High Country Deer- 0 PP

crimsonkiller318 · Nov 29, 2016

How's it going guys. Been lurking around and decided to join. This will be my first post. I'm looking to get into mule deer hunting. I specifically want to target a good say 160 plus high country above tree line buck, although a mature buck of any caliber is always considered a trophy to me. I am wanting to backpack in and spike camp for 8-10 days. I am 22 years old. I'm in good shape and will be training all this year. I have some experience hunting elk and pronghorn and a ton of experience hunting southern whitetail. I will be taking off of school next fall to study for the lsat so this will give me plenty of time to plan. As I said this will be my first time to hunt mule deer so I have zero preference points. Im wanting to go on first archery so I figure this should help my chances. Might be open to ML. It would be great if some of you more experienced guys could suggest some wilderness units with potential. No honey holes, just unit suggestions. I am a bit overwhelmed. Any advice is much appreciated. Thanks in advance guys. Happy hunting.

mntman · Nov 29, 2016

welcome, go to toprut.com or CO parks and wildlife page-big game and then click on statistics, you can see the points required for each unit there. That will show you what options you have for zero points and alpine archery hunts.

Mntman

"Hunting is where you prove yourself"

txhunter58 · Nov 30, 2016

LAST EDITED ON Nov-30-16 AT 11:42AM (MST)[p]If it were me, I would muzzleload hunt some wilderness/roadless/timberline areas. That said, not all of roadless timberine areas are wilderness. Unit 74 is an example. As far as unit, check for the ones that take lots of points for the timberline rifle hunts. Those units can generally be had for 0-1 point with a muzzleloader. Also, you need to do some research and see what areas get hit hard by hikers/rock climbers in the summer as you will be in the woods at the tail end of the hiking season. For instance, IMO the west side of the Sangre de Cristo wilderness is better than the east due to that.

The thing to remember about buck hunting at timberline: Even where there are "lots of bucks" there aren't that many! You have to keep scouting basins until you find one with some batechlor groups of bucks in them. And where they are today, may not be where they are in 1-4 weeks.

It is really fun to do, and you will see some incredible country, so it is worth the price of admission even if you don't tag out

txhunter58

venor, ergo sum (I hunt, therefore I am)

DirtyTough · Nov 30, 2016

A few things. First I disagree about worrying where hikers and climbers are. I hunted the high country this year. I planned a 30 mile loop scouting trip for the week before the season. When I got to the trail head I had to park over half a mile away because there were so many cars there. I got hiked in to my first planned camp spot and there were hikers and climbers camped everywhere. I felt like I was at Walmart on Black Friday haha. Anyway I started glassing before I even set up my tent and found a shooter buck about 500 yards from where most of the people were camped. I watched that buck all week. He was never bothered by the people. My experience is that hikers and climbers don't bother deer. The bucks stay a few hundred yards away from the trails but otherwise it's like the people aren't even there to them.

There are a lot of high country units you can draw archery or muzzy. If you would rather archery hunt that's what I would do. Better season since it starts 2 weeks before muzzy, and if you hunt muzzy in a unit with an early rifle season the rifle hunt starts either the same day or a week before muzzy depending on the unit.

The units with early rifle hunts aren't bad but if you can hunt a unit without one I feel like there are probably more top end bucks making it through the early season. There are still big bucks though in the units with early rifle hunts so don't discount them just because there is a high country rifle season.

A scouting trip before season and also good optics will help a ton. I will be hunting the same type of units you are looking to hunt as soon as I burn my points. If you want help figuring out a specific unit to apply for send me a pm.

Regards, Branden

DIY · Dec 14, 2016

mntman, It is a good choice to get in one of the early high country hunts. There is lots of untracked basins out there that hold bucks. Just remember you are going to get wet and you are going to spend hours behind a spotting scope. The one piece of advise that I will give you is this. Get up high in a saddle overlooking a couple of basins and get there early, like before daylight. Spend the entire day glassing. You will be surprised by what you see late in the day that you did not spot during the day. Oh and don't skyline yourself. Every buck in the basin will see you if you do.

I think these are what you are hoping to find. I have hunted this area for 18 years, and in all that time I have only seen 2 other hunters brave enough to go in. It's a 7 mile hike from the trailhead. Then from camp everything is up hill. I do have 2 horses that I pack my camp in with.
Good luck

ColoradoRam · Dec 15, 2016

I've hunted unit 47 several times early rifle and I agree with the above post that deer do not seem to be bothered by hikers as 99% of them stay on the trailheads. You can find nice bucks a few hundred yards of the trails. Best areas are the summit of Independence Pass and the parking area just to the west of it. If you hunt after Labor day weekend and during the week you won't run into many people.

txhunter58 · Dec 15, 2016

i too have seen decent bucks that pay little attention to hikers. But solitude is one of the perks of going farther. I like being away from most people. As stated hunting mid week helps if near major trails

venor, ergo sum (I hunt, therefore I am)

WiscoKid · Jun 6, 2022

ColoradoRam said:
I've hunted unit 47 several times early rifle and I agree with the above post that deer do not seem to be bothered by hikers as 99% of them stay on the trailheads. You can find nice bucks a few hundred yards of the trails. Best areas are the summit of Independence Pass and the parking area just to the west of it. If you hunt after Labor day weekend and during the week you won't run into many people.

Colorado, I don't plan to hunt 47 but I've been there around midway lake etc, did you every do very well up there? Had a buddy kill a 170 up there one year, but heard the deer are pretty few and far between