CO Deer: Wind, Treasures, and... Wind

[TOGIE]

My favorite time of year - Colorado Mule Deer hunting in November.

I only ended up with tags in state this year - a blessing and a curse: time to focus on my resident tags being a blessing, no opportunity to traipse around the magical states of Wyoming or New Mexico a curse.

I spent most of my elk hunt chasing around a herd of elk with my buddies in a unit my two (bull & cow) tags were no good in. Hell of a lot of fun, but came home empty handed, obviously. Therefore, on to my second to last tag (still holding a later doe tag) It's the tag i'm more excited for anyway: Mule Deer Buck.

My buddy has a cow tag, which complicates things, especially at this time of year when the snow has yet to really pile up. Each tag requires focus on two very different parts of the unit, but we'll be hunting together. However, I have 5 days, he has 1.5, which, frankly, is barely enough to set up camp let alone find elk in a unit you've never hunted elk in. But we'll give it a go, and once he leaves i'll change locations and focus more heavily on deer if we don't get lucky enough to turn one up in the deeper elk country.

I set out a day and half before season starts to do some scouting and determine where we should focus, or rather, and more likely, where we should not focus.

I get to spot 1, and holy shit, the wind is whipping. I do some scouting, my binos on my tripod constantly vibrating in the consistent gusts. NOAA said gusts could be pushing 50 mph, i believed it.

The nearly decade old burn was far more timbery than i anticipated in an area i really wanted to focus on.




I focused on the other direction that provided more openness. I turned up nothing. There were a lot of pockets in the timbery direction i had my mind on from e scouting that could very likely hold elk. But, I was getting bad vibes in this spot, real or perceived, didn't matter to me and the wind was horrific, so I climbed back in the truck to find a camp spot for the night lower down. I wanted to try and get out of the wind and nearer some other areas i wanted to check out anyway. Scouting time was not limitless, had to get eyes on more than one spot.

 

[TOGIE]

I drove further down in the dark to a spot to camp near another glassing point for the morning. Great news: the wind was just as bad down here.

I parked my truck up wind of the tent location and carefully set up a small backpacking tent while the wind whipped. Jumped back in the truck to eat my subway sandwich and stay warm.

Isn't this time of year great? It's like 6 o-clock, dark as dark can be, the wind feels like it's goin to turn my truck upside down, and i've got three hours at the least until i'm tired enough to maybe fall asleep.

"hunting sucks" i say to myself jumping back in the truck after taking a rather breezy dump behind a downed tree. Maybe another one will fall and kill me tonight, sounds better than trying to sleep in this wind tunnel.

I do walk around a bit to pass the time. It's not snowing, per se, but there is some snow coming from the sky, literally horizontally. I look up at the halfish moon and watch clouds whipping past it like a jet. You can even barely perceive cloud shadows moving across the landscape.

The streaks in this photo are whipping snow flakes.



I sat in the truck with music playing softly reading a book until it got close enough to bed time to try and sleep. I took some diphenhydramine, brushed my teeth, climbed into my tent that somehow was still there, put in my ear plugs, and surprisingly slept pretty well.

 

[TOGIE]

I woke up late, saw my alarm was already snoozing, it had to have been snoozed at least twice or three times by this point.

Classic drowsy-not-actually-awake-enough-to-realize-you-did-it snooze button push. But three times?! Good grief.

I jumped out of the tent and got my pack and quickly hiked the 0.8 miles to my glassing point in the early morning light. It was still rather windy, not as bad though.







I thought the odds of seeing an elk in here were relatively good, but I saw none. Frankly, I though this pocket would likely be crawling with deer, but nah.

Around 9:15 I catch a solo, young buck, cruising across an open ridge. Having seen no does i assume he's on a horny mission. He's clearly cruising, the rut is beginning and he has no companions, male or female. He does not waste time cruising across the hillside and dropping in to the next drainage. I make mental note, though knowing full well based on that behavior he could be 8 miles away by tomorrow morning when the season opens. Any buck you seeing moving about without does at this time of the year is not gonna be just chillin where you find him.

I start hiking back. I need to go get ready to meet my buddy at the meetin spot on the road.

Driving to that spot I notice a particular forest service road with the gate wide open. "Holy crap" i say to myself. I've been driving past the gate, literally probably 120 times over the last ten years, and had never seen that gate open. My mind is racing, far up that road is where the elk very likely are, i already knew that. But I ignored it in my planning because, well of course, the gate will be closed just as it always has been and getting up there to where i think the elk would be with the gate closed would require an amount of burned boot leather that we could not manage.

