What do you think about this mulie?

This buck was killed by a mountain lion. He was on the ranch we hunted in Chihuahua in January. So I want to know do you think this deer was;
a cull?
a trophy?
or just a fork horn?

I would have loved to have had a chance at him. I haven't hunted a lot of mule deer but I have not seen anything like him.





Sorry for the big pics.

That's a lot of mass for a young buck....

Looks like he had potential to become a monster.

I beg to differ and think he needed to be removed from the herd. Bases too large for a young Deer and the one long brow tine make me think it was an older Buck.

Agree with Don. Just because a mulie doesn't look like a Rocky Mountain typical, doesn't mean it's young.

Cull

Old buck past his prime, maybe? Definitely would have taken him on the last day, but not a first-day trophy for me.

Old one. I'd have liked to have seen him in the field

Depends on the nature of the hunt. A paid hunt, I would have passed on him until the last day and then I would have probably passed on him even then. My ranch, I would have had a friend or kid take him out. If that deer was around, you can bet there are others that are considerably better. I think he was past his prime--an old man in human terms.

An old and genetically unusual buck IMO.

He would make an awesome euro mount in my eyes.

Old buck probably on his way down.

That's not a young buck, just the opposite IMO. Definitely a cull.

Looks like a big old cull. Awesome deer regardless

Older buck for sure. Why didn't they clean it up before putting it on the wall? That's just nasty.

big boy

They had just found him. He isn't on the wall just propped up for a picture.

i guess I would call him a cull trophy. He's big, he's heavy and he's unique but I wouldn't want a ranch covered up by his offspring.

There is a reason he was targeted by the lion, he was probably the oldest in the area and easiest to kill.

If that’s a WT deer with bases like that, everyone on here would agre he was old and on the decline. No question he was old and needed taken out, nature just did the job for ya!

Still a cool find. His width doesn’t show on the wall, I was kinda surprised when I saw the photo with you and the head, much bigger than the first pics showed.

That's one of the guides holding him up. I agree that with that pic you can see how big that old mulie was.

Would have been a trophy to me.

I agree, I killed a very similar buck "not nearly that much mass" years ago with a muzzleloader and it was a trophy to me. Older buck past his prime.

Same here. I love it.

A Trophy is the consideration of the man or woman that killed it. I grew up in NM hunting #34 and around......this is a NICE deer. I would have been proud to shoot it.

That is a heavy cull that needed to go. I would have busted him.

That is a "trophy cull."

Cool buck.

I agree completely. I think way too much emphasis is placed on inches. "A trophy is in the eye of the hunter" to paraphrase.

Hard to tell from those photos but it appears like he does not have a lot of tooth wear on his lower jaw. If he was 4 yr old or bit younger and in a drought year then he still could turn into a very nice buck. If he was older then he was not the best genetics. What we don't know is if he was injured or had other issues.

Very heavy beams

great buck and trophy 2x2 for the wall , who knows seen desert mule deer make drastic changes,