2012 Colorado Mule Deer Hunt
Aug 26, 2013 9:41:33 GMT -5
featherduster, HuntMeister, and 2 more like this
Post by lawrencecountyhunter on Aug 26, 2013 9:41:33 GMT -5
I went on this hunt during the second Firearms Season in Colorado, around the third week in October last year. It was a trespass fee hunt just outside of Craig, run by Rocky Mountain Ranches. This was a DIY hunt, where I and the 5 other guys hunting the 5000 acre ranch met the outfitter the day before the season opener at the local grocery store. He led us to the property, gave everyone a map showing property lines, gate locations, etc, showed us around for a couple hours, then everything else was left to the hunter.
Here are a few pictures I took along the way, and a summary of how things went down:
I left home on a Wednesday afternoon following work, and made about 10 hours before stopping around 2 A.M. at a hotel parking lot in Topeka, Kansas. I needed to be on the road again early that morning, so I wasn't going to shell out the money for a room... I just sacked out in the back of the Escape...
I was up and back on the road by around 7 the next morning. It was quite an experience driving through Kansas, being my first time driving west of the Mississippi. There were 50 mph sustained winds all the way to Denver, quartering to me. At times, I had the accelerator almost floored just to maintain 70 mph; My mpg's went from around 22 to 12. As I headed west, tumbleweeds began blowing across the road. Very small at first, the kept getting bigger and bigger, until they looked like dead Christmas Trees tumbling everywhere. I expected quite an impact when I hit the first one, but of course it just disintegrated when I hit it. After that I didn't bother trying to avoid them; after a while I had pieces of tumbleweeds in my grill, on the mirrors, and on the antennae. I thought it was pretty neat.
I pulled into Craig at around 7 local time Thursday night, and got a $34 room for the night. My wife wouldn't have approved of the accomodations, but it suited me just fine and had a free continental breakfast (bagels and cereal). I showered, called my wife and kids, and then settled in to watch one of the presidential debates.
The next morning (Friday), I got up and decided to sight-see in Craig until noon, when it would be time to meet the outfitter. My first stop was Wal-Mart, where I picked up a hard copy of the hunting regs and an orange cap. I had brought an orange vest and orange sockhat, not realizing that you had to wear both an orange vest and an orange hat, so I got the cap for the warmer parts of the day. There were about 20 people there trying to get elk licenses and ammo, and there seemed to be a problem with their licensing system because there were several employees trying to figure something out and nobody looked happy. After that I stumbled across a free museum... Downstairs was dedicated to the history of the local area, and the upstairs was a western gunfighter museum. There were a bunch of neat exhibits, and I highly recommend stopping in if you are in the area. Here is a link to the museum: www.museumnwco.org/home
I met the outfitter, along with the 5 other hunters, at around noon at the local grocery store. He led us to the property, gave everyone a map showing property lines, gate locations, etc, and showed us around for a couple hours. I spent the afternoon driving around the 5000 acre ranch and taking a few scenery pics:
We had the option of camping on the ranch, which I elected to do in order to save money and be there already in the morning. I slept in the back of the Escape again; Here is a picture of my mobile camp:
After setting up camp, which simply entailed parking the Escape, I cooked a pound of bacon on my camp stove and spent the last couple of hours of daylight glassing an alfalfa field on a neighboring property that was absolutely covered up with deer. Although I didn't see any good bucks that night, I was able to determine that many of the deer were bedding on the ranch I was on and then coming to the alfalfa fields in the evening. I decided to hunt the edge of the ranch the next morning, hoping to intercept some deer coming back to bed.
Saturday morning found me overlooking the alfalfa fields on the other property once again. I was situated on a small bluff about 200 yards from the property line. I sat here for about an hour after sun-up, and hadn't seen any deer yet. I decided to move to a different spot, and when I stood up and began to walk away about a dozen deer with a couple of small bucks spooked from about 50 yards to my right. They had been about to come down the hill in front of me, but I hadn't been able to see them because of a slight rise between me and them. They paused at the fenceline before crossing, but the bucks were pretty small and I also didn't want to risk shooting one and it getting onto the other ranch. So, I silently rebuked myself for moving too quickly, and headed back to the Escape to shed some layers of clothing.
