2019 2nd CO Deer (first timers)

[HuntTalk Freak]

Wife and I left our house in East TX yesterday at 0500 for our honeymoon/first western hunt in southwest CO. After 16 hours on the road we finally made it to the condo we rented in the middle of our hunt area.
I almost hit a 150” class buck on the way in and saw about twenty deer all together along the road in the dark. So my hopes are high to at least see some deer.
Considering we came from -400ft to 7200ft my plan is to take it easy today, drive the unit some and glass some lower elevation stuff while we acclimate a bit more.

I’m making this thread in hopes to motivate and inform others wanting to take such a trip future.....plus it’s opening morning and I couldn’t sleep.

I will hopefully update each day as the trip continues.

 

[Tufrthnails]

Following along at work. I hop on a plane tomorrow morning to meet my brother in Denver for 2cd rifle (both of our first time hunting out west). Good luck too you. From the reports I got there should be plenty of animals left to chase after 1st Rifle. My brother said we should get snow Sunday.

 

[Pucky Freak]

Have fun and enjoy your honeymoon!

 

[Ben Sellers]

Good luck!

 

[WildWill]

Should be a adventure I'll be following good luck.

 

[Rico]

Honeymoon is a western hunt? You married right!

 

[ashersdad]

Good luck!!

 

[elkrchr]

Go get'm!

 

[HuntTalk Freak]

Well in total we saw around sixty deer, thirty elk and about ten turkey. Only one deer was on public land though.
I marked off a bunch off spots and found some new spots to go back to. Found a lot of fresh elk and deer sign deep in the timber but it’s hard hunting that stuff with two people.
I thought I hit the jackpot and found a closed road into a burn area. We were the only people in there for miles. Lots of old sign and even a carcass from last season, nothing fresh. Then I realized it was a newer burn and that’s why the road was closed and nothing was green. Oh well.
We only heard two shots all day and never ran into another hunter in the woods. A few places that looked crowded I drove on by.
No altitude problems so far.

 

[HuntTalk Freak]

Honeymoon is a western hunt? You married right!

I got VERY lucky.

 

[HuntTalk Freak]

Today kicked our butts big time; so much so that we decided to stay back and rest tonight instead of hunting. My feet are taped up, traps are sore. Her feet and legs and hurting. It took us hours to travel just a few miles to a meadow today. Lots of elevation gain and oakbrush. It looks like a good spot but our timing was off. I'm finding lots of good spots that are definite winter range for elk. Saw two piles of fresh bear crap.
I knew we weren't in good enough shape, but it's mainly my feet holding me back. She doesn't have the muscular strength in her legs.
We will carry on tomorrow.

 

[ZBB]

I needed a “rest” day on my honeymoon too. Good luck on the hunt!

 

[TheBenHoyle]

Congrats on getting hitched. Enjoy your honeymoon and good luck hunting. Thanks for sharing.

 

[LaSportsman]

moleskin is your friend to prevent blisters.

Don't expect to be able to hunt all day everyday. I made my first backcountry hunt this year. Live at 300' and camped at 10,200. We did around 4 miles of hiking per hunt, morning or evening. We took some evenings off to take a break. You can only do so many 10 mile days when you are going up and down ridges at elevation.

 

[Crossbowguy]

Good Luck!

 

[HuntTalk Freak]

Yesterday was the best day so far. After almost not going out in the morning we ended up going up to 9600ft to check out a burnt ridge I had marked during my e-scouting and saw 15 deer through the day. My dumbass even let a little 2x2 walk because I caught a glimpse of a bigger buck.

It’s a long drive in on a single track switch back road. A few camps but no road hunters. We are taking today off to rest and be tourist in town.

It looks like the deer are staying in the cover on the edge of the burn during the day and feeding into the burn in the morning/evening based off the tracks we followed. My plan is to go a little further into the burn in hopes to be able to glass a little more. We still hunted the timber during midday to see deer yesterday.

 

[Muskeez]

Best wishes! Enjoying a day of something else is good too !

 

[HuntTalk Freak]

Some pics.

Randy is right. These gates get you away from people.

Nothing like a hot moutainhouse to recharge midday.

My cheap/clearance priced gear has worked very well. I enjoy the cold though.

 

[HuntTalk Freak]

Finally had our first experiences with public land stupidity today. Woke up and left the cabin at 0400 to drive over a hour to the spot we had seen deer Monday. Get there about a hour before first light and I told my wife we should wait at the truck until we can see enough to still hunt our way back in. It gets light enough and we head out moving very slowly. We get about 200-300 yards down the trail and I turn around to see a truck pull in behind mine and block me in. I thought maybe they would back out and leave so we kept going and soon the trucks were out of sight. At this point we are 600-700yds in, after another few hundred yards I turn around and two guys are 100yds behind us. They proceed to stay around 100yds behind us for the two mile trip back in, snapping limbs and branches off every deadfall they cross. Wife and I get to our glassing spot and sit for about a hour but the canyon is too far across and too steep to really make a move on anything. So we decided to still hunt our way back, about a mile back towards the truck my wife says "hey there is a guy over there." I look and about 200yds to our left a guy is paralleling us up to the road, so I say screw it and just start hiking back to the truck.

We get back and at least the other two guys have already hiked back and left. Not sure what they were hoping to see following us just to turn around so quickly.

We seen way more trucks and people back in that area today and I think all the animals have moved deeper in so it's back to square one. We only have tomorrow left to hunt so I'm weighing my options. I regret taking it easy yesterday and not hunting.

 

[Muskeez]

There's always plenty of dumb out there no matter where you go, just wait it will get worse at some point, and also much better. Keep enjoying your time together in the mountains!