My Colorado Hunting Trip

Dawg

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Dawg Monster Buck

Dawg

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Wow!! What a trip. I had been looking forward to going to Colorado on a mule deer hunt for a long time. Finally got my chance and man was it everything I imagined plus some! I'll start off from home departure to camp arrival, then the scouting, the hunt, and the good times in between with "Boom Boom Bobby", "Dead Eye Sammy", "Warden Ron", "Hatchet Man Raymond", "Pinon Nut Pappy", Richard, Bubba, Chad, and Russell.

Wednesday 10/28/09:

Have you ever been so stoked about a hunt that you couldn't sleep the night before? I'm sure we all have. Well that was me the night of 10/27/09. Finally went to sleep around 11ish that night. The alarm clock sounded off at 4 am 10/28/09 and for once in my life I didn't hit the snooze! Once I loaded my truck, gave my wife and son hugs and kisses, I was off to my father's house to meet up with he and another guy going with us. I arrived at the ol man's house about 5ish, loaded all of our gear into his truck, strapped, tied, and doubled checked it and then it was off to Red Mesa Colorado. It took us right at 18 hours to drive. We had two other guys that left the day before and they were already in camp. We received weather update from them that night when we where some where around Alberqerque (sp?) NM. SNOW!!! Was the report. We decided not to risk going into camp that night, so we grabbed a room in Farmington NM.

Thursday 10/29/09:

The alarm sounded off at 6am. Up and at it once again. Got one last good hot shower before we hit the road. Travel time was less than an hour. Finally we arrive at camp. Once we all said our hello's, we started getting camp set up. That didn't take long at all! We hung around camp for a little while that day. Dad, Bubba and I decided to make a trip into Durango and then go up to Silverton. The scenery was unbelievable. On the way back we did a little scouting and saw more deer from the road then I have my whole life in the woods back home. Back at camp that night we just tinkered with odds and ends, the "ol timers" caught up on everything since there last trip to the Colorado camp. Some of these guys have been doing this for 17 years.

Friday 10/30/09:

The alarm sounded off at 6 am. Up and at it for a day of scouting. Once again the deer sightings were unbelievable. Dad took Bubba and I around and showed us each property we had access to, The River Bottom, The BYU, The Cornfield, The Alfalfa Field, The Rock Pile, and The Comptons. My blood was pumping by this time and I was ready for Saturday morning. Back at camp we all got our gear ready for the next morning. Off to bed around 9 pm.

Saturday 10/31/09:

The alarm sounded off at 4:00 am. It didn't take me long to crawl out of my bunk, get dressed, run outside brush my teeth, and get my gear loaded. Dad decided to hunt from a combine in the same cornfield I was sitting in, Bubba hunted the River Bottom. I had about an 800 yard walk into the stand. With a bright moon still out that morning, I started my walk. I made it down the side of the Alfalfa Field without spooking any deer but once I topped the little hill and entered the cornfield I soon realized there was no chance to make it to the stand without spooking the deer. We are talking at least 75 deer from what I could make out right off the bat. I stopped and thought "Well great, I'm about to ruin my first hunt." I still had about 400 yards to walk. There was no choice so off I go. I made it about 50 maybe 60 yards down the road along side the cornfield and deer began running to the fence and jumping over to private land that we didn't have access to. Some ran down the cornfield and stopped less than 100 yards from the brush blind. Once I made it to the blind, I looked over to my right and nearly passed out. There were at least another 50 deer feeding 100 yards from me. I didn't spook any of these and thought "Ohhhhh yeaaaaaa, I'm still in the game." I watched as the deer feed, some that I had spooked were making their way back into the cornfield (dumb deer). I wathced several bucks feed, several forkhorns, 3x2's, one nice 4x3, but didn't see any I wanted to take on the first morining. That was until just as legal shooting light was upon me. I glassed the field from left to right and........there he was. From what I could tell he was a very nice buck. Keep in mind there is a little knoll to my right, just tall enough to where I could see the backs of the deer and that is where he was feeding. The buck raised his head once and my heart began to pound. Never had I seen a buck like this with my two eyes. He lowered his head. As the sun peaked tree line, the deer began their journey out of the cornfield. I watched as they filed out, and then there he was!! One problem though.......the knoll was a little steeper on the backside then I had realized, apparently the buck slipped down the knoll and jumped the fence to the unaccessable property next to us. I watched as he made his way along the ridge and down out of sight. By 8:30, that was it. No deer in the corn whatsoever. Surprisingly, I wasn't the least bit discouraged by the buck putting the slip on me. The amount of deer I got to watch that morning was great. Back at camp. Richard had taken a decent 4x3 that morning at the BYU land. He was the camp cook so he liked to tag out early so he could do his cooking. He whipped up an amazing breakfast every morning that usually consisted of fried or scrambled eggs, pan sausage, link sausage, hashbrowns, bacon and pancakes. This was every morning....boy did I love that!! We hung around camp, napped, talked, and got ready to head back out about 3ish that afternoon.

