2022 CO Muzzy Hunt

[Netherman]

I enjoy writing these and getting feedback from the more experienced guys on this site. This will be my 6th year traveling west. We missed on our planned WY Antelope tag so only have one western tag. Luckily my friend and I drew a high country CO Muzzleloader mule deer. Still looking for another hunting trip, either an extended MI trip or finding an OTC hunt. I’m changing jobs after the CO hunt so I’ll need to see what I end up with in terms of pro-rated vacation.

2022 CO Deer

This was one of the few hunts where we flew. My brother lives in Denver and is letting us borrow his truck for the week. Combined with my buddies frequent flyer miles this will be the cheapest hunt we’ve done. However, the plan created some logistical issues for us as FAA does not allow you to fly with black powder or loose primers (seems illogical to me). We tried shipping to my brother, but an individual cannot ship hazardous goods without being certified to do so. I called a few hazardous shipping companies to see if they would pack for us, but got laughed off the phone each time. Luckily, we were able to get powder and primers for in-store pickup in Denver when we arrived. Unfortunately, the powder and primers we were able to get were not what we had intended to use and sighted in with. (Guess we’ll have some chores to take care of on our scouting day)

Day 0/1

Ducked out of work early to get to the airport, worked from the airport, and arrived in Denver where my brother picked us up in the truck we’d be borrowing. A quick stop at bass pro and dropping my brother off at home and we were on our way. We rolled into a campground around 9pm. With the next day to scout and no planned glassing spot we decided to sleep in a bit and start driving in with the morning sun.

Got up, packed, and on the road as the sun began coming up. Heading along our planned route the road started rough and continued getting worse. Thinking we’d be near the pass before the sun had risen seemed laughable as we crept along at a 2-3mph clip. Eventually we came to a clearing that had a bit of a hill on one side of it. Thinking this might be the best view we get we hopped out and ran our glass up the hill. In 20 minutes of glassing, we saw a mountain goat and two groups of elk one with a really nice 7x7 bull. Trophies buy all accounts just not the ones we had tags for. After another 15-20 we spotted a doe and fawn. We were getting warmer but still not what we were looking for.

Not wanting to lose the rest of our daylight we got back to the truck and continued up towards the pass. The road continued getting worse, to the point where we decided to turn around. My brother’s truck was more than capable I just didn’t want to roll the dice without adequate rocker and body protection. A winch and extra spare tire would also have made a solo trip on this road more comfortable. On our way back we decided to hike up into a nearby basin and decide if it was worth spending a day in or if we should just bump off this road and look at another spot.

Hiking in we bumped a doe and found lots of water and greenery, but no bucks or good looking glassing vantage. In the basin I started feeling sick to my stomach, thinking I didn’t eat much I choked down a bar and some trail mix without much relief. Not having a good view and figuring we’d made our presence known in the basin we decided to hike out and go check out another area. On our way out we shot the guns and confirmed that we didn’t need to make any adjustments with the change in powder and primers.

On the next road and getting late we decided to hike into the next basin with camp and be ready for opening morning. The hike in was brutal for me. My stomach ache was getting worse, I was feeling lightheaded, and more winded and tired that I expected to be. We stopped to camp at the first decent glassing location. The plan was for me to take it easy the rest of the night. That night we glassed a doe fawn below us but nothing else.

Lessons Learned: Just because a road looks driveable from google earth doesn’t mean it is. Offroad capability can open up more access. Whether that is a SxS, dirtbike, or more capable vehicle.

Questions: N/A

 

[Dwnw/theAltitudesickness]

Good write up so far. Good luck, looking forward to the next few days.

