Methow Valley Beast! 210 3/8 Gross

[huntnphool]

Hey wea300mag how far do you think he traveled roughly?

Using my mapping software, he expired about 17 miles (as the crow flies) from my camera.

The big question I have been trying to answer. What made that guy travel 17 miles from his summer range to his winter range. It's not weather. Is it the rut?  Is it feed?  If you answer the rut, I would imagine there are still does in his summer range that he could breed. Weird year.

Congratulations on harvesting the buck of 500 lifetimes!

I'm going off memory here, which is dangerous, but a telemetry study in Chelan County about 10 years ago showed the herd was roughly 90% migratory and 10% resident.  The average migration between summer and winter ranges was about 30 miles, with deer showing high fidelity to both summer and winter locations.  As Boneaddict noted, both weather and breeding factor in.  Does, especially with fawns, migrate to transitional ranges on a pretty rigid schedule regardless of weather - except an early snow will send them earlier.  Makes sense if you think about it, no good reason to make fawns snowplow 30 miles to start winter.  Migration studies throughout the range have shown the average date of significant accumulation (6-8") on the summer ranges is a pretty good predictor of when does will migrate, barring an actual early snow - they will migrate about 5-10 days before that average date.  Buck behavior is a bit different; yearlings and 2-year olds tend to follow the does, while 3+ and older bucks stay on their summer ranges until a few days before breeding starts, unless a more significant snow event (12-15") on their summer ranges moves them earlier. 

One other note about migration, spring and fall behaviors are very different.  In spring the deer tend to "follow the greenup", a slow movement driven by forage availability and palatability.  The fall migration is very much "get up and go", with deer traveling as much as 20 air miles per day.  I have seen four years in the past 25 where the mule deer rut began 2-3 weeks early.  Each of these was characterized by an unusually high October harvest of swollen necked mature brutes.  1996 (Wyoming), 2004, 2008 and 2015 (WA).  I have spent hundreds of hours daydreaming about the whys, and looking at precipitation, temperature and other data sets, and have concluded - I have no clue why.

 

[grundy53]

Hey wea300mag how far do you think he traveled roughly?

Using my mapping software, he expired about 17 miles (as the crow flies) from my camera.

The big question I have been trying to answer. What made that guy travel 17 miles from his summer range to his winter range. It's not weather. Is it the rut?  Is it feed?  If you answer the rut, I would imagine there are still does in his summer range that he could breed. Weird year.

Congratulations on harvesting the buck of 500 lifetimes!

I'm going off memory here, which is dangerous, but a telemetry study in Chelan County about 10 years ago showed the herd was roughly 90% migratory and 10% resident.  The average migration between summer and winter ranges was about 30 miles, with deer showing high fidelity to both summer and winter locations.  As Boneaddict noted, both weather and breeding factor in.  Does, especially with fawns, migrate to transitional ranges on a pretty rigid schedule regardless of weather - except an early snow will send them earlier.  Makes sense if you think about it, no good reason to make fawns snowplow 30 miles to start winter.  Migration studies throughout the range have shown the average date of significant accumulation (6-8") on the summer ranges is a pretty good predictor of when does will migrate, barring an actual early snow - they will migrate about 5-10 days before that average date.  Buck behavior is a bit different; yearlings and 2-year olds tend to follow the does, while 3+ and older bucks stay on their summer ranges until a few days before breeding starts, unless a more significant snow event (12-15") on their summer ranges moves them earlier. 

One other note about migration, spring and fall behaviors are very different.  In spring the deer tend to "follow the greenup", a slow movement driven by forage availability and palatability.  The fall migration is very much "get up and go", with deer traveling as much as 20 air miles per day.  I have seen four years in the past 25 where the mule deer rut began 2-3 weeks early.  Each of these was characterized by an unusually high October harvest of swollen necked mature brutes.  1996 (Wyoming), 2004, 2008 and 2015 (WA).  I have spent hundreds of hours daydreaming about the whys, and looking at precipitation, temperature and other data sets, and have concluded - I have no clue why.

  thank you Beau.  Very informative. 

