2014 Colorado Early Rifle Above Timberline Buck Hunt

My brother, buddy and I drew early rifle above timberline buck tags in Colorado. We were at a point in accumulating points where we would be wasting pref points if we applied for archery tags, as we typically archery hunt. Every year we say next year we’ll do something with those deer points. Well, now we decided to go after this early rifle tag. I’ve never shot at anything over 200yds, so I sought help from Sam Millard who was very helpful in explaining the ground up approach to long range shooting and offered books and websites to look at. Thanks again Sam! Also, Robby’s How to Kill Big Mule deer blogs were just icing on the cake to come out prior to this hunt – so thanks Robby as well!

I don’t hand load, so I started with Superformance ammo from Hornady, but it didn’t group well out of my gun, a Winchester Model 70 300 Win Mag. I ended up going with Barnes Vor-tx 180 gr TSX tipped ammo. I created a drop chart after buying 3 boxes in the same lot. The chart was taped to my stock. It is a different animal shooting long distance (out to 600 yds for me), and it was cool to build confidence shooting up to 500 yds for me.
I scouted 5 weekends, backpacking into the hunt areas and trying to locate deer, water, glassing points, etc. A week before the season, my brother had to turn in his tag, as his work had a huge commitment come up that wasn’t planned. He was bummed out, but he (as well as my other brother) will apply for that tag next year. So, it was just me and my buddy going up for this hunt.

Friday before the season we started at the trailhead at 4:30pm. My pack was around 77lbs and my buddy’s was 65lbs. I went ahead of my buddy as he was not in the shape he wanted to be in and was lagging. He said go ahead, as he knows it is hard to wait and stop for someone that is not in shape. He would meet me at the high camp. I was using my new EMRII and duplex frame. I had an issue with the gun bearer, as the buckle on the shoulder strap broke and my gun fell and barrel right into the ground. I strapped the gun to the main pack and continued up the trail. I’ll give Kifaru a call and see what they can do for me. I ran into another Rokslider that was archery hunting mule deer with his buddy. We had a good conversation and they offered coffee, water, food, etc. – but I was good and thanked them and wished them good luck. Good guys and I hope they got something!

At dusk, I was still about an hour away from our intended camp site. I made an executive decision to camp where I was at 11,800ft, as it was now dark and I couldn’t see my buddy’s head lamp in the valley below. I figured he could use some help, so I went down with minimal items in my pack. Luckily he wasn’t too far down the mountain and I switched his pack with mine and we headed to our secondary camp, which would become our primary spot during the hunt. The reason I say it was an executive decision is that the previous weekend we scouted and my buddy brought up a one man tent and placed a bunch of equipment, clothes, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, etc. in it, as this is where we intended to camp and he didn’t want to hike all of that stuff in again the next week. Well, this camp was about 750’ higher up and over a saddle (about an hour away). I knew my buddy was spent, so I set off at 10:30pm to get his sleeping bag and pad at the other camp. At 1:30am we went to bed.

Day 1 I awoke at 5am and headed up a slope close to our camp. I wanted to be at the top of the slope before sun up, but it was not to be after the previous night. The nice thing is that there were clouds coming in and I was able to move up the slope and glass between the cloud cover. I spotted a group of deer we had seen 3 weeks earlier on a scouting trip. One was a 3x4 that my buddy wanted to take when he saw it that opening weekend. I had borrowed my buddy’s backup range finder and I couldn’t get it to scan past 300yds, and the deer were not too far beyond that. I put on my Gore-Tex pants and slowly slid down the hill foot-by-foot to get down undetected as there was not much cover. I made it to the tent and had my buddy come back up with me. We went up a rock sliver that provided cover so we could hopefully get a shot, but the deer had apparently gone over the ridge as they were nowhere in sight.

