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#76 Santa Rosa Island Mule Deer Buck-- Patrick White

#76 PATRCK WHITE Another exceptional buck. Then again, aren't all of these bucks bruisers? Looking at the totality of the Top 100, 2010 was a year of really big bucks. 2006 had the best overall average for all tophy bucks, at an amazing 206, but for really big bucks, 2010 was probably the best. This nearly 209 buck was the 19th largest buck taken that year! Wow, that's an amazing stat. This buck shot by Pat White looks alot like the trophy shot by Jeff Sanders (#87) in that i

# 77 Santa Rosa Island Mule Deer Buck-- Craig Kohler

#77 CRAIG KOHLER MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! How many Christmas ornaments could you hang on this one? Craig came out to Santa Rosa Island for the first time in 2003 with his good friend George "Dump Bear" Cook. They are both avid mule deer hunters. On this particular day, Craig shot this beautiful non-typical just after the sun was up. Hard to tell from this photo, but the fog had just risen, and Craig made a difficult 250 yard shot on him. If you look close , the buck stratc

#78 Santa Rosa Island Mule Deer Buck-- Bruce Kuykendall

#78 BRUCE KUYKENDALL This buck doesn't have big height, but boy, he has everything else. This 30" buck has the width, the mass, the nontypical points, the good eyeguards, and good tine length. After guiding for 30+ years, I've gotten to the point of asking mule deer clients, "What's most important to you-- mass, width, or tine length?" Of course, the typical response is, " I want everything!" That would be nice, but usually you can get two of these traits, but rarely get all

#79 Santa Rosa Island Mule Deer Buck-- Mark Donati

Who doesn't like a drop-tine buck? This one has a great one. It's heavier at the end of it compared to its base. This buck still has near-perfect velvet, and we worked hard to preserve. Nothing quite like having a huge drop time velvet on your wall. The guide for Mark here, Andrew Atkins, also had a great hunt. Not only did he guide on this buck, but his other client is still to come on the SRI Top 100. Therefore, this was the smallest buck he guided on during this hunt! Pre

#80 Santa Rosa Island Mule Deer Buck-- Jack Elkins

#80 JACK ELKINS Talk about a classic Santa Rosa Island buck. This buck exhibits so many traits that are characteristic of these Kaibab-strain mule deer that resided on SRI. Wide, heavy, nice eyeguards, and several non-typical points to make it interesting. As well, it had kinda short beams. If we wanted to choose a poster-buck to show off what a typical big buck was, this great buck shot by Jack Elkins might be it. In the last post, we talked about the magic period of early S

#81 Santa Rosa Island Mule Deer Buck-- Rob Trowbridge

#81 ROB TROWBRIDGE Here is another buck that has that particular trait of having an extra biforcation of extra points between the G-3 and G-4, while also having a very short G-2 on his left antler. Rob was great guy to be in camp with. I never got to guide him personally, but you could tell he was a favorite of all the guides. He also brought a couple friends with him in later years, so always appreciate the word of mouth referrals. On this buck, I want to think that Will was

#82 Santa Rosa Island Mule Deer Buck- Peter Bollinger

#82 PETER BOLLINGER Peter holds the spot of #82 on our Top 100 Santa Rosa Island Mule Deer List. Peter first hunted with us in 1980, long before many people knew about our hunting operation on Santa Rosa Island. This buck was shot the night before and it was too dark to snap a decent photo. Might was well use the Pacific Ocean as a beautiful backdrop, right? That afternoon Peter had just shot a 347 SCI Roosevelt bull. As we were leaving that spot where we had parked to get t

#87 Santa Rosa Island Mule Deer Buck-- Jeff Sanders

#87 JEFF SANDERS 207.75 SCI What a cool buck! Look at all the little perlings at the base of the antlers. This is also a so-called non-typical non-typical. Most non-typicals usually have additional points on each side. This buck though is even more dymorphic. It has a typical 4 point antler structure on his left, but his right is fairly crazy, with 11 points on it. Jeff was also a client of ours on our other side the business-- the wildlife management side. He and his family

#88 Santa Rosa Island Mule Deer Buck-- Patrick Zummo

#88 PATRICK ZUMMO 207.5 SCI Pat is holding the buck, while Guide Tim Kelley is next to him. Tim always seemed to get himself in the photos. Maybe that's because his photo-taking skills were less than his guiding abilities. Therefore, the other client, whoever it was, often took better photos than Tim. By the end of our run out there, he did get better. Maybe there was method to his madness! Anyway, Patrick shot this super-heavy beamed buck in one of the best hot spots for tr

# 90 Santa Rosa Island Mule Deer Buck-- Rob Brasher

Rob's father Jay Brasher was #98 on our Top 100 list from 2003. In 2006 Rob came out with his father and close friend Steve Fullmer. On the Island, we had a harvest limit on the number of trophies, management animals, cull animals, and females we were to take each year. It was a significant portion of our management regime, and a big reason why our success out there was so sustainable. One client earlier in the year did not harvest a trophy. On this particular year, Rob was t