"mosse(y) back bucks"

[yellow dog]

did these ever really exist? where they really that big?

just finished reading a book about them and cant say I'm a believer.

picks would be great.

book was bucks of the back country.

written by john Snodgrass. found it at a garage sale.

 

[DrMike]

I have witnessed some big ones, though I don't know how big Snodgrass claimed them to be.

 

[Guy Miner]

There still are some really big mule deer. Have seen some really big bucks. Can't say I've taken any that were in the "mossy back" class though.

A respected outfitter here in Washington has photos of several that were over 300 pounds. Interestingly, their antlers weren't as big as the body size would suggest. Not bad, but not what you'd expect from that big of an animal.

Here's a couple of Washington bucks that stack up pretty well. Sorry for the cell-phone photo, taken into the sun. Windows were just above the bucks. Hard to get a good shot of these mounts:


And an Oregon State Record Mulie:


I don't know how big a critter needs to be, before getting called a "mossy back" but those are some big deer.

Guy

 

[DrMike]

Those deer should qualify as "mossy back," Guy. They are brutes.

 

[IdahoCTD]

I missed a buck about like the one on the right in the first picture many years ago. We spooked it and it took off running through a big clearing. It was about 350yds at the first shot and well over 500 at the last but I had to try with a buck that big. The best I could tell it was about 36" wide.

I saw another one about the size of the one on the left in the first picture close to a mile away. He was feeding on a ridge top and walked over into the timber on the back side. I hiked over to where he went in the timber and still hunted for him. I jumped a deer and just saw his hind end but I'm pretty sure it was him by the size of his rear end. Even at close to a mile you could see his horns easily when he had his head up, using binoculars.

When I was in my early 20's (1993) I shot a huge bodied 33" buck. On Oct. 5th, opening day, his neck was already swollen up and actually larger than his head. I shot him through the front shoulders in his bed at about 125yds. He was with 3 way smaller bucks. There was so much fat on him that when I went to cut out the back straps my knife blade (3 1/2" or so long) barely hit the meat. His hind quarters were as big as a small elk. That deer is still the biggest I've ever been around. I'm sure it was over 350lbs. It about killed me to pack out the boned out meat, less most of the front shoulders, and I was doing triathlons at the time. I'm sure my pack was pushing 150lbs with the head, meat, my sleeping bag, sleeping pad, and very little food and water left. That would put just the meat at close to 100lbs boned out without most of the front quarters. Usually boned out meat is about 1/3 of the live weight.

 

[Oldtrader3]

Any mule deer that measures over 180 inches today, is a "Mossyback". That trophy level of mule deer is the most difficult trophy game animal in North America. Because of recent cold winters and mini ranches springing up, and tacking up winter range in the west, large mule deer are fast becoming a very difficult trophy level to attain and fill by any form of hunting.