CO Unit 551 Buck

Zim

Very Active Member
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2,286
Well I am back from Gunnison. I had a very rough trip. A snow storm made things difficult. Broke a lug nut changing a tire and lost one day of scouting. Then rolled my jeep over on a sheet of ice they called a road. First auto accident in my life and it happened hours before the 5 day opener. Gal at the car rental place got out of bed at 9 PM to fix me up......thanks! Hiked through the snow 3 miles only to find crab claws and big 3x3's. Left there for a new area and the refrozen snow announced to every deer I was there. Finally found a good area with only 2 days of hunting left. Still lots of crab claws & 3x3's though. Spotted this one from 2 1/2 miles away and figured given the circumstances I better not get picky. He was in a very vulnerable location with 6 other bucks and 5 does. They were fighting, rubbing and chasing does from noon until 2:30 when I took him. Just drove my truck to the flat top power line clearing 200 yards behind their quakie patch. Walked down within 100 yards of the patch and waited. These bucks were so active I knew it was only a matter of time. While running off a smaller buck he walked right in my shooting lane. Just a 10 minute drive , 5 minute stalk, and 10 munute wait. 100 yard pack out job! Sweet. Lot better than the 3 mile deep spot I was in the day before. Heehee.

My buck is very narrow at only 22", but I am not complaining. Lucky just to find some decent tines, and got a couple cheaters as well. My shoulder got hurt in the roll over (didn't tell the cop of course!) and I was in pain with every move. Got home yesterday and tried to draw my bow. Yikes it was brutal. I'm gonna try to strengthen it with bungees so hopefully I can whitetail hunt here in Illinois the next couple weeks.

One good thing was disposing of my old jeep which I was running into the ground with expensive repairs anyway. It had 199,000 miles when it died. I got my money's worth out of that rig. Picked up a nicer one in Gunnison after the hunt.

4565a9044dc62e0a.jpg
 
LAST EDITED ON Nov-23-06 AT 07:50AM (MST)[p]Zim,

Looks like things turned out just fine. Your buck's got great forks. Hope your shoulder heals up soon.

Thanks for posting,
COBUK
 
HEY Zim!!!

I BELIEVE WE'VE HEARD ALOT OF ISSUES ON HUNTING TRIPS WITH YOUR OLD JEEP!!!

WAS IT A CJ,WRANGLER,CHEROKEE???

WAY TO GO ON THE BUCK!!!

THE ONLY bobcat WAITING TO HEAR MORE COLORADO 4TH SEASON STORIES!!! :D :D :D :D
 
Wow!!!!!!!!!!!

Talk about not letting things get you down, nice buck and I would have taken him any day.
Sounds like a congrats is due about the jeep too.
Wrecked it and you were still able to hunt, couldn't ask for much more.
Oh wait, that's right---you picked up a better jeep.

If I left for a hunting trip, came back with a nice buck and better vehicle I think the shoulder pain would be an easy thing to deal with!
a3d
 
Yes the old jeep had been through a lot of adventures! However, I am glad it's gone now. Only regret not getting it to 200,000 miles which was my goal. It was a white 93 grand cherokee. My new one is a blue 99 cherokee. It is as bare bones as it gets, but there was very little to choose from in Gunnison. Very small town.

Time to start some new adventures. This little blue guy doesn't have a clue what's ahead of him.

My CO trip was memorable and in the end I'm happy with my buck. However, I think I'm done with 4th seasons. It costs me the magical prime rut days here in the midwest. I think I can have decent hunts in October out west, when deer hunting here is really uneventful. It's also not worth accumulating so many preference points. I'll be looking at 3/4/5 point units from now on.
 
Zim did you see any real brusiers come out of the basin units while you were there. I think the 4th season may be a tad over rated. Nice buck though. Real good tine length.

Mike
 
No, I did not let any of the events get me down or frustrated. It all happens for a reason and it's all part of the adventure. I got to meet more interesting people as a result of it.

I taped the buck out at 173". With any decent spread he'd have made 180". Just glad as I saw extremely few deep complete 4x4 forks, I think just 2 other bucks. One was a 190"+ I bumped out of his bed in the timber on a secluded knife ridge. No chance for him. Then I saw another one like mine one day while pre-season scouting. Also one 4x3 that was wider and taller than mine. He was a nice one. I saw no great ones in town either. Three guys from Arkansas stayed at the same motel as me. They all got similar bucks but a bit wider with a bit shorter tines. One may have exceeded 180".

I expected better for 10 preference points. My opinion is the 4th season was over-rated, with access being diminished anyway. Next time I'll go for units 54 or 55 2nd or 3rd season.
 
That's a very nice buck Zim.
CONGRATULATIONS!

Chef
"I Love Animals...They're Delicious!"
 
Hell yah Zimbow,
your back with some large bone & you are relentless.
sweet groves.

Your heckler,
Beefy
 
That is a dang nice deer. We all need to remember that true 190" deer are not behind every tree, no matter what unit or hunt you are on. Sounds like you had fun though.
 
Zim,

Nicely done. Your buck is very nice with some great tines.

