chuckchili
Well-known member
I've been on this site for a little while, lurking and learning, and I thought I'd share my hunts from this year.
I have an 11 year old son and an 11 year old step-daughter who really enjoy going with me and I try to space out the trips so it's fair... but on this occasion, they both ended up going. I had a 2nd season mule deer buck tag that took two points to draw and is within about 30-45 minutes from my house. I was able to make it up to this area three times during 2nd season, once with a buddy who had hunted there since he was a kid, once by myself and this last time with the two kids. I saw several deer every time I was out which was nice but I decided to go as many times as I could as time and obligations would allow. On the second outing, I found some spots I really liked about 3-4 miles in from the road and that's where we returned on the third trip. We parked on the side of the road and hiked in at about 6:30am before the sun was up. It was the type of situation where one side of the hills was mostly melted and there was about a foot of snow on the other side. I will give it to these kids, they are little Billie-goats, don't complain and do their best to stay quiet.
We first saw a couple groups of deer, I think we pushed one group of 9 and then saw another group of about 14 that were around 700 yards out about an hour later. We found our way to a bike trail where I had seen a very nice 5x5 buck the trip before and started walking along it. I saw another small group of deer on the hillside across from us and noticed this buck among them. I liked him because he seemed to have a good body and his antlers were a little weird. Most of the bucks I had seen were 2x2's with the exception of the nice 5x5 I saw on my second trip so this guy seemed like a keeper. I ranged him at 225 yards, although he positioned sharply down from where we were. I had a nice rest on a fallen tree and took my shot. I hit high center but he fell right where he was standing. (I later learned that the rangefinder I had borrowed was not set up to compensate for the angle, hence why I hit high.... I'm still learning.)
I stood up, picked up my pack and turned around to find my two children standing with two standard issue Coloradoan mountain biking hipster nature enthusiasts. They must have rolled up right when I sat to take my shot. They began asking all sorts of questions and although they seemed genuinely interested, I wanted to get down to my buck. As we walked down to where the buck went down, I asked my kids how long those guys had been standing there. "Pretty much the whole time" is the answer I got. We got to the deer, took pictures and got to work. I gutted and quartered it up- hanging it from trees to cool and dry while we ate lunch. Packing out was interesting- the kids alternated a standard Jansport backpack with the two front quarters stuffed into it and I carried the rest out in a very old, very dry rotted Redhead frame pack that ripped all the way down one side as soon as I tightened the first strap. (It was inherited from my father-in-law but prompted me to but my MR Sawtooth 45 about a couple weeks later.) I think it was heavy and uncomfortable for all of us so we took our time getting out and spaced it out over several hours.
The buck turned out to be a 5x4 and has tasted really good so far. The rifle I used is a Remington 700 in 300WM, Winchester Super-X 180 grain ammo.
I have an 11 year old son and an 11 year old step-daughter who really enjoy going with me and I try to space out the trips so it's fair... but on this occasion, they both ended up going. I had a 2nd season mule deer buck tag that took two points to draw and is within about 30-45 minutes from my house. I was able to make it up to this area three times during 2nd season, once with a buddy who had hunted there since he was a kid, once by myself and this last time with the two kids. I saw several deer every time I was out which was nice but I decided to go as many times as I could as time and obligations would allow. On the second outing, I found some spots I really liked about 3-4 miles in from the road and that's where we returned on the third trip. We parked on the side of the road and hiked in at about 6:30am before the sun was up. It was the type of situation where one side of the hills was mostly melted and there was about a foot of snow on the other side. I will give it to these kids, they are little Billie-goats, don't complain and do their best to stay quiet.
We first saw a couple groups of deer, I think we pushed one group of 9 and then saw another group of about 14 that were around 700 yards out about an hour later. We found our way to a bike trail where I had seen a very nice 5x5 buck the trip before and started walking along it. I saw another small group of deer on the hillside across from us and noticed this buck among them. I liked him because he seemed to have a good body and his antlers were a little weird. Most of the bucks I had seen were 2x2's with the exception of the nice 5x5 I saw on my second trip so this guy seemed like a keeper. I ranged him at 225 yards, although he positioned sharply down from where we were. I had a nice rest on a fallen tree and took my shot. I hit high center but he fell right where he was standing. (I later learned that the rangefinder I had borrowed was not set up to compensate for the angle, hence why I hit high.... I'm still learning.)
I stood up, picked up my pack and turned around to find my two children standing with two standard issue Coloradoan mountain biking hipster nature enthusiasts. They must have rolled up right when I sat to take my shot. They began asking all sorts of questions and although they seemed genuinely interested, I wanted to get down to my buck. As we walked down to where the buck went down, I asked my kids how long those guys had been standing there. "Pretty much the whole time" is the answer I got. We got to the deer, took pictures and got to work. I gutted and quartered it up- hanging it from trees to cool and dry while we ate lunch. Packing out was interesting- the kids alternated a standard Jansport backpack with the two front quarters stuffed into it and I carried the rest out in a very old, very dry rotted Redhead frame pack that ripped all the way down one side as soon as I tightened the first strap. (It was inherited from my father-in-law but prompted me to but my MR Sawtooth 45 about a couple weeks later.) I think it was heavy and uncomfortable for all of us so we took our time getting out and spaced it out over several hours.
The buck turned out to be a 5x4 and has tasted really good so far. The rifle I used is a Remington 700 in 300WM, Winchester Super-X 180 grain ammo.
... nice buck!
