Colorado Deer Hunting. Reports and Outlook. In this episode of the Epic Outdoors Podcast we talk about hunting Mule Deer in Colorado and get reports from our staff on the 2nd season. We also talk about the outlook for the 3rd season.
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00:00:02:03 –> 00:01:15:08
It can happen anywhere in Colorado at any time. It really can. The next four point I see is Dotty, the grass that’s growing and the cedars just along the roads here out like anything Western. mc, welcome to the Epic Outdoors Under Armour. Hey everybody. Jason Carter. Adam Bronson coming at you from Southern Utah a couple days before the third starts, which we’re actually leaving today. I don’t even know what we’re doing here in the podcast room in Bronson. We should be packing our gear. We’re doing what we’re asked. Oh yeah. By popular demand. And that’s to give some kind of a pod. Well, a podcast B, what happened on the second season? Which some of us have good stories to tell. Well, some of us don’t. Yeah. But you know what I find interesting is when you own your own business, you think you’re in charge. You’re really not in charge. ’cause here we are in the podcast room, which is where we shouldn’t be. Yeah. Don’t we say, do you usually get two unit two or three days early to kind of get, get the fill things? We’re not, we’re not, we’re here. So whatever. Anyway, I did, we did have calls today, Bronson. We have calls every day about Colorado. Guys on their way, deciding they need to talk about units and extract information from Chris Peterson and guys buying optics.
00:01:15:17 –> 00:02:28:06
Had a guy drove off with his fifteens on the hood or something on his truck and Hey, how about that guy that lost his BT X’s, all the optics in this one bag off of his hard, or his four-wheeler bag slash hard case in the bag. It fell off and terrible. If you found that in northern Nevada. Call us (435) 263-0777. There’s a guy that would be very happy. Yeah. But they’re probably not gonna call us. They’re probably gonna call the pawn shop. Well, I’m just telling you, if there’s a guy out there that’s been squirming since he’s found 10,000 in optics in a, in an a TV box, I know only hunters would return that. Other people would pawn it. Pawn it. But anyway, we have had questions about even scouting brings, here we are in the podcast room, we should be on our unit. But, you know, it’s hard to scout the rutt. It’s hard to scout migration. Of course, there’s not a lot of migration going on in a lot of the units anyway. There’s some units that require snow, some that come by the calendar, but pretty tough. There’s deer at 10,000 plus feet or just under. Oh yeah. And it, it, it started off and we thought, oh, here we go. Remember the first couple days we had weather, Colorado seemed like it’s cold of the second snow weather. Like, oh geez, they’re knocking bucks first three days.
00:02:28:07 –> 00:03:41:05
It’s like, here we go. And then about Tuesday and Wednesday, it silence. It started warming up and the deer realized, oh, we are gonna be hunted this year. We’ve waited an extra week. There’s no hunters this year. No, here they are. And now they’re timbered up. Lot of long faces out there. That second was brutal, you know, it was later and everybody’s excited about it. But tell me, is this like the, not the longest warmest stint November stint we’ve ever seen in our lives? Well, and it’s not gonna change a whole lot. It doesn’t look like for the next, at least seven, eight days for a third. So it, there’s a little snow on your little phone there. Well, very little, very little. In Walden, Northern part of the state. You get down Salt Lake’s, getting a brush through that’s gonna mount to nothing. Just a, you know, some traffic on I 70 heading over and that’s about it. Not gonna have to get out the salt. No. So anyway, little bit rough. But the second, we’ve had a lot of people, like Bronson indicated, you know, wanted to have us do a podcast and talk about how the second went. And there’s always some great bucks taken just with the sheer numbers of people in the field. And there was some nice bucks taken, you know, 44, 1 of the better, most popular units in the state.
