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!

 

[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.

 

[strousek]

Early rifle hunt in CO. I found this buck first week of August, 10 miles from the trailhead. Luckily for me I went back and found him in the exact same spot the night before season opened. It was a quick 40 minute hunt opening morning as I waited for him to come down towards his bedding area. Hard to beat that scenery!

 

[lundellhunting7]

My 2024 Utah GS deer pack out. I don’t know how many more mature deer we will be able to harvest with each other around but I am sure lucky to be able to get out with my dad still. He definitely isn’t as good as he once was…. But he’s good once as he ever was!

 

[Idahohillboy]

2024 High Country archery buck. Was rolling solo so pics were tough.

 

[COPrecisionRifle]

2024 CO buck! Watched him for 25 days before season and he tried to give us the sneak opening day. Luck was in my favor and he showed up exactly where i needed him.

 

[RaggedHunter]

My 2024 Muzzleloader buck.

 

[HUNTMAN]

 

[kylem]

Found this buck scouting in late July and got it done opening day of archery.

 

[nobody]

2024 Utah General Season Muzzleloader deer. Buck was taken at 4:30 PM on Thursday, September 26th 2024.

Glassed the buck up from the top of a cliff at about 250 yards. Wind was coming from north to south, and I glassed him up from above him to the south. Made note of where he was bedded using a downed log as a point of reference, and backed away from the cliff. Worked my way down above him, and ditched my pack at the top of the cliff. I then worked my way down the cliff face with just my binos and my muzzleloader, and he stood up and started feeding. Got to a good sitting place and waited about 5 minutes for him to feed to where I could get a good shot on him. He stepped out, and I leveled off on his bread basket and let one fly. He took about 5 steps, laid down, and passed within about 15 seconds. I had to scale back up the cliff, walk the edge to the opposite end, and drop off the other side of the ridge to get down to the bench where he was.

When I got to him, he was covered completely in mange to the point his skin was crumbling away, had an open broad head wound in his gut (that was spilling stomach contents out of it), and was nothing but skin and bones. There’s no way he would’ve made it through the winter, likely not through the next month even. He was a good one to take off the landscape to free up the feed for other deer.

He’s not a giant, but he’s a cool funky deer. He’s a 7 on the right and a 4 on the left with eyeguards on both sides. His meat is currently being processed and he will make a gnarly euro mount!

Maybe some extra points for wearing my Kryptek Skyfall pants Oddly enough, my genuine favorite hunting pants are just the Cotton/Poly Stalker pants. They are great for scaling deadfall and busting brush, and they wear like iron. And for the price, I can have multiple pairs of them and not feel bad about it!

 

[Dcoryn]

Wyoming opening morning muley

 

[ChrisAU]

Was walking back to camp to pack up for the trip and spotted this guy under a bush across the canyon. Couldn’t be happier!

 

[Benincanada]

I wish I could say she was with me for it all, but I asked her that night if she wanted to go, and it was the one time she decided to watch a movie with mom instead. Either way, she came out to get him in the truck and get him cleaned up.

He's not the biggest Saskatchewan mule deer, my buddies and I have seen this year, but he's got some cool character. Some of the things you can't see that set him apart for me are the extras off his eye guards and stickers off the back behind my daughter's hand.

I couldn't be happier with a solid buck, meat in the freezer, and seeing her so excited to go out and enjoy hunting.




Sent from my SM-S911W using Tapatalk

 

[Cbrady96]

Missed this buck opening morning biggest buck I’ve ever shot at worst feeling ever got some weather picked up his track in his bedding area tracked him with perfect wind and soft footsteps and found him felt on top of the world nothing like public land mule deer

 

[willfrye027]

Opening day Idaho general season buck

 

[idahomuleys]

Idaho OTC opener. First year my brother and I have spent serious time scouting, and it paid off Despite all the pressure that showed up opening day, these bucks stuck to their routine. We got mine killed in the morning (right) and my brother's in the evening (left).
Big thanks to the rokcast and huntian podcast for the extra motivation to leave on summer scouting trips while the family is home doing other fun stuff. Leaving that stuff behind to scout is a lot harder than expected!
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