2024 OFFICIAL Mule deer meat pole thread

[rcook10]

Found my proverbial white whale, I'm ~250 pounds for scale. Probably one of the biggest bodied mule deer I'll ever kill. Found him in his evening bed 3 days before opener. Hunted for him dawn to dusk until my last day passing a lot of other good deer; I just couldn't stop thinking about the double forks on the left. Finally had some weather which got him up and moving in the junipers. Snuck in to 225 yards and I dropped him with my 280ai running 162 ELDx. Shoulda just packed the shorty 308. Looking forward to seeing his age! Gross 167ish, 24" external width, 6x6 with some interesting nubs and bumps He has a little 1" spur off the left main beam and his R eye guard makes an 1" too .

 

[elkhunter505]

Opening day here in MT resulted in my first MT mule deer buck. Scouted him out 3 weeks ago during archery while looking for elk. By far the biggest bodied buck I’ve ever killed, but unlike the previous post, I am 170 lb and 5’4 for scale. But they’re way bigger than NM mulies!

 

[The Ri Guy]

2nd tough year (for our camp) in a row in WA. Spent most of season exploring new country, only to find another hardcore fella chasing the same buck we were after that he had patterned all summer. Thanks to OnX my honey-hole is no longer, oh well! Easy 190" muley, 28-30" wide, he made it through season as we saw him last light on the last day with his does.

One of our camp tore his bicep and tendon leading to all but two of us pulling out early to escort him home. Passed on a 425 yard last light steep quartering-to shot on a dandy ~160" whitetail at 4000' (confused the hell out of me) and hunted hard the next 5 days seeing one spike and 7 doe in total. 8 mile a day average looking for deer, tough go all around.

On day 8 I came across this poor buck with one testicle blown off and a moderate grazing wound the length of his belly, as well as some fibroma starting to grow on his stomach and a lower eyelid. Someone attempted a steep and bad texas heartshot or head on shot at some point earlier in season.

My empathetic side got the better of me and I killed him sleeping in his bed at 78 yards with the .308.

Meat in the freezer.

 

[Bachto]

2nd tough year (for our camp) in a row in WA. Spent most of season exploring new country, only to find another hardcore fella chasing the same buck we were after that he had patterned all summer. Thanks to OnX my honey-hole is no longer, oh well! Easy 190" muley, 28-30" wide, he made it through season as we saw him last light on the last day with his does.

One of our camp tore his bicep and tendon leading to all but two of us pulling out early to escort him home. Passed on a 425 yard last light steep quartering-to shot on a dandy ~160" whitetail at 4000' (confused the hell out of me) and hunted hard the next 5 days seeing one spike and 7 doe in total. 8 mile a day average looking for deer, tough go all around.

On day 8 I came across this poor buck with one testicle blown off and a moderate grazing wound the length of his belly, as well as some fibroma starting to grow on his stomach and a lower eyelid. Someone attempted a steep and bad texas heartshot or head on shot at some point earlier in season.

My empathetic side got the better of me and I killed him sleeping in his bed at 78 yards with the .308.

Meat in the freezer.

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The dry and hot weather this year on the eastside definitely made it tough. Glad you were able to get it done!

Also, every whitetail I've ever seen that high up here in Washington has been a dandy. I once jumped a absolute giant while elk hunting the blues during archery season in a spot that you would never think to find a whitetail.

 

[The Ri Guy]

The dry and hot weather this year on the eastside definitely made it tough. Glad you were able to get it done!

Also, every whitetail I've ever seen that high up here in Washington has been a dandy. I once jumped a absolute giant while elk hunting the blues during archery season in a spot that you would never think to find a whitetail.

I somewhat regret not throwing lead seeing as it's an any-buck whitetail unit and the local biologists want them out (apparently), but I decided to be ethical and let him walk.

Absolute dandy 10 point, especially never having shot one in our home state, literally "the one" you'd want on the wall.