2024 Best Mule Deer Hunt Photo Contest, sponsored by Kryptek

[robby denning]

The 2024 Best Buck Mule Deer Photo Contest by Kryptek is back! This time with a $1,000 Kryptek Store Gift Card (lookie see all you could buy here)






For 2nd place, long-time sponsor Phone Skope stepped up with a great prize package:

-Phone Skope Case
-Phone Skope C3 Optic Adapter
-Phone Skope Lens Cap
-Bino Loops
-Cleaning Cloth



For 3rd & 4th place, winner’s choice of one of my books:

Hunting Big Mule Deer: How to Take the Best Buck of Your Life
Hunting Big Mule Deer: The Stories

This is NOT a biggest buck contest, but a "Best Photo" contest. The winning 2024 photo will be judged on the following criteria and rules:

*to note you can't enter a photo for someone else. They must enter it themselves (per rules #4-6) , otherwise the guides and those with big families/friend circles would have better odds. There is a MEAT POLE thread here for those images, and those that aren't quite contest quality.

1) WOW Factor. Is it a great photo that grabs the viewer? This takes in lighting, color, uniqueness, etc.

2) Composition- by that I mean the way in which the different parts that make up your photo are arranged- is there too much background, not enough animal? or visa versa? Are the antler tips out of the frame or the hunters head cut off? Or is it a good balance between the buck, the hunter, the terrain? (the hunter is not required to appear in the photo.)

3) Size of animal. This doesn't mean biggest animal wins, but if #1 and #2 are equal, we'll chose the bigger animal.

4) Must be a photo of a buck harvested fair chase in 2024 or after December 10th of 2023--you must be able to prove date of harvest)

5) Between archery season and December 10th, post up your best harvest photo on this thread

6) Must be a Rokslide member to enter your photo of your buck. One photo per buck only. If you harvest multiple bucks, you can enter one photo for each

7) Also, by posting on this thread, you agree to let Rokslide and Kryptek use any of the photos in promotional material without compensation

8) Any international winner is responsible for border tax, custom fees, excessive postage fees, etc.

If you want to see the 2023 finalists and get an idea of what we're looking for, click HERE. Just to busy to click? you can see last years 1st & 2nd place winners below:

@teamuhh


@westonhoma


@mtnwrunner(Trandy) @fngTony @Maidenfan539 @philos @Travis Bertrand @Travis Hobbs

 

[Dioni A]

Found this buck mid-July and made nine trips back without seeing him since that first time. By some miracle I found him opening day and was able to get him killed the next day. Looks like he'd been attacked by a lion which I'm guessing is why I saw him so far away from what I now believed to be his core area. He was a 1.5 miles away from where I saw him the first time. Ended up creeping into the timber and shooting him at 63 yards.

 

[CaseyU]

I am going to tap in with this one. I know most pictures are colorful, bright, contrasting, and obviously a story, but if you could feel emotion, this was it for me. 5 ish hours of tracking and 900 ish yards. I was sick with the thought of a wounded animal at my doing and no chance of finding him. I know many have been there, so when I was able to turn him up again and finish him, my whole self let go when I laid my hand on this buck. Such a wholesome and emotional roller coaster. That's what keeps us coming back.

Sent from my SM-G991U using Tapatalk

 

[csaxton34]

Nothing compares to hunting with your Dad. he is probably the person that introduced you to it and taught you most of what you know about hunting. I am so thankful that my dad is a bow hunter and taught me everything that he knows. We are still learning, and improving but we are a killer team!

 

[StickFlicker AZ]

Should Rule #4 state 2023 as the date (regarding "after December 10), rather than 2024?

 

[robby denning]

Should Rule #4 state 2023 as the date (regarding "after December 10), rather than 2024?

Yes! Good eye. Fixed!

 

[V-TRAIN]

Southern Alberta
Watched him off and on for 4 days hoping hoping he would bed in decent spot.
On the 4th day found him after 3 hours of glassing moving across a flat at 10 am, then finally bed across a canyon on the far hill side in a very small patch of willows. The way the wind was had to come in from below, at 2:00 was 45 yards from him. At around 4:00 he got up and slowly went out the back, no shot, but re-bedded about 60 yards from where he was. At 5:00, I was 45 yards from him again. At 7:15 he got up and started moving away, and I was able to make a perfect quartering away shot, between willows, on a slow moving target. Hammered him with a Sevr 1.5.

 

[nm_nomad]

I’ll enter with this photo of my 2024 Archery NM muley. I had just got back to camp after a rainstorm came in on our pack out. Harvested on September 6th 2024. I read @robby denning first book this summer and also picked a unit that I could put more boots on the ground for scouting and days in the field. I spent 7 straight days (day prior to the opener and 6 days of the hunt) grinding it out. Including two missed shots at smaller bucks. It all came together and I arrowed this buck at 30 yds quartering to me.