finding the big one

[johnathanjcbs2]

Looking for the big un. Hey guys it's my first post so take er easy on me. I am looking for some help on finding a big buck this fall. I hunt in a general area in Colorado. I know that there is some pretty nice bucks around, but I cannot seem to connect with one. I am looking for some pointers on where to look for them. I understand the away from the road and atv thing. I work pretty hard year after year, but still have not connected with a real trophy. So I am looking to you guys for some pointers. I get the steep and deep thing also but I am looking for information more like, north facing slopes, types of cover the hogs like, feed etc, any ideas where a guy should start? . I look everyday a my hunting area to and from work, I see things that look interesting to me like benches, and drainages etc, but there is a bunch of country out there, and I have not been able to put the puzzle together yet. Like I had said, I know that they are in there, I see them in the winter, and dead in other hunters trucks, at least a couple a year that I would like to take. One more point, I usually hunt the late season, the deer are moving around alot. Don't the big bucks stay high a little longer than the less mature bucks do? I am able to hunt both high and low, and have killed in bolth areas some good bucks, just not the hogs! I have not killed in several years now, passing on less mature bucks holding out for the big one!

Thanks in advance for any one that posts
John

 

[tufferthandug]

Check in the Mule Deer Archives. There's actually a lot of good stuff to read.

 

[fatrooster]

I suggest reading "High Country Mule Deer" by Mike Eastman. It has a lot of great tips and scenarios as examples. I'm in the same boat as you are and part of the equation is to just keep trying. Thats what keeps us goin' back. The challenge. Goodluck, fatrooster.

 

[cabinfever]

sign up for the colorados best here on MM. There is a lot of good info on there.

Mike

 

[Bura Nut]

I know that for me, hunting drastically changed when I bought 15x bino's and starting some serious glassing about 5 years ago. You may want to get up high and glass out to 2 miles and locate the animals instead of hiking for miles......I would get a tripod and good bino's, pack in a few miles and glass your butt off......I bet you will be surprised at how many more animals you see........ Thanks, Allen Taylor......

 

[BUCKSPY]

By your post, it sounds like you are doing all the right things so I won't give you a generic response. Quality glass is a must as Allen said. Its about putting all the pieces together and that includes the obvious, conditioning, shooting well under pressure, hunting an area that has big bucks in it to begin with, passing up small ones like your doing.

The most difficult aspect you are facing right now from what I sense is maintaining the mental toughness to keep hunting hard and with discipline without seeing what your looking for. If your doing the right things in the right places, you will eventually bump into one and will have to make it count at that moment.

Look for a place that a buck would go to after being bumped multiple times in great looking habitat that has already been hunted by others. It could be any type of terrain or cover.
If it was easy everyone would be doing it and it wouldn't be worth so much to you. Keep after it and hopefully you'll connect when given the opportunity because the odds dictate an eventual encounter with the buck you are looking for if you spend the time and hunt hard.

 

[huntervirg]

First of all, like Buckspy said it sounds like you're doing the work, just not finding what you're after. One of the biggest things to me is it's not always about getting away from the road and highways as much as some might think. I have always hunted by horse and usually quite aways from highways and things; however my dad, uncle, and grandfather have all been guides at one time or another in their lives with my grandfather doing it all of his life. Anyhow I had to learn this from them because I always thought the further from the roads I made myself the better my chances. But everybody and their dog thinks this. Most of the time people leave way before first light to get way back into the mountains, yet pass up a lot of area on their way back. Some of the biggest bucks I have seen have been in little pockets, not far off a well used horse/hiker trail. It is just the fact that everybody races past them because they aren't big enough to hold a big buck so some think. Also big bucks won't necessarily be in the same place year after year. It depends a lot on the feed and different conditions. If you can find a place that not a lot of people hunt (whether it is just a little pocket or a large draw), where there is lots of good feed and what even makes it better is having water access also. Also, I believe that it all depends on luck. I don't care how good of a hunter people say they are it all depends on luck. Most people claim that their hunting skills got their buck, but if that big buck wouldn't have been in that area on that day, doing what he was doing then they probably would have never seen him.

Anyhow, hopefully that helps.

huntervirg

 

[Gator]

Several year ago we was hunting Utah and we was halfway up the mountain and could see across the Valley to the other side and in the depression of a old mine we could see a couple of bucks( small 4x4's) bedded down, After walking back down to the truck later that day we glassed them again on are way down. We got to the truck and a couple of young kids came by looking for a buck any buck, Well we got out the spotter and from down on the road you couldn't see them at all, We told them to hike up to that mine opening and be ready to shoot. Well it took a few mintutes for they to beleive us, But they did walk up and get one out of 2 bucks, ( wish I would just left them for the next year). It was funny watching them drag that buck out they didn't even gut they drag him out whole and loaded him into there truck, I guess they didn't know how to gut him.

That same spot has had bucks bedded in 6 out of 7 years. Its one of the first places we send young hunters out of our party.

 

[archeryelkaholic]

I would change areas. Hunt this general area if you don't get a tag in a more limited area where maybe the bucks get older and your odds are much better of running into one. Think of hunting another state or two also.

Limited entry is not the answer to everthing but I should be an option.

Archer

 

[AZDude]

Sounds like you are doing the right things with respect to spending a lot of time in the woods. Good optics never hurt but the 3 things I live by when hunting for big muleys is: PATIENCE: when you are finding good sign in an area and good size tracks that are clearly from mature bucks, get high and glass. When you think that you have glassed everything, keep glassing.

PERSISTENCE: You're not going to find anything if you aren't out there. Don't give up. Those big bucks you see before the season are still around somewhere, they're just not going to be in the open.

And finally the most important piece of all....A lot of Sh@% House luck.

AZDude

 

[muzzle]

You are on the right track. For me, my life changed when I bought a top of the line spotting scope. That thing changed my muley hunting life. Find a good look out in a good area, get there early, sit there all day and assuming your eye sight is good and the weather is not overly harsh, you will see um. That's my style but i'm just one guy, there are better hunters than me that could probably give better advice. Keep after um!