Reissued Year

Fauntleroy

Member
Messages
30
71597mine.jpg


With the app this year all of my hunts were tags that came reissued from the Parks and Wildlife. The first hunt of the year was my muzzleloader antelope. Given that reissued tags can pop up anytime before or even during a season I had told myself to be patient and wait for a good rifle tag. But when this hunt popped close to the muzzleloader opener I couldn't take it any more and bought the tag.

I've hunted the unit just east of here extensively throughout the years for mule deer and know a couple landowners who have a few pastures in this unit as well. I couldn't make it for opening day, but I was able to get out the next day and started searching. Given that I'd never really poked my nose around other than to help with cattle my knowledge was limited and unfortunately my landowners pastures were a complete bust. So I did what I always do when situations like this happen, I banged doors.

Late in the morning I ran across a little old lady who gave the standard, "shoot a couple of them," response to antelope hunting. Cool! Only difference to this little old lady was she had 14 SECTIONS of prime antelope land. Jackpot.

I had only scheduled one day for this hunt cause of how easy I figured it would be, but could have made Sunday work if absolutely needed. Spent the rest of the day looking at dozens and dozens of bucks. Apparently she lets a bunch of rifle hunters have their way with the property so the age structure wasn't that great. Lots of 2 year old bucks and just a few 3 year olds. They hammer them. I wasn't gonna be too picky.

Right at mid day I found this buck with 20 does and figured I could keep him in my back pocket for last light if needed. It was as he ended up being the largest one that I could find the rest of the day. After a short stalk to 98 yards the does started to get uneasy in the failing light. Eventually the herd scrambled a little and I thought for sure I wasn't gonna get a shot. In the end the does ran off and the buck decided to stick around and make sure I didn't go chasing his girls. BOOM!!

More antelope to come.
 
33725dwight.jpg


Next up was my buddy Dwight who picked up a muzzleloader buck tag just east of Fort Collins off the app. The Pawnee is FLAT! We all understand that antelope country is generally devoid of cover, but you can almost always count on terrain features to give you the ability to close those last couple hundred yards for the open sight muzzleloaders we have to use out here. Not so much up there. Billiard table flat. Sure there's some places that aren't like that, but after a few days of unsuccessful stalks, a decoy was bought. I've never played around with a decoy, but man o man I am a believer in those things now. Anyways, the first morning with the deek, first little herd and this buck came charging in like a pissed off teenager. We saw some bucks that were considerably larger, but Dwight couldn't lay off the trigger after all the troubles getting into range initially. Still a great buck!

His wife picked up a reissued muzzleloader doe tag here around the house and we figured why not right? With the season winding down we only had two evenings to run around. We kinda figured that we would use the decoy again just because of how much fun it was the first time. Big mistake. While the buck in the first herd ran to under 10 yards before changing direction, the does wanted nothing to do with the decoy. We got her under 100 yards a couple times, but she's never shot anything with open sights before and takes a little time to get set up. While she didn't punch her tag it was cool to see a woman that was 6 months pregnant get out and be so happy about hunting in the field. Dwight's a truly blessed man to have a wife like her. She's doesn't even mind taking photos with my ugly mug!

51869erica.jpg
 
92811austinrankin.jpg


I met some fantastic people this year and was contacted by a bunch of successful subscribers. One of whom was a fella named Austin from Sacremento. He'd picked up a killer rifle antelope tag and since I'd always wanted to poke around the unit I invited myself to tag along which he accepted. Austin got to the unit the Tuesday before the hunt started on Saturday and scouted his tail off. Throughout the week he'd send me photos of bucks he was thinking of taking. As this was his first ever goat hunt he was EXCITED!

I was able to peel away Friday the day before the opener and spend some time looking at goats with him. Initially he wanted to look for new areas that he hadn't looked at, but I convinced him to show me the buck he was thinking of taking. He wasn't sure if it was a great buck cause it looked a little short. Can you imagine my surprise when he showed me THIS cranker? I told him in no uncertain terms that we would hunt this buck until we killed him the next day.

Opening morning rolled around and we were greeted by headlights driving OUT of the pasture that the buck was in right at shooting light. The orange army had commenced to it's annual hunt. We searched everywhere and watched a few animals get shot for the next few hours. We were starting to feel like the headlight hunters had taken the buck prior to legal shooting light when the buck crested a hill from a direction Austin had never seen the buck go.

Sure enough he sauntered into the field that Austin had permission on and began to tend the does like the stud he was. After an easy stalk to get under 200 yards Austin made a great 200 yard shot that ended his journey. For those of you that are into scores he went 81 3/8" green gross. Just a stud of a buck!
 
