Trophy Mule Deer Hunting

Sit for a minute and actually think about how many people you know that have taken a trophy mule deer? I bet that you could count them on one hand. Now by a trophy mule deer I mean one that scores over 200 inches. Now a lot of people say that a trophy is in the eye of beholder. While I agree for young hunters or hunters new to the sport it's all about harvesting an animal rather than trophy hunting. For those of us who have been hunting for more than 15 years our expectations tend get higher each year or are measured by the biggest buck that we've taken up to that point.

I've been hunting mule deer for 15 years and have yet to harvest a mule deer that would score or 180 let alone 200. Granted I've had chances to harvest the big one but I wasn't able to close the deal. Also ask yourselves this question, how many true 200 inch mule deer have I actually seen in my life? Again I bet you could count them all on one hand. Hunting trophy mule deer on public land in my opinion is one of the hardest animals to hunt in the world. My theory was actually backed up by the legendary bow hunter Chuck Adams. Chuck came into my city a few years back and happen to be doing a book signing at our local Cabela's and one of my friends went there to get his book signed and asked Chuck what the most difficult animal is to hunt and he responded by saying "a trophy mule deer".

A buck that reaches 200 inches is either one of the luckiest bucks on the mountain or very smart. I'd lean towards very smart. Unlike younger mule deer that tend to do the "look back" as they're running away a trophy mule deer has learned to flat out run and never look back. This is one reason they're very hard to hunt and another is they pick the best vantage points to bed and at the first sign of trouble they're off like a horse in the Kentucky Derby and they won't stop until they reach the next county.

So are trophy mule deer the most difficult big game to hunt? You be the judge. The archery hunt starts this week in Utah so you can bet there's a few thousand hunters who aren't going to be able to sleep much this week.

Go out, hunt hard, have fun and be safe.

By: TheKnivesStore

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