2009 Alpine Mule Deer

[blaker_99]

We set out in a new area this year that we had researched, google earthed the heck out of and did a lot of pre season hiking and scouting in. We had seen over 40 bucks in 5 days of scouting and over 20 of them were 4's with a few real dandy bucks hanging around. My brother and i headed out Sept. 9 for a 5 days trip in our new area. Not more than 20 minutes into the hunt we had seen 3 small 4's and an array of mature does. Now our blood was pumpin and it was only opening morning of our 5 day hunt. I snuck into the high bluffs as my brother went down into the lower rolling hills. I set up and started glassing immediately, not more than a few minutes later I caught a glimps of a couple real nice 4's in the bottom just bashing the crap out of each other. The more i looked at them the more I began to recognize one of the 4's. He was one that my brother and i had seen 5 or 6 times i our scouting trips! i knew he was a nice 4 point still in full velvet! It took me a few seconds to decide on him, ranged him at 287 yards, set my 7mm wsm just behind the shoulder and let the 160gr Accubond to it's work from there. He dropped like a ton of bricks! It turned out my brother was watching the same two bucks from lower down on the mountain and saw me rank mine and he called me on the radio before i even had a chance to pick up my spent cartridge. He was pumped and met me down at the kill. After doing our usual no-gut method we had him skinned out, boned out and packed up in no time. Now it was time for a hell of a hike out of the bottom. Was a great day and a heck of a start to the season.

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=16092&cat=500

[Hombre]

Congrats on a beauty buck.I admire anyone who puts in the effort
to hike in ,and pack out their animals like you did.

[hillclimber]

now that is a HOG. very symmetrical. congrats on the buck. he's worthy of a shoulder mount

[pupper]

Nice buck, that is a beauty! Looks like a lot of mass.
Did you have formaldehyde to inject into the veins of the velvet antlers?
Are you going to do a mount with the velvet on the antlers?
It would look awesome if you did.

[blaker_99]

Thanks for the comments guys! He sure does have a lot of mass and very symetrical. he measures 28" at his widest spread. After hours an hours of trying to preserve the velvet including keeping them in the shade covered with cheese cloth, pumping the AC when we got back to the truck, and injecting every single vein with Isopropyl alcohol, it was a SUCCESS!! I have several friends who are taxidermists and outside of injecting with formalehyde wich is a very smelly and unsafe method or freeze drying them, Isopropyl is the only way to go. The velvet turned out amazing and i will try to get some pictures up of the now preserved velvet.

[d6dan]

Nice Buck for sure!, heavy and even. congrats..:)

[BlacktailStalker]

Thats a buck to be proud of, congrats :)

[TIKA 300]

Thats a buck to be proud of, congrats :)
x 2 on that :mrgreen:

[frenchbar]

Hes a beauty blaker ,congratz on your mossy!

[Jelvis]

You are young yet, and in good shape to get up in those thar hills brah
--- very well done and stay in shape so you can enjoy the high country hunter.
Jel--High country hunter get's big mule buck in velvet--nice ooooone

[bowhunterbruce]

yo stud, ya done dropped one hellava stud there good on ya.damn boy now woth that kind of luck i am relly wishing i could make that trip to sask with you guys.get in touch with me next week and i'll have ya overnfor a couple drinks and i'll show ya those spots in sask via the google method.bring a laptop if ya got one
bruce

[mark]

Nice buck blaker, why did ya wait soooo long to post up??

[ohno]

Wow nice deer. In the velvet no less.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/IMG00022.jpg

[blaker_99]

Ahhh Mark I figured I'd wait till the few weeks of the season to post a picture.....gets everyone 4pnt blood going again. Truth is i've just been too damn busy! thanks everyone for all the comments. Now lets see some more big boys as it is rut time!

[David Heitsman]

Great deer.

I understand that a taxidermist can do a "flocking" process on antlers that have lost all or part of their velvet if you want to keep that look. Has anyone else heard of this technique?

[Caveman]

Nice too see a Big Buck in full velvet. He'll look great on the wall!

[hunter1947]

Its real nice to get a buck of that size and a bonus to get it with velvet on the antlers , http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/images/icons/icon6.gif deer congrats.