# 39 ERIC JOHANSON Top 100 Santa Rosa Island Mule Deer Bucks

Eric has been a great MUM client over the years. Not only as a hunting client, but as a landowner client. We have done extensive work for Eric on his fine deer hunting ranch in Ventura County, CA. Back to this fabulous buck! On this hunt, Eric was paired with Randy Stolte-- always a positive. While we were having lunch at China Camp, and I was getting my little noontime nap, Randy is wandering around looking for deer. He spots this deer high on the mountain above the crashing surf. We attempt a stalk that afternoon, but he gives us the slip. In the next morning, we head back to China Camp in search of this bruiser. After checking every little hidey hole in the vicinity, we finally find this buck. Eric makes an impressive shot, and he has acquired a buck of a lifetime. This buck was incredibly massive. I think his mass measurements were something crazy like 54"! The od thing about Eric's buck was that when the skinner took the head off the body, the head was exceedingly light in weight. It was if the antlers were constructed of dense sytrofoam, not typical antler material. Very different- never seen the density of a deer's antlers to be so dymorphic. Whatever it was, wish we could have breeded that genetic trait into other deer out there.