We put together a gallery of the highest scoring typical and non-typical mule deer to ever be entered into the Boone and Crockett record books. Throughout the gallery we included of the unbelievable stories of how some of these mule deer were killed.
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Editor’s note: There are a handful of ties in this ranking, so as you click through the gallery the numbers will skip after a tie.
There are no missing bucks from this piece, it includes the top 40 all time.
Typical
1. Doug Burris, Jr.
Score: 226 4/8
Date: 1972
Location: Colorado
Doug Burris and his cronies from San Antonio called their annual Colorado hunting trip the “poor boy trip,” as they share all their gear and hunting knowledge, typically venturing out on foot. In 1972 on a trip to the San Juan National Forest, Doug was rattling in mulies (yes, you can rattle them in), and he passed up a half-dozen decent bucks in the rainy and miserable weather.
By day four, Doug had set his sights on a buck that one of his hunting buddies had seen earlier. He was dropped off in Proven Canyon, a place where he killed a buck the prior year that had a 41-inch spread. He spotted a couple bucks on the opposite hillside when a third buck materialized. He knew that was the one he wanted. He dropped down the canyon and weaved his way through thick oak brush.
On his way to meet the bucks, he nearly stepped on a doe that exploded from her bed. This spooked the bucks. Two went left, his buck went right. With one shot from his .264 the big boy was down. When he got home, he took the head and cape to his taxidermist, Ed Schlier who measured for Boone and Crockett.
A green score put the antlers in the top 10. In an article in the December 1975 Outdoor Life, Doug recalled what happened next. “Several months later my phone rang at 1 a.m. “Doug,” Ed blurted out, “I think your buck may be the best typical ever taken.” It was, and has been ever since. The closest contender is a good 8 inches shorter.
