Gastro Gnome - Eat Better Wherever

2024 Colorado Draw Results Thread

Idk why you're all saying this post is too early.. I'm drawing sheep and goat in only 2 weeks. Haha in my dreams

All seriousness I have yet to shoot a buck here, I can never find one good enough for my standards. Maybe this will be the year
 
I know I will never bag animals as good as many of you have, for me, the trophy has become the tag. I grew up in the 80’s on Outdoor Life adventure stories when everything had a “softer” aura to it and before, it seems, everything got so technical. Pictures of dudes in surplus woodland fatigues, soaking wet, over an archery raghorn… that kind of stuff. As the hunt for tags gets more challenging each year, regardless how many points one has, I think more and more about going back in time and just wanting to experience it, just hunt. Even those small game pictures/jokes amidst beautiful western country remind me thats theres lots of great hunting available, regardless of species/score. Yeah it makes me a little dissapointed I will probably never have my hands on a bighorn at timberline, or a mountain goat, a 350 bull or a 200 muley but all those photos happen at the end of what was probably ALREADY a great hunt. And any hunt can be… and should be.

Wishing “trophy” tags to all.52477A56-8BA7-4747-BCEB-DBD8858EAC8F.jpeg37A8C9FD-AA98-46E7-982C-85B23AACC603.jpeg388B3945-0DC5-4038-814E-AB68FE8DFC8D.jpeg
 
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2020 OTC elk, the last time I hunted Colorado. My buddy (on the right) and I got to our intended camp site mid morning and decided to do a cold calling sequence before setting up camp. 59 minutes in to a 1 hour planned calling setup, he came strolling in.

It was 95 degrees in Denver that morning. 2 days later we suffered through a labor day blizzard at 11,500' that was no joke for a couple Florida boys. Still numb thinking about that cold ha.
Good to see those smallish tasty bulls removed from the gene pool. The last few years before the ugly NW winter kill, we harvested some tiny legal raghorns. Years ago it seems like the frame work for the legal bulls was much larger in some areas than it is today.
 
One on the left was 66lb they're actually delicious.View attachment 321889
Have eaten beaver, muskrat, raccoon and possum. Raccoon gets my nod. Beaver was a bit "sweet" to me but would eat again. We ran traplines and would cook up a few critters each winter rather than just keep the hide to sell for cash to one of the two fur buyers that would visit town a few times during trapping season to buy fur, deer and cow hides. We also ate duck, goose, deer, dove, quail, rabbit and squirrel. I was almost out of high school when wild turkey got a season. I got stuck with a drumstick that first wild turkey and that was a battle to chew on.
 
@trb you just snipe em with .22s right?

not sure how else you'd do it in colorado.

i have one spot that would be great for this. thought about doing it plenty of times. making it a priority with limited time has been the issue. i can see the boredom of waiting for a beaver to show it's head for a quick snipe with a .22 would probably result in failure by falling asleep. then you have to hope you can retrieve it.

actually, i can think of another solid spot for this.
 
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