WA bucks over 180”?

[baldopepper]

All you need to look at are the auction and raffle amounts being paid for big mule deer hunts to see how difficult it's become to get those 180+ mule deer. Obviously the Antelope Island tag is the prime example, but other Utah units known for big mule deer are fetching higher prices than many of the trophy elk tags.

[boneaddict]

Antelope Island is a whole other topic.  It has gone so far downhill it’s crazy, yet the price is up there.   Pretty cool how the lucky guy this year hunted it on his own.   Kind of a cool story.   An example of how they can screw up a pretty cool thing.

[bigmacc]

The 2000’s were even better than the teens in a lot of areas and that was just half a dozen years after some horrible winter kill years. Deer used to rebound much faster than they have been lately or at least it seems that way.

You should have been around in the 50’s-60’s and 70’s😆👍

I myself have never had a buck scored, in fact no one in our family has going back to 1917. Some know the story of the hundreds of racks my great grandpa had hanging in his shop back in the day, bucks from himself, my great grandma,  his brothers and cousins and my dad, they all just ended up in the shop, over 400 of them. Some were in the 30-35” range, some were massive non-typicals, 4 of them had 25 total points or more! I’m sure there were a few 180’s in the bunch😆 We will never know because when my great grandpa asked my dad if he wanted them when they were selling the place my dad replied, “ no, we’ll get more”. Until the day my dad passed he regretted that decision😢

They all got donated to the scouts and other charities including some craft type folks.

As for myself, like others I’m at the point where I don’t care about “the kill” anymore, I still enjoy scouting them, watching them ( to this day I still observe and learn) and helping the younger generation in our camp be successful with their hunts.

And Karl, your pulling in 65k, man you guys are riding the gravy train, keep up the good work, I still got stock😆🤣😆👍
And yes, I for one love your posts.👍👍

[Ironhead]

Here are some not very good pic's of two 180"+ WA bucks from 2024. Looks like I was off on the score of the 189" buck. He was 189 3/8" not 189 6/8".

[Ironhead]

One more of the 189 3/8" buck.

[jjhunter]

Nice goals JJ.   This years adventure for me was the Badlands.  Crazy cool the variety of country these guys reign  over.

I’ve got piles of points in South Dakota.   Just waiting for it to turn back on….like everywhere…

[TimberMuleys]

One more of the 189 3/8" buck.

Dandy. Thanks for sharing.


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[highcountry_hunter]

From all the years of hunting in WA and all the people Ive known over the years nobody is killing 180" every year out in this state if they are hunting just public land. There might be some guys with huge ranches they can hunt and control the population and harvest rates to grow big bucks and even then getting a buck to 180 is hard. I feel like if I put forth the effort like I use to for whitetails I have a easier time turning up a gross 180 whitetail on cam every year than a muley.

I was wondering when Gods gift to hunting was going to chime in on this one…


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[hunter399]

From all the years of hunting in WA and all the people Ive known over the years nobody is killing 180" every year out in this state if they are hunting just public land. There might be some guys with huge ranches they can hunt and control the population and harvest rates to grow big bucks and even then getting a buck to 180 is hard. I feel like if I put forth the effort like I use to for whitetails I have a easier time turning up a gross 180 whitetail on cam every year than a muley.

I was wondering when Gods gift to hunting was going to chime in on this one…


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Lol.... 😂
I tend to agree with him though. 😂
92 percent of the time.

[hunter399]

One more of the 189 3/8" buck.

Dandy. Thanks for sharing.


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[huntnnw]

From all the years of hunting in WA and all the people Ive known over the years nobody is killing 180" every year out in this state if they are hunting just public land. There might be some guys with huge ranches they can hunt and control the population and harvest rates to grow big bucks and even then getting a buck to 180 is hard. I feel like if I put forth the effort like I use to for whitetails I have a easier time turning up a gross 180 whitetail on cam every year than a muley.

I was wondering when Gods gift to hunting was going to chime in on this one…


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I’m living rent free in someone’s head  jealousy running deep with a keyboard warrior .

[blindluck]

Fortunately I got to see pictures of a buck this year that is over 200” and 32-33 wide, I’ve been sworn to secrecy for good reason. If you saw the buck there is no question of its huge rack surpassing the magical number, it’s a sight to behold. It’s really cool knowing there are deer like this in our state. Maybe someone will get to hang their tag on it this year and post some pictures but if they didn’t I would totally understand. Just got back from twisp last week saw a lot of deer and a dandy 4x4.

[Skyvalhunter]

Where about in Twisp were you seeing the deer? Last week from Methow to Twisp I only saw 5 deer. There was small group by my place but there's less than last year however there was less snow last year.

[huntnnw]

Fortunately I got to see pictures of a buck this year that is over 200” and 32-33 wide, I’ve been sworn to secrecy for good reason. If you saw the buck there is no question of its huge rack surpassing the magical number, it’s a sight to behold. It’s really cool knowing there are deer like this in our state. Maybe someone will get to hang their tag on it this year and post some pictures but if they didn’t I would totally understand. Just got back from twisp last week saw a lot of deer and a dandy 4x4.

I dunno if the one on fb made it on here , but there was a video of a live buck that said was at a job site at stehekin. Absolute giant and looked like a big mountain muley in that country .

[baldopepper]

Fortunately I got to see pictures of a buck this year that is over 200” and 32-33 wide, I’ve been sworn to secrecy for good reason. If you saw the buck there is no question of its huge rack surpassing the magical number, it’s a sight to behold. It’s really cool knowing there are deer like this in our state. Maybe someone will get to hang their tag on it this year and post some pictures but if they didn’t I would totally understand. Just got back from twisp last week saw a lot of deer and a dandy 4x4.

Did you know there are those out there paying pretty hefty fee for the location of mule deer like that. Used to be just for big elk, but I've heard it's up to as high $5,000 if the deer is actually located.  Kind of a side income for some of the elk reward spotters in Utah (and there a lot of local spotters down there)