00:03:41:06 –> 00:04:51:28
We know of probably half dozen in that one nineties. Yeah. Great. Great buck. And one buck that we’ve heard of, you saw photos of that’s over 200. But man, great ni nice bucks, great bucks. But you know, just not that next level that it is capable of. And, and that our breathing, there’s a few of them. And, and in that unit specifically, some people expect not on a second season, but on the third and fourth, they were spending 23 to six points. Well, I mean, people burned 1415 to get that second this year. Oh yeah. And on that a few years ago, that took a handful. Yeah. And so anyway, with the weather pattern, who knows what’s gonna happen. I don’t know. It’s gonna be interesting. The nice thing is, we did have a guy call in today that had a fourth for all you fourth season hunters, you’ve, there’s gonna be plenty of deer alive, you might’ve guessed. Right? Yeah. But you know, I consult that a lot of people don’t wait for the fourth this year, didn’t you? Yeah. They’re gonna be, I said they might be, I thought they were gonna be dead hunting gut piles. Yeah. But no, maybe not. But you’ve also got a, well, and then if you’re Jason Carter, you just make sure you and your family are there in every season. And one of ’em is gonna be Right. That’s a problem. Second, third, fourth.
00:04:52:01 –> 00:05:59:13
You know what’s, if they had a fifth, you’d be there too. Yeah. Well, you know what’s real funny about all this Broon, we talk about it every year. Don’t book ourselves too busy too thin. Spread ourselves too thin. What’d we do? I mean, dude, we’re running racking. We’re too old. I’m too getting too old for what I’ve been cannonball running, running the last month. But anyway, it’s l dude, it’s nonstop. And the years like this, it feels like not one hunt ends early sometimes, you know, look, it’s all a grind. You get a little early kill and you get to come home and frolic a little bit. Now they’re all a grind. And after every hunt you need your oil change in your truck. Oil change, tires rotated, all joint fixed back on the road. Yeah. So anyway, kind of crazy. I don’t know. But, but the second there was, there was, you know, Gunnison, you know, it was rough. 66, 67, nothing but rough reports. There was some good bucks taking ’em. 54, 55. But guys had to work for it. And dude, they’re five bucks up high too. And then it shut off quick too. You know, it was, it’s like they had the element of surprise everybody for a few days. Whoa. Chris, Chris sounded good over there, dude. A white one.
00:06:00:00 –> 00:07:09:22
Annette Bronson and I are splitting up, splitting a purple to make ourselves feel better about not having the full 16 ounces taking the Devon arch bolt approach. We’ll just have two, we’ll have two, two eights, we’ll have two eights, not one 16. Anyway, keep going. Bronson, just feel like, you know, the initial opening day element of surprise deer hadn’t been hunted since the archery hunt ended the end of September. They had a few early season elk hunters, but you know what I mean? Yeah. They were kind of laying around and few of them ready to be killed and, and there were some for the take, and then they just, you know, started acting like deer again. Oh yeah. And timbering up. And it, and it got to, and the weather warmed up. So I hate it when deer act like deer. Yeah. You want ’em to act like Rocky Mountain bighorns in the Rutt. Yeah, exactly. You want ’em be that dumb. I got off the side of the freeway like, Hey, how do they survive? And how does any lion not kill? I know every rocky that’s rutting in a canyon. Thankfully they only need like one every week or one every five days. And the Rudd ends and they wake up. See, it would be one a day. I mean, geez. But well, we have, we have to at least talk about some of the successes within our own, don’t we? Yeah.
00:07:10:09 –> 00:08:15:12
I mean, is that be apropos? I mean we, I dunno if we start with Chris. I don’t know. Or if we get Josh a cold call, maybe what do we do? Well, Josh killed first, so Yeah, Chris wants to put off. I think Josh, Josh was almost gone coming home before I got to Colorado. Okay. Yeah. Josh did smash and grab one hour, which my wife would die if, if we could do one of those this year, that would be helpful in my marriage. Yeah. Although she’s, she’s good and she’s not complaining. But yeah, you went over, you went over there with her and you grinded seven, eight days with your wife and daughter on neighboring units. So I don’t know if that was a good idea. You could you chime in, does it? I, that’s what, okay, so this is my point. We, we think we’re so smart that your of draws one every application season we have. Got it now. This is the perfect schedule I’ve ever had in the last 30 years. And we hate it. And we change it every year. You know what I mean? So I go through it, I’m like, Jana, let’s spend her 23 points or whatever and also grab ash tag. Ashley will be done in a day on a neighboring unit. No problem. I’ve got two out of the way of the, I’ve got two more. 14.
