ecroofsalot
Member
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2020
- Messages
- 39
This forum has great info and I plan on sharing my experiences along the way. Quick deer story from last year hunting Unit 3/301 CO. My wife and I had only 3 days shoot a buck. We showed up a day early to scout and saw the most deer we have ever seen in our lives, although few bucks. Right before dark I spotted a nice 4x4 so we planned on coming back the next day. That night we ate at JW's (a really good bar/grill) and got sat with a big family of hunters. They told us to get an elk tag too because they had seen quite a few moving around earlier that day. Of course I didn't want to get caught with my pants down, so off we went to Walmart for the OTC bull tag. The next morning we drove in the dark to get to the spot I saw the big buck the day before. As we were driving we had a small bull and 2 cows run right in front of my truck. Game On, I thought! Get to the spot to find a crap ton of other hunters. We ended up hunting a little but didn't see anything happening. We drove up to a little finger ridge where we could walk and glass. My wife spots a decent 3x3 on a ridge about 1500 yards away. I was about to haul ass down the ravine when she reminding me I had forgotten my pack in the truck. Dumb ass me all excited forgot my pack! We turn to walk back and as we did, a herd of about 20 elk come running our way. There was 1 legal bull in the back, but too far for my 30/06. We chased them around a little while from different angles but they managed to get to private and that was that. At this point I was in need of a nap because I hadn't slept much leading up to this trip. Too much excitement. We ended up finding a small bowl shaped area down in the sage brush where no one had been for quite some time. It snowed the week before and there were still no tracks. I told my wife, let's go down there set up the bed and take a nap. I thought, who knows maybe something will come by and when we wake up we'll be there. That's exactly what happened. I slept for almost 2 hours, got up, pissed off the tailgate and started glassing. To my surprise, 430 yards away a buck a 2 does were feeding in the sage brush. I woke my wife and had her watch them as I got ready. I could have shot him from the truck had I been a better shot. I crawled in the snow to 370 when the does noticed me moving. I laid down, set up my bipod, checked the range and waiting for the buck to present a shot. He bedding down shortly, but when the does start getting anxious he got up. BAM! shot my first buck. I saw the 2 does flee but no buck. I walked up and found a large bodied 2x2 Colorado mule deer buck. Wow, how did that even happen. Took a nap, wake up and shoot my first deer. Crazy. Gutted and loaded, we celebrated and headed to the processor. We hunted elk and saw elk the next 2 days but were unable to get on them. My wife and I shared a small fire up on a mountain watching a herd of around 200 head of elk on private land. Great experience. I can't wait to see how this year plays out.
