I just got back to Central Oregon from hunting Mule Deer for five days with my hunting partner Luke who lives in Baggs Wyoming. Luke had done a ton of scouting and had located some big bucks which we hunted for three days but couldn’t locate them once season opened.

We spent 75% of our time glassing and the rest pushing the brush and aspen thickets. We passed on lots of forkies and 2 1/2 year old three points but held off in hopes of a mature buck. By our last evening I was pretty much gassed from trying to keep up with Luke who’s 21 years younger than me. I told him I’m taking the first good opportunity I get tonight on a legal buck. We glassed a few draws and found two forkies at 500ds with an hour of daylight left.  I was ready to close the distance and set up for a shot when he talked me into checking the other side of the ridge… said we could always come back for the two bucks we had found.

We found several deer including one buck in the other draw. The buck was at 560 yards… way beyond my comfortable range so we put a stalk on him and closed the distance to 311yards. I set up on the shooting sticks & spent a minute getting the sight picture I wanted and sent a round his way.
I made a perfect heart shot with the 165 grain Ballistic Tip exiting the off shoulder blade.

The buck was a 3 x 3 plus a little nub on his right side and just over 24” wide outside spread. On our way out that evening the District Game Biologist checked my buck and told me he estimated his age at 6 ½ years old.
He might not be one of the big boys we were looking for but I ‘m sure happy with him.

Nice!

well done, sir!

Someday....

Congrats!!

Nice!!!  Congrats!!!

Nice deer!

Thats a nice muley!  Good huntin!

Very nice.

Maybe not  monster, but still a trophy.  congrats.

Congratulations on a great deer. Nice rifle too by the way.

Nice deer!  I'd sure be happy with him.

Baggs is good mule deer country

Fine looking buck, OP.  Congrats!

Thanks for checking out my post folks.
This was my first trip to Wyoming and hopefully not my last. The butcher shop I hung my deer at in Baggs told us they were getting in 70 to 80 deer a day! We got a tour of the back room where they kept the deer heads... lots of bone on display.

Here is a pic of my 308 from elk season last year in Oregon wearing a Leica scope. I switched to my 2.5-10x32 Nightforce for the deer hunt this year. It has a JP Enterprises lightweight 18" barrel, Silent Capture Spring, low mass carrier, SLR adj gas block with a Geissele trigger. I like it. Alot

one of the hardest trophies to get in N.A.
congrats.