00:08:16:05 –> 00:09:14:27
No, no, we don’t have 14 kids or six, no, yeah. Six people in the family. And then I’ve got, you know, a couple other kids and, and so I grab four season elk tags for them for, for the two that don’t have deer tags on the fourth. And so anyway, it’s, and then, you know, I’m hunting the third so it is back to back to back. And I guess my point is here, we think we’re so smart. I think I’m the smartest guy in the world. You know, Ash is gonna be a smash and grab, well all of a sudden she gets picky. Couple points, she passes a couple four pointers open. Yeah. And they, and they walk. Did you see one within the first 30 minutes? Oh. Of jumping into her unit? She’s like, no, I’m not ready to be done. Basically. Yeah. She’s like looking at me like, I mean, she’s judging Jana’s books and be like, mom, I can’t believe you’re not shooting that mom, I can’t believe you’re not shooting that. And then it comes to her turn, she’s passing the same but’s and she’s like, and it’s so funny ’cause she gets this deer in the headlight look and it’s like, al, everything’s stiff. Nothing works. I don’t know, dad, I don’t know. And I’m thinking, I’m not gonna make this choice for her. It’s a year long deal. They, she looks forward to it all year.
00:09:14:27 –> 00:10:30:27
Like she even said it like, this is my favorite hunt of the year. So anyway, we pass it, we, we, we go up the road, we’re glassing glass up another buck. Nice four point. And she’s like, I don’t know, Jenna’s like, you should be shooting that buck. Like you should be shooting that buck. Yeah. I don’t know. And then we go the rest of the day and don’t see another buck. And so that night she’s sick. I mean she’s whispering to Jana, you know, getting, I’m getting out, grabbing gas and stuff and pretty soon I get in the truck, she’s like, dad, I’m just sick to my stomach. The next four point I see is dying. And I’m like, okay. And you’re like, we up. But you gotta remember today’s mom’s day. Her unit. Her unit. I know exactly. And I’m like, and Jan’s like, I think we should go back and hunt Ashley’s unit. And I’m like, zero points versus 23. Three I, oh, I know, I know. These are all bad thoughts. You know, husband, dad, whatever. I’m, we’re going along tough please. And dude, right off the bat, crack of daylight. Day two, there’s a four point. I’m like, Ash, that’s a nice four point. Ah, we start going through the stiff motions again. Oh. And you’re like, I’m like, get out. We’re killing the deer right now. Alright, alright. Alright. Smashed it.
00:10:30:27 –> 00:11:37:12
Was it not as big as the two from the day before? Is that the hesitation? Not quite as big. No. But just get a, it was our own rifle. We had cited it in loaded rounds, got what we call this kid scope, bro. And the, the zes, it’s got the B four, the basic single plex. Yeah. Basic. The basic plex inside. It’s not complicated. And you dial and it can, it’s unbelievable. Anyway, got out, got set up, everything was perfect. She just smashed him. It was awesome. It was awesome. It was cool. And then we went and ground out Janna’s unit and grounding it out. It was not bad. There was a lot of bucks. It was a lot of bucks. A lot of fun. Did find a big deer one I would shoot on about any, any tag. Yeah. And just, just just was happy on private, thick piece of private. Nobody knew he was there necessarily. It wasn’t like he’s out in the open, he’s gonna get bumped off at or not, not private that’s getting hunted at all. No. So we saw one the same way. It wasn’t big as the one you saw, but Big Deer first day there. And it was like, and he was there every day. I said, big deal, there’s no reason to move. That was a big deal. Where else can you go and just see mid nineties, one nineties buck.
