My BIL and I tend to be the same. We mainly use the area or similar. I've only named one deer and one elk. The California Gulch buck is one, he was 160" if he was an inch (giant for our area) and had a huge body to go with it. I saw him with another buck in the early fall one year and he dwarfed the other one in body size and rack. I ended up shooting the smaller one later that fall, it is a 4x5 that goes 136". Looked like a yearling standing next to the California Gulch buck. The other was a huge public land bull that we called in one morning. It had to lower its head and swing it left and right to get through the last trees, then it lifted its head as it hit the small clearing we were in. Instant shakes. Just huge. Call him "The Thick Spot Bull" to this day, it was super thick where he lived with only two openings you could even get an archery shot in. He never gave either of us a good angle and we had to let him walk. A guy shot him that following rifle season, this reclusive bull made the mistake of actually getting caught on the edge of a clear cut above the thick area he lived in one morning just after first light. He measured out 374". Heck of a bull for a hard hunted public land area bull. Your buck with all those crab-claws would've likely earned a name of some sort. Very neat looking buck, I love unique / lots of extra trash.
Is he the one you chased that frequented a water hole atop a ridge? Remember you were chasing one early on after your move.
Well, yes he frequented my water hole but it was not on top of the ridge. That buck was almost strictly nocturnal. In the 6+ years of getting him on camera, I got 2 pics of him in daylight. One was in Feb. and the other was in late June. Never during hunting season. After the first week of bow season he would disappear until after the gun season. Many years I'd get him on cam 1-2 days after gun season. It was almost like he knew. He was out there but he just avoided my cameras. One of my neighbors has about a 10 acre patch of super thick pines. I believe that he hid out in their and herded his does in there as well. I have 2 full sets of his sheds. I really wanted that buck but he won. I admired that. Now days if I see a nice buck I'll try for him. I'll let my son hold out for the giants, it's his game now.
