Might as well step in this mess,
Bigmacc, there are many of us who have never shot a 400 lb Muley, after hunting for over 30 years in the same areas you are talking about.
Some of us have never shot a 200” muley while hunting the same areas you are talking about.
Some of us have. Ever shot a 40” wide muley while hunting the same areas you are talking about.
Does that mean they do not exist?
Hardly.
The last year I hunted the Methow, I was about two miles in an area we have hunted every year for 30 years. Usually when trying to recover from the opening weekend excitement.
The kind of area you hunt when you are seriously hurting from previous days, but you don’t want to waste a day by staying in camp, so you pick a well known (to you) spot that you can work into, but still have a shot at a decent buck.
I sat down on a draw that had been burned a few years earlier, and proceeded to eat my lunch. While eating, I glassed every bush in that draw hoping to see something but not really expecting to see much. After about 30 minutes, I stood up to continue around the mountain.
Then something exploded out of the brush about 150 away.
The largest buck I have ever seen, easily twice as wide as his ears, humongously tall, double droptine (my holy grail) was bounding away. I had just enough time to throw my rifle up and see how massive this buck was as he disappeared over the finger.
This buck was by far the biggest I have ever seen in all my years of hunting, and he was bedded right in front of me and I did not see him because I did not expect to see him.
Before that day If anyone would have told my a buck like that could be found there, I would have laughed at them. We had killed dear there, but nothing close to that buck.
So my point is, while hard to comprehend bucks of the size you describe for those of us who have settled for 1/2 that,
Under no circumstances does that mean I question your integrity.
It is more of “what the heck am I doing wrong when I blow a chance at a buck of a lifetime?, in a place that I least expect it”
So ya it is hard for some of us to comprehend a buck of that size, but that’s on us not you.