Day 2 we went up to the slope above the camp again, as there were a couple of places we had seen deer cross. My buddy would sit there and wait. I headed across this slope to the next drainage over to check it out. I found two bucks – one bedded, one feeding, but they were small. I stayed there for about 45 minutes hoping a large buck would materialize, but that didn’t happen. I decided I would go over the top and check out a 3rd slope that came into this mountain. I thought I should glass the drainage basin below and across the valley. Good thing I did, as I found about 5 bucks bedding and feeding. Two were absolutely huge and in velvet. They were about 3000yds away, so I scampered over to my buddy and told him this may be the day. He took one look in his spotter and said. “Let’s get ‘em!”. We made our way down to the bottom of our ridge and then up the valley floor towards the basin. Our packs were dropped about 1000 yds away and were making our way up the basin and were about 600yds below the bucks when we got double whammied. There were does blowing out of the willows (a couple strait towards the bucks), and the wind changed and went directly towards the bucks. We knew we were busted, but headed up the basin to see if we could see where the bucks were escaping. There was no sign of them! Low and behold as we walked through, I caught a glimpse at the 13000’ rim and saw them on the skyline. I dropped down and had my buddy range them: 565yds. I checked my drop chart taped to my stock, dialed up my MOA and got back on the scope. Like ghosts, they had vanished!

Day 3 started at 1am with horrendous winds and rain. That would continue through to around 11am to give us enough time to relieve our bodies of the water we had acquired! Then the rain started again. Another break at 4pm appeared to be the last of it, so we geared up and were about to leave when the skies darkened and we decided to wait a bit. It was a good choice as the rain and wind returned for the remainder of the night. Luckily I brought Lone Survivor and read about 200 pages – always have had a great respect for our SEALS and this book has only strengthened that feeling.

Day 4 my buddy wasn’t feeling very good so he slept in. I decided to try and see the backside of the mountain across the valley. Looked easy enough, but these mountains will humble you quick! I was 4 hours into hiking up this beast of a mountain and not yet at the top. I decided to cancel this outing, as I was cliffed out and would have to drop down 700 yds and then climb up about 1200 yds to get to the other side of the valley. I was way back there and it was a pretty good slope that would be trying and I thought better of it if I got hurt, or if I could safely bring back a buck down that slope. Went back to camp and washed up a bit.

The Day. I counted the days we had hunted in the morning, and this was the fifth day. I thought it might be fortuitous, as the number 5 had a bit of luck attached to it. When my buddy picked me up the previous Friday to hunt, he grabbed a die that I was using to help my 1st grader with his math homework games. My buddy yells out “5!” rolls the die and yes, it lands on the 5!

The Day started with another late start and very low clouds. We headed up the valley where we had spooked the 5 deer with the 2 big ones previously on the hunt. As we eased up the valley, we glassed all around the growing basins and slope walls. As we slinked along the trail, I spotted a buck feeding about 700 yds away. We were in a very poor position, as the buck was 1/3 up the basin wall feeding and had a prime view of the valley below and all the danger which approached. We moved towards some willows and found 2 more deer. The original deer I spotted was rubbing the final velvet off of his antlers and, the bright red stained antlers caught my buddies eye and he wanted that deer. The second pair we saw had the big pristine velvet antlered buck that I wanted.

My buddy just wanted to be aggressive and walk the foot trail to get close; but I thought no way, as I thought these big bucks would be out of there if we just walked the trail. I talked my buddy into crawling slowly along the willows to our right, as the grassy meadow opened up to our left. We crawled over 200yds to close the distance. There was a bit of a rise in the terrain and when another cloud rolled in we headed up the 30yd rise to the top. My buck had started feeding about 100yds above my buddy’s buck, as another set of clouds moved in. When the clouds receded, we could not find the bucks in our optic! Neither of us could believe that the bucks had caught our presence and exited this large basin in the few minutes it took us to climb the small rise. Disgust filled us and our mouths were rendered speechless, as we looked at each other with heavy hearts with no words and the clouds engulfed us again.

