Mule Deer Antlers

[florble mcfumperdink]

I recognize this is very much like beating a dead horse at this point, but with the possibility of a Rocky Mountains Reserve being added soon, thus also opening up the possibility of FIXING THE ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ MULE DEER ANTLERS, I had to talk about it.

Now those of you that are in Europe or Australia or the Eastern U.S./Eastern Canada that haven't seen Mule Deer in-person don't have a gauge to go off of when looking at the in-game Mule Deer, but as a native resident to Colorado I gotta say, with the exception of the diamond racks these things are depressing, and even the diamond ones kinda leave a bit to be desired.

So before I rant about antler size they gave them the wrong types of antlers entirely, for some reason they gave the lion's share of the deer some sort of a fictional mix between the antlers of a South American Marsh Deer and a two year old Couse Whitetail Deer with a little bit of Sitka Blacktail sprinkled in.

Then comes the scoring of the Mule Deer, I don't really get what the unit of measure is for antler score to make maximum size bucks score 550, but I assume it is centimeters. So converting that to inches that is 216.5 inches total measure, which is actually twelve (and some change) inches short of current 228 and 5/8ths world record typical Mule Deer, so not only are the normal deer just... absolutely depressing, but the diamond ones aren't even capable of hitting their IRL typical maximum.

Rant about the antlers being wrong in and extraordinary number of ways, the body shape, size, weight and the general dimensions of the the animal are mostly correct, and any discrepancies I can find aren't even worth noting. The coloration is also correct, which is good.

Also as a random fun fact Colorado is apparently the best mule deer state in the country, with 217 trophy-sized animals being recorded in a one year period, second to Colorado is Utah with 69 trophy-sized animals being recorded in a one year period. I wonder why there are so many huge Mule Deer in Colorado, it's definitely not like they get to have a high nutrient diet because they graze on cropland all the damn time, and also eat like every wildflower known to existence during the Spring, Summer, and Fall. It's also not like most of the state that has perfect habitat for them is generally undisturbed and undeveloped, allowing them to grow in peace with a titanic amount of land to roam and get huge from eating everything they can shove down their gullet.

....

Oh wait that's exactly what Colorado Mule Deer do, because the state has like the perfect storm of environment and food supply for the bucks to have antlers that regularly top 185 or 195 inches, and the bucks themselves to weigh 270 pounds on AVERAGE with the extremely large ones approaching 400 pounds when they have a good food year.

Fingers crossed for my beloved large-eared deer to get its proper antlers and scoring! (And I'm sure all of my fellow Western US and Western Canada inhabitants can agree that the fix is long overdue.)

TLDR: As an American who lives in Colorado the inaccuracy of the Mule Deer antlers trigger me intensely and I needed to scream my opinion and the facts associated with the large-eared deer from the rooftops in-light of the recent revelation that a reserve in the Rocky Mountains is a possibility.

[Esker]

I have nothing productive to add to your post but I really enjoyed reading it! Respect for your love of Mule Deer and I hope they fix it!

[florble mcfumperdink]

Originally posted by Eskervenn:

I have nothing productive to add to your post but I really enjoyed reading it! Respect for your love of Mule Deer and I hope they fix it!

Thanks for the comment! I felt the need to vent and rant a tiny bit because what they did to the mule deer antlers just seems incredibly unjust to me, especially since they are animals of such immense grandeur in real life.

Like I mentioned (and you acknowledged) above I just really hope that they give them their actual true-to-life antlers. It would also be great to see Mule Deer get their own "Great Ones" that resemble the World Record non-typical Rocky Mountain Mule Deer and also the World Records for weight. For instance the proposed 500 pound World Record weight that was made in Colorado could work. The record was made in 1938 when a gigantic Mule Deer buck was shot by Lauren Rowe on the public land just outside of Ellens Park Colorado. The deer had a field dressed weight of about 410 pounds, which means that applying the weight constant, that it was 522 pounds in weight when alive.

Now of course people can be skeptical of the record because of how sheerly stupidly insane it is along with how long ago it was made. However, I believe it to be completely possible, particularly because of the world record Whitetail Deer killed by bowhunter John Annett in the Canadian Province of Ontaria, in 1977. That whitetail deer weighed 431 pounds when field dressed (on a government certified and calibrated scale I might add), meaning that when alive it would have weighed 540 pounds. That record has now stood for 43 years.

Prior to that the World Record for heaviest whitetail was held by a Minnesota buck killed by Carl Lenander Jr., which weighed 402 pounds when field dressed, and therefore would have been about 511 pounds when alive.

Considering that the Whitetail Deer can reach sized that extreme, in-spite of being smaller-bodied than the Mule Deer, I would imagine it is also possible for a Mule Deer buck to exceed 540 pounds, it just hasn't been found yet, thus meaning that the 1938 buck still remains the world record 82 years later. Man a deer that huge would be a sight to see wouldn't it.

Here's to hoping for more Great Ones for other deer or maybe Elk and Moose in the future!

[Esker]

Hey dude

Just wanted to let you know that they mentioned TruRACS for the Mule Deer being in development in todays new map announcement

[florble mcfumperdink]

Originally posted by Esker:

Hey dude

Just wanted to let you know that they mentioned TruRACS for the Mule Deer being in development in todays new map announcement

Oh thank God!

Now if only they could make them taller lol, right now they are smaller than pronghorn, and their sizes should be switched with whitetail to be totally honest, but meh, at least the antlers have hope :D.