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Brandon Wicks’s Biggest Mule Deer Ever

January 19, 2025

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I’ve been bowhunting for 30 years and in the 2016 season, I took my biggest mule deer ever with a bow. I shoot a PSE Omen bow and on this hunt, I was using a Rage Hypodermic broadhead.

I go to Wyoming fishing. I wanted to hunt mule deer in Wyoming, but I had been guiding so much that I hadn’t had a chance to go to Wyoming and hunt for myself. 2016 was the only time in 10 years that I was able to make a mule deer hunt in Wyoming. When I drew my tag, I knew I’d be hunting in a really good unit.

I made six scouting trips before the season. I found a buck in the middle of July, then I didn’t see him again for 1-1/2 months. I found him again five or six days before my hunt started. I had pulled my trailer up to the area that I wanted to hunt five days before the season. When I saw this buck, his antlers had grown from about a 210-inch buck to a 252-inch buck in a little bit more than 1-1/2 months.

I came back home to Utah for a couple of days, and all I could think about was that mule deer buck. I went back to Wyoming two days before bow season started on Thursday. I arrived on Tuesday, and I found that buck again on Wednesday. The buck was holding on a peak at about 10,000 feet – almost above the tree line. I saw a grizzly bear, two wolves and about five or six black bears. I could see the Grand Teton Mountains off to my west.

I was hunting along the Wind River where one of the tallest peaks in Wyoming is and it’s called Gannet Peak. This is a really remote area of Wyoming, and I rarely see any other hunters when I’m up there. The first time I found this buck and every time I found him until I took him, he was on the same peak. I had put some trail cameras out on this mountain, and I got trail camera pictures from when he scored about 210 inches.