87818crash.jpg


The next day was scheduled for my buddy Lionel. He's been my best buddy for the last 20+ years, he was the best man at my wedding and we even joined the Marine Corps together. While my enlistment was spent touring tropical destinations like Japan and Australia, he was apart of the push through Fallujah in '07 as a gunner on a HUMVEE for EOD. He saw things that no man should ever have to be apart of and I'm truly thankful he didn't die in the sand over there.

In recent years we haven't really been able to go hunting together if only because our hunts tend to overlap eachother. It's a piss poor excuse but it's the only one I have. He had picked up a rifle buck antelope reissued tag, and I had the day off so we were off to the races.

We looked at a couple bucks before stumbling onto this one. He might not be an Arizona giant, but for this unit he's a killer buck. A long circular stalk brought us to the crest of the hill we had last seen him under. Just as we were about to go over another dinker type buck busted us and made that almost bird sounding blow that they do when alarmed. The big buck perked up and started to beat feet out of there. Since he never saw what alarmed the little buck he made one last stop to look before heading out of our lives forever. It ended up being Lionels best buck and he couldn't be happier.
 
8591img20181030155029660.jpg

One of the hunts that I had on my Watchlist was a whitetail hunt out in eastern Colorado. My wife had killed a great 164" buck there in 2012 and she lords it over me that she has a bigger whitetail than I do by about 15". Since I got my mule deer tag in late August I told my other hunting buddy Jeremy to put that tag on his watchlist and sure enough by late September he had a tag in his hands.

Jeremy's been hunting Kansas pretty hard over the last couple of years to try and put a big whitetail on the ground so I knew he'd be holding out for a whopper that I know the unit can produce. We had 2 and a half days and the plan was to spend the first night cruising getting a feel for where the corn was still up. After an hour of hitting different spots we spotted a group of 9 does feeding in some drilled wheat on the edge of uncut corn. Seeing how it was late October I wasn't really thinking that a buck would be with the does yet, but our one legged deer fiend Clint kicked us out of the truck to get after them.

Clints the man with anything named deer so we reluctantly jumped out and got to a spot we could watch the does that night. There's a coyote. The does look cool. That rooster pheasant crowing his head off looks sweet in the spotting scope. About 10 minutes before the end of legal shooting light this buck stepped out of the corn at 541 yards. Check the wind, dial, settle and BOOM. It was kind of weird though cause neither of us heard that solid WHOP you always like to listen for and I lost him in the binos when the gun went off and the buck jumped back into the corn. After a little searching we found a little blood, than a little more blood, than a LOT of blood and than a giant bodied whitetail laying in the corn. He's not quit 164 so my wife still has the biggest Colorado whitetail. Next year she's going down!

4470914696.jpeg

13470img20181029184110929.jpg
 
http://www.monstermuleys.info/photos/user_photos_2018/2365712427.jpeg

With everything else going on this year I wasn't able to go on my elk hunt this year which was kind of a bummer cause it's the hunt my Dad and I always like to do together. Such is life. My archery mule deer tag started in early October and the first buck we kind of got after was a buck at Lionels property the same day he killed his antelope. We were pulling up to his place when we saw this great looking buck and he got me ALL riled up. I drove the 20 minutes home, grabbed the bow and drove 20 minutes back to find that the buck was still bedded right where I had left him.

I had also called the one legged muley bandit Clint to get his opinion on the buck. We ended up watching him for about an hour before we decided to pass on him. He is a KILLER buck, but as it was early October and I basically had until December 31 to get it done I let him walk. There really are some giants in this unit and I couldn't kill one if I punched my tag on a good buck. Felt horrible. Prayed that I didn't make a mistake. Hoped that I could find a bigger one. I still feel like if I had that same opportunity a few weeks into the season I wouldn't have passed on him.

Anyways I'm gonna have to be done for the night as Lionel has a reissued rifle buck tag out here that we're trying to fill right now and it's about time to get after them. He's hoping to see this same buck sometime before his season closes December 14th. I'll be back to posting sometime next week as it's a busy one coming up.
 
9826sunrise.jpg

Once I had the encounter with that really nice buck I figured it was time to get serious. By that I mean I started getting in contact with my landowners. Spent a Saturday feeding cattle, doing some electrical work, drinking coffee and generally just getting caught back up with everyone. I even had one landowner that told me she would call when she saw a big one as she had, "seen a couple big ones" running around. By the middle of the next week she had called me talking about a giant. I made the 30 minutes drive and found a huge bodied, old gnarly 3 pointer with big bases. Showed her a picture of the one I passed and she got the idea of the type of buck I was looking for.