While at the car, I saw several deer crossing a hilltop about 1000 yards away. At least 2 were bucks with branched antlers, but I couldn't tell their exact size even with my binoculars. So, I began a stalk. I stopped when I had closed the distance to about 500 yards and waited for them to go down over the hilltop so they wouldn't see me. Once they disappeared over the top, I quickly made my way to the hill they had gone down the other side of. As I cautiously waddled to the top, I looked down below but couldn't find them anywhere. After a minute or 2 I spotted them moving quickly away from me, about a half-mile out. I don't think they winded me, but they must have seen me before they descended the other side of the hill.
I decided to try to get up on this group again, so I planned my route so that I would be making my way towards where they had resumed browsing, taking advantage of the draws and canyons to hide my approach. I had to cross a couple of small hills though before I could get into a big draw, and as I crested the second one I saw what looked like a huge buck staring straight at me, half-way across the 2-track ranch road I was on. So, I ranged him: 214 yards. I had practiced out to 200 with my .30/06, so I felt comfortable with the shot. I took time to pop my bipod legs down and lay down on my stomache, taking aim all while he still stood there and stared at me. He didn't look very wide but he did look very tall, and so I decided to take him. I shot right over his back. He ran downhill perpendicular to me, so that I couldn't see him from my prone position. So I stood, grabbed by shooting stick, and reaimed. After about 50 or 60 yards of running perpendicular to me he stopped and looked back at me, right as I shot again. This time he dropped, but I couldn't see him from the waist-high scrub brush he was in. I decided to walk to where I had first shot and missed him, then turn and follow the path he took to where I had hit him. When I got to about where he had been standing, I looked to where I thought he should be, and saw him peeking around a bush at me! So I shot the only part I could see, being his neck. This finished him instantly.
Upon recovery, I found that he wasn't nearly as big as I had first thought. Being a whitetail hunter all my life, I hadn't judged this mule deer accurately before my shot. However, he was the biggest buck I saw out of probably 200 deer between that morning and the night before. Although I was still very happy with him and still am, I probably wouldn't have shot him 2 hours into the first morning had I known his true age / size. However, the experience means more to me than the actual trophy, and one day I plan to return to try and get a bigger one.
I was back home by late Sunday afternoon, and back to work on Monday. Although I think I would have liked to spend more time out there, it was also kind of neat to go on a Colorado hunt and only use 2 vacation days.. Plus, my wife didn't know I was coming home so quick, so it was fun to surprise her and my daughters when I pulled into the driveway. I think next time though I'll hold out a little longer, unless I really do see a buck of a lifetime!
Here are a few pictures I took along the way, and a summary of how things went down:
I left home on a Wednesday afternoon following work, and made about 10 hours before stopping around 2 A.M. at a hotel parking lot in Topeka, Kansas. I needed to be on the road again early that morning, so I wasn't going to shell out the money for a room... I just sacked out in the back of the Escape...
I was up and back on the road by around 7 the next morning. It was quite an experience driving through Kansas, being my first time driving west of the Mississippi. There were 50 mph sustained winds all the way to Denver, quartering to me. At times, I had the accelerator almost floored just to maintain 70 mph; My mpg's went from around 22 to 12. As I headed west, tumbleweeds began blowing across the road. Very small at first, the kept getting bigger and bigger, until they looked like dead Christmas Trees tumbling everywhere. I expected quite an impact when I hit the first one, but of course it just disintegrated when I hit it. After that I didn't bother trying to avoid them; after a while I had pieces of tumbleweeds in my grill, on the mirrors, and on the antennae. I thought it was pretty neat.
I pulled into Craig at around 7 local time Thursday night, and got a $34 room for the night. My wife wouldn't have approved of the accomodations, but it suited me just fine and had a free continental breakfast (bagels and cereal). I showered, called my wife and kids, and then settled in to watch one of the presidential debates.
