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

A wild one horned spike is more of a trophy than that or any other high fenced buck.

I would be happy to have his shed antlers from last year.
Jus' for lookin' at.

You have to keep in mind that high fence operations are farms and the deer are farm animals. They breed them for large antlers and sell them. The 'hunters' will pay a premium price for the biggest ones.

It's no different than bulls. There are show ring bulls that win in the ring and then bred to hand chosen cows to improve the genetics. Their calves are kept or sold for more breeding. Then there the range bulls. They're usually still pretty good bulls but a little lower quality and they're turned out with run of the mill cows to produce calves for the market.
Top level bucks are kept for breeding and bred to proven does. They won't be shot unless the price is high enough to justify giving them up. I'm guessing that most deer farms have a few of them hidden away from seeing eyes so they won't be temped by high bids for them. Lower level bucks are sold for shooting. Like range bulls, they can still be very high quality with huge antlers but just not quite good enough to be in the genetic improvement program.

Remember that this buck had a daddy somewhere. I'd like to see him. It's also possible that this one needs to be replaced with fresh genes so he's sold before age starts shrinking antler size.

Bob…. I know what SCI is and I also know that they are the ones that list NON free range animals where P&Y or B&C are strictly free range. Like I said in my post, the fact that it’s listed under SCI and not P&Y tells me that it wasn’t free range as defined by P&Y.

If this was a true free range animal then they’d have it classified under P&Y instead of SCI. SCI is the “catch all” for the animals that CANNOT be classified under B&C or P&Y rules…😉

Have a good day 👍🏼

That sounds like a lot but when it’s surrounded by high fence and strictly managed for deer bought or breed for antler genetics, combined with terrain that’s managed for accessing the deer, long shooting lanes strategically placed all over the land, easy truck access trails, elevated shooting houses, controlled bait and water locations, trail cams monitoring everything and sending real time pics to your phone, deer selectively farmed and fed for antler growth. Three miles by three miles of open desert scrub land that the deer can’t leave isn’t all that big of an area to hunt.

I’m not saying that’s exactly how it was done there but that seems pretty close. It’s SOP for deer and elk “ranches” in this area.

5000 is actually 7.8 sq miles, in whatever configuration its in. So, no, it's not a very big area in open country. A deer might not have any place to hide other than just over the hill. If it's timbered, that's another story entirely.

My buddy is a paraplegic and has killed lot's of big game including a brown bear. He hunts off a quad. It's all been on public ground or ranches (not high fenced). Now I'm not sure if that's considered fair chase, but he does it.

Jimdandy there

I hunted pigs on a 4,000 acre "ranch" and every animal there was free range for the whole thing. I had to hunt for them.

How a man spends his money is no business of mine, but the whole concept of trophies and pay for, even marginally, captive animals...it just doesn't sit right with me or the way I prefer to hunt.
I'd much more likely to be pards with the guys that contributed to that thread on here a while back...the one where the guys recounted their hardship hunts. It's about respect...for self...for the hunt tradition...for the quarry.

I hunted sheep in the wilderness of Alaska, had to hike in 15 miles to get to the spot.

So what.

I telling you guys it’s Mitch Rampalla !!!!

These people are nuts.

JG,

Here are the photos of the two largest-antlered Sonora bucks my buddies and I took in 2004. It's quite apparent that the bodies are relatively small, especially compared to bucks farther north--but they have big ears! My buck, as mentioned earlier, had a 29-1/2" outside spread. The other buck (held by Oswaldo Arrizon, the younger brother of the outfitter, who I believe is now the outfitter) had a 31" spread.

John............for big Sonoran bucks, yours &, especially your buddy's are more typically formed than many I've seen. Many are pretty badly crab-clawed.

Many larger heads from there tend to be more like the one in the OP than typical, &I really don't like their looks.

The pic in the OP is BIG, no matter how it was taken, but IMHO, it's not an attractive head compared to most of the larger heads from further North.

Here are what good looking Mule Deer should look like.

All these are from some areas in SE Idaho where we hunted for a long time before things there went to hell.

The 1st pic is the current Idaho all time #2. The bottom pic is me with a thinner, but wide racked deer that made 177. The middle pic is of a couple of really big, heavy deer.

MM

I've dreamed about a 30" Mule Deer for years.

Guess I'll just have to pay to play.

Cool! You don't see too many African-American hunters with trophy bucks!

Duh! It’s black history month!!!!!!

I have no issues hunting from vehicles or in fenced-off areas, my only point was that where I hunt elk in the Rocky Mountains, it is not possible if you are disabled. I ride horses myself.

I also have ZERO issues with high-fenced, shooting of domesticated animals, whatever turns your crank, go for it.

My point was that Fenced Animals should not be listed in any record books unless there is a book for Highest Scores for Fenced in Animals.

Because you can not compare the two, it would be like comparing Apples to Elephants.

Good for your friend, I admire him!

Cheers