Late Deer Status & Questions

Well… we went up Northeast Washington… in search of a Mulie or a White Tail… we were there for 3 days… burrrr most of the mornings were below freezing… but beautiful sunny days… Now we did see some nice animals a bunch of 2x2 and several spikes… lots of does… 2 of the 2x2's has nice thick racks with low to mid 20 baskets… You know, even when you look long and hard ya just can't make them grow that extra point…

The deer were still in rut and chasing/herding the does… fun to watch! We need SNOW, SNOW, SNOW!!!! The animals are starting to come down off the tops but don't know if this is an instinctive thing or just because it is still so dry the only green grass is down in the bottoms…?

My one concern is how many of the lesser buck are rounding up does and breeding because the big boys are staying up high or killed by the Lead Throwers… Don't want to start a fight with the Lead Throwers!!!

I like the fact that the Mulie population is climbing fast and that more 3 point or better bucks are available for the harvesting, but…. Are we jeopardizing the genetic strength of the animals by allowing the lesser bucks to breed and survive?

There is nothing wrong with holding out for the big boys. You can't shoot a big buck if your tag is already filled. I ate an out-of-state this year for that reason.
As far as the deer getting "overpopulated", you won't see that problem around here like back east mainly because whitetails back there have twins and triplets as a rule. It is very rare for muley's and blacktails to have triplets, and somewhat uncommon for them to have twins, although it does sometimes happen. As for the small bucks doing the breeding I am sure there are some big bucks around, they just aren't showing themselves.
The three-point minimum is a good thing I think, but I would be concerned if they went to a four-point minimum. I also hunt in Wyoming, where they had a four-point min. for a few years ( early nineties) and they started having some big three points that never went to four doing a lot of the breeding. The biologists realized the four point restriction was creating a problem and dropped it.

This was my first year with hunting, and even though i didnt get anything, i saw a lot of does. I'm glad I wasnt able to shoot them... I'd like to have a trophy for a first deer.

BBVD,

Your first deer will be a trophy no matter what it is.

BUT, here is to hoping that your first is a biggun!!

DeKuma said it right. You'll get the shakes no matter how big it is. And besides, the smaller ones taste better.

You got the taste thing right! My brother shot a big 5x5 whitetail north of Spokane a few yrs back. He shot it in a friends backyard. Our friend had planted a bunch of corn and that's what the big boy had been feeding on. That deer was so tough it was barely edible unless cooked in a crockpot half a day. My brother laughed when I brought home a little 2x3 mulie buck....until it was time to eat it,then the joke was on him!