2019 Season: "It's not that bad guys, it only hurts if I walk on it"

[Brushbuster]

Huge congrats to Addison, family & Mtnmuley!! This is what hunting is all about. Good luck on your next adventure. Thank you for sharing your stories. 

[2MANY]

Great stuff here folks.
Nice work dad.

Good luck in Co.

[CackleBird98]

Freaking awesome!  Huge congrats to Addison for sticking with it!  I know a lot of guys that can't stick with it to the end like that, sounds like she's quite the young lady!    

[Mr Mykiss]

That is top shelf stuff right there sir. Congratulations on at least one of you likes hunting elk...

[Karl Blanchard]

Ooooooh Colorado how I love you! The drive sucks but man can the hunting be amazing! This was not one of those years

With Addisons elk cut up and in the freezer just in time, I was rolling for gods country! Once again I was teaming up with JonathanS for what would prove to be a dull but rewarding week.  Almost a full day of driving and setting up camp and all the chores that come with will leave a guy pretty wiped.  With the season already underway and all the chaos of opening day, we found ourselves perched in an easy to get to spot, glassing into a not so easy to get to spot.  That first day always kicks my butt so I like to start slow with what has now become my opening day  O ritual.

Sure enough, right at dark, Jon spots a buck! Nice 4pt, way too far away to get to that night so we just keep glassing.  Moments after Jon spots the first 4pt I get my one and only glimpse of what would cause me to about go goofy over the course of the next week!

He appeared on a small knife ridge, feeding along. I've been around the block long enough to know a good deer when I see him and this was a good deer! Once again with not e ough light to do anything we just watched him till dark. Tall, heavy, good forks and matching kickers, there was no doubt that this was the buck I would kill or eat my tag trying to kill.  Poor Jon

[elkrack]

 

Yeah that’s a buck worth going all in for!

[Karl Blanchard]

With a target buck found, our hunting strategy for the week was pretty simple to figure out....... Watch the ridge until this buck feeds out again. Piece of cake! So we thought........

The sun was hot, the wind was annoying, and the days crawled by at a snail's pace! Jon and I stared at the same timber edge and canyon for what seemed like an eternity! Mid week we made a small move to try and get a new angle and we stumbled upon some blood. Up to this point my stress had been high as every person we saw "bumped my buck", and every rifle shot within 3 miles "had to have been my buck" With this blood I was certain that somehow without us knowing it, someone had got a pill in my deer   There were no human tracks following this blood so as ethical sportsman, we wanted to follow it up so we could ensure there wasn't a suffering animal at the end of it but to also put my mind at ease.

The blood led us across a slope that I don't care to cross ever again without spikes and then onto a big bench.  From there things got interesting.  This deers normal stride turned into sporadic movements and then as the cat tracks fell in line, everything turned to pure chaos! A female with what looked to be two juveniles saw an easy meal and as per usual, nature handled it's own.  I was relieved it wasn't my buck and I was relieved that our wounded animal was no longer suffering.  Some jack wagon had blown his rear right foot off

[ctwiggs1]

That's a sad ending for that buck.  Dang

[2MANY]

So it was a male wagon?

[Karl Blanchard]

As the days chipped away, my optimism of finding my buck again slowly melted away.  My gut told me this buck was local and the heat and lack of rut activity just meant he is timbered up and not playing the script like he is supposed to but by the 8th of NOV, I fully realized that he may have gotten a whiff of a lady and gone on a walk about.

Friday. Our 6th day of hunting and what we affectionately refer to as full send friday! If you wanna take home a meat buck then full send friday is the day to do it.  I had decided it was the kicker buck or nothing but Jon wanted venison and was out for blood! It was fitting that the first buck we saw on day 1 was the same 4pt we saw on full send friday.  Jon got set for the shot and once again I got to watch the vapor trail of a perfectly placed shot hit its mark! Buck down!!!!

[Karl Blanchard]

With the morning just starting and so little deer movement in the a.m. , we elected to leave Jon's buck lay and glass out the morning.  As usual, we saw no big deer with matching kickers wandering around. Doe's all went to bed and our glassing got more frantic.  We decided it was time to go fetch Jon's prize.  I had turned my attention towards a group of 4 doe's and was intently watching their mid morning routine when Jon's hissing broke my concentration!

I couldn't make out a single word he was saying but his frantic mumbling and desperate excitement needed no explanation! I ran to my gun, slithered down to Jon, and confirmed what I already knew....big kicker buck at the edge of the timber!

[7mmfan]

Aww you jerk. Can't leave a teaser like that.

[Karl Blanchard]

We were setup high on a slide as the wind was not steady so we wanted to be high enough that the prevailing wind in the drainage would wash away any scent that the morning and evening thermals might send down into the timber where I thought my buck was living.  If he appeared, I had a master plan of sliding down the wash to a pre prepped and perfect shooting position. Well of course I also assumed he would feed out or check doe's and allow me the 3 min it would take me to decend to my shooting perch. This ol buck once again didnt play the script.

The second his face hit that 9:30 a.m. sunlight he stopped, turned, and started back into the timber.  It was a frantic race to build a solid shooting position before he was gone! I already had my trekking poles lashed together from Jon's shot, but I needed rear support so I grabbed Jon's poles, shortened them, looped the wrist straps and started to settle in. 

I've shot a lot of animals. I've been around the block a time or two. I have ice water in my veins. I'm a stone cold killer......normally   This buck and our situation rattled me! The second the shot broke I knew it was garbage! Luckily them big bucks don't just bolt unless they know which direction is for sure safe. He was unsure of where the shot came from and gave me enough time to re rack a new round, give myself a metaphorical ass chewing, settle back in, and execute a proper shot process and round two was on its way.

[Karl Blanchard]

As I came out of the recoil I saw the mule kick! No hunch, no buck, but a mule kick. Mule kicks in my experience are a result of a rear or gut hit. My heart sunk, but Jon who was in the spotter was very optimistic in shot placement. One thing was for certain, kicker buck had a bullet in him.

With us being unsure of the hit we elected to leave him be and go get Jon's buck, bring him back to a gear dump and then go track my buck. 

We made record time finding and deboning Jon's buck.  As we were pulling the last tenderloin we heard foot steps above us. We turn to see a guy riding towards us leading two pack horses.  After some small talk this guy offers to haul Jon's buck out for us this was gonna save us some serious time and calories! One of the happiest moments of my life

With Jon's buck heading down the mountain in style, we double timed it back to our gear, an awaiting buddy, and a blood trail to find.

[Jonathan_S]

I'm getting butterflies... and I was there