Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Mule Deer.

I wonder if the "Hunter" used a GunWerks rifle and took that buck at Long Range? That'd be icing on the cake.

To me the arrow looks like it went through the guts, don’t see any evidence that it went through the chest. Doesn’t really matter dead is dead.

No, not exactly--though desert mule deer do live in lower country. The further north you go in North America, all mammals tend to have larger bodies because they're more resistant to long, cold winters. The same applies to elevation, because winters are longer and colder higher up. I have killed mule deer up to around 400 pounds live weight in Montana and Alberta, both up high and on the Alberta plains. The growing seasons for green vegetation are also longer up north than in hotter climates further south as as in Sonora, where a small body allows deer to dissipate body heat more easily.

Another side-effect is larger ears on Sonoran mule deer, which act as "radiators" The spread of those I've measured on mature bucks was around 26", while the ears on far larger-bodied deer up north is often 21-22".

Around 20 years ago I killed a free-range Sonora buck with a 29-1/2" outside spread, which "grossed" a little over 190 B&C. After weighing a bunch of other mule deer bucks over the years on the accurate freight scale in my garage, I guessed the buck's field-dressed weight at around 160-170 pounds.

It’s an industry that creates jobs. I have no problem with it.

Nice deer.
Congratulations, to this hunter.

Lens trickery. Compare the width of the rack with the hunter’s knees-head distance and the length of the deer’s body.

That’s a really nice buck so they didn’t really need to use a wide angle lens to make it look bigger. By doing that, it gives the naysayers an opening to criticize the hunter, the buck and circumstances of the kill.

High fence deer are about as interesting as pen raised birds.....(ie not interesting at all)

A couple of things about these deer. Jack O'Connor used to hunt them in Sonora, Mexico. I've hunted and studied them for years in Kalifornia. O'Connor pointed out that apparently the local Indians were eating these deer long before the Desert Bighorn showed up in our deserts. Our own studies have found that they live a lot longer than most deer. I've killed two bucks that were over 10, one being 14 yrs. old. Every year when we studied them, a fair number were taken between the ages of 10 to 14, and a few 15-18 yrs. One, was found to be 20.5 yrs.
They get big because they have access to plenty of quality food, and a very low parasite load. My 14 yr. old produced 99 lbs. of cut and wrapped meat. The guy who killed the 20.5 yr. old killed one that produced 140 lbs. of meat.
Antlers ? O'Connor reported a 42 inch buck in his day. I've seen a water hole, night time photo of one that had to be at least 45 inches wide. No "high fence" buck were any of these. BTW, the last I heard, the state bow record for Kalifornia was one of these bucks.
What does all this mean ? They have lots of rough country to hide in and lots of them die of old age. E

I had a disabled (wheelchair) friend from Vancouver, who paid to shoot a very big 425" elk in an enclosure in Saskatchewan and paid lots of money to do that.

I have been hunting elk for years, no way in the world is someone confined to a wheelchair going to kill a wild Elk, in "Fair Chase Conditions".

Fenced animals should never be listed in B&C, P&Y, or SCI IMO.

Sort of like going pheasant hunting and the pheasant are tied to trees lol.

I believe Wade Lemon still has a court date pending?

Agree 100% Mule Deer. I've killed two mature Sonora bucks, and both were about that same body weight. The big whitetails we kill in the TX Panhandle not too far from OK/KS are a little bigger than the Sonora buck I've seen. You can generally take what MartinStrummer says and divide it by 2 and be closer to the actual truth.

It's a good place for all the flush, lardasss lawyer types to go kill stuff and take hero pics just like the numerous whitetail places all over America. They have "preserves" down there for desert bighorns nowadays too. The SCI term "estate" is a direct correlation to the high fence where the hunt takes place. I do like the way SCI scores deer though. No deducts for symmetry like B&C, just a straight up gross score.

Look closely at the mouth, is that rolled corn I see?




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Absolutely High Fenced...💯‼️

Weird looking muley with a tiny body. This is more typical of antler size to body ratio up here:

I completely agree on the scoring method. I am much more interested in the gross score. It tells me how much bone is on its head.

In case you didn't know, 5,000 is about three miles by three miles.

I seriously doubt most here cover that amount of ground while hunting.

Nice buck. Definitely livestock.

Congrats to the guy on buying a cool looking deer.

If you think that deer had the run of 5,000 acres I have some annuities I'd like to sell you.

I'd be interested in those. Also looking for an Avalanche.