WY 128 Doesn't Disappoint Again

Blank

Blank

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Having fun, love looking at lots of game, weather is OK but getting better! About 1000 deer, elk, antelope, sheep, and even a couple early moose. Average 4 points so far, but this might just be your year, if you have a tag!! Hunting WT's but that's a minor part of the trip. Pics when I get back home to computer.
 
Saw some good bulls coming out in the back of trucks on the 31st and 1st. Cow elk opened on Monday, and for the first time ever I saw a herd of 60 elk down in the east Fork this early. They sure make a trail when they panic and run over the mountain. Quite a few antelope have ganged up and made their way down off the hills, and are in some weird locations this year. probably saw about 1000 deer, and it seems they are in all the usual locations already. Only about 30-40 sheep so far, and they were staying a LONG way away for photos. Here some willing volunteers that stood still for pics. The little WT buck was the first true 1-point I have seen, so he got a pass and his picture taken instead. Look at the size difference between a mature MD and a WT!!!

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Hope that extra special whitetail walks out of the willows today!

And thanks for sharing the pictures.
 
Love you annual reports on this hunt each year, I'm always looking forward to your thread.
I have to say that I am always amazed at the body size of some of the bucks you show in this area. Some of them are just tanks!.
 
Dan: Thx. I love to look at them and try to guess where they spent their time, before reaching the valley of warm winds. One friend says they only get so big cause they're on hay. That's BS, because they only got here after 10/15. A lot came out of the big burn also. Three of my friends drew the early Region tags and never saw a shootable deer! I know several locals and their kids that drew Type 1 tags, and would love to find a monster for them.
 
So we drove up to Dubois this afternoon. In about 4 hours we saw well over 400 deer. Saw 2 bucks in the 170s range and dozens of Ickes in the 140-150 ranges.

We saw around 50 big horn sheep and 3 really nice rams. 2 bald eagles and a moose…

It is a neat place and since it is just over an hour away from our homes, we will be visiting it often..
 
Good for you Blank!


I switch Type 3 Whitetail Buck units this year (2nd choice) so I'm missing all the Rams, big Muleys and Whitey's from past hunts in 128 late.


Luvin' your pix and the Ram thread too



Robb
 
Blank said:
Thanks Robb. Just got back last night from another trip over. Even more deer and sheep showing up. Had a mated pair of swans and their cygnets land on the pond I was watching, and give me good pics. I'll update the ram pics also. Hope you find your WT.

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Got to make that trip one day........sure looks the Wildlife Cross Road of The West. Thanks for sharing.
 
MD and WT are both starting rutting. Lots of mini fights, posturing, and guarding their groups of does. Bucks are wandering in broad daylight, looking for receptive girls. Sheep are going crazy in the winter fields. Got some great pics of some more rams and bucks.
 
Only if you don't have anything better to do! Is the better half happy or grumpy this weekend? Can you apologize on Sunday and take her to dinner???
 
Teeth were almost gone, main beam and points broken, and pushing 300 lb live weight. Figured him for 6+. This one has been on hay his whole life!!! 386 first shot, ran out to 440 and was still standing. Send it!! Both ten ring and down for the count. He was almost bigger than the cart! :)

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He just about overloads that cart for sure!
I'd say your about right on the 300 lbs. I have an identical cart and know how a 200lb buck looks on it.
Yours is waaay bigger.
 
Finished with the season. Didn't find any WT doe volunteers for my Type 7 tags, so let the MD all have a break and headed home with just the buck. I sure enjoy watching all the animals over there on the winter range. They got a bunch more snow up on the Pass, and they are just about all there. Didn't see a lot of elk yet.

As for the buck harvest this year, I saw one 190+ taken, watched a 180 for two weeks that no one had shot, as of the last day. There were some wide ones, some tall ones, and some crazy heavy 3 pts taken. I met a really nice gentleman from out of state that was the lucky one to draw the random tag with 6 points!! He searched for monsters for 15 days, and settled of a much smaller eater on his last day

Whitetail hunting was difficult this year. Not very many available, even on private land. With 100 WT tags every year, the numbers continue to plummet! I passed up a few small 1, 3, and 6 and 7 point juvenile deer. Missed a true stud 10-point on the opening morning, as I couldn't get a hard range in the fog and shot right over him. I did see him several more times, but couldn't make it work out (either moving or just too far). I know of a couple more bucks that were taken, and several frustrated hunters that took does, when they couldn't find bucks.

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JM77. Perfect picture, of a lovely buck! And yes, I would say that is him exactly. He was living there for several weeks, and wandering by the campers about every other day. People told me they wouldn't shoot him because he had small front forks. They look smaller because of the turned in main beams, and the way the G-4's point forward. That is an upper-end buck for 128 most years.

I was up in another area hunting WT the last two days. Do you know when he was killed??
 
