3rd Rifle NW Deer Hunt

[tesmitty]

Well, the wife and I are ready for our 3rd Season NW Deer Hunt. We've hunted this part of the state several times. Im anticipating seeing the impact of the previously harsh winter. We typically harvest decent bucks and have always been fairly successful. Despite how this season my turn out im looking forward to some quality time outdoors. We both have the mindset not to fill our tags on younger bucks and are willing to eat our tags. Hopefully that won't be necessary! May pick up a bull tag if we can find a bachelor group of bulls before the opener.
Will report back after the hunt to give a proper accessment of the herd numbers. Hopefully we'll capture some great video content this year!!

 

[jims]

Good luck on your hunt. I'm not sure which unit you are referring to? Are you hunting public or private ground? Hopefully you aren't too terribly disappointed.

 

[tesmitty]

Good luck on your hunt. I'm not sure which unit you are referring to? Are you hunting public or private ground? Hopefully you aren't too terribly disappointed.

Thank you!
We hunt primarily BLM land that is not easily accessible...pack in daily in the morning in the dark them back out after dark. Not much pressure in the areas we like.

 

[MountainSqwabler]

Best of luck man. Glad you both have the mindset to not take any animal especially after how bad this winter was on herds.

 

[HntHrdr]

Good luck! Hopefully you can turn some up!

 

[Founder]

Good luck!

 

[270Whatelse]

Great positive mindset! Looking forward to your report. Good luck

 

[oldmossback]

I spent a lot of time up there 2nd season. I did not really notice a huge decline in the number of deer. What I DID notice , much like others have, is the number of young bucks, forks, 3 points and small 4's. It will be hard to find a buck over 4 years old with any mass.

 

[Jgill19]

Good luck!!

 

[tesmitty]

Well....we had a memorable hunt. Neither one of us filled our tags....although I blew a slamdunk opportunity on what have been my best buck for the unit. Mature, typical 170 plus buck that was extremely lucky on the final morning.
The winter kill was extreme, as we found several carcasses, most of these were fawns. One stretch of about 600 yards we found 13 carcasses - 12 deer 1 calf elk. We saw maybe 25 to 30% of the does with yearling/fawns.
The deer #s were down in our area, but mostly due to the lack of weather which pushes deer into our area. Rut activity was also later than usual. Rut activity really started Wednesday, we saw several bucks harvested this day, mostly younger bucks. We saw only 2 4x4 bucks harvested during our 7 days in the unit. We only saw 3 bucks that made our hit list. One made his way onto private property, another one crossed into the neighboring unit, the third just got really lucky.
We did have the opportunity to meet a father - son team that had zero experience in the neighboring unit. We befriended them and provided some starting points to help them locate deer/bucks. The son was 16 years old and harvested a nice 3x3(his 2nd buck) the dad ended up with a young 4x4. We ended up with some new friends and connections from Utah.
The previous winter was pretty harsh, but the animals will recover with time. These areas have had super high tag counts the last 4 years, so maybe Colorado will finally dial it back a little. I believe the high tag counts were due to the high percentage of CWD - just my opinion.
At the end of the day....we had the opportunity to harvest young bucks but chose not to. This was by far the least amount of deer & bucks we've seen in several years in this particular area. Until next time!!