accubond
Active Member
- Messages
- 676
Well, Colorado has come and gone once again. Day 1 found us at about 9500' with about 2' of snow on the ground and continuing to accumulate and blow around. I should mention that we were blazing the trail and didn't have chains on either rig (a 1 ton Power Stroke and a 3/4 ton Duramax) and needlass to say we spent the better part of day 1 shoveling, hooking and un-hooking trailers, unloading four wheelers and wondering why anybody in there right mind would come to where we were with no chains. A helpfull resident (with chains) came to our rescue and we made it off the mountain by dark and headed to town for dinner and a hotel. The next day found us at the store to buy chains for all fours on both trucks and up the hill we went in search for a spot to camp seeing how this was our first time in the unit.
After only an afternoon to scout before the season all 6 of us went seperate ways to cover as much country as we could. I saw about 30 deer, one of which being about a 170 calss buck and several elk. As everyone got back to camp the reports were good as everyone saw lots of game. Opening day was finally here and I was on a good vantage point and saw several doe's and a few elk and as the day started heating up I was getting a little sleepy when my brother unexpectedly comes up on me with that unmistakable look on his face. Turns out he shot shot at a buck cross canyon at 400 yards and knew he had a good hit but couldn't find the small opening in the scrub oak where the deer was standing when he shot it. After he calmed down a little bit from covering close to a mile to get to me in about 3 minutes we headed back to where he shot from and he set my spotting scope up on the opening the buck was in and, using hand signals I guided him to the opening. I watched him follow the trail over the ridge and waited for eternity (about 40 seconds) to come back to the top of the ridge and give me a big fist pump. After reaching my brother we walked up to the deer and something just didn't look right so I told my brother to poke him with his barrel and as he did that you can imagine our surprise when the eyes came open (I know, that should have been our first clue) and the head came up. As the buck is getting up my brother puts another round behind the shoulder at about 3' and the deer still gets his legs under him and makes it another 20 yards and stopped. One more in the boiler room finally put him down for good. He is a beautiful buck and for some strange reason is still 3/4 of the way in velvet on Haloween (he had both testicles).
I guess when you kill a great buck before noon on opening day and there is still 5 guys trying to fill there tags you get a little bored.
After getting back to camp with the first load of my brothers buck we are greeted by another one of our guys that also had some opening day success on a nice little 4x5 bull.
Well I wish I could say that the rest of our week was as successful as opening day but it wasn't and as embarrassing as this is to admit I didn't see a buck after the season opened. All the snow from the beginning of our trip was gone by Tuesday and by Wednesday it was quite dusty. We all got nasty sun burn and temps were hovering around 60 every day after the opener making it a pretty tough hunt. I was dissappointed in myself for not putting myself on a deer all week but it sure beat being at work and I got to be there with my brother for his biggest mule deer. Sorry it got a little long winded but I still feel like I'm leaving half the trip out.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never has and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson
After only an afternoon to scout before the season all 6 of us went seperate ways to cover as much country as we could. I saw about 30 deer, one of which being about a 170 calss buck and several elk. As everyone got back to camp the reports were good as everyone saw lots of game. Opening day was finally here and I was on a good vantage point and saw several doe's and a few elk and as the day started heating up I was getting a little sleepy when my brother unexpectedly comes up on me with that unmistakable look on his face. Turns out he shot shot at a buck cross canyon at 400 yards and knew he had a good hit but couldn't find the small opening in the scrub oak where the deer was standing when he shot it. After he calmed down a little bit from covering close to a mile to get to me in about 3 minutes we headed back to where he shot from and he set my spotting scope up on the opening the buck was in and, using hand signals I guided him to the opening. I watched him follow the trail over the ridge and waited for eternity (about 40 seconds) to come back to the top of the ridge and give me a big fist pump. After reaching my brother we walked up to the deer and something just didn't look right so I told my brother to poke him with his barrel and as he did that you can imagine our surprise when the eyes came open (I know, that should have been our first clue) and the head came up. As the buck is getting up my brother puts another round behind the shoulder at about 3' and the deer still gets his legs under him and makes it another 20 yards and stopped. One more in the boiler room finally put him down for good. He is a beautiful buck and for some strange reason is still 3/4 of the way in velvet on Haloween (he had both testicles).
I guess when you kill a great buck before noon on opening day and there is still 5 guys trying to fill there tags you get a little bored.
After getting back to camp with the first load of my brothers buck we are greeted by another one of our guys that also had some opening day success on a nice little 4x5 bull.
Well I wish I could say that the rest of our week was as successful as opening day but it wasn't and as embarrassing as this is to admit I didn't see a buck after the season opened. All the snow from the beginning of our trip was gone by Tuesday and by Wednesday it was quite dusty. We all got nasty sun burn and temps were hovering around 60 every day after the opener making it a pretty tough hunt. I was dissappointed in myself for not putting myself on a deer all week but it sure beat being at work and I got to be there with my brother for his biggest mule deer. Sorry it got a little long winded but I still feel like I'm leaving half the trip out.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never has and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson
