We rolled in to camp about 4:30ish and we unloaded the four-wheelers, changed to some warmer clothes, had breakfast and headed out to find some deer. I don't remember the last time I pulled an all nighter, but it's been a while.
Andrew, my dad and myself spread out along a ridge, and Matt went to look in a different canyon. I didn't see any deer right away, and wasn't overly motivated to sit there real long since I was tired, so I called Andrew on the radio and he had some good bucks in his spotting scope. It turns out 3 were "shooters" and one we named the elkhorn buck because on side of his antlers looked like an elk antler. We watched them until they bedded down, and then went back to camp. I layed my pad out on the trailer and slept for a while, but not long enough. We got settled into camp and proceeded to shoot our guns to make sure they were as accurate as a muzzleloader can be.
I hadn't planned on hunting, and wasn't going to until the day before we left when we found some affordable land owner vouchers. I do not own a muzzleloader (yet) and so MaCade let me borrow his. Turns out MaCades muzzleloader shoots #11 caps and everyone elses shoots #209 shotgun primers. I only had 4 caps and 2 misfired while trying to sight in the gun. Umm, now what? I have 2 caps left and then what? I started asking people if they had any extra caps I could use. There were 2 guys camped just down the road from us who said they were shooting #209's and didn't have any #11's. I ran into them later and they had some! They were going through thier bag and found some #11's from years ago when they shot them. What a life saver. I was able to shoot the gun, and had enough primers to sling some lead at a deer if the opportunity was there.
We found the shooter bucks Friday night and we all were asleep before 9:00 with dreams of shooting big bucks in the morning. We were glad we drove all night and found those deer.
Saturday morning we find the group of deer the "shooter" bucks were in...but only on the shooter bucks was there. Now what? We decided to wait on chasing those deer to see if we could find the other shooters too.
I found a buck that I chased through the brush, and he presented a quick shot, but I felt like I would have been trying to force the shot, so I didn't take it.
Saturday night found Matt and Andrew in the area of the big bucks, and my dad and myself watching across the ridge. I saw 3 bucks in the bottom, one of which I would've shot, but didn't know if it was quite big enough for Matt or Andrew. A little bit later, Matt spotted the bucks, and ended up shooting the bigger of the three. A 20" 4 point with good forks. A good buck, but not as big as we had hoped for or as big as we had seen.
Sunday found us glassing again and riding some of the roads. We didn't see as many bucks, but Matt found some good ones in the late morning. They were really skittish, so we didn't make a push to get on them. We would try later that day. Later that day, they didn't come out of the thick aspens, so we weren't able to get on them.
Monday found us riding the roads and glassing. The deer were getting fewer and farther between. We starting pushing the draws and after pushing several where we didn't see a deer, we found one that had a couple bucks in it. We had one buck, that all three of us had in our sights, but he was on a full run. Had he slowed down or paused, we could've had a shot. Such is hunting I guess. We had another come out, but it was too thick to get a shot. Monday evening we split up and I saw a bull elk chasing 2 cows, and by chasing, I mean he had them on a dead run. It was definately cool to see that. I got back to camp to find out Andrew and dad found a 4 x 6! That got us excited. They had tried to get on him, without spooking him, but ran out of daylight. We were there first thing Tuesday morning, but it was foggy and you couldn't see 100 yards, which makes it hard to find deer. Andrew and I were sneaking through the brush and cut some tracks from that morning of a big deer. We followed the tracks easily because it had rained Monday night. They went right over the fence to the area that we can't hunt! I guess they don't get big by being stupid. We rode the roads in that canyon for a little bit, and I was able to get a shot at a 3 point, but missed.
It was a lot of fun, and the best part was the people I was with. We saw a lot of big bucks, we just weren't able to get on them. I think next year we will be more aggressive earlier in the hunt, and next year I hope to have my own muzzleloader.
We ended up with one deer, which was bigger at the end of the hunt when that was the only one shot, and had a great time. I am looking forward to going next year.
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