small 4x's

Great thread, I agree with most above. It's your first muley hunt and you're doing it with stick and string. That makes any legal buck a trophy IMO.

I'm hunting in south-central NM this year which is the land of the 130 class muley but also where a lot of road hunters kill the first forkey they see....I'm not a fan as it really hits the herd hard taking out so many deer. Like I've seen with antler restrictions in Texas, I'd love to see NM make many of these marginal units 4x4 only. I believe you'd see a difference in 2-3 years and impactful change in 5-7.

I'm one to take what the mountain offers but don't need the meat bad enough to kill a forkey. Two years ago I passed on 3 120 class deer then didn't see anything other than forkeys on days 4 and 5. I went home to a big bowl of tag soup but happy to have had the opportunity and a great hunt. The year prior, I killed a 135ish 4x4.
 
@robby denning , would love to hear your thoughts on this (the horn growth/mother nutrition/genetics/water subject).
not Robby here but super interesting subject..but a pretty different topic than OP brought up to be fair. Sounds like OP is not necessarily trophy hunting and wants to have a good time on an archery hunt.

To continue the derail of the thread, I wonder if the desert/high desert places where experienced guys have described deer “blowing up” or really shrinking year to year is a bit different of a habitat dynamic than the more migratory herds that are usually talked about in the big research studies.

A deer in the Wyoming range is going to have pretty darn good feed pretty much every year in the spring and early summer with a receding snow line.

A deer in northern Arizona may be in literal feast or famine during antler growth time depending on monsoons. To the same point, his mother may have had a terribly dry fall and winter when he was in utero and been on the verge of starvation.

The studies supported the massive effect that mother’s health had on expressed antlers characteristics. Take a listen or go read it, it’ll make a lot more sense. Can’t necessarily be extrapolated to the desert stuff except that a healthy mom will probably give birth to a fawn with more genetic (well, epigenetic) potential for big antlers.
 
To continue the derail of the thread, I wonder if the desert/high desert places where experienced guys have described deer “blowing up” or really shrinking year to year is a bit different of a habitat dynamic than the more migratory herds that are usually talked about in the big research studies.

Man, that is a really good point, and would make sense. Apologies to the OP on sidetracking his thread, but hopefully it's interesting to him. Looking forward to reading that study, and listening to that Meateater podcast, should be pretty interesting.
 
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