As much as I love mule deer I couldn't pass on this buck! I am having the deers age determined by the fine folks at MATSONS LABRATORY in Manhattan, Montana. https://matsonslab.com/ He's an 8 x 7, (At 72 I don't do scores, never have, never will) and my sons buck isn't too shabby either.
The story on the harvest of these deer can be found here.
In that blog entry I didn't tell how this buck arrived to the taxidermist, so here is some detail. I wasn't looking to shoot a whitetail, we had planned to spend more time in mule deer country looking for a bomber. I had some coyote traps working on my ranch and was on my way to the house after checking traps (without a deer rifle, like an idiot) when I happened to catch this buck running down a hot doe. I had not seen the buck before but knew in about a nanosecond I needed a rifle in my hand. They were headed into some thick Russian olive trees off a major hay field and there were plenty of deer in the hay field. I gunned it back to the house and grabbed a rifle, .243 semi-auto for those interested, threw on an orange jacket and took off on foot to try to find them. I had to bob and weave some in the thick stuff so the deer in the hay field wouldn't see me yet get close enough for a shot opportunity. I don't do long range shooting (500 yards plus , never have, never will).
It didn't take long. He was interested in only one thing. He was pushing the doe hard by himself, no other younger bucks were in the mix and it didn't take long to get a shot opportunity. He didn't make "book" but he made the wall.
Great character with lots of points!
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