King’s Outdoor World Blog

322 Inch Buck Off the Arizona Strip!

September 2nd, 2008 David King - King's Outdoor World

Ryan Hatch holds the velvet mule deer rack of the AZ Strip Buck taken by Alan Hamberlin in August 2008

Ok, this is huge and many of you have already heard. There recently has been a monster 300 inch mule deer buck taken off the AZ strip that could go down as one of the greatest. I can only go off of what information has been disclosed so far. Ryan Hatch and the Muley Crazy guys, Troy Brock and others found this amazing buck off the Arizona Strip.

Here is an excerpt from Ryan about this hunt and the buck itself:

The governors tags started on the 15th and we had planned to scour the country to re-find, or locate Houdini when just like that he came to water again allowing a second view, and at a month later the growth was staggering. Tory and I both thought the buck would gross score 285 inches with 12 points on both sides. Well, as it turns out we were wrong, in a good way wrong.

The buck hit the water a second time three days later and the rest is history. We knew at that moment it was now or never as I don’t know if the buck would ever surface again. Some hot hunting, a ton of excitement, a couple of huge lucky breaks, and Alan Hamberlin anchored what is the largest buck to come for the Arizona Strip, EVER!

Houdini is a buck like I thought I would never see in my lifetime. 41 Inches wide, 15 by 16, and gross scores 322, yes 322! The frame is 31 inches wide and a whopping 234 gross on the main frame alone. The mass was 26.5 and 25.

So let’s take a little closer look at what this buck means. Keep in mind that this buck is in the velvet and these are “green” scores. No word yet if the velvet will be stripped and officially entered in Boone & Crockett. The claimed gross score is 322. No net score has been mentioned right now. It looks like the buck is going to have more than average deductions off the typical frame, but if we go off the 322 gross non-typical, let’s say a net score would be 310 plus. Here are a few numbers I came up with to consider just where this buck stands with the all-time greats.

Only six mule deer net scoring 300 inches or more have an outside spread of 40-inches or more

There are only 23 mule deer that net score 300 B&C points or more

There are only 10 mule deer that net score 310 B&C or more (355 2/8 being the world’s record)

This could be maybe the second or third most massive buck to score over 300 inches

The gross typical frame of 234 (holy cow) could be legendary if in fact it is that big. Could be the biggest typical-framed buck to score over 300 inches.

The famed Arizona Strip is legendary for huge mule deer and a great history - this buck is now the biggest off the strip.

As you can see, this buck just doesn’t score high, he has the characteristics that I think could put him in a very elite class of legendary mule deer. Congratulations to Alan and everyone involved and can’t wait to see and hear more about this great mule deer from 2008.

Entry Filed under: Buck Alert!