00:11:37:18 –> 00:12:45:03
Yeah, I’m thinking this was 200 over 2, 2 0 5 gross tip typical’s 200. Yeah. Yeah. So where else do you see these? Right? I and so that’s what keeps us going back. But they’re on private and they’re happy and that’s fine and and whatnot. But we saw 25, 30 bucks a day. You did too. Same. Yeah. A lot of bucks. My age class had to be lower than yours. But it’s a, it was an average unit boy drew a unit with, I dunno, four points or five, whatever you had. But it just goes back to, you know, you gotta go to Colorado often and don’t be saving no 20 something plus points. And if you made the mistake and you have 20 something plus points, burn ’em now. So that’s kind of the gist of it. I think that’s about where it’s at. So anyway, speaking of that, let’s, let me, let me just read this and then we’re gonna give, we need to give Josh a call. We need to give Devin a call. He looks like he had some tired trouble. Wyatt. Wyatt Who? Wyatt. He ain’t gonna speak much. I don’t know. Well, he will. He doesn’t know what you’re calling for. Oh, that’s a good point. So anyway, this guy hit me on Instagram named Chad. He says, I know you liked hearing from people on units. You remember when we kind of ground we help people and then never hear back. It’s very frustrating.
00:12:45:19 –> 00:13:57:27
So I appreciated this a lot. He says, I gave unit such and such. I hate to throw it out there because it’s personal. Right? Yeah. I gave units such and such a shot, like you said, and had an absolutely awesome time. Thank you for putting me in the unit. One of the best hunts I’ve experienced with the stunning views and amount of total deer I saw. Not the big buck part, the big, now the big buck part was rough. Didn’t seem many mature de deer, but hey. Alright, that’s all right. Sometimes it’s about the experience feeding the country. Looks like big buck factory, rough conditions, hot, dry, no weather, no rutting activity. Made it difficult to, you know, to see deer in that 10, 10,000, 9,000 foot type zone. I could see that unit producing some slammer bucks with the right conditions, flipped a coin, came home with zero and, but challenged myself as a solo hunter. I just wanted to reach out and say thank you for all the advice I’m picking the unit. When I got back to Colorado, I learned it’s all flipping a coin. Points don’t matter whether is key to being successful. Thank you. We’ve said that a lot. I mean, it, it’s true. A two three point unit with incredible weather can be as good as anything. 20 points it can. And otherwise you’re gonna grind it out and hope to get a lucky break.
00:13:57:28 –> 00:15:26:01
Which, speaking of Josh, he got a lucky break real quick. I think Josh, he, I think he got more comments on that stash than he did the buck. Oh, I know. He’s proud of it too. Oh. Anyway. Well, let’s give him a call, see if he’s got a story for us. Hello. Smashing and grab Josh. How are you buddy? Good, how are you? Good. We’re just talking about that Stash. Did you, you’re heading over to your kids this time, but did you bring the mustache wax for kill photos with the kids or? Oh, oh no. I, I can’t wax it. I gotta keep the wind checker out there. Oh, it’s his wind checker. Gotcha. Well you got the wall tent ready, kids and everything. Oh yeah. All right. How many of your kids got tags? Couple of ’em at least. Huh? Two. Yeah, two oldest ones. Daughter and a son. And heading to Colorado. And what is it, one of them first hunt. What big game? Yeah. Yeah. It’d be my son’s first, first hunt. So we’ll see how that goes. How, how many hours did it take you to find your buck hour? I don’t even even say hours. An hour. It was 15 minutes. It was about, yeah, it was about 25 minutes from the time I started. Geez. True Smash and grab. Wow. Oh yeah. So you’re headed back, you’re headed back with the family.
00:15:26:29 –> 00:16:33:21
What do you, what do you got going on? On the third season? Yeah. Yeah. We’ve got four, four deer tags, obviously not me, but four deer tags. My wife, my dad, two kids. And we’re, oh, debating on if we could get to Grand Junction in time, loading up with a couple more elk tags just because Oh, oh, tags are a hundred bucks for youth. They’ll, I’m, I’m not getting one, but for a hundred bucks for one of them, they’ll, they do it. Well, they’ll, they’ll sell ’em to you any night and day. Yeah. You’re okay. You can do it at any sporting goods store or Walmart or, well, I know, but I don’t wanna deer hunt. I don’t want, I have a deer hunt turn into an elk hunt, so I’m trying to tell them if they make Grand Junction. Well, you’re trying junction. Oh, you’re trying to make the decision. Oh, if we don’t make it to Grand Junction in time, then we won’t be able to get ’em, I guess. Oh, that’s how you keep ’em at bay. That’s all What the kids don’t know, Ben, and tried to help get us out of the house faster. ’cause it took like seven days just to get all of us in our stuff packed. It’s way too much. Well, this third season’s only seven days long, so hopefully you’ll make it back before the fourth starts. Yeah, we’ll have to see.
