Hybrid deer?

[Colorado Redneck]

Hope the pics attach ok. Went out today and played hide and seek with some white tails, looked lilke there was a four or five point in the group. Wind was blowing and it was clear and cold, and I snuck around and plotted and schemed, but when I finally got to the top of the ridge where they had been 40 minutes earlier, POOF! They were gone. Darn things.

So the shells went back in the box, the gun went behind the seat, and I drove around some new area kinds of scouting it out. All of a sudden there were a bunch of does, maybe 10 or 12, and this nice little four point buck. I knocked donuts off the seat, spilled coffee, cussed, dropped shells, but finally got three rounds in the mag and got out. The buck was standing broadside maybe a bit over a hundred yards away and I nailed him. He turned to run up the hill and dropped.

The entrance hole was maybe as big as a silver dollar (the old kind ) and the exit hole was twice as big. I was using a 100 gr. Nosler ballistic Tip out of a 25-06 over 54 grains of IMR 4831, chronied at about 3300 fps. The bullet hit right behind the elbow and exited darn near the exact same spot on the other side. When I cut his throat there was no blood, as he bled out inside the chest cavity.

The Division of Wildlife folks offered to test for chronic wasting disease for free in the particular unit I was licensed for, as there was a terrible infestation of that strange disease about a decade ago. The wildlife people are gathering data to see if the occurance has diminished. The guys taking the lymph nodes called another wildlife person to look at the head, and they were fairly sure this buck may be a hybrid, white tail/mulie cross.

Fun day! Game processing outfit is gonna make him into cheddar jalapeno summer sausage. Yum!

I apologize for the pictures. I never get photos before I get the knife out and get all bloody.

Your opinions of the genetics is welcome!

[nathaniel]

looks like a mulie but its rack does look kinda like a whitetail rack. But Im not an expert by any means. Good deer in my book.

[farmerboy]

Yes does look like a hybrid. Congrats man, nice going!

[Discern]

Whitetail type rack. Other features look like a mule deer. What did the tail look like?

[Rifleman1776]

Wat others have said, possible whiteXmulie. Interesting.
Ye got yer truck dirty.

[Art Eatman]

We have occasional whitetail/mulie crosses down here in SW Texas. It is claimed that the whitetail bucks are more agressive in breeding in the crossover areas where both species exist. However, they don't seem to be common, insofar as any news comments. I've only seen one, myself, when I was driving south from Alpine.

[sc928porsche]

Not that unusual for Mulies to mix. Sierras are full of Mule/black tail mix.

[yosemiddysam]

Good looking Buck. Would love me some Jerky right about now!!!

[Colorado Redneck]

Well, about the kind of tail this buck had--it had a bung hole under it..
It was a mulie tail. I didn't know anything about the metatarsul glands and never noticed what those were like.

The guys at the Division of Wildlife gave me a rundown about the intermixing of mulies and white-tails that might be interesting to some.

Like Art said, white tail bucks are evidently able to out compete mulie bucks at rut. The outcome is that mulie does are producing cross breds that are of reduced fertility, and it also reduces the number of mulie fawn. White tail doe fawns will breed their first breeding season, and white tail does produce twins earlier than mulies. Thus, (the DOW guys said) the white tails can simply become the more predominate species.

Another interesting thing, the Colorado Division of Wildlife introduced white tails in two areas maybe 80 years ago, one area was the Arkasas River in the S.E. part of the state, and the other was Cherokee Park northwest of Fort Collins.

A white tail doe was taken on the west side of the continental divide at Kremmling this fall.

The things you learn! Personally, mule deer are my choice, as white tail are more skittish so it takes more skill and savvy to harvest them.

[Kreyzhorse]

I knew that the two could and did interbreed. Cool catch and would look great on your walk. It's a hell of a nice rack for a whitetail.

[FrankenMauser]

It could be a hybrid, but just looks like a Muley to me.

[cornbush]

Looks like a muley to me, the hybrids I have seen usually show a few more traits from the "less dominant" gene contributor.