Back yard lovin

Watching the rut from my living room window. Its getting dark so not the best quality picture. This brute is a 4×5.

Reminds me of a cpl yrs ago: I had a 10 pt come down to have a little one on one time with thirteen does in my side yard.  Head was down just like that getting a good whiff.

Nice deer. I never see any in daylight once hunting season opens. They muleys?

According to game regs they are mule deer but I live just on the east side of the cascades so really they are a hybrid between black tail and muley. Real muleys are about 20% bigger. That buck would probably hang at about 150 with hide and head off. Where a good old Okanogan or Spokane muley might go 175-180.

We have more deer this year than ever. Every day at about dusk there are over 100 within sight of the house. They get dumb during the rut. That’s as close as I’ve seen a big dude. About 20 yards from the kitchen sink.

Bucks around here run 250-350 typically. One of the bars in town has the rack from a 425 pounder.

As a non-hunter, all that means to me is that it doesn’t matter if it’s a deer or an elk, my car won’t survive the impact. ;D

Coincidentally, when I came back to work after lunch today, there was a 3x4 mule deer buck chasing a doe across the street from the office. It was kind of funny, as the homeowner one whose property the deer were on, was trying to chase them away, and the buck was paying absolutely no attention to him.

I shot one of those bucks in rut a couple of years ago.  Worst tasting animal I ever harvested in my life.  With the rut on, I am now focusing my efforts on finding a whitetail doe.

That sucks that you don’t have tags Jim. I used to live in White Salmon and they were everywhere. That dude would be turned into some tasty jerky. Want to try a beer infused jerky sometime.

Ya we bought a fancy dehydrater recently. Works great for jerky.

Necks are thick and stupid around here as well.
Lousy and rank; thrashing my new juniper saplings. ::slight_smile:

But how do you slice that meat for jerky…with or against the grain?  :slight_smile:
I think he is eyeballing that greenhouse.

He’s actually sniffing with his nose flared up in the air. Personally, not a fan of venison jerky. I have mine all ground except butterfly the back straps. Yum! I use cheap beef for jerky