Buckskinner stories - Tales from the hunt!

Went very well for us in Colorado! 2 doe tags and a buck tag were filled. We had 2 cow elk tags, but due to the heat, we were unable to find them and decided to pull out 2 days early and get all the deer processed. We did all the processing ourselves and ended up with 163lbs of yumminess!

All 3 guns shot the exact same loads -
80gr 2fg Gearhart-Owen
.020" Patches lubed with Bear Paws patch lube
.530" home cast round balls
CCI #11 Caps

Morning - First day - Dad,brother and I wait and wait and wait until a deer starts to present itself. A solid 10 minutes and as my dad is getting ready to take a shot at a doe, another one pops out of no where and steps in front of us as 20 yards! I excitedly said, Take that one instead!  He popped her off with a high and slightly behind shoulder shot. She dropped on the spot.


What we found behind her,


Evening - First day - We all went looking for elk and spent some time calling in the thick timber until I said lets go ahead and head out to another spot so we can see about filling my brothers doe tag. Along the way,  i was stopping and taking pictures...


Putting my camera away, we slowly proceeded and I got a head of the group a little bit while breaking trail.

I was scanning a little beautiful valley below and out of the corner of my eye, a spike buck comes trotting by at maybe 40-45 yards? I got ready, and another buck pops out trotting by! He was a wide and tall 2 point ( forkie ) and I was thinking, He'll do! But then a beautiful velvet 4x4 ( unknown to me at the time ) comes running out, starts a slow trot. I whistled and he slowed down to a more manageable pace. I squeezed the trigger, saw a little reaction out of him as he really slowed down, but didn't really stumble much. I thought, Ah hell! How could I miss!!!

I took my time and slowly reloaded, listening at the same time. I drove the patched round ball down onto the powder and as I was capping, the two other smaller bucks came hauling tail back down into the little valley. They were running hard and then came to a full stop, turned to face the mountain where they had just come from, and just stopped cold turkey and stood there staring.

I'm thinking... what the heck! i have an easy shot at either of them at 60 or 70 yards... But I just shot one a heck of a lot closer, and he's not in the group!

Do I shoot that big forkie and pray I missed the first one? I decided, since those two bucks were watching back up the way they came, either that big boy is coming down to join them, or hes dead. No way in heck I'm going to be foolish and shoot another buck just because the original deer I shot at isn't there.

It's a good thing I did not! After about 6 to 8 minutes, both bucks bolted and took off. I gave hand signals to the others to stay behind, I'll go check around down there for sign.

I hiked down the gentle slope, slipped into some aspen and pines and started to search out the ground before me. I slowly scanned, spotted an odd colored rock or dead aspen  tree on the ground. Never get fooled by those things folks! Every time you are looking for game, branches look like antlers, trees or rocks look like deer. I made my way closer to it and let out with a howl and told the others to get down here! Hes big!

My shot hit true! A 1/4ing away shot that hit far back ( but well into the lungs ) and exited out the opposite shoulder! His lungs were black jelly upon gutting him out.



Day 3 - Morning - My brother, dad and I are slowly walking a trail and just lightly chatting, when we run into a group of muleys, 4 or 5 in total with 2 bucks! I can't believe how many bucks we ran into on this hunt! My brother still had his doe tag to fill and he took a knee, readying for the shot but was unable to see his front sight due to the lighting in the aspens the deer were feeding in. We all got a little agitated of course, we waited and tried to get into a different position for the shot, but they spooked and took off. Huge bummer! My brother and I did a little walk to see if we could still see them since they ran off into an area that had been cut/burned out last year.

We all were really bummed. Early morning hunt, easy deer to take at 50 yards or so.... We got all packed up and continued down the trail and maybe 100 yards down the trail.. Deer!! Take the big doe! My brother  took a knee, asked me to make sure it was a doe and after  I confirmed that it was, he stroked the trigger and through the cloud of white smoke, I saw the doe stop in her tracks. The doe was 1/4ing toward us and so he placed it just right of the breast/collar bone and she dropped in her tracks, down for good. He was horribly heavy to drag back to the main trail where the atv's were. I found a dead aspen and I chopped it down with my mouse hawk and we tied it to get legs and carried her out. It was an extremely painful way to carry a deer out! Looks easy in the cute movies, but not when you've had neck surgery in the past.

One big plus however, zero dirt or mess inside by carrying her. Once we got close to the atv's we grabbed a tarp and game bag and boned out the meat in the field. Heart and liver from all deer was taken back home to eat, as well as the hides to make a new jacket out of eventually.


The mouse hawk and my brothers custom made ( he made it himself ) damascus skinner, made easy work breaking the deer down! That hawk especially, puts a saw to shame.

Congratulations! My dad and I struck out on our deer hunt

Nice critters, good hunt. Brings back memories of many hunts back once upon a time with good friends.

Me and the boys had a great time. Kind of tiring getting animal that quick. The other 7 days we just enjoyed hunting elk, the scenery, and just relaxing in the timber. It is always a great time, especially for me. At 73 I don't do to bad.

Nice hunt Jon.

Your brother should try a little white paint on the front sight. It really helps.

OldMtnMan wrote:Nice hunt Jon.

Your brother should try a little white paint on the front sight. It really helps.

The problem was his glasses. They darkened up so bad, he couldn't make out the deer because they were in the tree line. The glasses made everything look like night time. He sees his sights just fine with glasses that don't darken. He now has 2 pair, darkening and non-darkening for hunting.

Who are you?

You must be Stan or Stan Jr?

