Back and rested from 2nd rifle. Will post a report soon, but I was able to tag a muley.

You've come to the right place to get talked out of it





Not. Buy it.

When you're makin love to your wife on that bearskin rug, $280 will seem like a bargain

Ok, here's my CO 2nd Rifle recap...

There were 5 of us with a total of 4 tags (1 mule deer, 2 elk, 1 bear). I had the muley tag and was the only one to tag out. In fact, I was the only one to get a legitimate shot at any animal. Since the hunt was largely unexciting, my recap will be short and sweet.

First, our camp for the week...



We spotted a handful of elk on Friday (the day before season opened) at ~1,000 yards away in a meadow. We tried to get on them opening morning/day, but were not able to relocate them. They were close to a small parcel of private land when we saw them, so it's possible they hung out there for the duration of our hunt.

On day 3, we jumped up two mule deer bucks from a small reservoir (a small forky and another forky with approx. 12" forks). I was unable to get a shot at them, even though they stopped and looked at us within 150 yards or so. It was mostly because they were obstructed by bushes and I wasn't comfortable with the way my rifle felt against my pack strap. About a half hour later, we walked right past another forky watching us at about 20 yards. I had time to stop, turn to my dad and buddy and point him out, and then watch him circle us and walk away down the trail we just came from. I'm not really sure why I didn't shoot him, but I just kind of stood there and watched him walk away. After he walked away, I spent the next few hours enduring ribbing from my dad and buddy over why I didn't shoot him and asking if I was "huntin' meat or horns", haha.

Later on day 3, we set up back at the small reservoir to hunt the evening. At some point in the past, someone was nice enough to craft a makeshift "stand" in a nearby tree, so that was my post for the evening.




During the few hours that I sat there, I made up my mind that I would shoot the next legal buck I had a chance at. There were a few reasons: 1) we had not seen much else to shoot and if I tagged out it would help our overall camp morale, 2) if I tagged my muley, we could focus more on getting my buddy an elk, which had so far given us the slip, and, most importantly, 3) my dad was there with me. He was on the trip with us last year when I killed my first bull, but he was elsewhere hunting with my brother. This time he was right beside me, and I didn't want to let the time pass without making a great memory with him. So.... there we sat waiting for any legal buck.

Around 4:45, a deer came over the dam of the reservoir to water. I immediately confirmed it was a buck and within about 5 seconds, he was on the ground. The 180gr 300WM did it's job and he dropped in his tracks. Unfortunately, I didn't account enough for the crosswind, so the bullet went right through both shoulders. I was kind of upset about that. I would have preferred a lung shot right behind the shoulders.

He ain't much, but he's a public land DIY mule deer...



We spent the next 3 days of the hunt trying to get in front of an elk, but came up empty handed. Reports from other hunters and stores in the nearest town seemed to echo our experiences. Everyone was seeing mule deer, but very few were able to put an elk down. Oh well, we'll try again next year.

Here are a few random landscape pics I took...

Finally getting around to our Colorado 2nd Season Deer recap.

This was the first trip out West for my self and my brother (BrazosBQ) so there was a pretty good learning curve but we did get a little experience last year at Lake Meredith.

Scouting Day - We arrived in our area early on Friday and began driving the units to get a lay of the land, first spot we checked we couldn't really scout because it was snowing to hard to glass, The weather was slightly better in our second spot and I got my first taste of semi-offroading in the snow, managed to make our way up the two track but get out and discover that one of the heater hoses on my truck has a quick disconnect fitting that is leaking, joy.... We press on and make the mile or so hike to a glassing spot and pick up a small forky buck on the way, We set up and find a couple bull elk bedded but no more deer. We hike back to the truck and decide to head to town to get some parts. We fight the quick disconnect fitting in the autozone parking lot for more than hour with no luck, We find a shop that will be open on Saturday morning and decide to get a hotel for the night, not exactly the start we had hoped for.

Day 1 - Opening morning we head to a trail head close to the mechanics shop in order to atleast get a hunt in on opening morning. We hike in, setup, and glass for about and hour with no luck. We run into several other hunters on the way out and run to get the truck fixed, One hour and $60 later we are back in business. We head to the spot we couldn't glass the day before and set up camp. Talk to the Game Warden who was a real cool dude and start our hike. The area seems like it is hammered hard by road hunters so we head for a spot away from the road along a private border. Glass all afternoon and evening and turn up 3 does on private but not much doing.



Day 2 - We wake up to an inch or two of snow, not sure I slept at all the night before due to the wind blowing all night, We glass for a while and turn up a big bear but with all of the traffic in the unit we decide to pack up and move. While we are packing up a dude begins moving a huge herd of sheep into our unit reinforcing our decision to move. At this point we are in a bit of a loss, all of the areas we had planned on getting to are suspect travel wise because of the amount of snow. We take a stab and drive to an area where we glass a couple of trailheads. We immediately see a group of hunters at one of the trail heads with two bucks, about 5 minutes later we spot two additional hunters up the mountain dragging down to more deer and the area immediately catches out interest. We glass a little longer and see more deer higher up the mountain and decide to hike a 5 mile loop through the area. We jump a moose cow/calf pair on the way up which was pretty cool. We find deer tracks everywhere, track two of the bucks to where they were shot and decide that we are coming back to this spot in the morning, We were concerned that the area might be shot out but with over 2' of snow at 10,000+ we hoped more deer would get pushed down, turned out to be a good call. We go get a good burger at a local diner and hotel camp for the night.



Day 3 - We wake up at 3:45 to make it to the trailhead by 5:00, hike in about 2.25 miles and get setup. About 45 minutes after shooting light we spot some does about 1000 yds up the mountain and sneak in to get a closer look. We intercept there path and get within about 100yds before we bump them off. We decide to follow the does and about 40 yds up the hill, out of nowhere, I spot two bucks to my left at about 80yds in the same meadow we are walking through, the insuing 45 seconds was a bit of a s**** show. Without a solid rest and in the wide a** open we scramble to drop packs load rifles, etc and I proceed to miss on the bigger buck, luckily by this time BrazosBQ is set up and drops the bigger of the two bucks, about 5 minutes later the smaller of the two bucks clears the aspens, presents a shot and I take it. The deer looks hit good but runs into the cover. We know the bigger of the two bucks is down so we move down the hill to check it out and we are completely dumbfounded, we had no expectation of getting a "good" deer, being our first trip, forky's where fair game, what are the odds of getting one with a drop.



I recover my deer and was surprised to find he is also much bigger than I thought as well.



We end up making two trips on the pack out but get off the mountain just before dark, do about 11 miles total on the day.



All in all a bit of a whirlwind of a trip. With family, work, etc can't quite make this a yearly deal but will definitely be coming back in a few years.

Thank ya sir! Was a heck of a trip.