Annual Dink Report: Lowering the Bar So You Don't Have To

[Dsnow9]

With all the politics and bs on here lately I figured I needed to do my write up sooner than later or just get off HT for a while.

Well, I figured the best way to finically write up my hunt from this year is to actually start it. I was hoping to qualify for the international tree climbing championships in New Zealand in October so I went boom or bust with my draw strategy. It was a complete bust! I don’t draw anything and then broke a 1” diameter branch in the finals. It became a reissue game every week. And as each week went on I had more and more work coming in and no tags. It was a couple weeks before third season and I was able to pick up a third season buck tag. The next week I picked up a doe tag in a neighboring unit. And then decided to grab an otc elk tag where I had the deer tag. 3 tags, 2 units, and a week to get it done.

I was supposed to leave the Thursday morning before the Saturday season but got behind on a big job due to some early October snow.



The wind was whipping over 30 mph most of the day and took a beating. Took a whipper and hit my knee pretty bad on the swing. But we got the tree done and I headed out of the city after dark Thursday night.

 

[Dsnow9]

I drove up int a neighboring unit to get the most glassing area possible. Ive hunted these units a lot but it was really dry so tried to glass as much country as possible. My primary focus was elk and then deer. I glassed up a couple bulls first thing in the morning and a lot of big buddied deer but couldn’t make out antlers from my distance.


After things calmed down for the morning I went to site in my rifle that I hadn’t touched since Alaska and got her sighted in. And then glassed up a different spot for the evening.

I ended up spotting a real nice 3x3 buck in the evening but no elk so decided to focus on the other area opening morning.

 

[Dsnow9]

Well Saturday morning, opening morning, I woke up to two side by sides and 2 pickups pulling into my camping spot. I jumped out and got dressed in about 30 seconds and took off for a spot to make a play on those bulls. I bumped a couple deer 50 yards from camp in the dark. I was about 3/4 of a mile from camp and realized I didn’t have my vest. I dropped my rifle and pack and took off back to camp expecting to cross paths with those that woke me. They weren’t on the trail.

I made it back to my pack and headed over the ridge into the bow that held the elk. As I was cresting the ridge a tight little 4x4 buck skylined himself just above me and I passed on him due to the skylining and wanting to go for elk first.

I had to make my way across to a glassing point and strangely didn’t see any of the deer from the day before. The bow was void of animals despite having 50+ deer the morning before. As I glassed around, every knob below and above me had people on it. I think I counted 38 people within a mile of me.

As if that wasn’t enough two dudes with big glass, custom rifles, and radios stated working down into the valley. Radioing constantly up to their spotter. Obviously getting walked into the small 3*3 down in the hole. (Illegal in Co)

All the gear and radios in the world don’t change the wind direction though. They didn’t stand a chance but that was the icing on the cake for me to get the out of there and go check out a different area.

 

[Dsnow9]

I ended up chatting with a deer hunter from Calfornia on my way up into a different basin. I gave him some intel on the big 3x from the day before and he let me know about some bulls he was on the top of the mountain we were glassing.

I knew the general area they would bed and decided I would make the long hike around to avoid blowing them out and plan to be in position for the evening, hoping they would come out. It was about 7 miles and 2000 vertical to take the long way to where I wanted to be. I stopped for some snacks and glassing on the way, hoping to find a nice deer or some elk moving in the early evening but only saw does and deer spikes.
I ended up making it to my glassing point and sat for about 30 minutes. It was about 30 minutes to sunset when I spotted some cows and spikes about 700 yards away. I don’t shoot much, so I no way I was making a shot like that. I continued to watch and then saw what I thought was a spike turn its head. I counted 4 points. Game on. Only problem was I needed to cover over a mile to get around a ravine and get close enough for a shot. If it all worked out I would be under 150 yards.

As I came into the clearing I was making my play across the hill trying to side hill right into them. I wasn’t paying much attention around me and then heard three big bodies take off through the dark timber below me.

Well there went the bulls the deer hunter saw but they were in dark timber and I never saw them.

I creaked around the corner and spotted the cows working out into the open at about 100 yards but couldn’t see into the ditch where I had seen the bull.

I crawled about another 20 yards with about a half dozen cows in full sight. Trying everything to beat last light. I had about 5 minutes of legal light left. I got to a point where I could see almost the whole ravine and no dice.

Then I heard it, foot steps, breathing, footsteps, breathing. Real f’ing close. So close I couldn’t see the elk but sounded heavy. I was ready for a five yard frontal shot and then I felt the breeze on the back of my neck.