00:16:34:27 –> 00:17:43:21
Well, or what are your standards for your kids, your son? First Buck? I mean, is it, it’s pretty fun. I I remember my first son, I remember my sons. I mean, it’s, they may start lofty, but by a Saturday morning at daylight. What, what kind of buck is in trouble with him? He, I, he says he is thinking four point. Okay. But the problem, the problem is him and his sister are so competitive. She thinks she, she killed a really great buck last year, the muzzle loader. And she thinks she needs a bigger one, which is gonna have to be like one 90 plus. Geez. So that’s not gonna happen. And then, but that’s gonna be the biggest problem is as long as she can co coax him into killing one first, then she’s off the hook. Then she knows what she needs to kill. ’cause yeah, that’s the, that’s the competition. So I guess we’ll have to see. That’s awesome. Well, so no, we’ll, we’ll see. I would imagine as every day goes by, probably it loses a time and a little bit of length and width. And by the time, three days into it, we’ll be looking for two points. You’ll be, you’ll be buck hunting first, first one by two to walk in front of you. It’s getting a double bullet. So Yeah, it’s good. Actually, you know what I, it’s not, I’m not stressed really as far as that goes.
00:17:44:12 –> 00:18:58:28
I have no expectations or no, like it’s all on them. You know, they wanna pull the trigger on whatever they wanna do. It’s just out fors family fun hunt and, and it’s all on them. So. Well, we were talking about that and Ashley, that’s the way it was going down. And then Ash couldn’t make a decision and then she was mad that she passed four points and then another four point walked in front of her and I pretty well had to make sure that it went down. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. It wasn’t gonna happen. You were sad last night and I don’t wanna see your puppy dog eyes again. Oh, I don got really stale in the cab of this truck. I mean, gee, she was so disgusted with herself for passing, so anyway. Oh yeah. But you know, all right guy, well travel safe and send us report. You got four bucks to kill and, I don’t know, maybe two or three elk before you can, yeah, yeah. We’ll see how my back’s feeling. Those two elk are gonna worse or not. So how do you know when you’re going to shoot a buck the first 15 minutes of the hunt or you’re gonna pass him and wait for next level giant? Like what, what goes through your mind because you had that happen? You know, he warned us. Well, we got good enough. I like visiting.
00:18:58:28 –> 00:20:01:03
Like what goes through your mind? Like I know he was just, oh, that buck especially, I mean he is, well it’s a great bug, but you, and you know, there’s probably a 80 90% chance you’re not gonna see one better probably. Wouldn’t you think that? Yeah. Yeah. Well, like 80 to 90% shirt chance his buck. You’re not gonna see one bigger, but it’s the first you heard it 25 minutes on a glassing knob. Not even like some secret spot. Just got there and burned some, Hey, I’m gonna go glass before dark. Well, it’s like a mid to high eighties buck. Like you can’t pass. How, how does a guy, we’ve passed a few and it and then you, but then you run the risk and, and we do it all year. Yeah. I’m mean in Colorado, I’ve eaten tags left in Colorado’s second season. If you see that and pass it, you’re probably, you gotta be okay with not killing a deer. Yeah. And you gotta be okay with not shooting one. Yeah, I did it once and yeah, you passed. Passed it on the first day and, and I tried the rest of the hunt to kill the same deer. Never was able to. How about Devin? He passes one of those bucks that he killed Nevada. Oh. 10 days and 10 days later. That’s that. I thought they were 10 days apart.
