Headed back from western Colorado in a 2nd rifle deer hunt east of Grand Junction. I have to laugh to keep from getting infuriated constantly but I say all of the following to share the advice of doing your research before diving in.
I've hunted mule deer 5 times in 3 different states and have only been successful 2 of those hunts. So by no means an expert but have enough experience to where I felt okay doing another DIY.
Got hooked up with a landowner through an outfitter promoting this guy had 2nd rifle deer vouchers that included a cabin with access direct into public and less than a mile from the trailhead. Also was going to come with a 4wheeler to use for the week. So me and buddy jumped on it. The guy has a couple hundred acres with "10 shooter bucks and 3 that are really good" that we planned to get my buddy (who had never hunter mule deer before) a deer on and I would focus on public. This was over the summer.
Fast forward to Friday. We get to the cabin and it's disgusting. Has no coffee maker, paper towels, dish soap, hand soap, etc. Power comes in and out sporadically. Advertised with WiFi (didn't work) and had a TV with 2 remotes (neither of which were for that tv). Thousands of flies (dead and alive). 5-6 dogs, 3 goats, 2 cats all roaming free and at least half of them entered the cabin at different times. I will pause to say that we are by no means high maintenance. We honestly would have rather packed in and camped in the unit for proximity to hunting areas we wanted to focus on. But when the majority of the voucher cost was towards the lodging (and certain things are advertised), you expect those things and so was not off to a good start.
4wheeler (as was told) was not included so we were confined to my truck to trailheads and going in on foot. Strike 2.
Which leads me to the "moral of the story" and that is do your research. I assumed a voucher for a deer tag made it somewhat valuable. But come to find out, it is a no point required draw unit for deer. It is also an OTC elk unit for 2nd rifle. So needless to say, there were hunters everywhere you looked. And not having the 4wheeler killed us due to the fact that their are a large number of two track trails throughout the entire unit that everyone else is utilizing. The weather has been unseasonably warm/dry, so there were other factors out of anyone's control at play. But needless to say, we had tag soup. Did not see a single deer on the property with "10 shooter bucks" . Even had the guy send me a photo before we arrived of a buck (implying it was on his place). Come to find out, it was taken of a deer on a property about 20 minutes from his place on an alfalfa field. Feel like we were boondoggled a little bit between the cabin, type of deer, value of having his property to access public (every other landowner in the vicinity does the same thing).
But just wanted to pass along a pretty terrible experience to hopefully help someone else dig in more and do some recon for making an impulse decision on a seemingly good deal. We saw 13 deer total the entire time and only 1 buck. He was a shooter and tried to get set up on him but fed up into some junipers out of sight before we could get a gun on him. Happy to share further info if interested just shoot me a DM. Best of luck to everyone else the rest of the fall/winter!
I've hunted mule deer 5 times in 3 different states and have only been successful 2 of those hunts. So by no means an expert but have enough experience to where I felt okay doing another DIY.
Got hooked up with a landowner through an outfitter promoting this guy had 2nd rifle deer vouchers that included a cabin with access direct into public and less than a mile from the trailhead. Also was going to come with a 4wheeler to use for the week. So me and buddy jumped on it. The guy has a couple hundred acres with "10 shooter bucks and 3 that are really good" that we planned to get my buddy (who had never hunter mule deer before) a deer on and I would focus on public. This was over the summer.
Fast forward to Friday. We get to the cabin and it's disgusting. Has no coffee maker, paper towels, dish soap, hand soap, etc. Power comes in and out sporadically. Advertised with WiFi (didn't work) and had a TV with 2 remotes (neither of which were for that tv). Thousands of flies (dead and alive). 5-6 dogs, 3 goats, 2 cats all roaming free and at least half of them entered the cabin at different times. I will pause to say that we are by no means high maintenance. We honestly would have rather packed in and camped in the unit for proximity to hunting areas we wanted to focus on. But when the majority of the voucher cost was towards the lodging (and certain things are advertised), you expect those things and so was not off to a good start.
4wheeler (as was told) was not included so we were confined to my truck to trailheads and going in on foot. Strike 2.
Which leads me to the "moral of the story" and that is do your research. I assumed a voucher for a deer tag made it somewhat valuable. But come to find out, it is a no point required draw unit for deer. It is also an OTC elk unit for 2nd rifle. So needless to say, there were hunters everywhere you looked. And not having the 4wheeler killed us due to the fact that their are a large number of two track trails throughout the entire unit that everyone else is utilizing. The weather has been unseasonably warm/dry, so there were other factors out of anyone's control at play. But needless to say, we had tag soup. Did not see a single deer on the property with "10 shooter bucks" . Even had the guy send me a photo before we arrived of a buck (implying it was on his place). Come to find out, it was taken of a deer on a property about 20 minutes from his place on an alfalfa field. Feel like we were boondoggled a little bit between the cabin, type of deer, value of having his property to access public (every other landowner in the vicinity does the same thing).
But just wanted to pass along a pretty terrible experience to hopefully help someone else dig in more and do some recon for making an impulse decision on a seemingly good deal. We saw 13 deer total the entire time and only 1 buck. He was a shooter and tried to get set up on him but fed up into some junipers out of sight before we could get a gun on him. Happy to share further info if interested just shoot me a DM. Best of luck to everyone else the rest of the fall/winter!