 

[Dsnow9]

Then two bulls blew out below me and ran across the ravine. They stopped broadside at 80 yards but both sets of vitals were behind aspens. One was obviously a spike. The other didn’t look right. I could only count 3 on one side and couldn’t see the other. 4 on one side or 5” brow tines. As the bull would turn its head looking for me I would count 3 head on and 3 sideways and the one brow tine I could see wasn’t for sure 5”. The light was going down fast. Then finally I saw it, the 4th point on the drivers side. He took a half step forward and the vitals cleared the tree. I had my rifle braced on my poles and took the shot. He rolled right away and was down.
All with less than a minute to spare.

I needed a headlight to find the bull even though he was only 80 yards away.
As I walked up to him I counted the 4 points and then went to roll him down the hill so I could cut him up on level ground. When he rolled it looked like he might have lost an antler but didn’t see anything on the hillside. Then I saw that his passenger side was a spike. I stuck my foot under his head, grabbed the antlers and rolled him. As I rolled him something hit me in the knee right where I had a big bruise from the tree. I almost rolled down the hill with the elk but was able to stay on my feet. When I got down to him I realized what hit me in the knee. He had a huge club hanging down below the spike.

 

[Dsnow9]

Got a text from CheesePizza saying he would be off work and could be at the trailhead in an hour. Calculating the hike up to where I was I told him I would meet him out in a clearing along the path in 3 hours. He had about a 2 hour hike in. I got to cutting and had everything bagged up in under 2 hours and then shuttled all the meat and skull to where I told him I would meet him. I was getting a rope setup in the tree to hang some meat overnight when he rolled into the clearing.


Full moon made for some cool pics and he took a cool pic of me getting the rope setup in the aspen as he came across the flat. I made him some hot chocolate and we loaded up on some snacks as we were loading the packs.

Left the fronts in the tree and took everything else with us. I think we made it back to the truck around midnight.

 

[Dsnow9]

Sunday morning I cooked CheesePizza some breakfast as a thank you before he headed off to work and I hit the trail to go get the fronts and see if I couldn’t find a deer.
Found someone’s fire spot on the way which was pretty cool and got the the meat before the sun ever hit it.
Decided I would be real smart and take a new way down to avoid a section of dark timber. With the bruised knee, tired legs, loose gravel, and steep sections it was not a good choice to down hike with a full pack.
I went down hard and tore up my arm. I decided that it might be a good up route if you needed to get up there quick and were fresh but the vertical was a bit much to be better than the stretched out hike through the section of timber.

 

[Dsnow9]

Ended up hunting in the area that evening and spotted a nice 3x3 but couldn’t close the distance without bumping him over the ridge.

 

[Caseknife]

You always seem to get it done, no quit. Cool looking bull. I hate mature oak brush.

 

[Dsnow9]

Monday morning I went back up into a similar area. I noticed a sxs that got a real early start parked at the trailhead so I hiked up to a glassing point with plans to get into place just before shooting light. I wasn’t 250 yards from my parking spot when a buck jumped up in front of me with a big juniper right behind him. I ripped my scope cover off and put him in my crosshairs. Less than 50 yards away and looked at my phone real quick to check time. 3 minutes till legal light….

In those three minutes he went over the ridge across the valley and then I lost him just before legal light. I set up my binos and stated glassing to find him. Then I saw someone hiking up the trail in the bottom of the valley going right between me and where I last saw the buck. He was just hiking the trail when I noticed the buck about 300 yards in front of him. The buck kept looking back and I could tell the buck knew he was there but wasn’t seen yet. Then the hunter grabbed for his rifle and leaned up against an Aspen. First shot seemed like a miss, second made the buck jump and looked to be way back. The buck took off and ended up running right down the ravine to him before another shot or two ended the deer.
With my morning plans ruined I decided to go introduce myself and see if he needed some help. I helped him cut up the deer and then pack it out the mile or so to the truck.
With my moral running a bit low but stoked for the guy from Utah I decided to go back and look for the big 3.

I got to the other spot just after lunch and hiked in a couple miles to glass the area I had seen the buck the night before season. About an hour before sunset I watched an outfitter with a couple clients on horseback ride straight across this basin without even slowing down to look. And then saw a couple hunters hiking down 3 different finger ridges after getting dropped up top by sxs. It was a bummer of an evening. Especially considering they were all hiking and moving in the golden hour. The were all back at camp before last light and I don’t see an animal. I hiked out tonight the dark and started to make a plan for Tuesday.

The plan was to check out an area I grew up watching from my childhood home but had never hunted.

 

[Rack Daniels]

Congrats

 

[Kiwi]

Awesome report, enjoyed reading that. Exciting to read reports from CO. I just need to draw a tag there now.

