27" wide WY Mule Deer, 160"

[Tactical.20]

This is the deer I got while hunting deer in WY. First time hunting deer in 21 yrs.

[bucksnbears]

congrats to you. hell of a deer. great picture 2

[LeviM]

very nice muley!!

[Coyotehunter]

way to go. great pic

[Tactical.20]

It was a blast!
Sister-in-law said I looked so handsome, she must be lonely!lol I told the guys after my first shower in 5 days, I forgot how ugly I was when I finally was able to look in a mirror!!lol.
I went elk and deer hunting with a friend and his buddies. One of them also had a deer license, he watched a small 4x4 shed its velvet 1/2 mile from me when I shot this one, then he missed his 50yd shot, he about cried!
I was within seconds of connecting on a 180" class mulie, the day before this one was taken, oh well, he might be there next fall!!! I was stalking a couple bucks we spotted from the road, a mile away, when I walked into this one that was busy eating in a depression of a bowl, on a ridge edge. He was so busy eating grass, I don't think he saw me. I took a 12-14 yd shot, crawled from 20 or so, then stood up and stepped 2 steps to my left to clear sage and grass.
I thought, what the heck, JW told me he was a narrow racked deer! Jw said where the heck did that one come from, it wasn't the one we spotted. Maybe some day I'll preserve the velvet, I damaged it dragging it the mile to the road, thank the lord it was all downhill! Is is possible to preserve the velvet yourself, without freezing it for 18 months?
Elk hunting, holy moly, if I had a bad heart, I would have died! Sucking air for 2 miles straight on way back to truck, 7 mile walk, last 2 miles uphill. I can't wait for next yr!!!

[bucksnbears]

good story. wish i was with ya. and yeah, your "kinda" a handsome fella

[lyonch]

Great photo and story!!

[Tbush]

good for you!!!! wish it were me

[Prairie Ghost]

Nice deer!! and yes the velvet can be saved if you didn't damage it too much, get it in a freezer and bring it to a taxidermist. It's painstaking and you need the right chemicals. I did a lot of mule deer and caribou when i worked for a taxidermy studio.

[Critrgtr]

Nice looking deer. Looks pretty heavy down at the bases.

[Tactical.20]

Yah, my friend used to guide hunters, he said look at how wide the bases are, would be nice if it was thicker up the main beams. If main beams were 2" longer it would have scored 6" more!

[Tactical.20]

In 2 days I'll get to see how the mount turned out. Can't wait! Hoping on a good trapping trip, been too long!

[Tactical.20]

Here it is finished, Bear Bones European Mounts of Gillette, WY did a great job on it, looks real good. Now I need to measure it without the velvet.

[bucksnbears]

looks great Tac. hows the wy trapping trip going??

[Tactical.20]

Worse weather for trapping, tried a public area that had few animals, tipped atv over, took 20+ minutes to swing it around and tip up and reload it! It rained and snowed first 2 days setting traps, muddy mess, froze them all up. redid them. Only saw 2 coyotes while trapping, caught a big female cat with no kittens, thank goodness. Worse trip out of 11. I didn't earn enough money to try the area I wanted, it was a much further drive than the hr each way for this crappy area. Oh well, nothing is garrantied, I have brought home 2,500 twice and 3,000$ on one trip before, much better weather and 3 weeks instead of 10 days, 10 days just isn't enough time for a trapping trip.
It did get down to -10 and -15 at night 2 nights, I have trapped in -10 to -20 degrees, but in a much better area.