2011 Colorado hunt

[WaDeer Hunter]

Well I'm new to this site so I'll start it off with a story from this years hunt.

Well after finally drawing a tag my dad and I were heading to Colorado for a 3rd season hunt. We had talked to several others who had hunted the unit and had it narrowed down to the mesa we wanted to hunt. So my dad headed out on November 2nd to get over there and get camp set up and start looking around while I sat at work. I flew out on the opener and was welcomed by a storm that had just moved through the night before making the roads absolutely horrible, we had to chain up his truck just to get back into camp. Once in camp the problems just kept coming, first we couldn't get his quad running so for the first day we were doubled on mine which wasn't very comfy. So after a few phone calls we got the quad re-jetted and running like a top, perfect-so we thought. Monday night while heading back to camp another issue started, the transmission was slipping bad, I had to tow him up 3 hills to get back to camp. So Tuesday it was back to the double up morning hunt, after a shortened hunt off to town he went in search of a new bike. So that afternoon I meet up with another hunter who we had been comparing notes with and decided to move more towards the middle of the mesa, which turned out to be a good move. That night I saw 75 does, 9 bucks, two of which were probable shooters, and a forky which was 29'' wide with 18-20'' forks and an enormous body. So needless to say I was very impatient waiting for my dad to get back to camp. The next morning I had high hopes and knew right were I wanted to be at first light, but the buck did not cooperate. Spotted him at 500 yards chasing a doe all the way up the ridge and into the junipers, never saw him again that day, but at that time I was pretty sure he was a shooter. We continued to see deer that morning but nothing worth shooting, we ran into our new friend Matt and he had found a 30'' 4x4 that he was pretty excited about. So that night we were going through the junipers and I spot a decent looking frame staring at me in the tree's, and before I can get my gun on him my dad is telling me to shoot. Not having a very good shot and not getting a good look I decided to let him go, I think my dad was a little let down but I knew we still had plenty of time left. So Thursday morning I decided to try and get yet another look at the buck I had been seeing chasing does on the ridge the day before. At first we couldn't even find a deer so I decided to slip down the hill another 200 yards to a tree that had a good vantage point and after a short check of the ridge my dad spots him at 400 yards out between two does. He is telling me once again that it is a shooter buck and now he is starting to get pretty excited, so I get my gun into position and dial it for 400 and get ready to shoot, and just as I get a good look at him over the ridge he goes. So now I thought I had screwed up on this buck and wouldn't see him again, but he just couldn't leave the does and that was his last mistake. He presented a slightly quartering away shot and I put one right through both lungs, but he only ran 15 feet and continued to stand motionless broadside so I put one more in him and he dissapeared over the ridge. So I got a few landmarks and sent my dad on the recon trip to find him while I watched, it seemed like an eternity for him to get to the ridge but as soon as he crested the ridge he found him laying 30 yards from where he was shoot. So it was now all high fives and smiles, I had just killed my first muley and was pretty excited about it.

So after getting him back to camp and taken care of it was time to find one for dad, but that night would be the worst hunt of the trip so far, only seeing 25 does and 2 little forkies. But Friday would be a new day, or so we thought it would. For some reason the deer were getting spooky and not staying out at all, we once again ran into Matt and he had only seen about 8 deer so far that morning. So after bs'n with him for a while we decided we better get moving before the sun was all the way up. Not a half mile later we came into a small sage patch and I spotted what looked like a good buck, after looking at him through the binos I determined he was a shooter and then it went to total chaos. As my dad was lifting his binos I was telling him to put em away cause it was a shooter and to grab his gun, after ranging the deer at 300 he wasn't confident with his rifle so I gave him mine and he quickly got ready but it looked like the deer was gonna head into the junipers. At that point he was gonna take an up the butt shot but I quickly said no to that mess, so we watched for a few more seconds and he turned to take a look giving my dad a decent shoulder shot, he let one go and I could see he had hit the deer hard. So off he goes again to find another deer hopefully, after 5 minutes of not seeing my dad I hear another shot ring out in the draw he went into, and now I was sure he had finished him off. So we headed in together to find his deer and it turns out it was the same buck he was telling me to shoot from the other night, his ended up dead about 400 yards from where we had originally jumped him.

It was an absolutely awesome hunt and I am extremely thankfull that I get to spend this kind of time with my dad.

[stewberd23]

Congrats on some Nice Muley's!!

[Tonoonyi]

Congratulations, it just doesn't get any better than that.
Awesome bucks for both of you.

[killerbee]

right on! sounds like an absolute blast of a hunt!

[derekp1999]

Great hunt and great bucks, congrats & welcome.

[sneekeepete]

Two great bucks! Thanks for sharing with us and congrats to you and your Dad!

[waspocrew]

Congrats to both of you! That sounds like an awesome hunt!

[MuleyMadness]

Both excellent bucks, great job thanks for the story and photos. Good times.

[dahlmer]

Congrats to you and your dad on some great bucks. If I can ever get on the computer when I get home from work I'll have to recap my Colorado hunt.

[oakbrush]

Dang good hunt right there. Awesome. Congrats to you guys.

oakbrush