Heavy coast Blacktail Shed

[Goldeneye]

My 81 year old father found this coast blacktail shed this spring while looking for mushrooms near where I grew up.  Keep in mind that this shed was found about 25 or 30 miles from the Pacific Ocean.  It was on the west side of the coast range.  So there is no chance of this being a hybrid Muley blacktail.  I grew up in this area and have seen and killed a lot of bucks.  I’ve seen a few that would match this guys spread and height, but none that would come close to its mass.  The pictures have a standard 12” ruler next to it to give some scale.  After my father described where he found the shed I knew exactly where he was.  I went up there and spent about half a day looking for the other side.  The area this ole’ boy is in dark timber with very few openings.  It has fairly dense brush too, aside from the game trails.  I have seen elk in there quite a few times but very few deer.  Probably explains why he was able to get to this point in antler growth as it would be a difficult area to hunt.   I plan on making another trip back to my folk’s home in the near future to continue the search for the other side.   I have not measured it out yet, but plan to once I can spend the time to do it properly.  I hope to be able to come up with an approximate score that his buck might get if I estimate the other side a similar size and use one of my mounts at the house to figure something close to his spread.

[catwithboost]

Holly crap 

[CastleRocker]

Now THAT is a "Big ol' goodun".  Find the match!  My cutting partner found one that was big and heavy one time when we were falling a unit out South of Aberdeen, but it wasn't nearly as big as your!  Wow.

How was the mushroom picking out there this season?

[heavy hauler]

awesome blacky

[jstamp]

THAT A RIPPER!! LOVE THE MASS

[Alan K]

Oh my god. . . . That is my dream buck. Exactly why I can't bring myself to change my residency to Idaho while I'm in school over here.  Have to get back home and hunt the blacktail!

[saylean]

thats a hellofa find.

[strutnrut1984]

thats a great shed, u better be huntin that buck this fall

[Ridgerunner]

Are you sure that is a standard 12" ruler?  that shed is a monster for a blacktail!  WOW.  That thing would be impressive on a mule deer.

[boneaddict]

Now thats a buck!

[WDFW-SUX]

Wow thats a really nice BT

[beave]

very nice

[Goldeneye]

I did not get out for mushrooms this year.  That thing called work got in the way.  My father got some Morels.  He didn't say much about them so I gather it wasn't too exceptional this year for him.  I'll be on the Chantrelles this fall though!

To answer the other question, yes that is a standard 12" ruler.  I can take another picture with something else for scale if you like.  The pictures really don't do this antler justice.  When your holding it, the mass is just really exceptional with this one.

This just shows that there are exceptionally large blacktail out there.  The big ones are just real hard to find.

[BLKBEARKLR]

All I  can say is WOW. Awesome find

[longear]

Man that's a freaking TOAD!