Field judging colorado mule deer

cnelk

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Mar 1, 2012
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Colorado
I took this short vid a few years ago the night before my rifle season.
Unfortunately I didnt turn him up the next morning

He was a dandy


 

5MilesBack

"DADDY"
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Feb 27, 2012
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SWEET buck. He’s gettin close to 30!!
That buck was deceptively large. I was thinking "his" right eye guard was about 4", and then one day he was tearing up one of my trees so I ran out there to chase him away. I got to about 5 feet from him and he didn't budge. I stood there in awe of his size. That eye guard was closer to 7-8". I told my wife that if he was ever crossing the road in front of me, I wasn't going to stop. I had several sheds in the yard from the deer over the years, but never found his unfortunately.
 

ColoradoV

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Nov 10, 2013
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Here is one that was a challenge to judge….

He is not very wide 😂 or what do you boys think he would score??

As per my last post he does have eyeguards..

IMG_1639.jpegIMG_1640.jpegIMG_1641.jpegIMG_1642.jpeg
 
Joined
Feb 25, 2012
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Here is one that was a challenge to judge….

He is not very wide 😂 or what do you boys think he would score??

As per my last post he does have eyeguards..
I don’t think score matters on a buck like that!



I saw a few mature Colorado bucks from the same unit die this year.

A mid 170’s and a low 190’s. The mid 170’s buck was what I would call your average buck of that class width wise. 25-26. It did have more mass through the tines that don’t count score wise but do increase eye appeal.

The 190’s buck was narrow. 18ish. The interesting thing though was his head was almost an inch wider across the brows than the mid 170’s buck. Just a big bodied big headed buck.

The 170’s buck looked like it had way better mass but they were almost the same. Between 34-35”.

The 190’s didn’t look that big until next to it on the ground. It was just a lot bigger animal which threw my off the cuff guess off.

Everything I’ve seen the Colorado buck’s definitely have wider ears than the bucks I see up north. So it always seems like there is no ground shrinkage when walking up to them.

There was ground shrinkage walking up to a buck up north right after seeing those two Colorado bucks hit the dirt this year 🤦
 

ColoradoV

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Nov 10, 2013
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I got a pretty good idea how old he was..

Got 3 years of pics (saw him for 5 years) and never hunted him as he did not give me that wow feeling...

The pics above was his best year and he went downhill a bit the year after these pics were taken..
 

prm

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Mar 31, 2017
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Take this buck for example, he’s a buck i watched all last winter, come time for shed season he’d disappeared and couldn’t turn them up or someone else found them. Anyways, assume he has 22-23” ears (dozens and dozens of bucks i’ve been around in this country is what’s about average) what do you put him at for width? I haven’t seen personally any 30” bucks on the hoof but I still have a hard time thinking he is, although i bet he’s really close.
I’d just shoot him and then measure out of curiosity. I’m easy to please. :)
 
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