Saturday Evening 10/31/09:

My mind was made up 30 minutes into the morning hunt as to where I would be hunting that evening. Yep, The Cornfield. This time I didn't have to make the 800 yard walk to the stand. We got there early enough so there weren't any deer in the field and I was dropped off at the stand. Once again, I got settled in, waiting on the deer to show. At almost 5:30 pm on the dot, the deer began to make their way from the river bottom behind me to the cornfield in front of me. It looked like they were coming out of every bush out there. I watched as the deer slowly made their way. Got to watching some does on the ridge to my left out about 300 yards. I let my binos down and something caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. Not even 35 yards behind me were to small bucks. They made their way to my left and crossed the fence into the corn. I watched them for a little while, then began to glass the ridge to my left. That's when I saw two nice bucks top the ridge, walk down and then disappear. I figured they went over into the Alfalfa field. Well I was half right. About 10 minutes go by and I'm now watching about 25 deer make their way from behind me. I turn back to my left and there he was making his way down the fence row straight to me. I thought to myself "OK Corey, that's a nice buck there's probably bigger but he is a nice one, what are you going to do?" I thought about it for a second and decided "Ok I'm not going to chance it, if he jumps the fence into the corn and gives me a good shot, I'm taking it." Well that's exactly what he did. He crossed the fence 60 yards to my left, walked out into the corn, I put the bead on him and squeezed the trigger and nothing happened! Oh yea, take it off safety! Flipped the safety and squeezed again. The 300 mag rang out and the buck took a dirt nap. Excited, you ask? Well heck yea!!!!!! Man I was so nerved up I could hardly cut the proper things out on the tag!! We got him back to camp, hung him up, gutted and let him hang till the next day. The temps were dipping below freezing so there was no worries about him spoiling. This is the best buck I have taken and I wish I could live that day all over again, but I know I'll have to wait til next year!

Sunday Morning 11/1/09:

Since I was tagged out now all I could do was either sit in camp while the others went out hunting or I could go sit with my dad. I chose to go with the ol man. He was sitting behind the combine Saturday morning watching the other end of the cornfield and the alfalfa field and seen a good buck feed 75 yards in front of his truck! So Sunday morning we just pulled into the edge of the alfalfa field and sat in the truck, Bobby walked down to the brush blind in the cornfield. As the sun rose, we could make out deer after deer after deer. Some small bucks were feeding close by along with a lot of does. We watched one buck out about 500 yards on the other side of the alfalfa, make his way away from us toward the fence row that seperated the alfalfa and corn fields. From what we could tell he was a nice buck so dad steps out of the truck with his orange on to see if he could get a better look and possibly make a shot. Before anyone asks, no he did not or was not going to shoot out of the truck......that's illegal and that's not how we roll. As he stands outside the truck, we hear this buzz and then not two seconds later...BOOM...another buzz.........BOOM........dad jumps back in the truck and says "Hit the floor, that crazy (_censored_) is shooting this way." Then followed another BOOM....and another...then another. You ever had a bullet from a 300 mag whiz by you? Not a good feeling. Apparently Bobby gets excited and gets trigger happy when he see's a nice buck. Off topic for a second, the locals there are the one's who gave Bobby his nickname "Boom Boom Bobby"...I now know why. After Bobby stopped his onslaught, dad and I noticed a nice buck making his way from the fence row to the middle of the cornfield. I look at him throught the binos and tell dad that it's a nice buck. He looks and says "Yea I'd shoot him in a heartbeat." So dad steps out of the truck takes aim and lets his 300 mag ring. Missed. "You missed." "I missed?" "Yea you missed, it went just over his back" I hear him work the action and BOOM..The buck hits the dirt. "You got him!....wait he's getting back up....but he's hurt, he's just standing there." Off goes dad toward the buck. I hurridly throw my orange on, grab my gear and start the same way. Dad gets 15 yards from the buck, places the crosshairs behind the shoulder, squeezes the trigger and hits the buck right where he aimed but the buck runs off!! He runs over a knoll and out of sight. Dad looks at me with a "What the......" look on his face. We take off in the same direction, top the knoll and there lays the buck. WHEW....was my words. The first shot dad missed, the second he pulled and it was a gut shot, the third was behind the shoulder. We walk back to the truck and drive down to see what Bobby had blown into bits. Bobby started off shooting at one buck, missed it a few times, then another ran out and after a few shots he finally connected. His buck was still in velvet. I can't think of what it's called but the buck had some type of hormon problem. We load both deer and head back to camp.

The rest of the trip was filled with good times, laughs, more pics and more deer harvests. 10 of us went and 10 us came home with a deer. The memories of this trip will remain with me forever, especially my hunt and my dad's hunt.

Can't wait til next year.

I'll have pics in the video/pic room later.

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