EliGrimmett

His mass looks really good but his length looks really bad. The levels of just how good or bad will determine how large the buck ultimately is. Very tough to judge from those photos.

Here's another buck to practice field judging.

Ya, this buck was a tough one to field judge. He looked huge to us, but we knew his mass would have to be world class to justify taking him with an auction tag. It wasn't until the buck teamed up with another buck that we thought was about 85" did we know for sure. This buck dwarfed the 85" buck! As far as I can tell this buck ended up having some of the largest bottom mass ever on record. I attached a photo with Mike's hand wrapped around the left horn - you can really see just how big the mass is under the prong.

We killed the buck about 10 hours after taking the photos I posted above. Here are some field photos of the buck and a picture of the official SCI scoresheet. The official B&C score was 92-2/8.

How big do you guys think this buck is?

Mark, I have him guessed somewhere around: L - 16 2/8 P - 5 6/8 Base - 6 7/8 1st - 7 3/8 2nd - 4 5/8 3rd - 3 1/8 Total - 88

123456 - I'll see what I can find to post. I don't have any photos of 75" bucks alive and then dead, though.

This buck is one of them, but it's for the New Mexico auction tag. We have a bigger buck though, so we may not go after this one. Here are a few of the Arizona bucks we've found (Seldom - have you seen anything in that upper 80 to 90-inch range this year?)

Hornhunter247 - Did you forget the prong measurement in your guess or was that included in the mass? 50-inches of mass is a lot - my kind of buck - I like the way you think.

wildwoody, Do you have any photos of your bucks? I'd love to see them! I've scouted quite a bit in 4A over the last several years. The biggest buck I've seen in there was the buck I attached a photo of - net scored 88 2/8. I've seen several mid-80's type bucks, but overall I don't usually see a lot of bucks.

Now I'm going to have research some more. I had forgotten about that theory. From what the New Mexico rancher told us about the different types of feed being more prevelant in drought years I kind of lean that direction. Mostly because he got to witness the antelope migrate to only those areas with that type of feed during the driest part of the year and then migrate back to their normal range when it did rain a little. It made sense at the time when he was explaining it. I wish I could remember the types of feed he was telling us had the most protein and were thick during the drought. I think he said they had 15-20% protein (I'm guessing?) I remember there being 3 distinct types that he noticed the antelope eating. Of course this could just be something that happens in only this particular region of antelope country. Maybe in other areas without these types of feed something completely different happens. Another theory offered up to me by David E. Brown is that of antelope using their horns as a way to dissipate heat. Here's a quote from an article I found by doing a quick google search about antlers: http://www.rae.org/pdf/antlers.pdf "For this reason, a hooved animal can dissipate much body heat by regulating the amount of blood passing through its antlers. The antler has a large surface area in relation to the volume of blood passing through it. Like a radiator, blood flowing through an antler can dissipate heat rapidly." Brown's theory was very similar to this, but for pronghorn. At one time he was trying to gather as many trophy pronghorn as he could find south of the border in order to see if the horns were longer if you moved into even more arid climates. I have no idea if anything came of this research - I remember he was having a very hard time finding bucks taken in Mexico. Whatever is happening, it sure does seem to be that the very largest antelope grow during the driest years. In 2002, when Dr. Meyer killed his World's Record buck in 13B, we had located 2 other bucks we thought would break the World's Record, and a third buck that was very close. That's 4 bucks pushing the 95" mark on the same year - a year that I was told was one of the worst drought years in the last 100 in Arizona. That can't be a coincidence, can it?

Awesome buck! Mount looks good. Still can't believe it came out of 2C.

A lot of times weather isn't what you think when it comes to antelope. For instance, two of the worst droughts in 100 years were in 2002 in Arizona and 2011 in New Mexico. We guided to the World's Record in 2002 and then a buck that would have easily broken it in 2011 if it didn't break the horn tip. In 2011 the buck, according to the rancher, was feeding on extremely high protein food that the antelope in that area don't normally eat, but because the normal feed was gone because of the lack of rain the pronghorn had no choice but to eat the higher protein feed. Droughts affect fawn survival and health a lot but sometimes may not affect horn growth on bucks in certain areas.

Like all things it varies a lot from buck to buck. From their 1st to 2nd year their horns will grow the most. They'll go from being 6 inches long and thin with no prongs to looking like a normal antelope. When they're 2 years old (2 3/4 or whatever the exact number is) they can score up to 85 inches (maybe a bit bigger even). From year 2 to year 3 will be their next largest growth cycle. They'll put on anywhere from 4 to 10 inches during this phase depending on weather, genetics, etc. From years 3 to 4 and 4 to 5 is where anything can happen. Some bucks will continue to get bigger while others may start to regress. Again, this all depends on each particular bucks genetics, feed, and weather. Some will even continue to remain large into their 6th, 7th, and 8th years depending again on the conditions and genetics. However, most will start regressing during years 6 and beyond. Most B&C bucks will be between 3 and 5 years old. Typically, when you see a really big antelope, that's probably as big as the buck is ever going to be. Outfitters we know are always trying to "save" bucks for future years and then when that future year comes around the buck they saved is either smaller or was killed by another hunter. Rarely is the buck ever bigger, because when you find an 87 inch buck it's almost always at least a 3 year old and sometimes a 4 or 5 year old. Once they hit those ages there's no way to tell if they're going to have the genetics to get larger and there's never a way to know how the weather and feed will change. Sheaths are rare to find in most areas but my Dad and I have probably found close to 100 of them over the years. We save the bigger ones.

Waterholes are plentiful, but difficult to use. Most of them on The Plateau, and several in Aubrey Valley, are 100 yards across. I've hunted this archery hunt before, and I've been in the unit scouting during the archery hunt almost every season, and I never see very many blinds set up. Most of the competition won't occur until the rifle hunt. The herd quality has been suffering since 2009. The last good fawn crop was between 2003 and 2005. This crop led to a spike in big bucks and numbers of bucks from 2006 to 2008. In 2006 the fawn crop took a plunge. From 2009 to 2012 the herd has had low numbers and fewer big bucks. The fawn crop finally came back in 2011, which should bode well for another spike in bigger bucks in 2014. This coming season is kind of a "tweener" year. I'm not really sure how it will look but my money is on 2014 being the better of the two years for trophies. I had this archery tag in 2006 and hunted for 7 days. I had one shot at an 84 inch buck and missed. If you've never been in the unit I'll give you my take on how it looks: In Wyoming they issued just over 100 antelope tags for Area 60 last season. Arizona is issuing 145 total tags in Unit 10 this season. If you've ever been to Area 60 then you know the antelope can be far and few. In your mind picture Area 60 and remove 90% of the antelope population and you'll have a pretty good feel for what Unit 10 is like.

Len Guldman with his 2012 Arizona buck!

No idea.

I posted it on another forum - must have forgot here. Around 93.

No it wasn't 19A, but I did hear a rumor of a big one in there - probably the same one you're talking about.

I used a cow decoy a couple years ago and it worked really well the first couple times I tried it. I never got closer than 74 yards, but I figured that was pretty good. A tip I picked up from Randy Newberg on that hunt - try to come at them from above them with it. Just a little bit of an angle downward to them and you'll have better luck. Also, if you're hunting only one or two particular antelope, get it done early with the decoy. After the first day of using it the antelope got wise real quick and it stopped working.

ATV's are prohibited on the Boquillas. Your Jeep will be your best tool.

Generally they stop growing when they start rutting.

Has anyone ever seen this buck before? I haven't been able to relocate him since I found him.

Where? Dead? Or alive? Any photos or video?

He wasn't in 5B. Got any pictures of this other buck?