blacktailBC
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LAST EDITED ON Nov-05-06 AT 11:22AM (MST)[p]Had a great time on our 2nd season Colorado Hunt...The trip got started with a 21 hour drive.....our buddy fell asleep at the wheel in Nevada and almost crashed (Sorry Nevada DOT for the milepost marker). Got there Tuesday night....rain and snow all over. Never been to this area before so we stopped by the USFS office to find out where we could set up a camp and dump our stock trailer and llamas. No help there, lots of "I dunno", "never been up that road", and "well it can get nasty up there". What an immense help they were.
So we tried to get our horse trailer up one road, almost got stuck in the mud....no turnaround spots.....no signs....snowing, more snow,.....frustration. Turned around in some poor ranchers driveway and got out of there. Knocked on doors and finally found a nice family ranch that let us put our llamas in their pasture, and park our horse trailer. What a nice bunch of people.
Scouted hard for 4 days, lots of riding quads, checking out areas. Saw a few nice bucks, and lots of elk. Bobcat, Turkeys, Weasel chasing a snowshoe hare. Finally found a place to camp...brrrrrr.... 12 degrees one morning....we nicknamed our camp "The Ice Box".
Opening day arrived and we decided to go up high, even with the snow. Snow doesn't bother those big bucks right? We hiked up from a road about 2 miles to the shoulder of one of the main mountains in the area. No deer anywhere, just tracks going downhill. Saw a herd of about 25 elk, 5 bulls, 2 raghorns and 3 spikes. We missed a raghorn bull.....but that is a different story. Worn out... and tired we decended from the mountain. I had forgot what my dad had told me before......"Deer don't eat snow".
Sunday came, and we went lower.....many more deer. Lots of small bucks. I went off by myself on a no vehicle area, my 2 hunting partners went the other direction. Saw about 6 bucks in the morning, had the safety off on a nice tall 25" 4 pt, when I saw 2 bucks below me. One was bigger than the one I just almost shot. He gave me the slip for about 15 min, in the oak brush, and it was confusing because he was with 4 other bucks. Finally spotted him and got him with 2 good hits at 414 yds. 26" 5x5.
My other 2 hunting buddies, saw some bucks and Gary scored on a heavy 26" 4x4. Nice deer. Fast forward ahead 2 days and me and John (the only guy with tag left) are glassing up a monster buck before dark. Heavy....Tall...extra points....you get the picture. We try to sneak on him, but can't get as close as we would like. It is now or never, so he decides to try a shot, we had praticed alot in the off season, and were very consistent at this range. Boom...Boom.....Booom...Boooom...."Are we looking at the same deer?" "What?" "You never even scared him" LOL The buck goes over the ridge. Frustration sets in.....we see 7 more bucks closer on the ridge, one of them is a nice tall 4 pt. John decides to take him. He dumps him after a one practice shot
at 212 yards. We had a great time and got our bucks in the first 3 days. Never used our llamas, just too much snow. We probably could have held out for bigger if we knew exactly what the unit could produce. We will know for next time. Thanks to John and Gary for a fun time. I have pics if someone will post them for me. Why do you have to be a rocket scientist to post pics here?
So we tried to get our horse trailer up one road, almost got stuck in the mud....no turnaround spots.....no signs....snowing, more snow,.....frustration. Turned around in some poor ranchers driveway and got out of there. Knocked on doors and finally found a nice family ranch that let us put our llamas in their pasture, and park our horse trailer. What a nice bunch of people.
Scouted hard for 4 days, lots of riding quads, checking out areas. Saw a few nice bucks, and lots of elk. Bobcat, Turkeys, Weasel chasing a snowshoe hare. Finally found a place to camp...brrrrrr.... 12 degrees one morning....we nicknamed our camp "The Ice Box".
Opening day arrived and we decided to go up high, even with the snow. Snow doesn't bother those big bucks right? We hiked up from a road about 2 miles to the shoulder of one of the main mountains in the area. No deer anywhere, just tracks going downhill. Saw a herd of about 25 elk, 5 bulls, 2 raghorns and 3 spikes. We missed a raghorn bull.....but that is a different story. Worn out... and tired we decended from the mountain. I had forgot what my dad had told me before......"Deer don't eat snow".
Sunday came, and we went lower.....many more deer. Lots of small bucks. I went off by myself on a no vehicle area, my 2 hunting partners went the other direction. Saw about 6 bucks in the morning, had the safety off on a nice tall 25" 4 pt, when I saw 2 bucks below me. One was bigger than the one I just almost shot. He gave me the slip for about 15 min, in the oak brush, and it was confusing because he was with 4 other bucks. Finally spotted him and got him with 2 good hits at 414 yds. 26" 5x5.
My other 2 hunting buddies, saw some bucks and Gary scored on a heavy 26" 4x4. Nice deer. Fast forward ahead 2 days and me and John (the only guy with tag left) are glassing up a monster buck before dark. Heavy....Tall...extra points....you get the picture. We try to sneak on him, but can't get as close as we would like. It is now or never, so he decides to try a shot, we had praticed alot in the off season, and were very consistent at this range. Boom...Boom.....Booom...Boooom...."Are we looking at the same deer?" "What?" "You never even scared him" LOL The buck goes over the ridge. Frustration sets in.....we see 7 more bucks closer on the ridge, one of them is a nice tall 4 pt. John decides to take him. He dumps him after a one practice shot
at 212 yards. We had a great time and got our bucks in the first 3 days. Never used our llamas, just too much snow. We probably could have held out for bigger if we knew exactly what the unit could produce. We will know for next time. Thanks to John and Gary for a fun time. I have pics if someone will post them for me. Why do you have to be a rocket scientist to post pics here?