Sorry to hear that you didn’t make the NZ tree climbing finals. Would have been a great trip when adding in a side hunt!

Well done on getting the leftover tags, its my goal for 2026 to understand how that process work works.

 

[Dsnow9]

Tuesday morning CheesePizza joined me to go check out this new area. At first light we were glassing a basin about a mile from the trailhead and spotted a real nice buck across the valley on private but he was working further into private so we decided to keep working our way up the mountain. We were a couple miles deep before we saw another sign of deer. About a dozen does and a few spikes working through the aspens so we sat and glassed for a while to see if any bucks would follow them.
We were there for almost two hours when we heard something coming in real close. It was a buck we named chopsticks due to the chopsticks on his head. He was about ten yards from our glassing point.

We gave it another 45 minutes or so and decided to hike lower where we could see more country for the afternoon. We were laughing and joking when I looked to my left and just off the trail in the aspens a buck was bedded looking at us. I told him I was gonna shoot it and unknown to me he started filming.

I couldn’t pass up an opportunity like this in a basin I watched most of my childhood.

 

[Dsnow9]

 

[Dsnow9]

75 yard frontal shot and he was down. 2 of 3 tags filled.

 

[Dsnow9]

I looked at the clock and figured we could likely get him cut up, packed out to the truck, and drive the 1.5 hours to my doe unit and get there with about an hour of daylight left to go. We hiked the couple miles back to the truck, grabbed gas and some food, and then drove to my doe unit. There were wall tents, sxs, 4 wheelers, and trucks on every corner. I couldn’t believe it. But I guess it shouldn’t be to surprising considering the geography of this unit. I drove up to the closest high point I could find and we started glassing. For 30 minutes or so we didn’t see anything. Then we decided to start working are way across a ridge checking out different fingers going into this pretty steep basin.

After 3 or 4 we looked down and a group of 4 arcane 6-8 guys were glassing up towards us. We figured they had see something so we kept creeping. Across the face. Eventually we saw three of them moving towards us from the bottom of the basin and hunkered down. Just then I spotted a lone doe and lined up on her. Figuring if they didn’t shoot her I would.

Then a shot rang out and heard an impact. The doe I had in my sites didn’t flinch or even stop eating. I lined her up and took the shot. Cheese pizza agin got it on video.

She dropped and then I realized we had almost no gear, no game bags, no poles, and only I had a pack. CheesePizza ran back and moved the truck and I headed down the mountain to start cutting. By the time he got to me I had her all cut up and then we headed out.

I thought there were a bunch of brake lights in the trees but it ended up being the northern lights.

And then finished it all off and bought him his usual as a thank you.

 

[Dsnow9]

Got all the meat back home and took care of the family that had been fighting a stomach bug for the last two days, only to then be taken out by it myself. Received a photo of the big 3x the last day of the season from the guys from California.



I may be good at filling the fridge but I’ll just keep saving the big ones for everyone else!

 

[Kiwi]

I looked at the clock and figured we could likely get him cut up, packed out to the truck, and drive the 1.5 hours to my doe unit and get there with about an hour of daylight left to go. We hiked the couple miles back to the truck, grabbed gas and some food, and then drove to my doe unit. There were wall tents, sxs, 4 wheelers, and trucks on every corner. I couldn’t believe it. But I guess it shouldn’t be to surprising considering the geography of this unit. I drove up to the closest high point I could find and we started glassing. For 30 minutes or so we didn’t see anything. Then we decided to start working are way across a ridge checking out different fingers going into this pretty steep basin.

After 3 or 4 we looked down and a group of 4 arcane 6-8 guys were glassing up towards us. We figured they had see something so we kept creeping. Across the face. Eventually we saw three of them moving towards us from the bottom of the basin and hunkered down. Just then I spotted a lone doe and lined up on her. Figuring if they didn’t shoot her I would.

Then a shot rang out and heard an impact. The doe I had in my sites didn’t flinch or even stop eating. I lined her up and took the shot. Cheese pizza agin got it on video.

She dropped and then I realized we had almost no gear, no game bags, no poles, and only I had a pack. CheesePizza ran back and moved the truck and I headed down the mountain to start cutting. By the time he got to me I had her all cut up and then we headed out.

I thought there were a bunch of brake lights in the trees but it ended up being the northern lights.

View attachment 400904View attachment 400905View attachment 400906View attachment 400907View attachment 400908View attachment 400909View attachment 400910View attachment 400911View attachment 400912View attachment 400913
And then finished it all off and bought him his usual as a thank you. View attachment 400914

Beautiful country!

 

[duckhunt]

Great stuff

 

[OkieChasingElk]

Great read. Loved all the pictures. Glad to see you finding that success!!