legal or not

[boneaddict]

Here is a new one for you that is sort of piggybacked onto the three-point or better rule.  Bobcat inspired this with his talk on watching a nice buck to see if it was legal or not.  This could be for Spike only elk, or rams not quite 3/4 curl.  I'll see if I can dig up some other images while I am supposed to be working. heheheheheheee

[boneaddict]

This was a two point that had beeter been keeping his head low.

[boneaddict]

believe it or not, this guy was legal.

[Muleyslyr]

I ran into a guy one year up in the hills.  He was frantically looking for his deer that he had just killed.  I offered to help him locate it since he was positive it was right here somewhere.  I asked if it was a bigger buck or smaller or what, to know if I could look for horns sticking up.  He says, "Oh, it's huge!"  Now I gotta really help him find it right. 

Not two minutes later, I find his deer.  As I gotta a little closer all I could see was a huge fork on the one side.  I stopped and waited for the guy and said you should be the first one to him.  As he grabbed his rack in excitement, he says, "Oh Thank God it's got those eyeguards!"

Was about a 24" 2pt. with two 1" eyeguards.  Nice thick heavy rack, but Barely legal.  He says, "man I just saw horns and shot."  Unbelievable after how many years with the 3pt. min. rule that this still happens.  I just told the guy Congrats, and went on my way.

[Muleyslyr]

Would hate to imagine how many hunters would shoot at that first deer. 

[boneaddict]

Here is one from a guy some of you might know as Vek on another site.  Gerry is one of the most productive early season High country hunters I know.  He has done moved off to Alaska to shoot all of my moose, so he probably won't mind me posting this picture. That will reduce my moose, but will add one more deer for us each year to pursue.   He followed this guy for quite some time trying to grow an extra point on him.  This is his 2006 edition to his trophy collection.

[jackelope]

My first mule deer was about 22" wide forkhorn with one eyeguard about 2" long. i shot that deer at about 60yds and knew for sure it had that eyeguard. i will tell you...when you grow up in upstate new york and you're looking at 15" wide little whitetails your whole life and that first muley showed up...that thing looked huge.
BTW muleyslyr did not help me find my first mule deer

[PolarBear]

A guy that I know and use to hunt with (never again!) got busted for shooting a 2 pt mulie in front of a game cop last year in Republic.  There are far too many under sized bucks being shot by knee jerk hunters who cant control themselves!  The first year that the reg went into effect we found 11 sub-legal bucks (and several does) that had beed shot and left to rot.  I wish that they would tripple the fine for violating the rule.  There is no excuse for not  knowing your target, period!

[WDFW-SUX]

The one that I see every year without fail is the 25in 2pt.  And every year I just about burn out my eye balls trying to put a 3rd on him. I wish I had a pic for you guys cuz he's really really wide.

[chep]

This is a cool topic. Maybe you should run a one or two day poll along with each picture and then tell us the answer afterwards. 

[boneaddict]

Barely legal

[boneaddict]

Is he forked?

[Ridgerunner]

Here's a question, who disagrees with the 1" rule?  I personally do as you aren't going to be able to measure it until the deer is dead.  If it's long enough to see as a third point I think it should be legal.

[Ray]

I think there needs to be a clear definition of what a "3rd point" is because otherwise ambiguity leads to other problems and leaves the gate open for unethical hunters to harvest game which isn't intended to be.

My guess is that the "long enough to see" rule would be abused by some people out there and too many animals might be harvested. Any little bump could be judged as a point with that sort of definition. When someone needs to prosecuted or even be vindicated with regards to game legislation in courts ambiguity isn't helpful either.

Do you think we should have a 2 point rule instead?

[Ray]

Is he forked?

Man that's worse than a hard math quiz. It's real hard to tell with all of the branches from that bare brush in the way. I definitely would not be inclined to shoot but would guess he probably is legal because there seems to enough on his right side.