What do you think of this Muley? Score and age class?

[steeliedrew]

A good buddy and I spotted the buck in the pics below during a mid July scouting trip. He was with one other good buck and a really young forky. We'll just say somewhere east of the Cascades...I returned to the basin we found him in, and on the first hunt of the first morning I was lucky enough to get on him and his bachelor herd. Long story short I made a stalk but the last tree between me and them put me at 76 yards and it would have been a steep downhill shot as well. I had not practiced enough to make the shot ethical.  I was with addicted2hunting that morning and he had also stalked in. He had chosen a different line towards the bucks and closed to 38 yards. Most of you will remember his thread about missing the deer of a lifetime. He took the shot, missed unfortunately, the deer ran off and that was that.

Pics and videos were taken through my buddies' Vortex Viper spotter with an iPhone on a phoneskope. We were about 120 yards away.

Anyhow, I've been wondering what this buck would score? And how bout age class? Hopefully Boneaddict will see this thread and chime in also. So please tell me about this deer. I really don't know anything about scoring bucks or judging age class and am interested in learning. Also, did anyone kill him during modern? The reason I ask is cause during archery we had the basin to ourselves! Fast forward to the modern opener and there was 11 trucks at the trailhead!!! We were going to try and fill my buddies' general modern tag on one of the brutes in the basin. What a disappointment that was...

Drew

We call him "Krusty" due to the little crab claw he was on his right side.



Same deer:



One of the bucks that Krusty was with in July:

https://youtu.be/Mst8EiZ7EiM

My buddy swears that the buck in the video link below is the same buck as the above link but I've always felt it is Krusty:

https://youtu.be/ulDjEbErc1A

Thanks for looking and for any insight on score, age class, and if Krusty is still alive. 

[steeliedrew]

Oh and does anyone know how I can imbed the videos so folks don't have to click on the links? If so, please PM me. Or imbed them if you can do it from your end. 

Thanks.

Drew

[bobcat]

   Holy smokes! I don't know much about scoring deer, but I do know that buck has got to be 30 inches wide, at least. The front forks are shorter than the back so I believe that might hurt the score, but I don't care what the score is, that's a very nice buck. He doesn't look really old to me, maybe 6? So I'd think he's still got a couple good years left in him to get even bigger.   

[steeliedrew]

Yep. He's a great deer. I'm not much for score but I figured he is good and was curious. Truth be told, I'm only in my 4th year of hunting...period. I stuck a Muley doe on my 2nd year. Haven't killed since. Soooooo many close encounters though! Archery ain't easy. 

[crowinghen]

what an incredible deer! Hope you get him next year!

[steeliedrew]

what an incredible deer! Hope you get him next year!

I'd be pumped if any of our group gets him or one of his buddies. There's good genetics in that Basin for sure. 

[UBA]

Great buck   I would guess him around 170 and 5 and half years old. doesn't look to old to me but I could be way off. I would be excited as all heck to get up there next year. There is no telling what he could turn into.

[huntnphool]

Great buck   I would guess him around 180 and 5 and half years old. doesn't look to old to me but I could be way off. I would be excited as all heck to get up there next year. There is no telling what he could turn into.

  It appears to be missing a Rg4, I'd be shocked if it went 160

[MtnMuley]

That buck is dead.

[jdb]

  It appears to be missing a Rg4, I'd be shocked if it went 160
[/quote] I agree completely, great buck though

[Timberstalker]

Great big frame, terrible scoring buck though. His fork depth kills him. And as mentioned above, he's missing his G4 on the right side.  Phool is probably right with his assumption of score.
For what's it's worth, you'd have killed a good buck on a general season tag, regardless of score.

[steeliedrew]

That buck is dead.

Pics or it didn't happen.   

[MtnMuley]

Like I said, he's definately dead. 

[X-Force]

Like I said, he's definately dead. 

How wide did he end up being?

[steeliedrew]

Like I said, he's definately dead. 

I'd like to say congrats to the hunter but without pics I'm hard pressed on that.  Care to send me a PM? If anything a PM of what unit he was allegedly killed in?  If you're right on the unit then I'm more inclined to believe the story.