Colorado Deer Hunt 2011 - trip report (5 bucks down!)

[shanevg]

Well, finally getting around to posting up a trip report of our Colorado deer hunting trip.  With the holidays and late season archery hunting it took me a while to finally get the video and all the pictures edited. 

We had a great trip with all 4 sons and dad hunting together for the first time other.  My oldest brother Clint wasn't able to fly down to meet us until Wednesday night of the hunt but we were still all able to tag out except for my dad.  A huge snow storm came through the weekend before we got there (we got there Sunday night) which really changed things up a bit.  WE couldn't even get to where we were planning to camp and had camp set up in 25 inches of snow.  All the spots we were told to hunt were completely snowed in and either inaccessible or mostly void of deer sign.  We did find one spot early on where we saw some monster 190-200" bucks but they were always right over the fence on private land.  We never caught them on public.  That is one difficult part about these units in Colorado, you find these huge ranches (2000-5000 acres or more) in the middle of the National Forest and the deer know exactly where the fence line is! 

In the end we got our first deer (a 2 point) on day 4 of the hunt.  I have never shot a buck bigger than a spike and I did not want to go home empty handed so I was ready to shoot any buck.  A 2 point walked out of the sage at 125 yards so I dropped him.  Finally, the next day we found a new spot about 30 miles south of us and almost int he valley bottom.  We would catch the deer coming up off the alfalfa fields right at daylight and get them in the public land.  We ended up shooting 4 bucks within 300 yards of each other in 24 hours.  One 2 point and 3 4 points that were probably all related.  All in all it was a great hunt, but not our favorite unit to hunt.  The cold temperatures (-10 at night) and high elevation definitely took a toll on my dad and uncle and they were ready to get out of there by the time everything was said and done.  Enjoy the video - it is in 1080p if you go watch it on YouTube.

[shanevg]

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[shanevg]

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[400out]

Looks like a memorable trip! Thanks for sharing 

[wayner]

Looks like a great time! Great pictures also, thanks

[C-Money]

Very Nice! Glad you folks had a good family hunt!

[NoBark]

Thanks for posting Shane!  Nothing like hunting with the boys!

[blackveltbowhunter]

Nice bucks Looks like a fun hunt!!

[alecvg]

Glad you got it put together Shane!  That was a fun hunt!  I love the end 

[buck man]

Looks like a heck of a hunt. . Congrats. Did all the snow melt?. Don't see much in pics .

[alecvg]

Looks like a heck of a hunt. . Congrats. Did all the snow melt?. Don't see much in pics .

The snow did not much, but it pushed most of the deer down to lower elevations, so thats where we ended up hunting, stilll lots in camp and where we had planned to do alot of our hunting.

[turkey slayer]

looks like a great hunt

[bullchaser]

Nice job how many points did it take you to draw?

[Camp David]

Taking nice animals is secondary to being with your family and hunting. Great pictures and story 

[shanevg]

Nice job how many points did it take you to draw?

I think it took 3 points but we all had 4. Fun hunt just really different country than we were used to. The key was hunting right on the edge of private and being patient waiting for them to cross to public. On one buck we were pretty much in someones back yard when it died.

[sakoshooter]

Congrats on a pretty successful hunt w/family.
Question: Where's all the snow you mentioned? All the pics make it look like you had nice weather.

[shanevg]

Congrats on a pretty successful hunt w/family.
Question: Where's all the snow you mentioned? All the pics make it look like you had nice weather.

Everyone we talked to told us we should be hunting up on top of the plateau and hunt down from there.  The top of the plateau had almost 30 inches of snow and we couldn't even drive up to the top.  We ended up driving down to the highway and then drive south from our camping spot where we shot 4 of the 5 deer.  All of the deer were shot 2000 feet below camp.