See also .308 Winchester for Hog Or Wild Boar Hunting? Best Ammo (Round, Load, Cartridge) for a Successful Hog Or Wild Boar Hunt Hunting Calibers 04 Apr, 2020 Posted By: Foundry Outdoors Is the .308 Winchester a viable caliber/load/round/cartridge for hog or wild boar hunting? The accurate answer is “it depends”. However, the goal of this article is simply to address the question of whether the .308 Winchester is within the ideal range of suitable calibers to harvest hog or wild boar. As with anything, the devil is in the details. To answer the question completely, we would need to evaluate the downrange distance to the hog or wild boar, the bullet type, the grain weight of the bullet, the physical condition of the firearm, the size of the hog or wild boar in question, the shot placement, the local wind conditions, the expected accuracy of the shooter, the ethics of the ideal maximum number of shots – the list goes on. [Click Here to Shop .308 Winchester Ammo]What we can do is provide a framework to understand what average conditions might look like, and whether those are reasonably viable for a shot from the average shooter to harvest a hog or wild boar in the fewest number of shots possible, i.e., ethically. Let’s dive right in. In the question of “Is the .308 Winchester within the ideal range of suitable calibers for hog or wild boar hunting?” our answer is: Yes, the .308 Winchester is A GOOD CHOICE for hog or wild boar hunting, under average conditions, from a mid-range distance, with a medium grain expanding bullet, and with correct shot placement.Let’s look at those assumptions a bit closer in the following table. Assumption Value Caliber .308 Winchester Animal Species Hog Or Wild Boar Muzzle Energy 2620 foot-pounds Animal Weight 195 lbs Shot Distance 150 yardsWhat is the average muzzle energy for a .308 Winchester? In this case, we have assumed the average muzzle energy for a .308 Winchester round is approximately 2620 foot-pounds. What is the average weight of an adult male hog or wild boar? Here we have leaned conservative by taking the average weight of a male individual of the species, since females generally weigh less and require less stopping power. In this case, the average weight of an adult male hog or wild boar is approximately 195 lbs. [Click Here to Shop .308 Winchester Ammo]What is the distance this species is typically hunted from? Distance, of course, plays an important role in the viability of a given caliber in hog or wild boar hunting. The kinetic energy of the projectile drops dramatically the further downrange it travels primarily due to energy lost in the form of heat generated by friction against the air itself. This phenonemon is known as drag or air resistance. Thus, a caliber that is effective from 50 yards may not have enough stopping power from 200 yards. With that said, we have assumed the average hunting distance for hog or wild boar to be approximately 150 yards. What about the other assumptions? We have three other primary assumptions being made here. First, the average bullet weight is encapsulated in the average muzzle energy for the .308 Winchester. The second important assumption is ‘slightly-suboptimal’ to ‘optimal’ shot placement. That is to say, we assume the hog or wild boar being harvested is shot directly or nearly directly in the vitals (heart and/or lungs). The third assumption is that a projectile with appropriate terminal ballistics is being used, which for hunting usually means an expanding bullet.Various calibersA common thread you may encounter in online forums is anecdote after anecdote of large animals being brought down by small caliber bullets, or small animals surviving large caliber bullets. Of course those stories exist, and they are not disputed here. A 22LR cartridge can fell a bull elephant under the right conditions, and a newborn squirrel can survive a 50 BMG round under other specific conditions. Again, the goal of this article is simply to address the question of whether .308 Winchester is within the ideal range of suitable calibers to harvest hog or wild boar - and to this question, the response again is yes, the .308 Winchester is A GOOD CHOICE for hog or wild boar hunting. [Click Here to Shop .308 Winchester Ammo]This article does not serve as the final say, but simply as a starting point for beginner hunters, as well as a venue for further discussion. Please feel free to agree, disagree, and share stories from your own experience in the comments section below. Disclaimer: the information above is purely for illustrative purposes and should not be taken as permission to use a particular caliber, a statement of the legality or safety of using certain calibers, or legal advice in any way. You must read and understand your own local laws before hunting hog or wild boar to know whether your caliber of choice is a legal option.Foundry Outdoors is your trusted home for buying archery, camping, fishing, hunting, shooting sports, and outdoor gear online.We offer cheap ammo and bulk ammo deals on the most popular ammo calibers. We have a variety of deals on Rifle Ammo, Handgun Ammo, Shotgun Ammo & Rimfire Ammo, as well as ammo for target practice, plinking, hunting, or shooting competitions. Our website lists special deals on 9mm Ammo, 10mm Ammo, 45-70 Ammo, 6.5 Creedmoor ammo, 300 Blackout Ammo, 10mm Ammo, 5.56 Ammo, Underwood Ammo, Buffalo Bore Ammo and more special deals on bulk ammo.We offer a 100% Authenticity Guarantee on all products sold on our website. Please email us if you have questions about any of our product listings. 1 Comments Bobby Schauber - Jun 02, 2022Have y’all quit making deer season x p because we can’t find any for a .308 , and if you are still making it , why do you make it for a 6.5 creedmore and not for a 6.5 Grendal ? Leave a commentComments have to be approved before showing up Your Name * Your Email * Your Comment * Post Comment

I was hiking in to my stand before daylight on the day I took the buck. My Dad and a friend of mine were hunting on the opposite side of the mountain from me. All the way in to where I was going to setup, I thought about the bears I had seen when I was scouting. I had one hand on my bow and the other hand on my bear spray as I moved silently through the dark woods. I hoped that the buck would be feeding at daylight on a south-facing slope where I had seen him before. One of the advantages of bowhunting mule deer in the early season is, because their antlers are still in the velvet, they tend to stay in open places more often than when they’re in hard horn.

The buck I was hunting was with another buck that would score about 180 on the P&Y scale. About 8 a.m., when the sun started warming up, the bucks would usually leave the open areas and move to the north side of the slope. I decided to try and intercept the buck as he went from his feeding area in the early morning to his bedding area. When I spotted the buck, I knew I had to climb the mountain to get above him. I climbed between 1,000 and 2,000 feet up above the buck. I was only about 100 yards from the top of the mountain when I set up. As the two deer moved toward me, the smaller buck was leading my buck up a trail about 50 yards from me.

Once I finally took the shot, the arrow hit the buck hard enough to turn the buck around and cause him to start going back down the trail he had just come up. Then the buck bedded down about 80 yards from me. After about 30 minutes, I saw the buck come rolling out of this patch of trees where he had bedded down. If he hadn’t hit this one tree while he was rolling, he would have fallen off a ledge, landed about 500 feet down the mountain and probably would have broken his rack.

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He was a 252-inch buck, and he had a total of 25 points. The buck was also the state record for mule deer taken in the velvet in the state of Wyoming.

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