2025 OFFICIAL MEAT POLE THREAD

[Aclossman]

How did his rump look? Did he have the whitetail "flag"?

All signs pointed to mule from that end.

 

[Andrew12gauge]

I guess what time saying is the G2 doesn’t split or fork like a typical mule deer and he has pretty substantial brow tines. I’m from the east coast and have killed my fair share of whitetail, but this is only my second mule deer. To me, his antler structure reminds me of a whitetail more than a mule deer.

Lots of 3 point muleys where the G2 doesn’t split. Good brow tines. I once saw a guy shoot a muley with a 10 point whitetail rack, I have no doubt that deer was a hybrid. On any 3 point muley it’s just too hard to say one way or another


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[J.B.]

MT - He looks more and more like a whitetail every time I look at him. He was with mule deer does but there were whitetail does within a mile. Maybe a hybrid?
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Looks full muley to me. Lots of 3pts like that, and Ive taken a couple with 3-4” brows.
True hybrids are rare, and usually the rump, tail, and glands on the hind leg will show characteristics of both species.
If his butt looked full muley, he probably was.

 

[Stromith]

My boy's first buck. I was going to get on and update live since there is decent service up there but my battery charger was not working so I stayed on airplane mode quite a bit. Same area we went on his archery hunt in this thread. Short live mule deer. I'll see if I can get him to get on here and write his version of events. I had a lot of fun with him and he made a pretty good shot on this buck. He is really happy with his buck. He just wanted to shoot a buck and had a pretty itchy trigger finger. View attachment 941459View attachment 941460View attachment 941461

This is so cool! Way to go dude!

 

[Stromith]

Not a meat pole, but a meat joist.

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We use a meat joist for our spike elk in the woodshed of the cabin. Looks a lot like that. Nice job!

 

[hunterl]

2025 ND rifle buck

 

[hunterl]

2025 archery buck with a broadhead stuck in the roof of his mouth.

 

[bricketts]

2025 archery buck with a broadhead stuck in the roof of his mouth.

That picture made me audibly wince.. it will never cease to amaze me how tough those critters are! Dandy buck, congratulations!

 

[Wildsold]

My first buck of any kind and first archery deer. Colorado 2025.

Scouted all summer but glassed up his bachelor group just the day before the opener and decided he was the one. There was only a single way into his basin that wouldn't blow everything out and it wasn't a pleasant one. It took 11 hours, 8 miles, and 3k' of vertical the next day to get into position to make the stalk.

I 100% had buck fever and didn't even think about compensating for the heavy crosswind. Arrow drifted ~12" right on a broadside 67 yard shot. Somehow the arrow found the jugular/carotid - he dropped within 90 yards/15 seconds.

Thankful for divine intervention on this one. Will never make that mistake again.

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Nice buck