Hard to tell. Here in northern California where I hunt I have killed some bucks with the single beam with branches like white tails but I think we are too far from white tail populations for a hybrid to occur, also I don't know if they cross breed.
What is the location of the photos, that maybe a clue.
SAA45, is this a trick question, in other words do you know the answer? If I had to guess I’d lean towards Mulley. As far as it being an older buck I say no, the reason I say this is because as a Whitetail ages it generally retains its number of points and mass but the “G”’s get shorter in length. I’ve seen this documented through pics numerous times. I have no idea if that rings true for Mulley’s though.
This is in mountain west Rockies and yes it is near actual WT habitat which is why am seeking opinions or thoughts.
Have seen doe's here with mule deer faces & ears but having the actual 'whitetail' and others with whitetail head but having the 'rope like' black tipped tail of a muley.
The buck in image does have a mule deer rope tail but his face doesnt seem to have the tell tale heavy cap over a white face, which prompted my query.
Yup, a shooter No trick question, need opinions. Thanks!
What kind of year did you have, a drought or lots of rain in your area? Out on the Eastern MT prairies we've noticed that in a wet year with lots of grass growth they can tend to have bigger/taller rack growth but thinner tines like that even in the young deer whereas in a drought they tend to have a smaller set of horns
We have had a couple years of good precip but this area has plenty of water anyway with the lower creeks and lakes near prairies hence the overlap of Whitetails and Mule Deer habitat.
Yeah, probably a hybrid and absolutely an ugly Muley (he did not have the Flag tail as I did see that before able to take pics) .... sure looks like mixed genes to me though. Have also seen some other gorgeous whitefaced muley bucks in area.
If did not want to shoulder mount an excellent speciman of either, he would be just a nice shooter next Fall for sure and would enjoy the steaks & ground burger/sausage very very much!!!
I am going to say he is a Muley. I killed a big deer in NE Wyoming years ago, Oct 1, 2000 actually that was an 8 x 5. He was obviously and older deer. I got caught in one of those road blocks where a game warden and biologist were set up. The side with 8 points was palmated and the young biologist told me it was a 10 year old deer which was rare for that area of public land. I asked if it was a hybrid and he did not think so as there were none in the area. They wanted a jawbone, so I said fine.
I later got a little certificate signed by 4 people at the University of Wyoming saying he was 11.3 years old. The weird rack was a product of age. I estimated him at 7-8, but was wrong. He did have the Roman nose but not a hanging belly like many. Got that little certificate framed along with the deer. He only weight about 175 dressed. Never met anybody else with one that old.
Prior to that I killed a 6 x 6 about 2 miles from that one, and it was a 182 BC and dressed 196 pounds and I have seen dozens of other bucks from that area that all looked traditional. I hunted that area from 1984-2005 and never saw a whitetail. My point is hybrids are pretty rare and while they are documented, just not likely.
I have now hunted a place in the Oklahoma panhandle that has muley and whitetail living for decades on a private ranch adjacent to a wildlife area and the last 2 biologists since 1998 have never documented one. I have killed a dozen there also and hey all seem like traditional mule deer but the live together. My 2 cents.
Great Story and info Old ******. And do agree, would be rare and unlikely.
Fun to look for them though.
Note: this is a designated WhiteTail culling hunting area in Mule Deer country and have seen two 'actual' cross bred females (will look for my old pictures) but have yet to see an actual 'no-doubt about it' crossbred buck.
He's a big mule deer buck and all the rest in the pictures are Mule Deer too. He has a more elk like antler shape, but some mule deer will do that. Looking at the size of the antlers at the base and overall rack size I say older buck. Not necessarily a real old buck. Many mule deer bucks as they get older the base size gets bigger but number of points may go down. By older I mean over 7 1/2 years or more. It is rare to find a buck that old in hunted populations. Nutrition and genetics, mostly genetics will cause some differences in rack sizes and symmetry.
SA45, that funny buck (I like Con 43's "Delk" because the left antler stands up more like an elk) is a mule deer. There is no question. But one of these last photos does show a whitetail in the shadows behind two mule deer. So they do intermingle.
I know a farmer in SW Kansas where they shoot some nice whitetail. He showed me a rack years ago that he had. It was a nice (not huge) 4 x 4 mule deer rack, and I told him so. (He isn't a big hunter.) He argued with me and said it was actually a whitetail. He was giving me supper and a place to sleep, so I didn't argue past that. But it was a mule deer rack: forked, and then each fork forked again.
Yet, I have seen photos of big eared deer with white circles around their eyes, long white tails and even typical whitetail antlers. They do cross. But I don't think your cool looking "Delk" is a cross. But who knows until you bag him and the biologist look at his DNA?
Thanks for sharing. Very cool.
Did I miss where you saw him? What state, and where in that state? (Sorry if you said that, and I missed it.)
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