Let's see some Mule Bucks

Steve O · Mar 29, 2020

Man those are some great deer folks. I’ve been saving WY points since they started and this year I’ve got a break in my schedule that’s going to allow me to use them. Thanks for all the eye candy.

Buffs35 · Mar 29, 2020

Early 2000s, eastern plains Colorado.

Brittany Chukarman · Mar 30, 2020

This buck wandered through in early November looking for does. He was killed in a neighbor's pasture while tending to does 3 days later. I didn't see him up close after they killed him but was told he grossed 193. Not a fan of Oregon's Premium Hunts.

Mtnhunter1 · Mar 30, 2020

Randy11 said:
Back in the early and mid 2000's when unit 270 was really off the charts, I'd go down around Christmas and watch bucks. Somewhere I have a pile of old Hi-8 tapes with hours of deer footage. I'm sure the bucks have grown in my memory, but there were some incredible deer walking around back then. I really need to find those and figure out a way to convert them at some point.

A few more random pictures from over the years-

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@Randy11,

I'm curious about the second buck pic of this post. Do you remember if this buck was in a L.E. unit or did you snap the photo in a general unit?

I'm curious because he is eerily similar to a buck that I tipped over several years ago????

Thanks,

Mtnhunter1

TheJason · Mar 30, 2020

First buck I killed in MT. Went to the same spot with my wife in the evening and saw a buck that dwarfed this guy.

Bagel_7 · Mar 30, 2020

2019 CO buck, best buck to date! First picture is on the hoof night before season opened. Next pictures is 2 days later.

Mtnhunter1 · Mar 30, 2020

Randy11 said:
That picture was from the first week of December 2013, in 270. Pretty cool younger buck, here's his other side-

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Thanks!

Like I said, "Eerily Similar"!

General unit, Public land, 2017.

Mtnhunter1 · Mar 30, 2020

@Art Vandeley wrote, "Dead or alive, velvet or hard horned, big or SMALL.

A few of my personal mule deer firsts, from my teens in the very early 80's!

At that time in Utah, a nonresident could buy a hunting license for $90 and then an archery license for $10. A deer license was included with both the hunting license and the archery. Gave a young hunter, eager to experience different country, an excuse to wander! Yes, I had a whole lot of fun, just soaking in the adventures and never concerned about how big the bucks were.....

Utah 1st:

2nd tag and 2nd buck from Utah:

Colorado archery just happened to open up the very next week and I believe that the nonresident tag cost $78, over-the-counter also! So I bounced over there and arrowed this giant! First time I ever witnessed guys riding in the back of the pickups and archery road hunting,,,,not good!

Done on a very tight budget and all before Montana's season opener. No wife, no kids, no mortgage, no ambitions except to hunt as much as humanly possible...."My youth""Fun times"!

Dunning Kruger · Mar 30, 2020

I just hunt whitetail, so the areas i hunt skew heavily toward that, but there is some overlap with muleys, as i like to hunt the mtn whitetails at 4k+. Our muley numbers around here suck bad, so this is probably the best ive gotten on my whitetail cameras. Nothin crazy, but pretty damn good for this area.

Mtnhunter1 · Mar 30, 2020

1st muley from Oregon.
Hey, worked good for camp meat while chasing Oregon's elk around!

1st one from Nevada's Ruby Range. Packed in and made camp two days before the opener, found lots of bucks, made camp and then spotted Mtn. Goats! Followed the goats over the top and a famous Nevada thunder storm snuck up on me. I baled off the top to seek shelter under a rock ledge. The storm lasted until dark and I was stuck there as my minimag flashlight's batteries were dead. Daylight found me dropping into the canyon below me to find water as I hadn't drank anything since leaving my camp the prior afternoon. I found a small seep at the head of the canyon and while quenching my thirst, I heard rocks rolling. I was astounded to view through the scrubby trees and see 26 bucks, single file, making their way to my position at the water. Literally shot the lead buck at 7' the first few hours of opening day. I spent the next few days packing, after I figured out how to access that canyon from the other side of the Ruby Range.

The canyon where Nevada bucks like to water in mid August. My buck was hanging in the scrub trees in the canyon, where the green meets the rock.

My Nevada 1st. Like I stated, he was the leader. If the leader would have been a forky? The forky would have been the one that I would have flung an arrow at! Side note, the camera was back at camp....

No fancy gear, not even a water filter and I survived to hunt another day.....amazing!

buffybr · Mar 30, 2020

In my early hunts if I carried a camera it usually had slide film. Since cameras went digital I've shot mostly whitetails and not a lot of muley bucks. Here's a field pic of my best Montana muley and the mount pics of my two best Colorado bucks that I shot in the '70s before I moved to Montana.