2020 opening day Colorado buck

[Foldem]

I had a really fun hunt in Colorado. I only had 2 days to hunt solo with a packed fall but I managed to find a good, old buck opening morning! I was on them all day and ended up shooting him at 4 pm.

 

[rekkr870]

Great buck! Congrats.

Excellent shot too. How far?


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[Tick]

Nice buck

 

[MagnumRuger]

Beautiful man, congrats! Care to share the story? Looking forward to making it out there some day

 

[OneShot]

Congrats

 

[robby denning]

All right man! Looks nice.


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[mcollin2]

Congrats!

 

[HighCountryHill33]

Congrats on a beautiful buck and helluva shot!

 

[Foldem]

Thanks guys. This was a new unit for me. I got the tag off the leftover list a couple of weeks before the season and I didn’t have much time to scout and on my one trip only saw one mature buck and a bunch of young ones. I only had two days to hunt due to my daughter's Kansas youth hunt and my upcoming mountain goat hunt that had been consuming all of my scouting time. Opening morning I hiked into a new basin that looked good to me on Google Earth and 20 mins in it was apparent that it was way tougher to get there than I thought it would be. Luckily I started early enough to make it up by grey light. I saw a bunch of goats and a couple of sheep and eventually spotted two smaller bucks. I kept working around the basin to expose new country and eventually two mature bucks joined up with the smaller bucks. I watched them bed in a small strip of willows and made a move to get above them and let the thermals stabilize. By around 1130 I was under 30 yards from them. Over the next 30 mins I had bucks feeding occasionally in the willows at 20-40 yards but could never get a clear shot through the tall willows, and after a deflection on a 41 yard shot made my Nevada hunt a much tougher track job than I like, I wasn't about to risk it. One of the smaller bucks eventually winded me and they busted but most of the bucks didn't know what happened and weren't too on edge. They busted up in two pairs and I watched this guy and his little buddy feed around for almost 90 mins before they bedded again.

I worked up and around and had to summit a 12,500'+ peak to get above them. Then I scooted down on my butt for 400 yard to keep out of sight as I dropped in on them. When I was 150 yards out the big buck got up, kicked the small buck out of his bed and laid back down. The small buck dropped off the bench and 5 minutes later the big buck joined him! It was a dream situation. I quickly covered the 150 yards and had them below me at 30 yards feeding, again without a shot without them seeing me. Eventually they fed off to my right, but they were almost 100 yards. I saw that they would feed into a narrow 40 yard chute, and as soon as they did I cut the 100 yards quickly again. They popped out on the other side a little further than I thought, but I was getting the same range over and over again, 64.9 yards. I practice ALOT and on the 3D range this is a chip shot for me,but that's at broadside targets and usually not much wind. I got some advice from a great bowhunter who said "I let my pin tell me if the shot is right or not, if I'm not solid, I don't shoot". I drew back and waited. The wind was gusting and moving my pin too much and his angle wasn't right. Right as I was about to let down, as if it was meant to be he took two steps downhill and turned perfectly broadside AND the wind completely stopped. My pin locked solid on his lungs for a full second, my bubble was level and it was the exact shot I'd practiced hundreds of time all summer. I pulled through and knew he was done before the arrow even got there.

He didn't act hit and I was a little confused as he took a couple of quick steps then started walking. I put my binoculars up to look for the entrance hole and right as I did he made a quick move with all 4 legs to keep his balance, then got woozy and crashed over backwards and down the hill, shredding his perfect velvet. All told he was dead in less than 20 seconds, such a great feeling for a bow hunter!

The pack out was miserable. I was able to get all the meat to the truck by 10 PM. I hiked back in the next morning with my best hunting buddy to get my bow, spotter, backpacking camp, and his head and cape. I need to get him cut up and packaged today then on to the next adventure with my family for my daughter's hunt.

 

[KHNC]

Sounds like a quick an easy hunt! LOL

 

[Dennis]

Congratulations and thanks for pictures and the story. Good job!

 

[Felix40]

Very cool

 

[ColoradoCowboy]

That’s a great story, thanks for sharing! And congratulations! Good luck on your other hunts.

 

[twdjr]

Well done, Congrats!

 

[Ibex]

Great write up

 

[Rob5589]

Great stuff, congrats!

 

[ganngus]

Congratulations!

 

[PurpleDriver]

That is awesome! Congrats!

 

[Marble]

Congrats for sure!!

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[TxxAgg]

That is great story. Congrats!!