Buck Conner wrote:Ditto ...

Who's Ditto?

Buck Conner wrote:

Mustang65 wrote:

Buck Conner wrote:Ditto ...

Who's Ditto?

Stan or Stan Jr?


.

Isn't this suspenseful?

I'm guessing Stan because he talked about Stan Jr.

OldMtnMan wrote:I'm guessing Stan because he talked about Stan Jr.

And we have a winner! Thank you Pete.
Good morning to you gentlemen.

How's it going old man? Are you falling apart as bad as me?

OldMtnMan wrote:How's it going old man? Are you falling apart as bad as me?

I'm doing and feeling pretty good Pete. Sure wish you were feeling a lot better though.

I've gotten better at ignoring my problems. I just hope i'm better by Sept so I can go hunting. My Lakota friend had a heart attack and he's all messed up now. So, he was always going to get the meat out on an elk hunt. That kind of kills elk hunting which i'd rather do and the tag is easy to get.

I'm left with deer hunting which is fine, except the tag is almost impossible to get around here without points and I don't have any. It will still be a struggle to get meat out for a deer but it doesn't matter if I have no tag.

OldMtnMan wrote:I've gotten better at ignoring my problems. I just hope i'm better by Sept so I can go hunting. My Lakota friend had a heart attack and he's all messed up now. So, he was always going to get the meat out on an elk hunt. That kind of kills elk hunting which i'd rather do and the tag is easy to get.

I'm left with deer hunting which is fine, except the tag is almost impossible to get around here without points and I don't have any. It will still be a struggle to get meat out for a deer but it doesn't matter if I have no tag.

Well, I hope you get well enough to hunt also. We haven't had much of a problem getting deer or elk tags, although one year we didn't draw any tags at all. Couple of days ago a herd of well over 100 elk went down the front of the property in front of the house. I'd really like to go out to Oklahoma and hunt hogs on Floyd's lease, but got to many projects going around the property.

Stan.......A buck tag in muzzy season here has only a 22% chance of success with no points. A doe tag is impossible. They only offer 10 tags and 120 guys put in for it. Even with 1 point the odds are just 50%. No points has zero chance. So, the 22% chance on a buck is my only option for muzzy season.

I can get a tag on private land. They are always a doe tag and in 2nd and 3rd rifle seasons. I'll get it as a last resort but I really want to hunt the muzzy season when it's much warmer. As i got older my hands can't take the cold. They go completely weak when cold and it doesn't have to be that cold. 60 degrees will weaken them and the lower the temp the weaker they get and it happens faster. I remember getting my hands cold and I couldn't turn the key to start the Jeep. I tuck my hands in my armpits for 20 min and could finally start the Jeep. It was only 55 degrees out. The 2nd rifle season is in Nov. My hands wouldn't have a chance. Maybe try some hand warmers. Gloves aren't enough. Skinning out a deer if my hands are cold will be impossible.

So, the plan is to put in for the muzzy buck tag and the private land tag for a 2nd pick. Just hope I can be in the 22% who gets a buck tag with no points.

Buck Conner wrote:The best place to sit and watch for game is our half bath (small window that's perfect to look out and watch the street), kind of hidden in the trees and with the shutter slanted the game doesn't pick you up.

The other morning I was watching for any movement while sitting on the toilet and the wife caught me and hasn't stopped making a big deal about it.

I don't know why it's such a big deal, I only had one bowl of oatmeal and a cup of coffee with me. Not like I was setting up camp @#$%^Y

.

Now that's funny!!!!!!!!!!!!

OldMtnMan wrote:Stan.......A buck tag in muzzy season here has only a 22% chance of success with no points. A doe tag is impossible. They only offer 10 tags and 120 guys put in for it. Even with 1 point the odds are just 50%. No points has zero chance. So, the 22% chance on a buck is my only option for muzzy season.

I can get a tag on private land. They are always a doe tag and in 2nd and 3rd rifle seasons. I'll get it as a last resort but I really want to hunt the muzzy season when it's much warmer. As i got older my hands can't take the cold. They go completely weak when cold and it doesn't have to be that cold. 60 degrees will weaken them and the lower the temp the weaker they get and it happens faster. I remember getting my hands cold and I couldn't turn the key to start the Jeep. I tuck my hands in my armpits for 20 min and could finally start the Jeep. It was only 55 degrees out. The 2nd rifle season is in Nov. My hands wouldn't have a chance. Maybe try some hand warmers. Gloves aren't enough. Skinning out a deer if my hands are cold will be impossible.

So, the plan is to put in for the muzzy buck tag and the private land tag for a 2nd pick. Just hope I can be in the 22% who gets a buck tag with no points.

WOW Pete, I didn't realize there were so few tags available there. That really sucks for ML season. They must save them for out of staters!!

Pete, that cold weather hunting sounds out of the question and dangerous for you. I feel bad for you man, I really do. When you really do have to go out in the cold, they have some of those packets that you should be able to stuff inside your gloves, but even that may not work for you.
Isn't there someplace else close that the tags are more abundant for ML season, so that you would have a better chance for a tag?
Get better soon buddy.

No, the problem is this is a good area for deer hunting. So, not only the locals grab the tags but out of state hunters do too. Then they give youths a bunch of the tags too. Not much left for the old guys,

I always thought they should throw a bone to the old hunters. We've been buying tags for decades. We can't afford to miss a hunt. It could be our last one.

Do something like.........If you're over 75 you get a guaranteed doe tag but you still have to pay for it. I'd be as happy as a pig in slop.