Southern Elk
Well-known member
Do you think it’s an issue of shooting them before they reach their potential these days? Or maybe something else? Seems like one would slip through the cracks every now and then.
Montana public land B&C mule deer
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Hunter4Life78
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I wonder if it's a time crunch or impatience that comes into play.
I hunted a Trophy Mule Deer District for elk a number of years. I knocked on a door to ask permission to hunt a different district literally across the road and to gain access to public land.The land owner asked if I was part of the group that was watching the group of muleys the night before. Told him "ya we were knowing we couldn't touch the buck that was in the group we didn't have a permit.". He told me that he watched that buck grow for three years. He was a tank. He managed to get a pic of him by an elevated fuel tank he had and rough guess he figured he was 34" wide, this is what he told me. I know that we could see antlers from the road and he tipped his head when he went into the scrub pine.
We saw impressive deer in that district just never where we could hunt them.
Pounding them through the rut for all these years is my guess. I know most don’t even go out till second week in November because the bucks are so easy to kill. Drive the roads and see one chasing. Park over the hill and come back over and shoot it. Also Montanas growing resident population hasn’t helped this. Eastern Montana has some phenomenal mule deer habitat if only we managed them
geetar
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I’d have shot him too. The mass is pretty nice.
We had a split second to shoot or not. I said shoot. My bud said I hope I didn't make a mistake. mtmuley
seeth07
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Can you use the rack as a gun rack? Ok shoot not a mistake
shrapnel
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I didn’t need a guide to get this deer, but photoshop helped a little…
I wonder though if the season was shorter would those people road hunting a 2-3 year old buck in November just instead kill the first 2 point they came across during a shorter season instead?
huntin24/7
Well-known member
I could very well be wrong, but I think that’s part of the problem. With so much time and the rut, hardly anyone shoots those 2 points and instead most all wait to pluck the nicer looking 2-3 year olds when the rut is going hot. I think if more guys shot those 2 points because of the time crunch of a shorter season or less rut hunting, it would spread out the harvest more between age classes and allow more 2-3 year olds to live another year or 2. Just my opinion though.
Nick87
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I don't think your wrong. Regardless where we're talking about.
Score? Who gives a crap - that right there is a classic Montana muley. Doesn‘t really get any better in my book.
220yotekiller
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really cool looking headstall there.
rogerthat
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It’s pretty simple. The bucks with the genetics to get really big are big when they are 3 years old like 165-180. In Montana, they don’t make it to 4 or 5 or better yet 7 or 8 when they would be a giant. That’s why they are rarer than unicorns in this state.
antlerradar
Well-known member
You and @huntin24/7 are right. This buck I posted above was a sold 140 inch four point as a two year old and almost 180 as a three year old. As a three year old he looked like a giant because his body had yet to catch up to his antlers. Almost no one would pass on him as a three year old. When I found his antlers there was plenty of ground shrinkage. He also lived on the same hill as the 192 6/8 buck I posted up. Antlers are very similar and I have little doubt that if he had lived to 7 or 8 he too would have been over 200 inches.
No. No age. He has that old buck face. Large bodied too. Just a good looking mule deer. mtmuley
Those same people will pass a big old 3pt to shoot a young 4pt
Southern Elk
Well-known member
So here’s another question. Are they killing giant bucks on some of the big ranches and just not telling anyone? Or not registering them? Some of those large tracts of land are big enough that deer would never leave the borders. Seems like someone out there would be managing their ranch for trophy quality like they do for whitetails back east.
antlerradar
Well-known member
For the most part no. If the ranch is hunted at all the bucks with the best genes are shot. Take for example the buck in my post above. There is no way any eastern hunter is passing on him as a three year old. At nearly 180 inches he would be the best buck many had ever seen and you add in the small three year old body and he looks like a true giant.
The exception is large ranches that are not hunted. Those places do grow some giants, but they are not getting shot unless they wander off.
