I thought I would share this with the hunters. My great grandfather (Nono) shot this buck in the 30's. It is actually a Blacktail, it has never been scored and viewed by few. I'm not saying there are not any Mule deer genes in this buck, that would take a genetics test, but my great grandfather killed more deer than anyone I know and he knew deer. In any case, its a record book non-typical. The outside spread is 42" and it is 6x6.
Coastal Blacktail?? That is the biggest Blacktail I've ever seen, what a monster!! Randolph Hearst had a bunch of Mule deer imported to the castle, a bunch got away. I've seen the later generations, big bodies but small racks. All in the Los Padres on the coast. You should get that thing checked out, it's gotta be world class.
It's a Sierra Blacktail buck, the Blacktails inhabit the west sierras and there are Nevada Mule on the other side. So hard to say what it is other than Nono sweated it was a blacktail
Nono did tons of taxidermy work for himself only, the story goes as that buck was so large it was not going to get away, so the 300 savage semi-auto cut loose and Nono damaged the cape. Nono could not find a blacktail cape to fit this beast and acquired a Mule deer cape to mount the deer. When I was a kid there were at least 100 cured capes available on the ranch. So the only way to verify spieces of this animal would be a scull bone DNA test
Gotcha. I've seen whoppers come out of the hills up North, from Chico to Susanville, but nothing as big as yours. Really, really great buck!
Wow I've never hunted black tail but watched a decent bit on the outdoor channel. That's a giant for sure