#83 Santa Rosa Island Mule Deer Buck-- Greg Sutton
GREG SUTTON- 209 SCI
In 2005, Greg Sutton came out to the Island with his hunting partner Steve Daniels. While this was Greg's only hunt (maybe he couldn't imagine improving on this buck?), Steve came out in 2010 with his son and shot an even bigger buck than Greg's (Steve's buck will arrive at #18). On this particular hunt, the guide Andrew Atkins, found this buck and Steve's nontypical on the same day in the same canyon. If my memory serves me right, the wind was a major impact on the hunting, and Andrew had to get these guys deep in the canyons to find their bucks.
As you can see, this buck has an odd antler configuration. He almost has a whitetail frame. Additionally, this buck doesn't have typical G-2's on their side. In reality, he doesn't have G-2s but rather tall G-3 with an extra double tine between his G-3 and G-4. Over the years, we had quite a few big bucks that had this unique antler structure. Was this due to the small genetic pool that these bucks grew from (the Vail Family says that the herd was started with 30 animals in 1929. Of that 30, there were does, fawns, and small bucks-- no 3 year old or older bucks), or were we starting to see some genetic drift in these mule deer? We will never know that answer. Nevertheless, what a beautiful buck-- 34" wide and a nontypical to boot.