But the gate is open, that changes everything, and i have to entirely reorient how I approach this hunt. Season starts tomorrow. "Damnit I say, but hell yeah."

 

[SilverDollars]

Howdy. You're dreaming the gate is open! IT IS NOT OPEN! You need sleep so you don't drive into the locked gate. You are only imagining this possibility. Go to sleep. Nothing ever works as planned during the late seasons in the Rockies. ZZZzzzzzz

 

[TOGIE]

I meet up with my buddy at the aptly named "meetin place."

I inform him that this road is open and we need to go explore how open it is and find a spot to camp in there. Is it open only half it's length? 1/3? All the way to the top? That road was subjected to a monumental fire last year, it can't all be open, can it?

It is. We find a camp spot on the lower section. Set up camp and set out for evening glassing in a spot I never thought we'd go to.

The wind is WHIPPING, again, no, still, it never stopped really.

We hunker down behind a rock, put on every item of clothing we have with us. We glass, freeze our butts off. My binos are vibrating like crazy. If I don't pay attention for two seconds the wind topples my tripod. But we persist, never see anything. We start getting ready to head back to camp.

*technically this picture is from after the season started, but it's the same spot. I was too cold and pissed about the wind to take pictures the night before.



"Come over here" my buddy says. "I think that's a bear. I mean, i've been looking at the black spot a lot, it's not moving, but then i just looked back and i swear there is more black"

"No way that's a bear" I say, "all the bears I've ever watched barely don't move for more than like 6 seconds, that thing is definitely not moving."

I notice a sort of white thing near this jet black spot in tall brush and young trees. The white thing suddenly appears to disappear. That's odd. I chalk it up to the wind. It's just a burned stump and the wind is changing what i can see around it.

"Let's get back to camp"

15 minutes later on our way back we look back down in that area. There's that jet black thing again. Whoa, there's that whitish thing again. Holy crap that thing is huge. Not a bear. It's a rather mature bull moose.

Really cool. And boy, great to see an animal, even if one we don't have tags for, or frankly, may never have tags for. Hopefully different animals turn up in this spot tomorrow morning.

Time to go chomp chipotle burritos my buddy picked up, sit in the hot tent out of the wind and just chat. Hunting with best buds you've known for many years, this is what makes it special, just getting to chat and talk life.

 

[TOGIE]

We get going pre light and get back to our same glassing spot for the season opener. Really hopeful something will show itself and we can go after it.

I half worry about bumping into that bull moose in the dark on the way in. He was really only about 200 yards away when we finally saw him in full last night.

You guessed it: the wind is STILL whipping. I'm so over it. Yeah the season just started but i've been getting whipped by wind for nearly two days now.

We see nothing. We decide maybe the wind is keeping animals low in the drainages. We decide to start walking somewhat through the drainages, down then up, perpendicular to them, but still high enough we can look down them.

 

[TOGIE]

We continue to see nothing. You can't walk three feet in here without stepping on elk crap from last year. We saw one pile of fresh elk poop, and one pile of fresh deer poop. Fresh is relative, it could be upwards of a week old for all we know.

Not promising.

We decide we need to be done with this area. We take a quick break, eat some snacks, and start picking our way back to camp. We're gonna drive the road higher, look at the maps, and think of new entry points to look for elk. Again, my deer tag can wait, I have plenty of time. I know where to go find deer later.

On the way back to camp i glance off to my left. Some 20 yards off, well dang that looks like an elk shed.

Nope.



Probably from that same bull moose we saw last night. He ain't too shabby for a colorado shiras.

Unbeknownst to me, the treasure hunt had just begun.

 

[Bambistew]

Thats some cool looking deer country

 

[RobertD]

Brother I think I do that with my alarm clock nearly every day

Nice shed, if you ever draw a moose tag you will know where to start looking

Eagerly awaiting the treasure hunt

 

[TOGIE]

We get back to camp and decide to chill for a little bit, sit in the chairs, eat lunch, look at maps, and discuss where to go.

I cook up some kraft mac and cheese real quick, he eats a sandwich. Gosh i love kraft mac and cheese while hunting.

I walk a little away from camp to take a leak. I'm standing there looking off into the forest.