Got back on one of the prettiest pieces of property that I've ever seen here in Colorado. I've seen elk, antelope, whitetail and mule deer on this 700 acres all in the same day. Spent a Sunday glassing and only came up with does, antelope, and groups of small bucks. Since it was still October the bigger bucks were still somewhere out there in a little hole that I couldn't find them in. Took this beautiful sunrise picture that nearly cost me the buck of a lifetime.
 
http://www.monstermuleys.info/photos/user_photos_2018/86496img20181022185417471.jpg
I took that sunrise photo on Sunday October, 21. The very next day I took off work early with the plan to go to the gym, get in a glassing session and back to the office to finish my day off. On my way back through I hit a couple properties and swung by a place I with a great bedding area in the creek. I'd watched a group of 4 bucks all summer in feed in a field morning and evening. One was a possible shooter later in the season, but nothing to get fired up about.

For some reason there was a 5th buck cruising in the field with them. I got to a good glassing point and was blown away by what I saw when I got the binos to my eyes. Wide, DEEP boxy frame, with a hook cheater on the right and a weird cluster of cheaters/flyers/junk on the left side. I knew the landowner from previous years and swung in to ask for permission. The old guy told me that the buck had been coming twice a week and that he had a rifle hunter that would be hunting him during the coming weekend. With that knowledge I felt like it was now or never.

After talking for a bit I decided to make a play as the bucks were within 30 yards of a dried out creek bottom that would let me basically walk right up to them. The old guy asked if he could watch so we jumped in the truck and got me in position. I jumped out and started pulling gear out of the back of the truck. I got the bow out, snapped the quiver into place, clipped the range finder to my belt and started digging for my release. Guess what got left in my hunting pants from the day before taking all those sunrise photos?
 
59389img20181024072632622burst000covertop2.jpg


Spent the rest of that week hunting both morning and evening for him. Saw him once in the creek bottom that I had gotten permission on the edge of. With the sun shining through the leaves that were still green and the hue shining off him I named him the Jolly Green Giant as he was HUGE! The only problem was that I never saw him where I could hunt during that week and I knew that the rifle hunter was going to be in there the coming weekend and my archery season closed for the rifle hunters during their 9 day season.

One morning during the sit I was able to get a photo of his buddies at 20 yards as they cruised past without their big buddy. To say that I felt sick to my stomach as the first split of the season came to a close is an understatement. I knew that there were other bow hunters in the area that had him on their radar and the rifle hunter was going to be a problem for me. The only thing I could do was wait for my season to open back up.

While I was back in Kansas during a portion of the rifle hunt I made it back mid week and kept tabs on my buck. I ended up seeing him on the place where the rifle hunter had permission a couple of times. Every time I saw him there I freaked out thinking that the rifle guy would show up and punch his tag. But in the end I got lucky and I watched him the night before the rifle season ended, knowing I would be back in business the very next day.

An interesting side note was one day while looking for the buck I had a guy pull up who recognized the big sticker in the back of the truck with the app being displayed. He was a subscriber and asked if I was looking for the mega buck in the area. One of the weird things was that I had never gotten any photos of him up to that point as it seemed like I kept seeing him when I didn't have my spotting scope. Luckily he had a bunch of photos of the buck and was gracious enough to share them with me. Always love meeting guys and gals that love big muleys!

63728jolly1.jpg
 
The next day came and went with no sightings. Or the next day, or the day after that. It took a full week to relocate him as the rut had kicked in and they were all cruising looking for hot does. Eventually I relocated him about a mile from where I had seen him the night before my season opened and I scrambled to get permission. Ended up getting permission in a spot that he seemed to be using fairly regularly with a big ditch gully draw running through it that the does seemed to like to spend time in. Offering electrical work goes a long ways sometimes.

17329jolly6.jpg


10048jolly7.jpg


I spent the next week heading out every morning and every evening looking for him. Got him spotted a few times and got some good photos of him in the snow with that big old rutted out neck. He took our breath away every single time we saw him. It ended up that we could locate him once every few days and I even saw the other bowhunters after him the one time. At this point the rut was in full swing and they were on pretty serious lock down.

Finally one evening I spotted him with a group of 5 does bedded about an hour before sunset about 200 yards away from the big ditch gully on an open flat. I ditched the truck and buried myself into some trees at the edge of the gully. Eventually they all got up and started heading perfectly my direction. One way or the other one of the does pegged me and I thought it was all over. Luckily the lead doe hadn't seen anything and kept coming which drew the buck over to the one that pegged me. I don't think she was all that confident that I was a threat cause as soon as the buck nudged her she got with the program and followed the lead doe down into the gully.