Blank said:
Teeth were almost gone, main beam and points broken, and pushing 300 lb live weight. Figured him for 6+. This one has been on hay his whole life!!! 386 first shot, ran out to 440 and was still standing. Send it!! Both ten ring and down for the count. He was almost bigger than the cart! :)

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Blank said:
Teeth were almost gone, main beam and points broken, and pushing 300 lb live weight. Figured him for 6+. This one has been on hay his whole life!!! 386 first shot, ran out to 440 and was still standing. Send it!! Both ten ring and down for the count. He was almost bigger than the cart! :)

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If that’s a six year old 300 lb. whitetail this must be a 500 lb. 10 year old.
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You cheated. Mine's gutted, and I didn't pull it all the way up over the top!!!! Probably corn fed too. Damn photo op guys anyway.



Fantastic buck, no matter how much crap I pitch. Congrats!!
 
That’s not my buck. I just typed in three hundred pound live weight whitetails and that’s one of the pictures that came up. I’m from Ohio and actually weighed a lot of field dressed deer. Biggest weighed was 205. Most of the big ones were in the 180’s and 190’s. My dad cut up fifty or sixty deer a year on the side. Guys would come in with 11/2 year old bucks and say they weighed 200 lbs dressed. Usually drinking out of a flask. I’d weigh it. 125 if from Ohio. 90 to 100 from the mountains in Pennsylvania. I’ve shot deer in the Black Hills and Dubois Wyoming and they are smaller than here.
 
Thanks. I agree, most deer are way over estimated and elk are even worse! I weigh every deer and elk that I process in my shop, so have a good feel for actual weights. This was the biggest WT deer I have ever killed, and I wish I could have brought him home to see. Idaho will not let us bring back anything except skinned and quartered animals, with the spine discarded and the antlers cut off and totally cleaned.

Years back, I killed an 8 year old MD buck here in 128 that actually weighed 225# field dressed, and have pictures and witnesses. It was featured in Eastman's and was a pig!!!
 
Blank said:
Thanks. I agree, most deer are way over estimated and elk are even worse! I weigh every deer and elk that I process in my shop, so have a good feel for actual weights. This was the biggest WT deer I have ever killed, and I wish I could have brought him home to see. Idaho will not let us bring back anything except skinned and quartered animals, with the spine discarded and the antlers cut off and totally cleaned.

Years back, I killed an 8 year old MD buck here in 128 that actually weighed 225# field dressed, and have pictures and witnesses. It was featured in Eastman's and was a pig!!!
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Pics or it didn’t happen ?
 
Would not doubt that a bit. Mule deer are way bigger. Shot a mule deer and a whitetail in Alberta and they were easily the biggest bodied deer I had ever seen.Endless grain fields and fifty below winters make them grow big. Your mule deer would be about 280 lbs.live weight. Smaller than your whitetail?
 
Yep, that's a fat deer. But a rack on a narrow 4-wheeler isn't that big either. Last comment, no sense arguing about it, 'cause there was no scale available. I said "pushing" 300#, so will stand by it. I'm 6'2" and 275# myself, and had a tough time moving it more than a foot or two at a time - before gutting and loading. You do you, and I'll do me. Will keep killing, weighing, and recording my deer and elk, and moose and whatever else.
 
Bookhead said:
Yea and allot of cow elk weigh around 400 pounds seen allot of them weighed too never seen an actual 300 pound deer that I know of
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I took a mule deer into Dan's Meats many years ago and when Chris saw it in my truck, she said "we're weighing this one!" He was skinned, hocked and head off about midway on the neck; carcass weight. 163#. Butchers claim that's 1/2 live weight.
 
jm77 said:
I took a mule deer into Dan's Meats many years ago and when Chris saw it in my truck, she said "we're weighing this one!" He was skinned, hocked and head off about midway on the neck; carcass weight. 163#. Butchers claim that's 1/2 live weight.
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Do you think that whitetail is 300#?
 
Hahaha. You guys are funny. You can tell hunting seasons are over, and we are back to being keyboard cowboys!

I'll stand by what I said. He's the biggest bodied WT I have killed (out of about 40 in a dozen states). I wish I could have brought him home whole to see what he actually weighed. I never said he WEIGHED 300#, but may be pushing it. That would be anything north of 250 to me!! He had been feeding his whole life on irrigated hay fields, so never missed a meal.

If you look at his girth and Jim's chart, he COULD have been up there. Nuff said.

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I’ve killed more than a hundred whitetail deer and been in on more than three hundred kills. Never seen one that the number 300 would be used around weight and have never seen or heard of anyone getting a buck 61/2 years old. Most areas they just don’t make it that old. Even less likely in 128. Whitetail deer are hunted buck or doe with a high powered rifle from Oct. 1 st. to Nov. 20th. In Ohio that deer would be 11/2 to 21/2 years old.and probably less than 200 lbs. live weight. 150x1.28=192 lbs. Whitetail antlers are at 100% of there potential at 61/2 years old.Even if they weren’t Boone and Crockett they would be thick with big bases. I hunted whitetail in Dubois and it took me six days to kill a little spike so I give you credit for getting that buck. Better than me!
 