00:20:01:04 –> 00:21:25:00
But yeah, he passed a buck five days later, shoots a awesome buck lieutenant’s drop time and then five more days after that shoots the original buck he passed 10 days ago. We’re in the same area basically. So just, just crazy. So, but he did get to grind it out. Whether that’s a good or bad thing. You can debate that he learned more about the unit, grinded it out, felt, I mean, I guarantee that deer wasn’t gonna live the next time he saw it 10 days later. But you gotta be okay with eating tags and, and I’m living proof that you can, you can exist on paper. Hmm. Eating paper. Yeah. Should we see how Devon’s doing with his tire? Yeah. Might as well. Hello? Hey, did you get that? What’s up? Did you get that tire fixed? Oh yeah. It was a lot easier for the first time. No, when you know where to find, you know, pieces and parts from me changing it once a week. It gets easier. You guys, you guys and Chris’s office. Hey, we’re just, we’re just wondering if you feel guilty after smashing two bucks in Nevada, if you feel guilty going and smashing a Colorado buck. Not one bit. Well, yeah, thanks to the law and the turn back principles in, in Nevada, you were able to smash a couple great bucks 10 days apart, right? Yeah, about five days apart.
00:21:25:07 –> 00:22:39:08
Well, yeah, I guess 10 days from when you saw one of them before you decided to kill him. But big old dropper, buck another airy buck. Well you, you, you left before we could do a podcast, but we’re just wondering a, if you need somebody to come get you and help you with the tire problems. Oh no, the lugs are nice and it was a lot easier this time. No cheetah bar needed. But the first go around the other day it was, it was everything I had penetrating oil and everything you had on there. Yep. Really? You just didn’t, oh yeah, it wasn’t bad. Didn’t bus didn’t bust a stud off. Nope. Close. I’ll bet. What lifted the trailer off the ground. You did pretty much Devin by yourself. You lifted the trailer off the ground. No, it felt that way though. Oh, well. Are you excited? You’re making headway now though. Yeah. I need to probably get another tire and some groceries here in Grand Junction. Oh yeah. Oh, there you go. You’re in the, what is it? What’s Colorado? Green? Colorado. That’s good. Evergreen State. I don’t know what it is. I don’t know what is. It’s probably gonna change it to the pot state. Yeah, it’s some kind of different green. Yeah. Well, well anyway, you guys, none of you answered. I’ll tell you what, man, I, I think the deer I, I was just thinking this is, they’re not gonna be hit.
00:22:39:08 –> 00:23:50:29
They’re not, I, they’ll still hit ag fields, but like the grass that’s growing and the cedars just along the roads here, I’m looking at like, there’s feed, there is fresh feed everywhere we want during the second. Jen and I watched it grow every day. It’s, it had a little bit of rain and snow a little bit and sunshine and Yeah. It might spread stuff out a little bit, huh? I think so. Well there’s definitely a lot of bucks for you guys to smash over there. Second was a little bit tough, but we’re just wondering if you’re getting excited what you’re gonna do with all this venison. Oh yeah, we, it’s all in the free, all in the freezer. My wife bought a new freezer while I was gone actually. I said we better get another one. There you go. Because the one we have is not big. Somebody’s having a good year. Yeah. Elk. Three deer. How much does a family of two need antelope? You sound like those antelope those YouTuber comments we’ve been getting. We looked at yesterday. Oh, no kidding. Why would you kill a wolf? You can’t eat a wolf. They’re in danger. Oh yeah. They got, they got, they got mad at Wyatt and Devon. ’cause there’s two dudes and they shoot two 1400 pound bull moose and they’re like, why do you need two of those? Yeah.
00:23:50:29 –> 00:25:04:23
Like, we’re gonna remain there through the winter in our tent because Wyatt won’t share meat with me and I won’t share with him. There’s nothing like eating something that you’ve personally killed yourself. Oh yeah. Well, for their information, my moose is about gone. What? Really? Yeah. I’m about outta moose meat. Come on. Yeah, don’t, I donated a lot of it, but all the stuff I shipped back, which is quite a bit, it’s about gone. Wow. It’s amazing. It’s amazing, mate. Yeah. Good thing you, good thing you’re gonna have three bucks in a bull in the freezer and an antelope. Don’t forget that for Yeah. 47. Oh, the antelope. An antelope. That’s right. 47 pounds. Cut and wrap with the wrapper. Yeah. I bought eight pounds of beef fat to mix with some of the grind and I was about seven and a half pounds too much. Wow. Yeah. That’s the way it goes. That’s the way it goes. Well, all right guys, you and w are heading together. I guess maybe we’ll spare a while since we got you, but you guys have fun over there. Be safe and we’ll look for a report in about a week. We’ll have another one of these to see how the third season fared for everybody over there. There you go. All okay guys, we’ll see you. Talk to you later. Bye. Good. Good stuff. Oh, Chris, well, well, so Chris, we’re we’re gonna talk to you. Alright.
