Spring Success!!!!
WYMULEYMAN
6/16/05 4:52pm
Howdy All,
Well after four or five weeks of searching I have located the muley I found this winter. If you go to the page Winter 2004-2005 you can see pictures of this good buck feeding in his winter range. Anyways me and my buddy have been looking hard for the past month and a half or so and last night we found him. He traveled about six miles from where he was wintering. I am quite certain this is the same deer, he already looks to be in good shape and growing good so far. We landed upon him by accident last night. We had gone out to do some pre-season hiking to get our butts in shape for the upcoming season, and I just happened to look over on a opposite hillside and there he was staring us down. We were pretty close in our assumptions as to where he would be hiding. He was not as high on the mountain as I thought he would be but he has got himself a pretty good little hidey hole. Now if he will just stay put I will spend the next 3.5 months watching him grow. And come September he is in trouble. By what he looked like this past winter he may not go all time boone and crocket but he will be close. This early spring moisture should help make them antlers grow. I figure he needed to grow 7-8 inches to be all-times so hopefully my winter judging will be accurate.
Well after four or five weeks of searching I have located the muley I found this winter. If you go to the page Winter 2004-2005 you can see pictures of this good buck feeding in his winter range. Anyways me and my buddy have been looking hard for the past month and a half or so and last night we found him. He traveled about six miles from where he was wintering. I am quite certain this is the same deer, he already looks to be in good shape and growing good so far. We landed upon him by accident last night. We had gone out to do some pre-season hiking to get our butts in shape for the upcoming season, and I just happened to look over on a opposite hillside and there he was staring us down. We were pretty close in our assumptions as to where he would be hiding. He was not as high on the mountain as I thought he would be but he has got himself a pretty good little hidey hole. Now if he will just stay put I will spend the next 3.5 months watching him grow. And come September he is in trouble. By what he looked like this past winter he may not go all time boone and crocket but he will be close. This early spring moisture should help make them antlers grow. I figure he needed to grow 7-8 inches to be all-times so hopefully my winter judging will be accurate.
4,460
Good luck, keep us posted and get some photos of him.
brett
Nice work
Shorty
I'm just curious, how much antler growth did this buck have right now? I was out scouting a new area over the weekend and saw a few bucks, and am just wondering how much more antler growth between now and fall. Judging from the bull elk I also saw I'm thinking there is still LOTS of growth left to come.
Man, it was great being back up in the mountains again!!
That is a pretty general question in my books, as I strongly believe that climate, feed, pressure, amongst other things will help determine the amount of growth an animal will still have from here until fall. Personally I don't believe the animals around teton county wyoming have grown much yet, but will really spring up the next couple weeks. It has been a very wet spring allowing the animals to slow up there growth, with the sun and warm weather the animals are going to come out of the trees and be feeding quite frequently. Allowing the final stages of there growth to happen. Then again on another website there are some boys from Utah and Washington State that have already seen some amazing growth already. But in my opinion it is all relative. The will all peak around the same time. It is alot harder to judge an animal this early in the spring at least this year in wyoming. The animals have not progressed much, however other characteristics make me believe this is the same deer. I may be wrong, we watched him again yesterday. He is definetly another shooter if not the exact same buck, however i am pretty sure he is the same deer from this winter.
Poor thing has lost his mind. :)
Although this deer is a good deer he is not one of those super freak deer that is running around down in Thermopolis. The day is coming around the corner when wyoming posts results for the drawings. Once again the anticipation is becoming too much for a guy like me, I can't handle all this waiting around. I am so use to the unsuccessful note that I try to tell myself every year that this year will be the year, and the excitement level only grows. It has been so many years since I even put in for a bull tag, so I am super excited this year.