Well we made it home Tuesday after driving straight through... I am STILL beat LOL... We had a great time, thought it was tough hunting... We got there it was warm and sunny, dry dirt. We had 9 in our group this year. We ended up taking the ranger (complete with heater) and the 700 and 800. Uncle borrowed our 500. (all are polaris)  Sat early evening it started to snow and of course we were thrilled But it literally started melting off 2 days later. By 3rd day was back to dirt again.. The deer just were not in the area. We were lucky to see a few deer a day, mostly does. Occasional small forks, but just no big boys... Some of the forks were so small in the body it wasnt worth the price of the tag to shoot it... So we passed on most everything for the first few days. By Thursday Uncle (and daughter and friend) are heading home, all three with them tagged out, Our uncle is notorious for heading home practically as soon as he gets there LOL..They werent being picky about antler size. Friday FIL headed out with a small but nice 3 pointer. That left me, hubby and son to fill our bull and buck tags. Missed a chance at a small 4 pointer bull one day. and another monster of a bull another day. Hubby and son literally tracked this bull and they couldnt see him but could smell him, bugger suddenly goes crashes thruough the junipers and hubby ducks down to look below the tree line and all he could see was butt and huge antlers as they crashed thru the trees... he was 20 yards away and heading for the cliff... And plowing a path like you wouldnt believe LOL..They ran after him and by the time they got the the cliff that bull had already made it down the face and was heading across flat ground. Couldnt take a shot cuz the bull ran right in front of a guy on a quad who proceded to chase the bull on the quad.. Apparently he didnt have a bull tag cuz he never reached for his rifle.. Hubby was soo mad LOL... To be THAT close and unable to get a clear shot... UGH...Was most definetly a wall hanger. He said its the biggest bull hes ever seen... If the quad guy hadnt been there he could have got some lead in the air for sure LOL...
Friday we really started seeing deer. Not just does but more and more bucks. Depsite the warm weather the does were coming into heat and were grouping up... Some of the smaller bucks were starting to rut. We started seing bigger bucks which pleased us LOL..I still was holding out for a wall hanger.. Hubby got a decent 4 pointer, not a trophy but still a 4 pointer LOL.. That left me with a buck tag, and hubby and son with bull tags..Sat we decided to go up top above the Widow Maker.. For those who arent familuar with the Widow Maker, picture a steep uphill climb with a rock lip at the top that is the cause of the name.. Many a quad has been sent back downhill in a "rapid fashion" due to that rock ledge. Not too many people venture past it, but for those that do its awesome hunting past there. Sat we had to winch the ranger up past the mud then once on dryer ground it made it the rest of the way on its on, even handled the rock ledge just fine. Found a valley that the deer were just thick as fleas.. I counted 21 doe.... The buck and a ton of does flew the coop soon as they heard us.. Hubby and son took off on the 700 trying to get a look at the buck but nevercould find him.. started geting dark so we headed back to camp... Let me tell you, driving that Ranger down the widow maker was a scarey experience... Son rode shot gun hubby filmed me coming down LOL... All I have to say is Im glad it was dark, cuz I Really didnt want to see where the edge lead to LOL..Sun morning we jumped up bright and early and made it to the Widow Maker with plenty of light to see by. With the extra day of sunshine the mud wasnt as slick. The Ranger ran up it without winching this time, though hubby did have it up on 2 wheels once that had me worried LOL.. I refused to drive it up.. Figured coming down was bad enough I sure as heck didnt want to test my driving skills up that ledge.. I passed up another 3 pointer, for a fork it would have been big, but the front tines had these itty bitty crawdad forks, so I figured I might takehim later that evening if we couldnt find me a big one.. Hunted the rest of the day and only saw 1 cow elk that hubby ranged and spotted for a guy. The guy was real nice, even offered it to my son since he had a cow tag as well, but it was his cow since he found it.. So we declined.. Afterwards we headed back to the valley where that buck and all them does were at the previous night. Me and my son went into it from below, and hubby went to the top of the mountain in case the buck ran off again... We snuck down in there and we were seeing does everywhere. Counted over 30.. We stopped and were looking to make sure none had horns when all the sudden a group of does looked to our right and then fled... We couldnt figure out why the ran, was thinking someone else was stalking the valley too... But it turned out to be a nice buck... He was definetly rutting he steps out from underneath us about 200 yards and chased 3 doe up the side of the mountain. I laid the scope across his shoulders and shot... Hit him good. He went in a circle and headed up hill so I shot again, hitting him a 2cd time, and went down in some grey shrubs.. WE kept watching to make sure he stayed down.. Hubby asks on the raido if we got him and then he came down and walked up the hill where we last saw the buck while we stayed where I shot from, he didnt even take his rifle LOL.. Which about figures... That bugger busted out of the bushes and ran down hill.. Then bedded down right in the open head up looking around, then he jumped up again and goes about 50 yards towards me and then beds down again and then just keeled over..
I can believe he lived so long, I desimated his lungs, and went right across the top of his heart, and his belly was just full of blood. He even had clotted up blood in his heart.. Bugger was apparently running on adrenaline. He is a nice 3 pointer. Not a trophy but certainly a nice deer Im gonna mount him LOL.. Hes a Big bodied deer, Took all 3 of us to get him in the back of the ranger. He was definelty in rut, neck was 20 inches, and he stunk bad.. Skinning him out back at camp showed I hit him solid both times. By all rights he should have dropped right where he was.. I shoot a 25.06 using 100 grain remingtons. It tends to cause a bit of a concusion inside... Small entry but lots of enternal damage.
Spent the next morning caping him out, split and turned it then we packed up camp and headed to town. Had to pick up an elk a guy left at the locker for me to mount, and uncle and sons meat. Took showers and headed home. Stopped off at Swingles and left two deer there, then got home...
The last couple of days Ive been fleshing and prepping hides.. I had to quit early tonight cuz I seemed to have managed to slice open my own finger. My fleshing handle slipped and the dang scalple did a complete flip backwards and sliced into my finger LOL.. I can assure you my blade was very sharp.. Didnt even bleed at first, gave me plenty of time to see how deep it went... so here I sent all bandaged up typing away... Yes I feel totally stupid LOL...
I cant wait to go back to Colorado in December for elk we have 3 cow tags for that hunt. IN the mean time we wil be working and catching up on some sleep.. I have to go to a wedding in reno Saturday, and hopefully the following weekend we might get to go pig hunting down south... Depends on how backed up work is.. Then we have to squeeze in a trip up North for bear and bobcat...

Tags: Deer Elk Hunting Colorado