Turkey Day Archery Buck

[blackveltbowhunter]

  i thought I recognized you from somewhere! Glad to see it worked out for you and great meeting Ya on the mountain! Congrats on a fabulous buck.

[Rainier10]

Thanks again guys, i was super happy with him, it was a tough year for sure.  Here is what we came up with around the campfire.

Main beams were equal at 17 4/8, G1 L 1 2/8 R 1 7/8, G2 L 9 1/8 R 12, G3 L 8 R 8 2/8, G4 L 7 R 1 1/8, H1 L 3 5/8 R 4 4/8, H2 L 3 3/8 R 3 2/8, H3 R 3 2/8 L 3 6/8, H4 L 3 3/8 R 3 3/8, inside spread is 15 4/8.  Gross 127 5/8, net 116 4/8.

I thought he was bigger but the tape doesn't lie.  I thought we may have screwed it up somehow but I have a 160" and a 150" deer at home on the wall and when I brought the head in and compared it to the other deer on the wall it was significantly smaller.  It was  really nice deer and there was no way I was passing up a shot on this guy.  Super happy to have him down and going in my freezer and on my wall.

[Taco280AI]

Nice buck... good way to spend TDay too

[MuleDeerCrazy]

Nice job... congrats!  Good looking pack, we got lots of blood on our Bull Pacs this year too!

[Timberstalker]

Thanks again guys, i was super happy with him, it was a tough year for sure.  Here is what we came up with around the campfire.

Main beams were equal at 17 4/8, G1 L 1 2/8 R 1 7/8, G2 L 9 1/8 R 12, G3 L 8 R 8 2/8, G4 L 7 R 1 1/8, H1 L 3 5/8 R 4 4/8, H2 L 3 3/8 R 3 2/8, H3 R 3 2/8 L 3 6/8, H4 L 3 3/8 R 3 3/8, inside spread is 15 4/8.  Gross 127 5/8, net 116 4/8.

I thought he was bigger but the tape doesn't lie.  I thought we may have screwed it up somehow but I have a 160" and a 150" deer at home on the wall and when I brought the head in and compared it to the other deer on the wall it was significantly smaller.  It was  really nice deer and there was no way I was passing up a shot on this guy.  Super happy to have him down and going in my freezer and on my wall.

Wow!  That's a super deceiving picture.  At the end of the day, who cares if he is 120" or 150."  You killed a damn respectable mule deer, with a bow.  Congrats again Rainier.

[Rainier10]

Thanks, I think the third photo is the one that really gives the size away, the right ear is straight out and the antlers are way inside of that.

I was thinking most would guess 140-150.  In reality it is a 130" plus buck without the broken tine.  It doesn't take much to get to 140-150 from there, 1 1/2"- 2" longer on each of the points and a little more mass adds 10", that is tough for most to judge quickly on the hoof.

I had 50 minutes of working my way in from 200 yards to 65 giving me a chance to really look him over.  I knew if I could get there I wasn't passing him up.  There was a wider buck tending a doe but he had really small forks, like 3"-4" tines, bigger deer, wouldn't score as high and he was another 40 yards beyond the one I shot.  I wasn't going to try to get by this one to get to the other, "bird in the hand" kind of thing.

It was a great season that ended with a great buck in the freezer.

Thanks for all the kind words and to those of you that took a guess at the score, hopefully it sheds a little light on how deceiving some of these bucks can look.  They can look great, not score well but still be a trophy to me, really anything with a bow is.

Good luck out there guys, I still have an elk tag to fill.