As the white clouds dissipated again, my buddy caught a glimpse of my buck, which had made his way down to the same level as the other two bucks, who were to the right of him. I told my buddy where his deer was but he couldn’t find him in his scope. I asked for a range on my buck and he said “385”. I dialed the MOA up 3.5 for a 400yd shot. I acquired my buck that had walked to the right and joined the other two. My buddy was having a heck of a time looking for the bucks and I kept telling him to look to the right of where his was originally at. Our little discussion caught the bucks attention and they were staring at us know. I had my crosshairs on my buck’s heart and was telling my buddy to find them quick, as they were getting antsy and ready to run – and I was getting antsy with my trigger finger as well! A few seconds later my buddy says he has them acquired as his gun is resting on his spotter tripod. I am laying prone with my tilting Harris bipod extended to its fullest. I started the count: 1, 2, DOUBLE BOOM!

Instead of watching through my scope, I cycled another round then got on the bucks. I could see my buddies and the 3rd buck, but not mine. Then my buddies buck started to limp down the slope and my buddy followed up on the wounded buck. I looked over my scope towards the basin walls. I saw two bucks running and put my crosshairs on both, but neither were the buck I shot at. Then all was silent. My buddy’s deer was down but not out. I told him to head over to finish his off, and I would stay to watch and direct him. As he reached his deer and finished it off, I glassed where I had shot, but couldn’t see anything in the willows on the slope. I met up with my buddy and we decided to climb and look for any sign of a hit on my buck. My buddy swore he saw my buck rolling, but when I said I saw two bucks running after the shot, he was 2nd guessing what he saw – was it a big rock that got kicked over? As we ascended the slope, I was ecstatic to find antlers in the willows 80 yards below where the bucks were standing! It was a perfect shot to the heart and my buck must have dropped immediately and started rolling.
It was great to take two bucks at the same time with my best bud!

Day 6 had us leaving camp at 7:40am, descending 3500’ down to the truck with the first load of meat. We took the heads down near the stream and tied them up in a tree that was well shaded in order to keep them cool and take them out on the last load. We arrived at the trailhead around 1pm and put the meat in the cooler. I froze about 15 1 gallon water jugs for our ice before the trip. We went into town after putting the meat in the cooler and got a room for the night - knowing that we would head back up that afternoon and take our second load down that night and it would be late when we arrived. After an ice cream at the local market, we headed back up to camp, got the second load, ate a couple of Mountain House meals and started down with the second load of meat and half the camp. The GPS said 4.5 miles trailhead to camp, but with the switchbacks and trail route it was probably between 5 - 6 miles one way. We arrived at the inn around 11:30pm and took a well deserved shower and hit the sack. We both forgot to bring our backpacking stoves down, so we just had snacks in the truck since this small town closed up around 8pm. My feet and knees were telling me to screw off as they were throbbing and down for the count!
Day 7 we loaded up on an order of biscuits and gravy each and a shared ultimate breakfast burrito at a local café and then up once more for the last load. The hunt ended about 6pm as we arrived at the truck for the last time.
We took the heads into our taxidermist the next day. My buddy will get a full shoulder mount, and me a European mount. This is a little compromise, as my wife doesn’t like the full mounts as they are creepy to her, so European it is!
Thanks for reading!

Good story, congrats.

Congratulations ! Really good story. Can't beat the double on deer with your buddy. Good friend and a successful hunt is as good as it gets.

Very nice work! Congrats on a super hunt!

Thank you for sharing with us.

Nick

Those are great bucks, thanks for sharing.

Great story and pictures! Congrats on a successful hunt!

Congratulations! Great write up. Are you planning on stripping the antlers or keeping the velvet on?

Much better than accumulating points, great hunt.

So awesome!...heading out Friday for a 7 day archery muley hunt with my best friend..hopefully we can double up as well!

Congrats and great write up.

My brother & I have been toying with an early above timber hunt in the future too

Thanks guys.

Realunlucky, Going to keep the velvet on that is intact and the exposed bone will stay that way - should have some good character as a mount.

jdm, good luck to you and your friend!

NICE bucks!!

Awesome story! Congrats!!!