The next morning (Friday), I got up and decided to sight-see in Craig until noon, when it would be time to meet the outfitter. My first stop was Wal-Mart, where I picked up a hard copy of the hunting regs and an orange cap. I had brought an orange vest and orange sockhat, not realizing that you had to wear both an orange vest and an orange hat, so I got the cap for the warmer parts of the day. There were about 20 people there trying to get elk licenses and ammo, and there seemed to be a problem with their licensing system because there were several employees trying to figure something out and nobody looked happy. After that I stumbled across a free museum... Downstairs was dedicated to the history of the local area, and the upstairs was a western gunfighter museum. There were a bunch of neat exhibits, and I highly recommend stopping in if you are in the area. Here is a link to the museum: www.museumnwco.org/home
I met the outfitter, along with the 5 other hunters, at around noon at the local grocery store. He led us to the property, gave everyone a map showing property lines, gate locations, etc, and showed us around for a couple hours. I spent the afternoon driving around the 5000 acre ranch and taking a few scenery pics:
We had the option of camping on the ranch, which I elected to do in order to save money and be there already in the morning. I slept in the back of the Escape again; Here is a picture of my mobile camp:
After setting up camp, which simply entailed parking the Escape, I cooked a pound of bacon on my camp stove and spent the last couple of hours of daylight glassing an alfalfa field on a neighboring property that was absolutely covered up with deer. Although I didn't see any good bucks that night, I was able to determine that many of the deer were bedding on the ranch I was on and then coming to the alfalfa fields in the evening. I decided to hunt the edge of the ranch the next morning, hoping to intercept some deer coming back to bed.
Saturday morning found me overlooking the alfalfa fields on the other property once again. I was situated on a small bluff about 200 yards from the property line. I sat here for about an hour after sun-up, and hadn't seen any deer yet. I decided to move to a different spot, and when I stood up and began to walk away about a dozen deer with a couple of small bucks spooked from about 50 yards to my right. They had been about to come down the hill in front of me, but I hadn't been able to see them because of a slight rise between me and them. They paused at the fenceline before crossing, but the bucks were pretty small and I also didn't want to risk shooting one and it getting onto the other ranch. So, I silently rebuked myself for moving too quickly, and headed back to the Escape to shed some layers of clothing.
While at the car, I saw several deer crossing a hilltop about 1000 yards away. At least 2 were bucks with branched antlers, but I couldn't tell their exact size even with my binoculars. So, I began a stalk. I stopped when I had closed the distance to about 500 yards and waited for them to go down over the hilltop so they wouldn't see me. Once they disappeared over the top, I quickly made my way to the hill they had gone down the other side of. As I cautiously waddled to the top, I looked down below but couldn't find them anywhere. After a minute or 2 I spotted them moving quickly away from me, about a half-mile out. I don't think they winded me, but they must have seen me before they descended the other side of the hill.
I decided to try to get up on this group again, so I planned my route so that I would be making my way towards where they had resumed browsing, taking advantage of the draws and canyons to hide my approach. I had to cross a couple of small hills though before I could get into a big draw, and as I crested the second one I saw what looked like a huge buck staring straight at me, half-way across the 2-track ranch road I was on. So, I ranged him: 214 yards. I had practiced out to 200 with my .30/06, so I felt comfortable with the shot. I took time to pop my bipod legs down and lay down on my stomache, taking aim all while he still stood there and stared at me. He didn't look very wide but he did look very tall, and so I decided to take him. I shot right over his back. He ran downhill perpendicular to me, so that I couldn't see him from my prone position. So I stood, grabbed by shooting stick, and reaimed. After about 50 or 60 yards of running perpendicular to me he stopped and looked back at me, right as I shot again. This time he dropped, but I couldn't see him from the waist-high scrub brush he was in. I decided to walk to where I had first shot and missed him, then turn and follow the path he took to where I had hit him. When I got to about where he had been standing, I looked to where I thought he should be, and saw him peeking around a bush at me! So I shot the only part I could see, being his neck. This finished him instantly.
Upon recovery, I found that he wasn't nearly as big as I had first thought. Being a whitetail hunter all my life, I hadn't judged this mule deer accurately before my shot. However, he was the biggest buck I saw out of probably 200 deer between that morning and the night before. Although I was still very happy with him and still am, I probably wouldn't have shot him 2 hours into the first morning had I known his true age / size. However, the experience means more to me than the actual trophy, and one day I plan to return to try and get a bigger one.
I was back home by late Sunday afternoon, and back to work on Monday. Although I think I would have liked to spend more time out there, it was also kind of neat to go on a Colorado hunt and only use 2 vacation days.. Plus, my wife didn't know I was coming home so quick, so it was fun to surprise her and my daughters when I pulled into the driveway. I think next time though I'll hold out a little longer, unless I really do see a buck of a lifetime!