"Gosh that gray stick way out there just does not look natural" I think to myself.

I zip up and start walking over there. I keep getting closer, no freaking way that's a stick, what are the odds a stick is forked so perfectly, sticking up like that, with such uniform diminishing diameter.

Well of course it wasn't a stick.

The treasures are starting to stack up. I'm starting to think that carrying around a rifle is stupid and we should do something else with our time.



i want to find that buck... badly

 

[MarvB]

Nice finds! And the Keebler elves even shrink wrapped your firewood for you!

 

[TOGIE]

Nice finds! And the Keebler elves even shrink wrapped your firewood for you!

kinda like leprechauns. you leave your camp for just handful of hours and they emerge to do cheeky chit to your stuff. like, i was about to use that firewood, and now i have to freaking cut it apart

jk it was way too windy to have a fire outside.

 

[MarvB]

…you know it’s windy when you take the same dump twice…

 

[TOGIE]

We drive the road higher. We start approaching about 10.5k feet and we start feeling much better about finding elk.

But it's severely, let me say that again, it is SEVERELY burned back here. Where is the greenery? We know there will still be some. But this place is the picture of apocalypse.

We come around a bend, pushing high alpine, and there's the classic big green ford truck sitting there on the side of the road: the game warden.

Heck yes. Time to learn. I'm sure many of us are the same: generally speaking, crossing paths with a game warden is awesome.

He gives us lots of great tips, tells us where he's been seeing elk pulled out of (unfortunately most of those areas were utilized with horses, too far given our timeframe) and gave us great tips on places to check out within reach. Surprisingly the spot we wanted to try is one of the spots he pointed us to.

We stand at the back of my truck talking, wind whipping, we're all shivering. He thought my moose shed was awesome. Said it's better than shooting a buck. I agreed on the point of rarity, but not on the point on what i'd actually be happier going home with. Super nice guy. Between wyoming and colorado, I can't speak better of all the wardens i've come across. Just great, passionate, helpful, nice people.

 

[TOGIE]

We turn around and head back down the road to where we will start the hike to the hillside we wanted to glass that evening. The warden was saying the likelihood we see elk filter out and feed on that hillside filled with that now rare greeney was probably pretty high.

It's oddly cool hiking through some of these severe burns. Creates an eerie sensation. You imagine what was like while it was happening, the energy release, the chaos, and yet the natural beauty of the cycle of the forests. But these burns are different, they're hardly regenerative, they hardly feel natural. The once full forest feels so oddly empty... an upright skeleton. How could there be elk back here?

 

[TOGIE]

We climb through the upright graveyard to an open spot on a tall hill where we can glass a large grassy hillside opposing us. The hill side drops down in to a valley with a tiny bit of water filtering through it with grassy meadows that go all the way up the valley floor and meet a stark ending at the burned forest.

I get all cozied up in my puffy pants and jacket to glass in the, you guessed it, WHIPPING wind. gawddamnit i'm sick of this.

not 15 minutes in to glassing i catch a buck cruising the top half of this rather steep green hillside, bordered on the top and the left by aspens.

i don't hesitate, i tell my buddy we should take a stab at getting over to this buck. i start taking my heavy glassing clothes off for the stalking attempt while he watches.

we had agreed, under all circumstances, if a legal animal shows itself, whether for me or him, we go after it. i'm ready. we watch him again.

he has a moment with a small tree. angrily bashing at it with his antlers. i imagine he's chock full of sexual frustration. "damnit where are the does? what tree? you think you're better than me?"

yeah, no does. i swear he looks like the same buck i saw yesterday morning, several miles away from here.

again no does, here nor anywhere we've been... stalking this guy is a bad idea. the chance that he is long gone before we'd even have an opportunity to spook him or see him is very high, but he may stay put, it's not impossible. i gotta try, just in case.

he finishes beating up the tree and wanders a little further left into the aspens and below a ridge that bisects the front of the hillside from top to bottom. i can sneak up on on the right side of the hillside, be above him and upwind, and peak over the ridge to be in sight of him. we start going. the hill is steep. i'm drenched by the time i get up there. buck is nowhere to be found. i glass into the other drainage he may have wandered into, i glass the aspens, nothing. the wind is brutal. we drop a little lower and sit to see if elk show up.

they never do.

