Big Methow mule deer

[boneaddict]

YES!   Jumbo

[bornhunter]

I'll try to find the pics.

[JimmyHoffa]

Man, you guys have got me wanting to hunt east next year.

[Matth]

Bingo.
It's laughable the flat brimming pups cant keep a secret.

Look what I can do everybody!!!!

exactly, and if they haven't seen it or done it, it can't be done. threads like this one keep me from posting more as well. I have a hell of a pile of stuff, but i realized a few years ago this was not the place to share or i would soon be dealing with the keyboard cowboys.

[Birdguy]

Bingo.
It's laughable the flat brimming pups cant keep a secret.

Look what I can do everybody!!!!

exactly, and if they haven't seen it or done it, it can't be done. threads like this one keep me from posting more as well. I have a hell of a pile of stuff, but i realized a few years ago this was not the place to share or i would soon be dealing with the keyboard cowboys.

Totally get it and I know how you feel. It is really to bad. This has been an awesome place for a lot of years, I have been lurking since the beginning but there are times it just gets crazy. Not usually during hunting season but clearly this year has been the exception to many things. Fortunately there are still some great people on here and we come together for some great causes. 

[Igor]

I will chime in one more time.

The reason I opened this thread was to, hopefully, start a discussion about big Methow mulies.  It was not meant to disparage anyone.  It was certainly prompted by a claim of a deer taken this season in the Methow:

"I just got back, I was fortunate enough to have killed a big 4 by 5, 388 lbs and thats not counting the pile of guts, got close to 250lbs of meat..."

That prompted a flurry of discussion.  It was pointed out in that thread, not by me, that the formula for how much meat is yielded from a deer is around 40% of the live weight.  250 lbs. of meat would make that deer weigh over 550 lbs. on the hoof.  Discussion rightfully ensued.

It's not me that needs to grow up......it is the posters here who cannot get into a discussion without calling people names.  A claim like the one made about this deer is fair game for discussion.  People will come down on all sides of the discussion, but it should remain civil.

[HereDuckyDucky]

Don't have a dog in this race (though I do live in the Methow), but wanted to throw in a recent reference point. My wife's Shiras bull from last year produced approximately 450lbs of boned-out, processed meat. For whatever that is worth...

RW

[NRA4LIFE]

I have killed and processed on my own, well over 100 big game animals, more than half of them mule deer.  And, probably aided in the butchering of probably close to 500 (7 different states).  I personally have killed all sizes from pronghorn to moose and many in between.   I know exactly how much meat comes off of wild, big game.  40% is a good number when you compare boned out meat to live weight (or dead with guts in most cases).  45% is achievable for some animals (larger in particular) when you have no shot waste and you take some of the guts (I take the heart when still in one piece).  My cow moose a few years back yielded exactly 325 lbs of boned, vacuum sealed meat.  All weighed very precisely.  I had no way of knowing the exact live weight but the bio said she was about 750 (she was collared and well known as a nuisance animal, including her weight).  That is a bit over 43% but she had almost no wasted shot meat and I did take a VERY large heart.  I tend to scrounge meat off a carcass more than most too.  My buddy's bull in '97 was very similar, yielding a bit over 400 if I remember correctly.

This is all based on my own, personal experience.  I'm not doubting or telling anybody they are exaggerating as I was not there.  However, seeing some numbers on here would suggest 650-700 lb mule deer.  Possible?  I don't know.

[mountainman]

I have never personally seen a 400-500 lb mule dear after hunting the Methow for 30 years.

What I can tell you is back in the day, when we could hunt late into November, we use to camp at the winter meadow above Pearigyn with 6-8 family groups.
We would sit in camp and watch the migratory herd of hundreds come into the winter feed meadow at dark. They seemed to be bigger and darker than the resident bucks.
Of course none would be around come shooting light.
The was a substantial increase in the number of deer coming through.
Those numbers just don’t seem to be around in the two weeks of the general season now.

 Thats seems to be the one common trait with the big Methow bucks. They are really dark, in color. As a kid listening to stories, from the old timer residents in the Valley. They claimed they could tell the migrant bucks out of B.C. by the color. Their term was not dark, it was black. Black as coal, some would claim. I miss those people, those stories. They could take you back to a time, before cars. If the story is true,  a time when there were some many Ruffed grouse in the creek bottoms, the boys hunted them with sligshots and feed them to the hogs.

Maybe not my biggest, but Definetly the darkest! Early 70's Methow valley

[link]

Cool pic! it almost appears as if you're standing there. Of course, that would mean either your rifle is about 6' long and your buck is one of those 500 pounders, or you're 3'10" tall. 

[BLH69]

1 He is kneeling on the snow. 2 It's a semi sporterized Krag. Gonna guess a 30-40. 3 Its not long armed. Look closer before you start spouting.

[jstone]

Tall rack
Love those old pictures

[boneaddict]

Look at that gun.  I love pics like this.  That’s the Methow I want to remember.  Pre California, pre burn.

[link]

1 He is kneeling on the snow. 2 It's a semi sporterized Krag. Gonna guess a 30-40. 3 Its not long armed. Look closer before you start spouting.

Lighten up Francis! It was a joke.

[BLH69]

 Bone i have quite a few of my grandfather like this only its a model 99 300 savage. let me know and i will send them to you.