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[bobcat]

Yep, 2004, the year I drew Entiat, there were LOTS of big bucks killed the week before my permit season started. The Hunting-Wasington forum didn't even exist at that time, so the big bucks I heard about being killed was just word of mouth. (Well, maybe Fishing &Hunting news too)

[Mossyoak]

Holy Mass! Hope he passed those genes on!! 

[Boss .300 winmag]

Hey wea300mag how far do you think he traveled roughly?

Using my mapping software, he expired about 17 miles (as the crow flies) from my camera.

The big question I have been trying to answer. What made that guy travel 17 miles from his summer range to his winter range. It's not weather. Is it the rut?  Is it feed?  If you answer the rut, I would imagine there are still does in his summer range that he could breed. Weird year.

Congratulations on harvesting the buck of 500 lifetimes!

I'm going off memory here, which is dangerous, but a telemetry study in Chelan County about 10 years ago showed the herd was roughly 90% migratory and 10% resident.  The average migration between summer and winter ranges was about 30 miles, with deer showing high fidelity to both summer and winter locations.  As Boneaddict noted, both weather and breeding factor in.  Does, especially with fawns, migrate to transitional ranges on a pretty rigid schedule regardless of weather - except an early snow will send them earlier.  Makes sense if you think about it, no good reason to make fawns snowplow 30 miles to start winter.  Migration studies throughout the range have shown the average date of significant accumulation (6-8") on the summer ranges is a pretty good predictor of when does will migrate, barring an actual early snow - they will migrate about 5-10 days before that average date.  Buck behavior is a bit different; yearlings and 2-year olds tend to follow the does, while 3+ and older bucks stay on their summer ranges until a few days before breeding starts, unless a more significant snow event (12-15") on their summer ranges moves them earlier. 

One other note about migration, spring and fall behaviors are very different.  In spring the deer tend to "follow the greenup", a slow movement driven by forage availability and palatability.  The fall migration is very much "get up and go", with deer traveling as much as 20 air miles per day.  I have seen four years in the past 25 where the mule deer rut began 2-3 weeks early.  Each of these was characterized by an unusually high October harvest of swollen necked mature brutes.  1996 (Wyoming), 2004, 2008 and 2015 (WA).  I have spent hundreds of hours daydreaming about the whys, and looking at precipitation, temperature and other data sets, and have concluded - I have no clue why.

 

[Griz231]

Getting close to deciding what pose to go with.  I'm leaning towards the semi sneak.  What other poses do ya'll think?  Turned to the left to bring out the smaller G3 is a must I think.  Ears back slightly?

[Mxracer532]

Hands down the wall pedestal mounts to me look the best. Turned whichever way fits your house

[Griz231]

Hands down the wall pedestal mounts to me look the best. Turned whichever way fits your house

I was just looking at those online.  Pretty cool

[Griz231]

Hands down the wall pedestal mounts to me look the best. Turned whichever way fits your house

Can you send me a pic or two of your pedestal wall mounts?

[jackelope]

I really like the look of the phlegming mount. I think if I ever get one done, it'll be like this:

Not necessarily that pedestal/leg base style, but a wall mount. Sorry I didn't realize it had that base on it.

[Rainier10]

I kind a like the dancing whitetail in the back ground. 

[jackelope]

I kind a like the dancing whitetail in the back ground. 

Typical whitetail. He just saw a butterfly.

[grundy53]

I kind a like the dancing whitetail in the back ground. 

Typical whitetail. He just saw a butterfly.

Exactly

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[huntnphool]

I really like the look of the phlegming mount. I think if I ever get one done, it'll be like this:

Not necessarily that pedestal/leg base style, but a wall mount. Sorry I didn't realize it had that base on it.

 That is some deep snow.

[fisheral87]

Euro mount.


Al