My season/year has seemingly been on the struggle bus for several various reasons (work stuff, life stuff, equipment stuff, Elk hunt...etc.) and also why i haven't been able to get on the beast forum in a long while. Either way, I decided to take the plung into my first DIY (tag soup) archery Elk hunt in Colorado this year. Long story short i'm proud of my Escouting which got me on elk and fresh elk sign everywhere i went just the chance for a shot did not occur.
Anyway, I simply didn't have the intel coming into this season that I normally have to feel confident to hunt my mountains. To add to the difficulty, the mast crop this year was few and far between. If you could find the Mast, you found the game. However so did everyone else.
I began to rotate through my usual spots. I would hunt mornings and scout evenings with the hope to find some hot sign or acorns (or stumble across one). In doing so, I still was not successful at finding what I hoped to see.
Based on the lack of intel, I had to branch out into locations I keep on the "someday list". Once the late rifle season opened, I decided that I was going start working through all my someday list spots. On 12/15/22, I was on daddy daycare duty all morning and didn't get to the woods till 1230. I hiked in the 2 miles to a spot I'd found good sign previously. I scouted around and was not impressed with what I found. After a short break, I decided to make my way back to a gap with a creek crossing about 100 yards below it. As I passed through the gap, I side hilled to a little point where I could see down to the creek crossing and could also see the gap.
I didn't have much confidence since I had just passed through that very crossing maybe 2.5 hours before, but it was close to end of the day and didn't have time to get anywhere else. So, I sat down, pulled my pack off and gave 4-5 grunts on my Hooks Messenger call. The creek crossing followed an old fire break the I looked around and within a couple minutes I caught movement (with antlers) coming down the ridge across from me RIGHT to the creek crossing. He stopped right where encountered my back track (bad mistake). My shot rang true and he hit the ground where he stood and got to take a ride in the truck to the processor.
Well, The very next day, I was on daddy day care duty again that morning, but did get a little earlier start. I got to the woods to my next "someday list" spot about 10AM. This spot required that I wade a river then climb up a hill side steeper than a horses face to get to where i wanted to start. I put on my "wiggy's waders" (if you don't own these you need to), waded across then started up through a laurel thicket. When I finally busted through, I checked a known annual scrape and as usually it had been worked, but not recently. However, I did notice that some fairly recent hoof traffic in the leaves which told me something had been through. I again pulled out my trusty grunt tube and hung it around my neck. I worked my way up Mount 'er, and would have to stop every 20-30ft to rest and i didn't want to rush anything. The game LOVES to travel around hillsides right at the edges of those laurel thickets, so I didn't want to blow my chances if one popped out or happened to come around while i was in the vicinity. I continued up the mtn stopping every 30ft-ish, when I stopped to break, i'd make a few grunts, catch my breath then move on. I'd done this for about 200yrds up the mtn. As I neared the upper edge of the ridge top I came to a small ivy (mtn laurel) thicket and dog hobble bursh. Again, I made a few short grunts, rested and made a plan for my path through the brush. I took maybe 2 steps when a doe jumped up within 10 yrds of me and ran around the hillside into the laurel. This entire time the wind had been blowing in my favor, so i knew she hadn't winded me. I took one more step to get to a level spot when i caught some movement coming down towards me in a path to intercept where the doe ran. I saw a rack and pulled my gun up and again my shot rang true. He was so close that when he fell he nearly took my legs out as he rolled down the hill towards me. At that point disbelief set in. I looked at my watch and it was only 1030. I hadn't even got to my hunting spot. I got slightly frustrated for a moment because the hunt was already over and i had my day (and season) already planned out. BUT, I smiled and my momentary frustration passed as I inspected the very nice mature brute that laid at my feet. This guy represents everything i look for in an old mountain buck, I didn't have scales, but he had to be over 200lbs easy because even on the hill side, I could barely move him. His antlers were wide with great mass. He had scares all over and broken antlers from fighting. Just like what i picture in my mind when i think about those old mountain bruiser bucks!! Needless to say, he had to come out in pieces because I couldn't drag him and even if I could, I still had to get him and me across a river. For scale for the photo, I am a little over 6' tall and weigh 250lbs (i'm not a small guy). Well just like that, after a long frustrating season and waning confidence, as the say my luck had changed in a moment and my season ended in a span of less than 24hrs. It feels good that i got to hunt some of my "someday list" spots. I think i'll have to do more of that in future seasons
, but for now, it was a good day to be in the woods! If you made it reading this far, thank you
and I hope your season deer was/is good! Merry Christmas and have a blessed new year! 