 

[Travis Bertrand]

Good luck. Following along!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Netherman]

Day 2

The night was worse than the hike in. I kept waking up in a cold sweat feeling like I was going to puke. In the morning I still felt like dying so agreed to glass from the tent and let my friend hike over for a better view into the basin. His plan was to hike for a morning view and circle back to camp midday if there wasn’t anything going on. After a full morning of glassing from camp I had seen a cow and calf, doe and fawn, and one small forky that I initially thought was a doe. I tried eating and drinking as much as I could. Not feeling great but still wanting to feel like I was in the game opening day I left everything at camp and took my bino harness and muzzy for a short walk thru a nearby opening.

After my short stroll I was back at camp and got back to glassing. I never spotted a deer but did see an orange blob moving across the hill I had been glassing. Upon closer inspection I realized it was my friend and he was packless. Sweet! He must be moving in on a deer. With no cell service I used my inreach to text him that if he got cell service over there to let me know if he shot something since, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to hear a shot. An hour or so after he’d walked out of sight I heard a shot.

Happy for my friend and sad for my state of life I dumped everything out of my pack except my kill kit and water bottle. Carrying my muzzleloader (not wanting to miss an opportunity) I started the mile or so march over to the area we’d e-scouted as a good glassing spot. From there my plan was to glass the hillside I thought he was headed towards and hope to see the orange. As I was getting to the spot I saw my friend walking my direction, pack on, looking disappointed, and deerless. The story was this was the only deer he spotted all morning. He stalked in above and got to 30yds of the small 3x3 bedded. Not sure of my status, unsure if he wanted to pull the trigger so early in the hunt, and tiring of waiting for the deer to stand. He started tossing rocks to get the buck up. As he progressed from pebbles to boulders eventually the buck stood whirled and a shot was fired but never connected.

As he recounted the story, we spotted a deer on the hillside in front of us. It was the same buck, hobbling along. We got the 15s out and couldn’t find a muzzleloader related wound on him. As he hobbled into an opening we were able to see what was ailing him. His back right ankle was broken. Did it happen when he got jumped out of his bed? Sometime between the stalk and now? Or had he been like this for days? Either way we knew we had to get after him. My friend started making his way over and I stayed on the 15s to hopefully flag him into the buck. I watched him disappear into some pines and flagged him into the area, but we never saw him again. After an hour of fruitless searching and my still not feeling well we decided to hike back to the truck and head into town and spend the night at a lower elevation. Annoyed about inconvenience we found a hotel, grabbed a burger (finally felt like eating), and talked over where we’d be heading in the morning. The plan was to hike into my #1 draft pick basin.

Lessons Learned: I know altitude was a factor in my not feeling well. Going forward I plan to stay at least 1 night below 8k before going up further. We flew into Denver and bumped up to 10.5 the first night and then slept at 11.5k the second night. I never had headaches, but had hot/cold, nausea, dizziness, lack of appetite, and a noticeably increased resting heart rate. One additional consideration was that I was getting over the flu while out there and was blowing my nose pretty frequently.

Questions: Any advice on dealing with and or preventing altitude sickness? I’m going to look into Diamox next time, but not sure what else might help.

 

[Netherman]

Day 3

Well rested and fed we hit the road hoping that the road in to the e-scouted spot would be driveable. Fortunately, it was, and we were able to get all the way to our planned access site. Feeling better but still not 100% we nervously began our hike in to set up camp. A mile or so and 1100’ later we arrived and set camp. Still unsure about my status and with midday heat in full effect I decided to take a nap. Around 4pm and not wanting to push it I went to an overlook not far from camp and my friend would hike up to our pre-planned glassing location. I saw a whole lot of nothing, but my friend saw a few bucks in two different groups.

Feeling a good bit better and excited to go look at deer in the morning I settled in for the night. It was a rough sleepless night for me. The nausea, hot/cold, and dizziness were back, but not as bad as the previous nights had been. Hopefully I was getting better and would just need to ride out the symptoms at night.

Lessons Learned: Altitude sickness sucks, but either the day at lower elevation, getting over being sick, or just more time at elevation was beginning to help.

