Welp, I am home and tired. Seems my old behind was really behind the curve on rest. But here goes, lets hope I don't dose off in the middle.
I got to the Natural Resources office on USAFA a bit early this morning. The safety/boundary briefing is given at 0600 and I was riding a bench by 0540. The group this morning consisted of about 7 buck hunters and 2 doe hunters and was pretty quiet sitting waiting for it all to begin. The guy next to me was from WY so this hunt cost him at least 15-17 pts. Finally about 0615 we got the spiel from the female wildlife biologist. I was probably a little more informative for the folks who don't spend much time up there- I am on USAFA several times a week and live just south. At the completion we kind of just hap hazardly paired ourselves up with our "guides". For those who don't know, the hunts on USAFA are with a guide/chaperone who is responsible for driving you around in a government vehicle, helping you glass and making sure that you don't shoot any houses (ONLY high powered rifles are allowed as a method of take.
I walked over and met Ricky. He is a Fish and Wildlife Officer from the Pueblo Chemical Depot about an hour south of here. We load my kit into his truck ASAP so that we could head to a ridgeline in the middle of the base where we could glass several bowls and try to catch some deer heading to bedding areas. We were up there about 20 minutes before shooting light and had deer around us from the get go. First a set of does on a hillside. Then a buck we took about 10 minutes watching before he turned and we saw that his right side was busted. For about another 30-40 minutes we watched the bowls and saw several does, a couple of forkys and a very small 3x. it came time to move and we walked back to the truck, turning up 2 more does on the way. As we drove out of that area (the ridge that runs east/west from Stadium Drive to the Prep School) we spotted more does here and there before turning the corner to see 2 bucks. One was a tall 3x still in velvet and the other was a 4x that was splindly and obviously a 3 year old. Those guys got a pass after we watched for a few to make sure big brother wasn't around.
From there we headed to Ice Lake road and further to the south boundary of USAFA and the fire break that runs there. The first small bowl we came to had a bunch of does and forkys milling about eating acorns from the oak brush. We glassed for a bit with no further results. We moved on and as we came to the top of a hill we passed another truck with a hunter. They said all they had seen were a couple of small bucks on the next south facing hillside. We continued on and saw both of those little guys and looked around them for a few minutes to see if anything was with them.....zilch.
We continued up the fire break and right after we passed through a gate Ricky though he saw something up ahead. We crept up and saw 4 yearlings (2 d 2 b) eating off the right side of the road. We must have been pretty fixated on those guy because as we got to within about 60 yards of them I scanned to the left and BAMM....right there was a GOOD deer. I hit him with the binocs long enough to to see he was tall, fairly thick and had a bit of palmation. I told Ricky "That's the winner" and in about 3 seconds was out of the truck, cycled a round into the chamber and took a quick shot at about 30-40 yards!!! He was antsy and about to head into the thick stuff. He jumped at the impact and stumbled downhill through the oak brush he had been feeding at. The track job was a short one made even easier as he was CRAZY rutty/stinky. He made it about 25 yards down to another fire break and fell right next to the track. We got to him, took a few shots and then headed back to the Office to get him on the gambrel to make caping and cutting easier.
Turns out he was the biggest buck taken this year antler wise and hit the scale at 210# with ZERO fat anywhere on him. He had been working hard the last few weeks apparently. I texted a select few, including my wife. Thankfully her reply included the question "You ARE getting a shoulder mount, aren't you?" Merry Christmas to ME!!!
It is hard to express how lucky and thankful I feel for what transpired this big game season. The only tag I didn't fill was the IL tag that I really did have time to give any shot. On top of the harvests there was the incredible time spent with some of the best people on the planet that I am lucky enough to call friends. Thanks to all of those friends, my family and God for enabling me to do what I love.
Once I get into a living situation where I have even an inkling of space to myself I will have a processing set up.
He said "Let's take a look" . He took it out and told me that everything looked good. Wheewwwwww, what a relief. Then he proceeded to tell me about a guy who brought a deer in earlier in the week that was cut ALL THE WAY up the brisket to the chin!!! When asked about it the dude said "well, I HAD to get the esophagus out" The taxidermist just shook his head. Waiting the year to get this guy back is gonna suck ......but in a good way.