I would like to ask you a question based on a comment you made. You stated 4th rifle is over rated? If you were having trouble finding an upper end buck during the 4th season, wouldn't that mean the whole unit was over rated regardless of what season was tried? Please do not read anything into my question. :) I was just wondering what your thoughts were based on seasons.
 
ktc,

Good question. The reason I mention this is that I know of two other hunters who had great 2nd season hunts in our unit and took slightly better bucks than our group of four. We had a pretty big snowstorm drop 1-2 feet of snow over 3 days just prior to our opener. I saw no big difference in this bringing more big bucks to any of the areas I hunted. I looked over lots of bucks over this time. The only thing the snow seemed to do was block roads into two of the best areas I had scouted, screwing me. Then when the snow melted mid-day then refroze overnight it made for impossible morning stalks. Then there is the fact we only had 5 days to hunt. Put all that together and I feel lucky to get what I did, and will be applying for the 2nd season next time.

On top of all this, hunting the 4th season took way more points (10) and took place during our prime midwest whitetail rut days. I missed out on all that. Now I'm scavanging for post-rut stragglers.

Just my opinion. The benefits of the 4th season aren't worth it to me, but I wouldn't know that if I didn't do it. Now I know. Looking forward to returning someday and trying October.
 
ken,

congrats on a great buck. looks like its related to the one i shot in that unit. did you get the picture i sent you.

sounds like you had a rough trip, but all worked out in the end. hope you got my message i left you on your phone.. wish we could have made it with you.

i know what you mean about the snow. there are a lot of pluses but a lot of minus too. ive battled that during the late archery deer season here.

congrats again, i like the narrow, tall bucks like you shot.

travis.
 
Zim,

I'm glad to see that you fought through adversity and took a nice buck. Way to go!

I had a similar thing happen to me this year. My camper broke down on the way up, so I had to live out of my truck during the hunt and I started getting sick just prior to opening day. Also, my friend?s transmission went out while he was pulling a trailer with 2 llamas in Eastern OR. He was on a pack in archery elk hunt and transporting half of the group's llamas. He had to purchase a used truck, so that he could continue the hunt. Just shows you that no amount of planning can prevent bad things from happening on a hunt.
 
>ken,
>
>congrats on a great buck.
>looks like its related to
>the one i shot in
>that unit. did you
>get the picture i sent
>you.
>
>sounds like you had a rough
>trip, but all worked out
>in the end. hope
>you got my message i
>left you on your phone..
> wish we could have
>made it with you.
>
>i know what you mean about
>the snow. there are
>a lot of pluses but
>a lot of minus too.
> ive battled that during
>the late archery deer season
>here.
>
>congrats again, i like the narrow,
>tall bucks like you shot.
>
>
>travis.


Travis, I would have had a much better hunt if I'd been able to get all my scouting in before the snow. Just a day or two. The area you mentioned in the west of the unit was best. I had that on my agenda even before you mentioned, but I stayed out of there because there were 3 guys from Arkansas with deer tags in there. They helped me with a wheel problem I had on my jeep and I ended up tagging along with them when they scouted that area. Out of courtesy I stayed away and concentrated on my other 4 areas. In any case if I'd just been able to scout a bit more I'd have figured everything out prior to the opener. The snow killed access to my other two areas so I limped in the west area on the 4th morning. Had a mature 4x4 almost out my door when I walked out to set up. I think I recognize where your photo was taken. I glassed from up there eventually. Spotted my buck under the power lines way to the south. Lots of narrow racks around there. I tried putting on a stalk on a big 4x3, a wide one, but he ducked into the trees at 9 AM.

That melted crusty AM snow helped me decide to take this buck. I didn't have a lot of confidence I'd seal the deal on a better buck with only one day left.

Were there lots of deer in that country during the 2nd season? I saw only 2 bucks better than mine. One giant by Sargents. Yikes I hiked into that area 2 miles uphill, no ATV. Exhausted me but the bucks were there.
 
ken,

i wasnt real impressed with the 2nd hunt either. we scouted 4 days before the opener of the second season and saw 1 buck that was bigger than the one i shot, over by seargents too.

during the season, we shot the two biggest bucks we saw on the 4th day of the season, our last day. there was a 3rd buck running with the 2 we shot that was pretty nice too but probably a 160 buck is my guess.

im really suprised about your hunt. by the hype, i thought it would be a 180 fest with several bigger bucks during your hunt. sometimes all the hype is exactly that. still a good hunt tho. just get to expecting too much by talking to people and the websites.

travis.
 
Travis,

I spoke with several locals about the unit and surrounding ones. They said the real big boys are in units 54 & 55. Maybe this 551 got hyped up a bit just because it's close to these other units. Although my hunt had problems and I didn't get to optimize all my days in the field, I scouted & hunted enough to recognize there were not 180's behind every tree. We got good snows just before season. I cannot complain about the weather overall. I was told a 2nd season tag in 54/55 would be a better choice than even this 4th season in 551 for top end potential. Oh well. I appreciate your tips and it did help spur me to get over there on the 4th day. I did get to look over about 15 bucks that day.
 
those are some of the thoughts i got from talking with guys down there. especially 55.

i agree, ill probably focus more on those units also, but you did seal the deal on a dandy buck. any hunter would be tickled to shoot it.

keep my new email [email protected] if you ever decide to hunt idaho.

travis.
 

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