I’m always envious of Western hunters, primarily because—in most cases—they get to start earlier than the rest of us! I adore mulie and elk hunts for a number of reasons, but near the top of the list is that I only have to wait ‘til late August or early September to venture to that gorgeous country.

For this reason (combined with my gushing affection for mule deer), the picture above got me pretty excited yesterday. The monster mulie here may take the place of the top typical buck from the state of New Mexico. Well-known for its primo elk hunting, the Land of Enchantment is obviously no slouch when it comes to deer!

I don’t have a lot of information on this buck, other than it was shot by a hunter using the services of guide Cooper Moore. Apparently Cooper had been playing cat-n-mouse with this giant for two full seasons before client John Gisi was able to make things happen. The velvet mulie sported a 40” spread and is expected to net around 220” B&C. Wonderful buck!!

The folks at Hunter Safety Systems are known for their vest-style safety harness, which I’ve always considered one of the better deer hunting safety inventions of recent years. In fact, I thought so highly of the HSS vest that I nominated it for one of our “Best of the Best” awards a few years ago…and it won.

But one of HSS’s new offerings—called “The Pop Up Sign”—has me scratching my head a little. These little orange triangles are designed to be hung by a hunter when he is in a particular area; I would assume a turkey hunter could stick one out prior to setting up on a tom, or a deer hunter could flag the area near his stand site. Any approaching hunter would then (hopefully) avoid the area. Primarily for safety reasons, of course, but also out of an ethical sense that intruding further could make the posting hunter’s experience less enjoyable or successful.

So I’m curious about your take on this product. For $10 you get two orange signs you can use to stake out your spot. Would you take the time to do this? Where would you place them so that others would indeed spot them? Could hunters abuse this system, homesteading areas they want others to stay out of? What would your response be if you were hunting public ground and spotted one of these signs? I’m anxious to hear your thoughts!

After a full week devoted to nothing but mulies, I was going to give our Western deer a little break. My friend Scott Kirkpatrick wrecked that plan when he sent me this photos. How can you ignore a buck like this? Of course, I know absolutely nothing about this deer; the score, where it was taken, the hunter, even the year. If any of you do, feel free to chime in.

When Scott sent me the photos of this buck, he did say something that caught my attention: “I am checking into whether this buck might have been shot behind a high fence.”

Though I do not—by choice—know a whole lot about high fenced hunting, I did not associate that practice with Western game like mule deer. I know there are ranches that are huge and lightly hunted, therefore producing monstrous bucks and bulls. But I wasn’t aware that mule deer are maintained by “commercial operators” who keep their game behind a high fence. If any of you know of such a place, please let me know about it. If not, just enjoy photos of a great mulie buck!

We talk about mulie bucks differently than we do whitetails. An eastern whitetail is usually referenced by his tine count. We’ll say “I shot a beautiful 10-point,” or “my first buck was a basket-racked six.” Spread is mentioned, but typically only as an additional reference to put an exclamation point on size: “That monster 10-point had a 24” spread.”

For most mulie nuts, spread is THE thing. In fact, the generally accepted benchmark for a really big mulie is a 30” buck. Thirty means inside spread of course, and as serious mulie nuts recognize, that mark is getting tougher and tougher to achieve.

Which makes the buck that follows so much more impressive. Supposedly shot in “the Navajo Unit” (Arizona) by one John Keller, the inside spread is supposed to be 41 (as in forty one!) inches, with a gross B&C score of 275”! Great buck!