Great pics as usual, congrats on the buck

Awesome Pics!

congrats sir

Awesome Job!!!!

Congrats!

Great pics as always. Looks like a very fun hunt and place to be

Looks like you had a great time. Love that country and its deceptively thick and tall.

Great pics as usual and congrats on another muley out there.

I need a mule deer fix in a bad way.

Very thick. You look at it and think it's thigh high stuff then you drop off in a draw and the brush is head high

He had a lot better hunt than I did.....in 5 days I saw one 4 year old 3x3 and 4 forkhorn yearling bucks. By day 3 we would have been happy with an antlered jackrabbit.

Deer just didn't have to move much to find food

Well done, sir! Congrats!!!!

Sounds awesome and looks great. That buck is as good as any I've killed til I killed this years.

I miss hunting that pecos country.

If you guys can hold that place a few more years and get average rains you are gonna have some awesome hunting. Nice recruitment and passing young deer will pay off as you know.

Great job on story and pictures. Some beautiful and ruff country for sure. Thanks for sharing.

Very cool!! Enjoy these pics every year that's got to be a great trip!

We just finished our 9th season on this lease. We had a great first year with a lot of mature bucks and plenty of fawns. Second and third seasons had plenty of mature bucks and only one fawn sighted in those two years combined. We know we have low numbers on mature bucks but we still saw yearlings the two years after those two years. So we had fawn crops. In 2011, with the bad drought we had fawns. 2012 was much better, 2013 was better than 12. 2014 was a great fawn crop and this years was the best in 9 yrs. Our young buck numbers are way up, so the future does look bright. We have only taken around 40 bucks off in 9 years by our 8 hunters. That is about half what we can take. We also know what we have let go the past years that were good bucks that should still be around. We were prepared for a tough season this year with all the rain. It proved it was. Some guys were down after a few days. I lost steam around day 13 with the heat and lack of sighting hardly any deer at all in areas I had seen a lot of deer the first 4-5 days. I hunted a spot on the afternoon of day 14 where a friend had seen 25 deer that morning. I saw 2 deer at 4pm and nothing after that. Sat the next morning on the same spot and had a neighbor not run 9 deer off his place onto our lease, I would have been skunked. I could see for 2+ miles in any direction.

Great report STX. I always look forward to this post. Thank you for all of the great pictures and congrats on a great Texas Mule Deer!

Thank you for the photos; and report.
Enjoyed it.

I had forgotten about not having one of my cameras with me when it was raining and a buddy took this buck on Monday morning. I had a smaller camera in my Ranger though and took these pics. They called me to bring a spotting scope for a better look at this buck. It took me 15 minutes to get to them. This buck was chasing a doe for 45 minutes when I got to them. I looked at him and thought he is only 16" inside and around mid to upper 150's. My buddy thought he was 165-170. What I did not see was how huge his body was for our lease. He dressed 212 lbs as a 5 yr old. He grossed just over 166 and was 18.4" inside spread with great forks and a 6x7 point count(has matching kickers on each G3 and one more kicker off his left G2 that you cannot see well in these pics). This buck had great forks and mass in his points also. We had seen this buck in 2013 in this same area, then last year no one ever saw him at all.


I am 100% sure this is him about 3/4 mile north of where he was killed. This is back in 2013 on a dark and cold foggy day. That is how wide he looked this year to me at 400 yards thru the spotting scope. I was really impressed with him on the ground. I have some TC pics of him from 2013 also on my laptop.

Awesome buck

Good pics and nice deer

Could be. But, his face in that '13 pic is awfully white for a 3 yo. Where we hunt the face doesn't lighten up that much until at least 5 of older.

It was a very cloudy day and foggy up high. So it was dark and they appear much whiter on darker days to me. Here is the same buck in 2012. Then again in 2013 the same year as the pics above. I now am 100% sure it is the same buck looking at points and locations. He was toothed as a 5 yr old by 2 people this year.




I saw this buck opening morning of the 2013 season at daylight silhouetted on a ridge above me and another hunter at 150 yards. We both called him a 3 yr old at that time. Worst case is he is a 6 yr old max this year if we aged him wrong by toothwear. The light splash of grey hair in the forehead is common on our 5 yr old bucks. He was seen by 2 of our group this year on Thursday afternoon about 300-400 yards to the east of this water trough he is at in these pics in 12 and 13. He was killed 2 miles west of it and just south of where I took the pics of him on the ridge in 2013.

Great pictures as always thanks for sharing

Wish you would have had an opportunity on a Big Boy, guess thats why they call it hunting, better luck next year

Awesome pictures

Congrats on your muley. Enjoyed the story & photos. Glad the weather didn't spoil the hunt!