Questions: N/A

 

[Cj0n3s12]

Good read so far.. sorry to hear about you getting altitude sickness after fighting off the flu

 

[Netherman]

Mountain goat from day 1 glassing.

Big bull from day 1

Camp

 

[Netherman]

Day 4

Up in the darkness and feeling shitty we hiked up to the glassing spot. It was a slow morning without a deer sighting until 8:30. It was a big body deer whose antlers forgot they were supposed to fork a second time. We occasionally glassed back at him every now and again while we continued glassing the basin. Eventually we watched him walk behind a small group of pines and never came back out. After an hour or so with no further movement confirmed our suspicion that he might have bedded. Without any other prospects and unsure about my status we decided I’d go after the buck. He was in a good spot with a sketchy, but well concealed approach that would let me get above him.

With daytime thermals in full effect, I began my hike into position. I had to walk down into the basin, get around his location, and begin climbing up a parallel string of pines to circle above him. I left my back as I began my climb. Muzzy in hand, bino harness, and water bottle thru a bino strap I began my climb. It was steep and I was glad to not have the added weight of the pack. Occasionally using the gun as a walking stick, I got to my target elevation. sidehilling across the rock and boulder field, I knew I was getting close. My half empty water bottle began sloshing. Worried it might alert the buck to my presence I chugged as much as I could and dumped the rest. Moving quietly, I got within 200yds – 150yds and decided I needed to take my boots off to be even quieter. It is incredible how much quieter you are in socks. Previously I was waiting for wind gusts to take steps on the gravelly ground, but in socks I was able to move at will. Next think I know and I’m sitting 40yds above the group of pines I expected him to be bedded. This is all assuming he didn’t move, I didn’t blow it on the way in, or any other myriad of reasons. Luckily for me when I got the binos up I could see his antlers. Holy shit, it actually worked. I’d read about this sort of thing but never actually done it. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting the buck to be there and even felt a bit like it was too easy (not that it was easy getting into position). Still in shock that I had successfully got within 40yds I settled in and waited for the buck to stand.

After 30 minutes of the occasional head turn or ear flick, I understood the appeal of throwing rocks. I was sitting on a slope fully exposed to the nearly mid-day sun. I got my hood up and pulled my sleeves over my hands to try and get as much protection as I could from the sun’s soul sucking rays. Really missing the water I had dumped on the ground, I started extrapolating where the buck’s vitals were based on his head and neck position. If I shot under the lowest pine branch it should be the buck’s front shoulder. (We’ll that’s pretty unethical…). As I continued baking in the sun weighing the virtues of rock throwing and brush shots the wind started swirling. Every 5 minutes or so I would get a gust hitting the back of my neck and the buck would turn his head in my direction, but never snapping or in an alarming manner. Eventually he stood and looked in my direction. I’m not sure if he smelled me or was just curious about the head and shoulders sticking above a bush. Either way I didn’t wait to find out. I tipped the rifle up onto the bipod lined up on his quartering towards shoulder and squeezed the trigger. I heard the telltale sound of the bullet connecting but was surprised when the buck took off running. Watching as he made good on his escape, I just stared in disbelief for 10-15s. after I snapped out of the daze, I remembered I needed to reload and began the process. Just after I had dug the speedloader out of my pocket I heard my buddy cheer. Snapping my head in the direction of the buck I saw him tumbling down the steep hillside.

Whelp, no need to reload so I ran back to grab my boots and water bottle. My buddy already had my kill kit and was on his way up to help quarter up the deer. We snapped a few pictures then got to work. Wanting to give the drainage one more morning we decided to cool the quarters in the creek then hang them overnight and pack them and hopefully another deer out the next afternoon. We were already past the mid-day heat, and it had been getting cold enough overnight to freeze the small ponds so we figured the meat would be fine and if we didn’t see any deer in the evening or morning we’d need to find another drainage anyway.

