290 Unit Desert Bucks, post em up

[adamR]

Lol yeah like they couldnt google it and find 100's of pages of that buck

[woodywsu]

 

[Old Man Yager]

Here he is

Maverick, this buck is AWESOME, congrats to your Dad. Don't know why anyone is questioning the score. Besides, who the hell cares what it scores, it's a hell of a deer. Anybody would be blessed to have that in thier living room!!

[Maverick]

I'll try to get some more pictures of it after work and I'll look for the score sheet. It was shot on the second day of rifle season. He missed a nice 3x4 the day before. Best shot he ever missed!

[duckmen1]

dang duckman looks like you shot that doe right thru the eyeball!

That was a finishing shot. The first shot put it down but i went sraight up to it before giving it a few minutes to expire and took a finishing shot i will never do agian. Cool hunting out there but crappy pics. Should have been more patient or put a second behind the shoulder. I was younger back then though
One thing about my trip was i saw 5 bucks in 3 days. One nice 4x4 with eye guards, one-thin 3x3, and others were spike or two point.
I like hunting out there but i didnt see the quality i always heard of. But then again i only spent three days. That was a big old doe though and the weather was single digets when i shot her. Cold cold cold.

[link]

ANY permit mule deer unit will yield a big mule deer no matter the unit...all about the number of hunters being limited..at some point a big buck or 2 will emerge over time and a lucky hunter will take it. Im not saying the Desert doesnt have any big bucks or none have been taken, but the talk and hype over it u would think 180" buck is the norm and its not and by far.The same results could be done with any area in the state if you only give out a few tags

I agree with this for the most part. I believe that any late mule deer unit "can" produce a big buck, not necessarily "will" produce one. For the simple fact that a lot of hunters that draw these tags are not "trophy" hunters. I say that with no disrespect because I think "trophy" is different for everyone.  I don't think its all about the tags being limited, its about what the hunters do with the tags. The desert unit is a prime example. You have 5 tags in the late rifle season. This year, I spoke with two tag holders. The first one shot a 3x4 on opening day. Now, this buck wasn't what I would call a trophy, but after talking with him, he was very happy with this buck and that is all that matters. The other guy hunted for three days, shooting at several small bucks, then went home. Now, you cannot judge the unit quality by the results of these two tag holders which represented 40% of the hunters.
Just because you see pictures of "small" bucks that you wouldn't shoot in a general area in WA come out of a unit, does not mean that is representative of the unit. It just means that the hunter decided to shoot a buck that you don't consider a trophy.

[jackelope]

How many did you pass, Link?

[link]

I saw probably 6-8 bucks that I would consider "mature". Bucks in the 150 range or so. The largest I passed was a high twenties typical that would have probably been pushing 180. Another buck I really liked was a 22-23" buck that had inlines on his backs and was super heavy and had a really neat looking antler configuration. He really curved in on all his tines. In fact, when I first spotted him, and even after looking through the spotter, I thought he was broken off on most of his points. They were heavy bladed tines that curved in at the ends giving the illusion that they were broken off. He will be a GREAT buck this year.

[coachcw]

link you must have put some miles on.

[Maverick]

Here's more pics. Official score was 201 4/8

[1bugman]

 
Very Nice!

[Holg3107]

WOW!!! Doesn't even look like the same buck. It's amazing how a camera angle can make such a difference. Looks like a 200" deer to me. (I also would have thought low 170's based on the original picture).

[Maverick]

sorry the pics are side ways. if anyone can feel free to turn them right side up!

[billdo5]

Its got the genes.

Scored 243 green score....

[billdo5]

2012 archery desert unit