Throwback Thursday

[dana]

Throwback to the fall of 2012 when my whole world was flipped on it's head. I was actually hunting whitetails when I stumbled on the first single. I could not believe it. I gave up on the hunt, leaned the rifle against a tree and started circling looking for the match. Several hours and nothing. Decided a grid search would be better when I was fresh and had more time. Had to work all week and what anxious week it was. Bright and early on the following weekend I was back at the location and I started my grid. Wasn't much more than 20 mins and I had found the match. Both antlers had slugs and snails on them so the name 'The Slug' was a suitable fit. And that started a 3 year search for this elusive giant. And in that 3 years, not another clue was discovered. No more sheds, no sightings, nothing. The time and energy put in resulted in a big fat zero. Not the first time a big muley has kicked my ass, certainly won't be the last. This is why I do what I do. It is all about the Pursuit, the Dream, the Passion, the Desire, the Sweat, the Tears, the Mystery, the Fails and the Learning. All this is wrapped up in this thing called the Hunt. Success isn't just antlers on the wall and meat in the freezer. It is so, so, much bigger than that!

http://i.imgur.com/egnE1xO.jpg

[Rattler]

What muley dreams are made of right there...

[Salty]

wow just freakin wow.

[silvertipp]

Wow what a beauty
would of loved to see that buck

[Ferenc]

You would have to think that he was close to the area where you found these sheds in November... does the area hold a lot of sheds.... I remember you saying find an area a stick with it... sheesh them are gooders for sure !!!

[Ride Red]

Bet you had to pinch yourself when you found that first one. What a beauty.

[HarryToolips]

What a beauty....what a hog...I wonder if he died of natural causes or maybe a pred, that's maybe why you never saw a trace of him?? One of my buddy's about 5 years ago found a shed similar to that in reg8....not private land either, and the next year he found one similar but narlier and thicker, with a drop time about a foot long..they do exist..

[rageous]

Incredible buck indeed! Thankyou for sharing.
And yes they are out there....

[twoSevenO]

awesome find. What did they score?

[Stone Sheep Steve]

Freaky nasty buck!!
Thanks for the throwback!

[ncurrie]

Holy!! Those are amazing!

[dino]

Sweeeeeeet

[Weatherby Fan]

Not the first time a big muley has kicked my ass, certainly won't be the last. This is why I do what I do. It is all about the Pursuit, the Dream, the Passion, the Desire, the Sweat, the Tears, the Mystery, the Fails and the Learning. All this is wrapped up in this thing called the Hunt. Success isn't just antlers on the wall and meat in the freezer. It is so, so, much bigger than that!


yeh those things are massive, thanks for posting them... and your right about hunting is so much more than a head on the wall or meat in the freezer, I rarely shoot a deer but I hunt Mule deer as much as I can as they are my passion,

I have seen some pretty bigs bucks elude me from where I hunt and I seem to appreciate the hunt more than the end result regardless of what it is.....it never ceases to amaze me how slippery those mature bucks can be and I go back every year and get outsmarted most times........I'm not sure I will ever shoot one as big as the rack your holding but it doesn't matter as it's the mystery of what could be that keeps me coming back year after year.......

[walks with deer]

amazing animal dana..amazing thanks for sharing...very much so thanks.

[Blainer]

That is amongst the Best Mulie racks that I have seen. Absolute Cranker.

[DeepJeep]

wow! insane...

[FortBoy]

Great share Dana thanks, something to keep me up at night until season rolls around....7 months, 5 days, 19 hours....

[dana]

awesome find. What did they score?

They are 11x11 and would land somewhere in the 245-250 zone depending on spread. They have 2 broken points that would have made him a 12x12. If they were still intact, it would push him easily over that 250 mark.

[dana]

You would have to think that he was close to the area where you found these sheds in November... does the area hold a lot of sheds.... I remember you saying find an area a stick with it... sheesh them are gooders for sure !!!

With nothing else to go on, I followed that logic. I pounded the area both in the spring and in the fall. I increased the search area in ever widening circles. No luck. No nothing. Finding a giant set like this is both a blessing and a curse. You are happy to have the set but you so desperately want to find another piece to the puzzle. You lie awake at night thinking about it. You wake up in the middle of the night in terror thinking about it. You get up in the morning thinking about it. Hahaha. This guy was nothing but a Mystery. Did he live there or was he passing through when he dropped? Did he die shortly after shedding or was he still alive on the hoof and I would find him when I least expected it. Wolves were all over the area. Especially in 2012 when I found these. As a matter of fact, I spent the last hours of the season that year set up in a blowdown mess, sitting on a very stinky kill, trying to get a poke at one of the many wolves that were in there. They too eluded me.