The evening hunt was uneventful. With no promising glassing prospects with an hour and a half worth of light. I would stay at the glassing location until dark and my friend would hike the hillside where he saw the other group of bucks the night before. Hiking thru he spotted a few young bucks, but nothing of interest. Hoping for better prospects in the morning, no visitors sniffing our blood-stained clothes, and a better night’s rest for me, we turned in.

Lessons Learned: Boots off is the ticket for quiet stalking. Bipods are awesome and the hatchoutwest was super easy to adjust quickly and quietly while I waited 40yds away from the buck. I need to be better in the moment about reloading quickly. It worked out this time, but in the future, it might not be as lucky.

Questions: What precautions do you guys use when camping with blood on your pack/clothes. We tried rinsing everything the best we could in the creek, but I only call that 20% effective. In CO black bear country, we were less nervous but in grizz country we would have been much more nervous.

 

[Netherman]

2022 buck feeding

2022 buck

Packing to the creek

 

[sndmn11]

That's a cool buck!

 

[Dwnw/theAltitudesickness]

Congrats. Glad you were able to turn the hunt around.

 

[Justin Crossley]

Questions: What precautions do you guys use when camping with blood on your pack/clothes. We tried rinsing everything the best we could in the creek, but I only call that 20% effective. In CO black bear country, we were less nervous but in grizz country we would have been much more nervous.

I don't worry about black bears at all.

 

[sndmn11]

I don't worry about black bears at all.

To echo this. I have hunted the same area with a bear tag in my pocket for the last five years. We have 5-15 adults on each camera several miles apart, and it has taken until this season to see one in person.

There was a problem with a couple poachers this year on one of the mountains a friend was hunting where they would kill and just take back straps off of multiple elk. There were a few scenes like the pictures of several day old carcasses untouched by bears.


I'd be much more bear aware if I were in a large established campground that is busy all year and has a bunch of dumpsters.

 

[Netherman]

Checks out for black bear country. We never came across much fresh sign either. Your comments on campgrounds makes sense. What would you change if brown bears were around?

 

[Netherman]

Day 5

We woke up to no animal issues and the best I’d felt in a morning since arriving in CO, the only thing we need is some big old buck to glass up and stalk in on. Hiking to our glassing spot I was feeling better and better with every step. Still not sure how altitude sickness works, but it seems like “survive the night” and ok during the day is my new way of life. At the glassing spot we quickly spotted a coyote checking out the gut pile from yesterday, but no deer after an hour of glassing. Still planning to hike out midday any look for a new drainage my buddy wanted to around the basin and get another view. Knowing that there was another group of deer in the basin I decided to stay at the glassing spot and see if he bumped anything.

Just as he was walking away, I spotted a doe feeding. I got the spotter out and confirmed it wasn’t a little buck. As I kept looking, I saw another buck this time a 3x3. I whistled to get my friend back up to take a look. He wasn’t a giant, but the whole “deer in the hand/glass” thing. He wasn’t over the moon, but excited to go on a stalk. As he re-organized his pack I continued glassing and spotted a really nice 4x4, then another tall wide framed buck. I called him back to the scope to check them out. Needless to say that changed his excitement level. They were feeding out in the open and with the sun climbing likely to move to bed. The rub was there was a hump next to them we wouldn’t be able to see around if they went that way. Not wanting to risk losing them, my buddy would hike around the basin and get onto an adjacent hillside to the one we couldn’t see around. From there we’d have either two angles to see where they went, or he’d be close enough to make a move if the opportunity arose.

I watched the bucks until there were 6 of them. All feeding and occasionally bedding. I started taking pictures wishing I had a good and lightweight digiscoping setup. Then a heard of elk rolled thru complete with a nice bull bugeling as he pushed his herd down the drainage. Either due to my buddy bumping them or just their daily plan, without a tag it didn’t matter why, but it was really cool watching them. After the halftime show I got back to the task at hand, making sure I saw where the bucks went/bedded. I switched to the 10s so I could the wider view and see the whole group as they milled around eating and bedding.

