My last Colorado mule deer hunt was almost 14 years ago, the area I was putting in for has been on the point creep for awhile. So me and the old man decided to change our points over to unit 61 based on the advice of one of my Dad's friends that had scouted the area alot a couple years prior. We had made one scouting trip in September and what we found was less that exciting. The country was big country with some distance between good hunting areas. This is a migration area which depends on storms to move deer. The lower country is mesa/canyon country with sage and cedars on the top of the mesa and pinion and cedar through out the canyon country. My hunt was for the 3rd season rifle nov 2 - nov 10.
4th day into the hunt we had only seen one possible shooter and very few deer for what is a trophy area. We got set up early on a little hill on top of a large mesa, that gave us 1500 yard vantage over the country below. About 45 minutes into spotting and seeing alot of deer this buck stepped out and rattled the cage of a 20 inch wide 4 point sniffing his does. He was 960 yards, which was out well out of range for the conditions(wind blowing 25 mph). We set out on our stalk. We made down to a small ridge where we thought we would be able to see the buck. While we were making our way down he had winded us. He was now at our 9 o'clock in a cedar pocket on the adjacent ridge. I caught him out of the corner of my eye moving through the cedars. I got set up on a dead tree and I dialed the scope for 300 yards and got on him. He stepped into a 5 feet opening in the cedars I glanced ahead on the line he was walking and saw that once he was through the opening he would be gone so touched off just as his head was going behind a cedar and 130 grain ballistic tip slammed him. He rocked back and rolled over.
He was by far the biggest buck we saw and most other hunters we talked to had not been seeing anything. So I felt pretty good about it.
4th day into the hunt we had only seen one possible shooter and very few deer for what is a trophy area. We got set up early on a little hill on top of a large mesa, that gave us 1500 yard vantage over the country below. About 45 minutes into spotting and seeing alot of deer this buck stepped out and rattled the cage of a 20 inch wide 4 point sniffing his does. He was 960 yards, which was out well out of range for the conditions(wind blowing 25 mph). We set out on our stalk. We made down to a small ridge where we thought we would be able to see the buck. While we were making our way down he had winded us. He was now at our 9 o'clock in a cedar pocket on the adjacent ridge. I caught him out of the corner of my eye moving through the cedars. I got set up on a dead tree and I dialed the scope for 300 yards and got on him. He stepped into a 5 feet opening in the cedars I glanced ahead on the line he was walking and saw that once he was through the opening he would be gone so touched off just as his head was going behind a cedar and 130 grain ballistic tip slammed him. He rocked back and rolled over.
He was by far the biggest buck we saw and most other hunters we talked to had not been seeing anything. So I felt pretty good about it.
