Found at my BIL gate

[bearhunter]

Doesn't the fork make it a mule deer? If you have a whitetail tag would you shoot it? vice versa if you have a mule deer tag would you shoot it?

Depends on how the DNA works out on the individual Deer.

I was stopped by a Conservation Officer, who didn't know how to make his mind up on what I had shot and cut my tag for.

He phoned it in, for "someone else" to make the call. I cut a Mule tag, and had an uncut WT tag, so he was confused.

In the end, he took a pic, sent it to them, and a half hour later, they told him to take the testicles, and more pics, plus a hair sample, and let me go.

Never heard from them again about the results from that Deer.

 

[fingers284]

I have seen numerous whitetails that would go much better at size / weight than most mulies.

Yup, the heaviest deer I have killed was a 7.5 yr old WT(aged by Ab wildlife) but conversely I had another booner aged as well at 7.5 but it was under average weight for a mature WT, prob 2/3 the weight of the big one.
I have killed a # of very mature Mules altho none have been aged and none have come close to the biggest WT.

 

[track]

Heaviest whitetail my son killed and mule deer by a client I guided.

 

[bearhunter]

Prairie White Tails are definitely larger than most BC WTs, depending on the region.

In my region, they tend to be about the same weight or slightly smaller.

When it comes to a fight, the WTs are much more nimble and often do a lot of damage to the Muley they're taking on.

 

[IronNoggin]

Hey ya go.

Your direct lack of real life experience in this matter is really shining through.

Well Done!

 

[woodchopper]

Depends on how the DNA works out on the individual Deer.

I was stopped by a Conservation Officer, who didn't know how to make his mind up on what I had shot and cut my tag for.

He phoned it in, for "someone else" to make the call. I cut a Mule tag, and had an uncut WT tag, so he was confused.

In the end, he took a pic, sent it to them, and a half hour later, they told him to take the testicles, and more pics, plus a hair sample, and let me go.

Never heard from them again about the results from that Deer.

I've had conversations with the fish cops that were about the same. The consensus seems to be if you can explain how you reasonably believed it was a WT or MD based on its characteristics either tag would be acceptable for a hybrid / suspected hybrid.

I know I shot one about 25 years back antlers were 3 points per side very muley but the body colouring was white tail. I thought it was a mulie when I shot it (in the head) so I tagged it with the mulie tag.

 

[MiG25]

Your direct lack of real life experience in this matter is really shining through.

Well Done!

I invited you to spend $40 on a scale, maybe report back in December with your results, much of BC has seasons for both WT and MD should be easy to prove me wrong. I'll note that not one person has listed a weight in this thread but have posted photos of large individuals from the largest sub-species. Every year guys shoot Black Bears that are larger than the typical adult Boar Grizzly and some maybe even heavier than almost any non-Salmon eating Grizzly but no one is going to make the argument that the Black Bears is the larger more powerful species.

The French are shorter than the Germans...

 

[fingers284]

Acording to a Ab. wildlife biologist I hunted with "the only way to tell if a deer is a hybrid is metatarsal gland inspection, on a hybrid the gland will be twice the size of a regular WT and 1/2 the size of a purebred Mule.

 

[IronNoggin]

I invited you to spend $40 on a scale, maybe report back in December with your results, much of BC has seasons for both WT and MD should be easy to prove me wrong.

You are limiting yourself to BC.
Again indicating your lack of real life experience elsewhere.

Reality Sucks for some.

 

[conor_90]

Acording to a Ab. wildlife biologist I hunted with "the only way to tell if a deer is a hybrid is metatarsal gland inspection, on a hybrid the gland will be twice the size of a regular WT and 1/2 the size of a purebred Mule.

Crying hybrid over antler shape totally ignores the massive range of variation within a population.

Sort of like saying robust individuals cherry picked from populations with generally large deer are representative of general trends...

I would suggest that only one large individual that can out compete smaller members of the other species is needed to produce a large number of potential hybrids in a specific community though...

 

[MiG25]

You are limiting yourself to BC.
Again indicating your lack of real life experience elsewhere.

Reality Sucks for some.

So you can't prove me wrong with a $40 scale and a nearly 4 month hunting season. It's been stated on this very thread that aggressive BC Whitetails are hybridizing BC Muleys out of existence. You have from Sept 1 - Dec 20 and over the counter tags to produce a Whitetail that's even close in size to a mature Muley instead of talking about exceptional individuals from the largest sub-species of Whitetail. Again, Val Geist writes about the greater "Ferocity" of Mule Deer Bucks compared to Whitetails. A Whitetail is not dominating a Mature Muley.

Over much of the Whitetails range, 200lbs field dressed is considered a bragging buck, a 200lb field dressed Muley wouldn't raise any eyebrows.

I lived and hunted in Alberta for several years. And this is what literature from AB says on the subject.

 

[track]

I live in an area in which mule deer and whitetail overlap each other. I've spent countless decades scouting and hunting mule deer in the Great Plains, never witnessed any aggressiveness between these two species. They always seemed to live in harmony, even during the rut.