NICE BUCKS!

[sixshot]

Three of my 4 son's just returned from a mule deer pack back hunt, they packed in sunday, scouted monday & shot these 2 bucks early this morning (opening morning) one son didn't have a tag, he was just along for another pair of eyes. They said between them they spotted at least 50 bucks! One was taken with a Ruger 25/06 & 100 gr Hornady, the other was taken with a custom 280 & a 140 gr Nosler ballastic tip, this second deer was taken at a lasered 475 yds.

You can see the boned out meat is still in the backpack.

Dick

 

[contender]

One in velvet & one w/o. Both very nice. I love mulie meat too. It seems to have a wonderful natural sage flavor. I love this time of year!
Congrats to the boys there!

 

[don44]

Very good!

 

[Jeff Hoover]

Dick, you trained them well ! Glad to see ALL the essentials in place, such as the toilet paper. First thing in my pocket on a hunt .

Nice Bucks, by the way :wink: .

 

[6GUNSONLY]

Dick, is it unusual to see bucks with hard antlers and others still in velvet in your area? The hard-antler buck looks like he's been past the velvet shedding stage for some time.

 

[sixshot]

Its very unusual to see a buck in velvet this late in september, I've never seen one this late. Both of these were in the same group of 8 bucks. The only time I've ever seen a buck in velvet was back when I bowhunted, you might shoot a fork horn buck in the first few days of the season, after that they were hard horned.
I believe the boys said they saw some others in velvet on this hunt, they were camped at about 8,000 ft elevation, don't know if that had anything to do with it or not.

Dick

 

[6GUNSONLY]

Interesting. When I lived in New Mexico, I killed velvet-antlered mulies in late Sept/early Oct. with muzzleloader. That was common there. By early Nov. rifle hunt they were always hard-antlered.

Here in NW Alabama, our buck/doe ratio is out of sync, and therefore we have fawns born in three to four different months, maybe even more.

One year a few years back, I saw two smallish 8-pt. bucks together in April, one still had hard antlers not shed yet, the other already had a little velvet rack going.

We've had a more liberal doe harvest program the past few years, which has helped. Our large public land hunting area is in a quality deer management program as well (6 pt. or better), I would like to see the whole region be in a QDMA program.

P.S. The velvet buck wasn't a "cactus buck" was he? I understand they often never get out of the velvet stage.

 

[Jeff Hoover]

6gunsonly said

P.S. The velvet buck wasn't a "cactus buck" was he? I understand they often never get out of the velvet stage

.

OUCH!! If that means loosing the do-dads to cactus thorn, thats gotta smart :evil: . I was wondering the same thing, tho. No testosterone, no hard horn .

 

[sixshot]

I ask the same thing when the boys showed me the bucks, they said he was normal in every way. I have seen bucks like you mention, either snagged on a fence or maybe roped by a cowboy with a sharp knife! :wink:

Dick