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

43 1/2" 11 points on one side 14 points on the other, Back in the old day's we wouldn't shoot a Mule Deer Buck Smaller Than 40", Hunters don't let them grow up any more. Rio7

There's a lot of truth in that; really heavy rack.

Where is it from?

MM

I don't have any preconceived ideas of what a big mule deer "should look like." Do have a good friend--a little older than I am--who grew up in southeast Idaho, and his first buck made B&C. It didn't look like the bucks you show, but so what? It was tall and relatively narrow--but with very long tines.

They vary from Mexico to Canada, one reason I've hunted them from Mexico to Canada--along with New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana. Here's my biggest Montana buck, both in body weight and antlers. Didn't get to weigh him, since this was around 20 miles from the nearest trail-head, on a horseback hunt with my late outfitter friend Richard Jackson, who I used to guide for before he was killed in a horse wreck in his 40s:

Great buck.........interesting with those extra forks on the rear forks. Looks like a sizeable, thick body laying on the ground too.

Rem KS rifle?

MM

I took my best, by far, last year on an 8000 acre low fenced ranch in SW Kansas. Big bodied guy.

Now that's a beautiful buck, Rio, a real shooter.

I like big mule deer no matter where they're from. I've killed them in Sonora, TX, NM, OK, and CO. Oddly enough, the biggest bodied mule deer I've hunted live in the West TX sandhills area. Low deer densities prevail.

Yeah, that boy has a big body alright.

Mule deer are probably one the hardest game animal to hunt for a lot of reasons, & there are not so many deer anymore, to say nothing of big bucks.

A trophy mule deer is a real, usually hard earned, animal.

MM

Thanks! It was a VERY big-bodied buck. Obviously couldn't weigh him, but I tend to measure big game bodies, both in "chest-depth" from brisket to back, and front of the the chest to rear of the rump. He was as big as a 1-1/2-year old cow elk Eileen killed a couple weeks after that. Probably 350-400 live weight.

The "extra" tine was interesting, since it was just about exactly the same length on both antlers. Might also mention the meat tasted great--it was at least two weeks before the rut started.

Not a Remington KS. Instead it was a custom rifle built by the late Dave Gentry on a 700 action, with a synthetic stock I've forgotten the name of--and is no longer made. He lightened the action by not only taking steel off the outside, but by substituting an aluminum tube for the center of the bolt, and you couldn't see it. Also a Gentry Model 70-type safety. The barrel was a #1 stainless Douglas, coated with something Dave used back then, which was very tough.

Hunted with that rifle for around a decade on various hunts in both the U.S. and Canada, among other animals taking one of my two biggest caribou. But a friend finally talked me out of it in a trade....

Amen MM. I've been hooked on hunting them since 1971.

Here's a wide one Cookie ran down last summer/fall. Probably would not score well in B&C.


Rear view


And another good one in the neighborhood.


Like them when the spread gets out well beyond the ears.

Dave Gentry always did top notch work, IMO..................sounds like a great rifle.

MM

Yeah, they're my favorite too.

Biggest bodied deer I've ever seen while hunting was in CO, flattops in Delta county.

Deer had to be 34-36" & 350 lb.; unfortunately, I was elk hunting & couldn't shoot it as at that time, CO had split seasons.

Stood & looked at me for 5 minutes at maybe 100 yards or so.

Just my luck....................

MM

[quote=JGRaider]I like big mule deer no matter where they're from. I've killed them in Sonora, TX, NM, OK, and CO. Oddly enough, the biggest bodied mule deer I've hunted live in the West TX sandhills area. Low deer densities prevail.

[/quote
JG, an area game warden told me there are bucks that would go 400 on the hoof in the country from Seminole south to Imperial.

Only of my Texas big racks came off real big bucks, however.

The 32 or so incher I got with a Muzzle Loader in NM was about as big as a cow elk.

My cousin holds the rack of my, at the time, No 3 Desert Mule Deer and No 1 Texas Mule Deer.

I had a couple of accomplished Co Deer and Elk hunters as patients who have worked on the Chevron Oil Co country in the sandhills north of Imperial who also ranch on the side who have told me of several huge muleys on it over 40 inches.

High fenced isn’t necessarily a canned hunt or even an easy hunt, but something tells me that particular buck wasn’t exactly a challenge. That is totally beside the point though and a discussion for a different day…

Free range big bucks come from all over. I have dozens and dozens of pics on my phone of big mule deer bucks friends have recently killed in most all western states. The buck in the OP is a bit extreme, but good on him if he’s happy with the whole deal, whatever the circumstances.

My biggest bodied buck was from western Wyoming and fairly high elevation. I have no clue what he weighed but sure would like to.

That’s a ridiculous stud of a buck, Jag.

Congrats again.

Thanks, MM and God Bless.

Helluva buck, Doc.

MM

Wow! That's a beautiful muley!

Did I miss something with the roll of tape?