Eventually the does lead the buck right past me at 39 yards. He got up on top of a little rise and was watching his does quartering away with the near leg forward. With the does just out of sight I put the rangefinder down and started my shot sequence. Found my anchor, good sight picture, the middle yellow 40 pin settled at the 2nd to last rib right at the off shoulder. Slow squeeze and the arrow buried to the fletching. In that moment I would have said that it was a perfect shot. He took off and the last I saw of him was at 150 yards doing a wobble walk through the scrub.

The blood looked good and I figured I would give him the night and not push him. The next day I got back on the trail and found blood at every step that he took for a full mile back to the creek bottom that I had watched him in during the October hunt. I eventually found his last bed with very little blood in it. What a nightmare. I had lost the largest buck that I may have ever laid eyes on when I had a tag in my pocket.

I spent too much time looking for him in the coming weeks. The only time I wasn't glassing was when I had to go back to Kansas for Thanksgiving. The week after Thanksgiving, exactly 14 days after the first shot I got a text from a buddy that knew what the situation was. He had found the buck on his feet about 1/4 mile from where I had taken the first shot. I finished up the service call that I was on and sped over as fast as possible. He was in bad shape. When I got there he was watching a group of does being tended by a forkie across a fence. He could NOT jump that fence no matter how bad he wanted to. The first shot was high but he still had a hard limp, labored breathing and looked emaciated.

I wasn't able to get permission until after shooting light but knew where he was going to be the next morning. The does had moved off with the forkie and as bad as he wanted to be on them he could not get across that fence. It would be a gross exaggeration to say that the next morning was anything more than a dispatch as he basically let me get right on top of him with very little effort. In the end I cannot say just how relieved I was to finish him on my terms, and the meat was perfectly fine. The post mortem showed that I had clipped the top of both lungs with the first shot and that there was about 4 cups of BLACK coagulated blood in the bottom of his chest. The CPW officer and I are both on the fence whether he would have made it through the winter.

I don't want to say what we came up with score wise as it seems high compared to what we were guessing, but he is big enough that I am gonna get him officially scored. I've never had that done before and I'm kind of excited for the 60 day drying period to be over with.

5398jollyscreen.jpg
 
6097248281739102175712658085888466760260005134336n.jpg


My buddy Lionel had the rifle tag for the late December hunt that he picked up with the app and knew which buck he wanted. The buck that I had passed on at his property early on in October was the only buck he had decided that he wanted. To be honest if he would have had the tag in his pocket the first time we saw him I don't think he would have even given me the choice to take him even if I wanted. I guess things like that were just meant to be as the tag popped on his app two week prior to the hunt starting and he was excited.

He hunted hard the first week with no luck. One sighting chasing does was all he got during that time frame. A few days before the end of the hunt we were on the phone talking as he was out and about when he very abruptly let me know that he needed to let me go. About 30 minutes later he sent me a picture of the buck in the bed of his truck asking if I'd like to have a skinning party. Neither of us are very good about taking pictures so the best that we got was in the garage once everything was said and done. Pretty cool to see my buddy finish the year this way.

Anyways that wraps up the big game seasons. We still have birds and coyotes yet to chase. Went out last weekend and put 2 coyotes and a fox in the truck in a full days hunt. Should've had 5 coyotes and a fox if any of us could shoot, but thats coyote hunting. It's still early in the season and there's lots of quail and dog hunting to be had. The quail are pretty good this year and the wife took her first bird when I was back for Thanksgiving. The dogs and I even had a day alone where we got into 5 coveys. I think that wraps everything up for the big game seasons. Thanks for following along and good luck. Hope you all had a safe enjoyable season.

8975img20181121172112833.jpg

15756img20181124173417943burst000covertop.jpg
 
6511751975511102180579884563507762031585011957760n.jpg


The 60 day drying period is up so we went and had the buck officially scored yesterday. I say we because my buddy Lionel got his crate back from Africa with all his goodies. So we took Valentine's Day off and had ourselves a Bro Date for the ages. We had originally green rough scored the buck at 219" and a little change gross. It was pretty cool to see we were more or less right there in the ballpark. I'll take an official Gross 225" buck all day long. Add in fondling Kudu, Gemsbuck, Impala, Warthog, Nyala etc. and you've got the makings of a great Valentines Day.

46140img20190214142537107.jpg


37251img20190214144156265.jpg


62633img20190214142735618.jpg
 
You have insufficient privileges to reply here.

Click-a-Pic ... Details & Bigger Photos
Back
Top Bottom