Click link for LARGE image download.

http://www.muleymadness.com/images/mm_fire.jpg

Rough gross score of 207″, but he looks a lot more impressive than the score so no worries about that.

Also the Sportsmans tag was also rumored to have tagged out out yesterday on the Henry Mtns., some busted tines but a huge buck with a big score. Congrats to HER, the husband and Crew. I know they put a ton of miles in and lots of gas money etc.  Score is said to be 220-230″ with several inches of busted tines.

So it looks like Utah’s tags are officially over for 2008, a great year!

UPDATE from the Sportsman’s tag hunter herself…

Doyle Moss scored him at 230 and 2/8″.

He had easily over 21″ of broken tines that would have put him over 250 (Doyle says 251) and there is one broken cheater that we have no idea how long it was so he was probably bigger than that. Before I shot him we thought he was a 9X7. We just couldn’t get a good look at him. Turns out he was a 14X9.

He was a smart old deer ( and I do mean OLD!) and he was really hard to even find to look at. His mass is unbelievable! You need to see him in person. He is crazy big!

I will work on a story later. We have got some decent pics, but they are still on the camera. Doyle has the best pics, so I’ll need to get them from him. There were a bunch of other guys that took pics as well so we’ll see how they turned out too!

I’ll talk to you later,

Steph

Update #2 (pics)

WOW!! What a buck.

From MuleyCrazy’s Ryan Hatch…

Long and short of the tale is the buck was nicknamed hoodini by Tory Brock. For the last two years the buck has escaped many hunters due to thick pinion and junipers and the vast country in which he roamed. 

We have several trail camera photos from 2007 and 2008, and both Tory and I have spent a fair amount of time looking for Hoodini and his sheds with very little success. 

This season a trail camera photo in eairly July showed us that the buck was still alive and even bigger than before. I would have guessed a 230 to 240 type of buck. Once again Hoodini pulled his magic and disappeared for over 40 days. 

The governers tags started on the 15th and we had planned to scour the country to refind, or locate Hoodini when just like that he came to water again allowing a second view, and at a month later the growth was staggering. Tory and I both thought the buck would gross score 285 inches with 12 points on both sides. Well, as it turns out we were wrong, in a good way wrong. 

The buck hit the water a second time three days later and the rest is history. We knew at that moment it was now or never as I don’t know if the buck would ever surface again. Some hot hunting, a ton of excitement, a couple of huge lucky breaks, and Alan Hamberlin ancored what is the largest buck to come for the Arizona Strip, EVER! 

Hoodini is a buck like I thought I would never see in my lifetime. 41 Inches wide, 15 by 16, and gross scores 322, yes322! The frame is 31 inches wide and a whopping 234 gross on the main frame alone. The mass was 26.5 and 25. 

307 1/8 gross and 301 4/8 net non-typical

16×12

Estimated over 47″ outside spread!

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,660195525,00.html

Brett Wilson

Enjoy this desktop wallpaper image. You can download 2 different versions, a lighter or darker version.

God Bless the USA!

Have a great one and be safe. I’m sure I’ll have fun spending time with friends and families and who knows maybe even get out to find some MULIES!

Here is the linked image to the large version (1024×768)

And here is the link to the large version of the “LIGHT” version.

Deadly car-deer collisions are targeted

By Joe Bauman
Deseret Morning News

Collisions with large game animals are a serious hazard on Utah highways — almost always fatal for the deer, occasionally deadly or causing injury for the humans, and expensive to clean up.

Vehicles hitting big game animals in Utah killed 10 people in a decade and injured another 300.

In the 10-year period studied by the Utah Department of Transportation, 1992-2001, about 22,000 collisions with deer, elk or moose were reported to law enforcement agencies. Tracy Conti, UDOT’s director of operations, said this may represent only a quarter to a third of actual collisions, since most go unreported.

If so, that places the number of such accidents at 6,600 to 8,800 per year.

Another indication of the large number of deer, elk and moose hit in the state comes in figures provided by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. Counting only the animals removed from Utah roadways by the DWR, the number amounts to about 2,341 per year. This does not include those moved to beside the road.

Others are picked up by UDOT contractors who travel the 6,000 miles of state routes looking for carcasses, said Conti.

Conti and DWR director Jim Karpowitz reported on the problem during a meeting this week of the Legislature’s Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Interim Committee, held in the Capitol complex.

Karpowitz gave this breakdown of large game populations in the state: deer, 300,000; elk, 60,000; moose, 4,000. He said 98 percent of the collisions are with deer.

The cost to the DWR alone to get dead animals off the roadways amounts to about $156,000 a year, he said. One employee in the central region is “affectionately known as Dead Deer Dan,” Karpowitz said.

UDOT spends about $400,000 annually for carcass removal, with $70,000 going to contractors who drive the roads twice a week. Another cost is damage to vehicles that collide with animals.

Not only are the animals unsightly, but they could cause further accidents if motorists swerve to avoid them or skid when hitting remains.

Conti said UDOT tries to minimize the accidents by controlling vegetation beside roads, allowing better visibility and keeping animals away from highways.

“We don’t pick up all the road kills, especially in rural Utah,” Karpowitz said. If a carcass is not near a residence, it may be moved to the road’s shoulder and allowed to decompose.

Another method to reduce road kill is to build fences along highways, as in portions of Spanish Fork and Salina canyons, two big areas for deer-car accidents, according to Karpowitz.

UDOT is “going to do more and more fencing of highways over the next several years,” he told the Deseret Morning News. “We’re working with them to guarantee wildlife have access — either under or over the highways that are going to be fenced.”

Properly designed wildlife overpasses and underpasses can work well, he added.

Signs also help prevent collisions by reminding motorists to slow down and be alert. “In certain parts of the state UDOT has put up some new signs with flashing lights on them that have actually reduced road kills,” Karpowitz said.

During the committee meeting, Sen. Michael Waddoups, R-West Jordan, said it would be appropriate for UDOT to build signs with numbers for people to call to report dead deer. “I think the public would help, I really do,” he said.

“It’s obviously a safety issue,” said Rep. Margaret Dayton, R-Orem.

The DWR and UDOT will report back to the Legislature in the fall about further work on the problem.

Although accidents with big game animals have killed 10 people in a decade and injured another 300, Conti said in a Deseret Morning News interview that “domestic animals kill more.”

Cattle and horses are so big and heavy that in an accident they go “right through the windshield.” With these animals, too, a key to reducing collisions is improved fencing.

Big Non-Typical Video

Some of you may remember a buck I filmed last summer called Black Magic, well here is his picture last summer…needless to say is a FREAK. But I think he is way cool!

I was STOKED to find out he returned for another season, here he is this year…he hasn’t seem to changed much; hopefully I’ll get some better footage of him.