Against all odds: my 2023 season

I havent been picky, just havent seen mature deer. Im not really holding out for a giant, just mature and hopefully character. Ive seen tons of young bucks and 2 old bucks in decline. Ive hunted harder than ever, dawn to dusk each day and in the right spots. The mature bucks just havent showed. Things I cant control arent working in my favor. Talking to some locals and other hunters, they said this is the worst theyve ever seen it.

@Oak is right, 2 days left on this side of 25. I dont know if I can get away from family or work to hunt December.
 
txco said:
I havent been picky, just havent seen mature deer. Im not really holding out for a giant, just mature and hopefully character. Ive seen tons of young bucks and 2 old bucks in decline. Ive hunted harder than ever, dawn to dusk each day and in the right spots. The mature bucks just havent showed. Things I cant control arent working in my favor. Talking to some locals and other hunters, they said this is the worst theyve ever seen it.

@Oak is right, 2 days left on this side of 25. I dont know if I can get away from family or work to hunt December.
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Hold to it, not a dang thing wrong with eating a tag. You are giving it the effort.
 
so when I found out I had won this tag in a raffle, I was dumbstruck but immediately went to work preparing for it. I looked into every avenue of hunting it from early to late season, guided/diy, and the many possible areas. After drawing the moose tags, I gave up on hunting in velvet and put my effort to late season. This was great because Id never drawn nor would ever draw a good late season tag in Colorado. I got a couple calls from folks in September about bucks that had been found but never ended up hunting any of them. So I more or less blocked off the last 2 weeks of November. I talked to several previous tag holders in my primary unit. I had a fantastic plan and felt more prepared than ever. I was ready to go.
 
Unfortunately a couple things out of my control didnt work in my favor, I was going to have to hunt solo as my dad had to take care of my mom and no friends could peel away during Thanksgiving and the weather was awful. It was 55 and sunny when I showed up during 3rd season.
 
I was hopeful but not delusional about the size of deer I could find. Again, my best buck is a 150 class deer and I would be happy with a 175+. Everyone told me to hold out for 200, especially after 4th season. I was ready for this to be a hard hunt and I brought everything to adapt to conditions and areas. My first week of hunting had a few deer and nothing big or mature except one buck on the decline. I went home for Thanksgiving.
 
I came back after Thanksgiving during 4th season. There was a little snow but unfortunately it melted quick. I heard there were a couple big time folks with 4th season tags that had 7 or 8 friends/spotters with them fanned across the unit. I had a couple locals a friend introduced me to helping where they could. But after 7-8 days of solo hunting I was exhausted and trying to stay upbeat. I had some great spots nailed down but just couldnt find the deer. I was hearing the same thing from other hunters
 
One morning on a glassing knob, I got there at daybreak, then had a couple spotters show up above me, then had someone below. Well that morning got fogged in and it turns out the person below me was a guide Id talked to over the summer and stayed in loose touch with. We ended up talking for a couple hours while the fog was in and visibility was low. We had a really good conversation. He offered to help me out after his other hunters tagged out if I wanted. I took it to get some extra eyes in the field the last couple days and I could still hunt solo as much as I wanted. He and the locals comments were theyd never seen this hunt this bad before.
 
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4th season ended and deer were moving but still no mature bucks. It was so weird. Just no 5-7 year old deer. It seems like there wasnt enough snow to push them down. Even all the private land with deer you can ogle had no big bucks.
 
So that brings me to today November 30th last day of my season in the mountains. I really didn’t want to or think I could get away to the Plains and pay private land. I am back on that same glassing knob and just not seeing many deer. I saw a 160 buck chasing a doe and a couple other single doe.
 
I’m debating on going to get that 160 buck and be content that I left it all out there on the field. I circled up with the guide to hear what else is going on because I was solo this morning, I hear that a mature buck has finally been spotted. So we meet up and go relocate this buck on a ridge in the high country. He requires a big pull up a snowy ridge, and then we have to find a opening in the trees. There ended up being quite a number of deer that start to get edgy. I eventually get a 170 yard shot at the buck of my dreams.
 
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