 

[TOGIE]

back in our sleeping bags my buddy decides he doesn't really wanna get out again, he has to leave around noon anyway, and frankly neither of us are convinced we're gonna see elk on that hillside. and it was the only place we had in mind, the other place would take daylight to figure out as we hadn't been there and didn't wanna go in in the dark. he'd rather enjoy a morning in camp, drinking coffee and hanging out.

fine by me, sounds nice. i'm not convinced that this is the spot for deer and i'm moving elsewhere after he leaves. a chill morning and extra sleep will do me good before venturing off on my own.

morning comes, we chat, enjoy being in the woods, eat a little breakfast, drink coffee, curse the wind that's still plenty present, and say goodbye to each other.

i wander for just a little bit looking for more treasures, pack up, and head off to the real deer country.

 

[TOGIE]

I pull into where i wanted to start really focusing on deer around noon. I had a plan well put in place. I had a little over 2 miles to get to the glassing knob i wanted to be at and i was antsy to get there and start looking for deer.

I get all packed and put together, rifle on my shoulder and off i go.

The mother effing wind is still whipping. I have to tighten my orange cap to help it stay put.

after nearly 2 miles i start up the ridge to start getting to my glassing spot. I come in to view of a group of hunters from a distance on a steep hillside huddled around and bending over, i see game bags. dangit dangit dangit. shoulda been here yesterday. i'm now stressed.

i keep climbing up my ridge, the hunters fall out of view. my ridge is going to circle around and meet the top of my glassing knob which is currently to my left. i look over at it and see a large group of deer that have popped up, are looking at me, agitated, getting ready to bail. mother effer i say to myself. they were on the downwind side of the hill. they don't watch me for long before popping over the ridge and could only be going to the valley floor on the wind facing side of my glassing knob.

as they pop over the ridge i notice the buck. i don't see much, but i notice wide, easy to see antlers. and then he's gone.

frick.

 

[TOGIE]

i hurry to circle around my ridge, being careful to slowly come over each rise that meets me along the way. I get to my glassing area and ever so slowly to start to peak down into the valley where the deer went.

I see them.

no longer moving. staring back up where i am to see if anything is following them. i see the buck.

okay, this is salvageable. i see a path to sneak up behind them. they're below a small rise in the valley. I can drop back, start down towards the top of that valley from this glassing knob, circle back and come up behind them with that rise between us.

it's steep, i forget to be careful climbing down this thing and i'm trying to move fast, these deer are on edge already. i have a few close call slips, but i'm fine.

i get down in the valley, i had caught one more glimpse of the deer before completing my descent, still there. i start working towards the rise, find some bushes to use to hide my approach, get to where i can start seeing down, no deer....

frick frick frick, i forgot about the wind, it's now not so great, not blowing directly towards them, but more in their direction than i'd like. they're probably long gone.

nope, i poke a little farther forward and it becomes clear how close to them i'd accidentally just gotten. roughly 50 yards. they start blowing up toward the other side of the valley.

i see the buck. i don't hesitate, i move into a clearing rack a round pray for the classic "mule deer look back"

i have him in the scope, he's slowing down, but the does are taking off. i yell out a sound and he stops and looks.

BOOM

mother eff i say as i cringe.... i walk around with these ear plugs on my neck all day of every hunt and i always forget to put them in for the shot. granted this was a pretty hectic situation, but still...

the deer did a jump like he'd been hit. but i did not feel good about that shot. he ran off like he was fine too.

 

[TOGIE]

mad at myself for bringing me closer to early onset tinnitus, mad at myself for taking a shot i probably shouldn't have taken, i start up the ridge on the other side of the valley to look for blood.

no blood, no blood, no blood. i canvas the area. but i do find the fresh tracks of the deer and start following them. slowly, taking a couple steps and scanning to my left and right 20 yards out looking for a dead deer.

i keep following the tracks and all of the sudden the bucks busts up runs down into bottom of a little valley along this ridge. he's hurt. he had bedded down as the does ran off.

ugh.

he starts walking slowly in the valley, clearly hurting. I think i gut shot him. i quickly rack another, put in my ear plugs, range him, squeeze the trigger. it looked like nothing happened. frick you idiot i say to myself. piss poor shooting, this poor buck. i hate myself.

but he walks a little further and lays back down under a tree, i think that shot did land and he was about to expire. i put one more in him to be sure. i can't stand what i'm seeing. but this is hunting, sometimes this is what happens. but it hasn't happened to me yet.

he clearly expires and i finally erupt in a smile