I think that forky is an old beast going backwards. I think his body mass is about the same as the 3x3 but he has more flab thab muscle. I think the 3x3 and 4x4 are much younger but the 3x3 wins the meat (muscle) score. One can only imagine what the latter two will be in their prime.
Out the window goes the notion "two points means they are young and if hunters will stop shooting forks we'll have more big 4pts" lol ... pretty sure that fork is a senior citizen old and wise enough that he'll die of old age spreading those 2pt genes
Thank you and good luck to you as well! Addictive indeed. There really isn't any activity I enjoy more in life than hiking around in old growth timber. If the weather doesn't block my access and I get one more weekend in that pocket, blacktail success or not, I'm a happy camper.
IF I do get blocked, it will only force me to poke around the timber lower down in a different mountain or valley and who knows what that can turn into. Worst case good excercise and scenery, best case another pocket to learn. For every crisis comes great opportunity
One benefit of getting older is the years of experience. I still consider myself a greenhorn, but I have reached that stage where I can eyeball a mountain, consider the potential, hike around and know for certain whether it's a waste of time or it's a viable BT pocket. I am thankful for the lessons many years of failure taught me.