For me the true "trophy" of antelope is the backstrap steak
And I did pretty well on the mule deer, though I got confused between two 4x4 bucks. I'd been glassing them for quite a while as they were bedded. When they stood, I switched from binos to the rifle scope and got on the smaller of the two. I didn't notice. One shot from the 25-06 at about 355 yards... I hit a little far back, getting the tail end of the lungs, and some liver. Managed to avoid getting the 115 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip into the guts though. Whew! I hadn't compensated enough for the left to right wind... The buck stood there for a moment and I was just about to shoot him again, when he collapsed. My buddy said "Congrats! Why'd you shoot the little one?" ooops!
I'm very happy with my buck, but yes, his antlers are distinctly smaller than the other buck. I'm sure the two bucks are related, their antlers were so similar in configuration, but the big fellow was wider, taller, thicker.
Then I asked my buddy, who had his rifle... "Why didn't you shoot the big one then?" We got a good laugh. It was actually quite the chore to get this buck to the truck, even after we got the truck as close as possible. Either way we were going, it was to be a tough drag. I contemplated taking this buck apart and packing him out in quarters, but we did manage to get the truck close enough. Sorta. Pulled a back muscle dragging this fellow up out of a steep ravine. I didn't care. A little red wine that night, with a couple of aspirin and I just didn't care about the pulled muscle!
So, that was Wyoming 2018. I don't seem to have a photo of my buddy's mule deer buck. He got a real winner after a fast-paced stalk to intercept his buck early one morning in the rain/snow.
Planning on a return in 2020. We hunt a large ranch in northeastern Wyoming. 40,000+ acres to hunt, and I've never seen more than three hunters on the ranch. The place isn't swarming with deer, but there's a good number of them and the antelope population has really recovered from the bad winter a few years back.
Oh, for those who are interested, my two rifles are almost twins. Both are Rem 700 CDL's, 24" barrels. Pillar bedded & free floated. I have 6x Leupold scopes on each of them. The 25-06 has the 42mm objective lens and the 30-06 has the smaller 36mm version. Love those scopes!
25-06: 115 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip over Retumbo for 3150 fps
30-06: 165 gr Nosler Ballistic Tip over H4350 for 2970 fps
Both rifles are accurate & reliable and I've taken a fair bit of game with them.
Regards, Guy