His wife did not.... Truck , gun etc . all gone again. Plus a DUI..........

Seems a guy can buy a big Muley, Coues, whitetail, Sitka or California Blacktail.

In early 80’s I hunted a old whitetail in Franklin county in N.C. for several years and caught up with him on my birthday in October….sitting in a climber on edge of of the river he came out of a honeysuckle thicket across the river…at 50 yards I missed him with a 308. Hunted that same tree all season and never saw him. Went back the next year on my birthday and sitting in same stand he came out and I killed him within 20 yards of where I shot at him the year before….at 7:30 pm on Oct 26 both shots….exactly a year apart. An old gentleman that hunted in the area told me he had been seeing him in a bean field for those 2 years….he was hunted by dog hunters for several seasons but lived in that honeysuckle thicket and I knew he was there by his sign, but no one else knew that and I have always said I just got lucky. He was old and past his prime but still carried a big 12 point rack and 180 lb. They are out there and know when they are being hunted and will go under ground if they get age on them…got to catch him before the rut and be lucky.

That was 7:30 am in above post….sorry.

Good job we share the same birth date. In 40 some years I’ve only killed two on my bday some due to having other tags prior to the day and others because in didn’t have a valid tag left. It sure makes it a good day when it happens on the day of remembrance and this year I will try to get my granddaughter to kill a black tail as a mentor on my birthday.

I think this is the Idaho record non-typical P&Y mulie, taken about 20 years ago. If I remember the story right, it was 1 of 3 similar bucks hanging together before the rut. You don't just run out and shoot you one of these. I do remember that he said it jumped the string and he hit it a bit far back. They had to track it the next morning and there was almost no blood on the ground. The tracks were quite small for it's size, about like a doe, which made tracking very difficult.

The toughest buck to kill is your next one. After all, the others you have killed are already dead right?

Big Muley timber buck for us flatlanders. Have to contend with altitude and unfamiliar territory.

The one who knows you are there like beaver 10 just said.

I’ve only hunted whitetail deer but a mature buck that lives on public land or several small private parcels and has been around long enough to get shot at or bust a hunter is just about impossible to hunt. They’re pretty much 100% nocturnal by rifle season.

A good old fashion deer drive exposes those nocturnal deer.

Had an old whitetail I jumped several times, finally got him. This was on 5,000 acres in Ozona. It the only place I’ve ever hunted that Was open enough to walk around and hunt the hills , see down in the valleys.

I miss those days.

As a kid I did a lot of deer drives with my uncles and cousins at deer camp in the Northern lower. Deer hunting has changed a lot here since the 80’s. As far as MI goes deer drives are pretty much a thing of the past anywhere other than the U.P. They were a a lot of fun back in the day.