Next up and my last deer tag for the year was Colorado. Coachcw and I left and headed down 5 days before the season started to meet with the rest of the crew. We ran into some nasty weather and crappy roads in Montana and Wyoming and stopped for the night in Sheridan. Woke up and finished the drive the next day, so we got into camp a day after everyone else. Once we got there we stopped at the rifle range and confirmed our guns are still on and then began scouting.
Both deer and elk were loaded into the sage country so spotting them wasn’t all that hard, but finding the older bucks proved difficult the first couple days. One morning we spotted a nice 4 point that I was going to happily chase but season was still 3 days out so we kept him in mind and continued our scouting. Seeing so many elk everywhere.
The day before season opened be got side tracked watching a very large bull go over a mountain so we drove around the other side to see if we could get more idea what he was up so as there was some elk tags in camp. Never saw the bull again but did locate a doe group with a cool buck around 1.25 miles away. Watched them and tried to get some pictures but they didn’t turn out well. I guessed the buck to have a 155-160 inch frame with lots of extras
. When I showed the pictures to Karl and other guys in camp they were worried I was making a mistake and severely over judging the buck. I knew in my mind that was the buck I wanted to chase on the opener.
Here comes opening morning. And our camp scattered to their target places after deer and elk. Coach and I headed after the “spike buck” got to our parking spot early and didn’t see anyone around so waited until we could see and started our hike (about a mile) up to a point we could get a shot if the buck was in the same place as before. A few hundred yards out from the truck I looked over and saw some other hunters paralleling us moving pretty quickly. Now I’m not the type of person to encroach into a spot someone else is obviously hunting. These guys parked away from the gate and out of sight of the gate in the dark. We had no idea they were even there, but I sure wasn’t going to give up on the buck we had found.
Corey was glassing his way in and told me to go ahead and get up to the knob and see if the deer were out. As I approached the top of the knob and looked across toward the snowed hill the deer were on I immediately spotted them. The buck was chasing does all around. I continued to slowly sneak up the knob to a flat shooting position and laid out my gear (bipod, rangefinder, rifle,etc) set up the spotter and confirmed the buck was the same one and that I was still calling him a Shooter after the other guys in camp put some doubt in my mind.
Got my range and dialed the scope for the 730 yard slightly up hill shot, looked back and Corey was still a couple hundred yards below me so I took the time to double check conditions and dope and do some dry fires on the buck. Everything was rock solid and I was calm. Once Corey got up to my position the buck and does had bedded down, I pointed them out to Corey and he said it’s go time. I asked if I was shooting while he’s bedded? Corey responded “you got this, he won’t know what hit him and will never get up”.
Again I double checked ranged, conditions, and dope. Dropped a round into the chamber and got behind the gun. Settled in and sent a round. Watched in the scope as the bullet hit just high of the point of the shoulder. Deer rolled but his head was still up. Corey called my shot just high and right but still solid hit. Reloaded and sent a second with the corrections Coach called. This one did him in and rolled him over and he slid down the hill a few feet. That’s when I got a bit excited and jumped up and ran in a circle.
We negotiated our way to the bottom of the draw below the steep face the deer was on and Corey told me I need to go get the deer and bring it down so he could check it out. The exact same thing he told me last year in Colorado.
I downed a hit of c4power and headed up the face and got to my buck. I was very excited to find the 8x7 buck laying in the snow. He was everything I pictured and explained to the crew except he had some extras on a front fork I hadn’t seen.
I took some pictures and send some text messages and then took the buck down to coach where we proceeded to “meat him out” (technical term)
and load him into my backpack to head out. On the way out I told Corey that I should have given him the option to take this buck since it was his birthday, but he saw through me and said it’s easy to say that after I already shot it!
We got packed out and to the truck just in time to find Karl sitting on the side of a road waiting for someone to come pick him up. (You’ll have to read his story now too) and then go help pack out a bull elk. It was a productive morning for our group.
This buck ended up with a gross score of 158 and change. I was about 10 inches high on my estimates but still my largest mule deer and happy as can be!