Great buck blank. Not sure if he is 300 (299ish) but I know it would put the hurt to my back loading him. I shot a clinically obese mule deer in Nebraska a few years ago that the rancher said would be pushing 300 and he looked about the same as yours. 270,280,290,300 they are all big deer. Just a couple meals away from the next level. Neat, old big buck
 
mrc said:
I’ve killed more than a hundred whitetail deer and been in on more than three hundred kills. Never seen one that the number 300 would be used around weight and have never seen or heard of anyone getting a buck 61/2 years old. Most areas they just don’t make it that old. Even less likely in 128. Whitetail deer are hunted buck or doe with a high powered rifle from Oct. 1 st. to Nov. 20th. In Ohio that deer would be 11/2 to 21/2 years old.and probably less than 200 lbs. live weight. 150x1.28=192 lbs. Whitetail antlers are at 100% of there potential at 61/2 years old.Even if they weren’t Boone and Crockett they would be thick with big bases. I hunted whitetail in Dubois and it took me six days to kill a little spike so I give you credit for getting that buck. Better than me!
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MRC, dont know you or Blank.....but I do know that Blank from his posts on MM and they way he presents himself... so iif he says that buck is pushing 300....its pushing 300
He is not some internet warrior looking for a youtube channel. Or to promote an instagram account.
 
I read all his posts and really like the pictures of his meals he posts. I apologize for starting this. I probably have more in common with him than not!
 
mrc said:
I’ve killed more than a hundred whitetail deer and been in on more than three hundred kills. Never seen one that the number 300 would be used around weight and have never seen or heard of anyone getting a buck 61/2 years old. Most areas they just don’t make it that old. Even less likely in 128. Whitetail deer are hunted buck or doe with a high powered rifle from Oct. 1 st. to Nov. 20th. In Ohio that deer would be 11/2 to 21/2 years old.and probably less than 200 lbs. live weight. 150x1.28=192 lbs. Whitetail antlers are at 100% of there potential at 61/2 years old.Even if they weren’t Boone and Crockett they would be thick with big bases. I hunted whitetail in Dubois and it took me six days to kill a little spike so I give you credit for getting that buck. Better than me!
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For killing a hundred whitetails one would think he would post his own photos not ones he found off the internet.

Lots of assumptions that older bucks have bigger bases, some gibberish about Boone and crockett.

Killing spikes no doubt will lead me to believe your 100 whitetails are dinks and you’ve likely never killed a 6 year old deer. Discretionary hunters get the older class animals. Spikes have less meat than a gas station burrito…
 
I have never killed a 6 year old whitetail buck.Im not a great hunter. I absolutley have killed lots of dinks and does. My biggest whitetail grossed over 170. I’m 65 and don’t expect to ever kill a bigger one.I do not have any pictures of 300 lb. 6 year old whitetails. I hunted whitetail in Dubois because I was applying for mule deer there and wanted to look at the area.I was happy to get the spike!
 
Have you aged all your deer? That gets expensive. It’s like 50 dollars a test….
 
Never. Two checked by biologists. Taxidermists giving estimates. We can have young bucks in our area with pretty good racks. I missed a buck Nov.6 th.that probably scores 140. Lots of trail cam pictures. I would say 21/2 years. Can not send in a tooth but you can look at the body and tell.
 
Here’s some stats from Ohio.88% of bucks killed are less than 21/2years old.”Less” than one percent are 41/2 Years old.
 
mrc said:
Never. Two checked by biologists. Taxidermists giving estimates. We can have young bucks in our area with pretty good racks. I missed a buck Nov.6 th.that probably scores 140. Lots of trail cam pictures. I would say 21/2 years. Can not send in a tooth but you can look at the body and tell.
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Taxidermists are not experts in scoring or aging. They can barely mount stuff…
 
jm77 said:
I remember this deer! I mounted it for a guy who thought everything he killed was 6 years old and pushing 300#. So I made it look 300 years old and weigh 6#. He didn't get the hint...?‍♂️
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And you only mount 3 points right? Since every unit has 3 point genetics
 
My two biggest whitetail deer had field dressed weights of 207 and 213. Both were huge for my area. The same year I shot one of them I shot a muley in Washington state in the high buck hunt that absolutely dwarfed the whitetail. Always wonder what it would have weighed.
 
Deercy said:
My two biggest whitetail deer had field dressed weights of 207 and 213. Both were huge for my area. The same year I shot one of them I shot a muley in Washington state in the high buck hunt that absolutely dwarfed the whitetail. Always wonder what it would have weighed.
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219 lbs.
 

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