Paying attention to the biggest bucks, I almost missed the fork and 3x3 start to sketch out. They were looking in the direction of the adjacent hillside where my friend was moving in from. Eventually they had enough and stood and started walking uneasily away. Uh Oh. Soon the whole group was walking onto the obstructed hillside. Just as I thought they were out of our lives forever I watched the 3x3 drop stone dead. Did get startled to death, die of surprise, have a heart atta---- BOOM. Well, the super delayed gunshot cleared up the cause of death… Guess I better pack up and start hiking over. And just as I was getting ready to make a mtn house that I was unable to force myself to eat earlier in the trip.

As is often said “now the work begins” and we had a lot of it. Step one was getting the buck cut up. From there we decided we would get everything out in two trips. The first trip would be his deer plus camp and the second trip would be just my deer. The hike back to camp was nice. We stopped at the creek, reloaded our water, and cooked the mtn house I’d been wanting to eat and continued back to camp. We broke camp, grabbed our food out of the tree, reloaded our packs, and were on our way out. There was a good bit of deadfall in two spots, but we made good time back to the truck.

Packs unloaded of everything but trekking poles, a water bottle, and a 10mm we started our return hike to collect my deer. As we got close to the deer, we cautiously approached hoping to spot any bear or intruder that may have been attracted to the meat. Luckily it was all still hanging right were we left it. Meat on the ground we loaded our packs and began the trek out. All down hill from here… Just as we got the truck packed and were headed down the road it started to rain. Perfect timing.


Lessons Learned: I need more time to turn this into fact; but I think the full moon at night had the deer up earlier than the sun feeding. I’d read a lot about waiting for the deer to move to a second bed and am wondering if this is the deer movement we saw. It was strange (compared to Oct/Nov deer hunting) that we didn’t see deer on their feet at first light. My takeaway is that you need to glass into the heat of the day before writing an area off or going on a walkabout.

Questions: I’d love to hear some more experienced feedback on my thoughts above.

 

[Netherman]

3x3 first buck spotted of the day

2x2, 3x3, 4x4, and big framed buck bedded (also why I need a digiscope setup)

Bull elk pushing his cows around

 

[jjohnsonElknewbie]

Congrats on filling both tags!

 

[Wapiti1]

Questions: What precautions do you guys use when camping with blood on your pack/clothes. We tried rinsing everything the best we could in the creek, but I only call that 20% effective. In CO black bear country, we were less nervous but in grizz country we would have been much more nervous.

For grizzly country, I do the following.

Put meat minimum 100 yards away downwind and hang high in a visible spot. Then clean up as best you can and don't worry about it at camp beyond the standard clean camp measures like hanging food/trash and keeping things tidy. Follow the food storage requirements for the forest or wilderness you are in. Some require bear cans. Camp itself has a strong human scent and that is enough to keep them at bay beyond being nosey.

All of the other stuff that has blood on it is typically on me or with me (backpack), and I'm not concerned about that.

The carcass, gut pile, and physical meat are the attractions for a bear. Along with any food you brought for yourself. Manage that and you will be fine.

I do nothing more than a clean camp in black bear country.

As to hunting early season mule deer, they don't have the crack of dawn, just before dark routine of later season deer. They just move more for various reasons: bugs, heat, water, snacks, etc. Their drivers are eating and relaxing with no set schedule. I give a spot at least a half day, and maybe a full day if I am sure there are deer there. What the moon is doing doesn't really factor in, IMO.

Jeremy

 

[highcountrymuley]

i saw all deer soon after 9 am this year on mz hunt at 11k feet.

 

[Netherman]

Thanks for all the replies. Sounds like I need to be more patient with my glassing. Once the sun was up and hot we called it. Will be thinking about a glassing tarp to keep going with some shade.