00:25:05:14 –> 00:26:10:09
You killed a heck of a buck in Colorado and if you’ve seen our Instagram, social media, it’s out there. It’s not like it’s, it’s like Bronson said Chris, the world’s why we go to Colorado. Yeah. When I saw it, it was, it was probably, I was, I did a quick trip with my son and one of his buddies and his dad to Colorado. It’s tougher with kids, especially. You got sports coming up, they’re, you know, limited on time. You know, they’ve already missed some days of school with earlier hunts, blah, blah, blah. So went over there, went one for two, had an awesome time, and we’re coming home that morning and all of a sudden I get a picture and it reminds you why you’re there grinding it out. Because sometimes something good can happen. You need to be reminded. Yes. Sometimes you need to be reminded Yeah. That, that can happen. You’re like, I could use a reminder. I could use a reminder. Yeah. So what happened? So that can happen when I say that can happen. What, what am I talking about Chris? Walk? Well, I ended up killing a nice buck. Wow. The funny thing is, after the week, I thought that’s what we’d get after the week. I was, I was needing a reminder too. Yeah. Like, you’re like, because I, I killed, I killed my buck fairly early on in the week.
00:26:11:01 –> 00:27:18:29
And like you guys were saying, it got super hard and I, I had a buddy there and we were trying to kill another buck and we worked our guts out and could not stand up. You mean sound? Just any buck you’re trying to kill any buck or a four point specific buck. You had seen any buck, just find another nice mature buck. Good four point just wasn’t happening. So Yeah. And it, it’s a combination of the warming weather, the deer, realizing there’s a bunch of people out here now again, you know, running around on roads and side byside and whatever else, pressure’s there. And not a real reason to stick their nose outta the trees if they don’t want to. Yeah. I killed on day three and it seems like the first, the first two days in there, like I was seeing some bucks. I I probably saw one 60 buck and three by four and here and there you’d see the smaller bucks. And then I killed mine. And then the day after that, nothing for like, for the rest of the hunt. He didn’t kill it there. Didn’t kill it. Couldn’t see another, went home with that one. Wow. And that’s the second I remember. Yeah. Well that’s, well I hunted that country. Oh, the second season. Season. Yeah. With my, with your boys. Yeah. Was the last time you were there.
00:27:19:16 –> 00:28:29:12
And we got one and it was, you know, the other kid came home without one and it was a grind. That’s the, that’s the second I remember. You know, but this year wasn’t supposed to be that way with these late dates, you know what I mean? Yeah. It’s supposed to be third season and filling. And so now the dust has cleared. Chris, you smashed a 200. Are you going back second next year? A are you going to Colorado B? Are you going second or third? Well, and C what unit are you going to? Well, it just remind, it just reminds you like it can happen. It can happen anywhere in Colorado at any time. It really can. You come around the right corner at the right time and there’s the right buck and you’re gonna go home a happy hunter. Yeah. They’re genetics. They’re generally their numbers, even though they’re down from historic, they’re still, when you compare ’em to other places, you see deer in Colorado, you still see deer. Yeah. I’d like to see some deer. Yeah. And, and we like to complain about it that, oh, it’s not what it used to be. And it’s not. And it’s not. But at the same time, am I still gonna go back next year? Oh yeah, absolutely. It’ll be somewhere. Yeah. On a year like this, when Bronson, we and Chris, we’ve been scouring Utah, Nevada. Nevada, Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado.
00:28:31:03 –> 00:29:32:15
My where am we all saw good bucks in Colorado, at least now some of ’em might be on some private, some of them got killed, Chris and Josh. But Chris is 200 inch is one of the top two or three we’ve seen. Yeah. Killed Yeah. Out of thousands and thousands and thousands ofs thousands of hunters in Colorado. And it might as well be a two 50 buck on a year like this. That’s, that’s crazy. Feels like it. It feels so hard. Oh, it does. I I feel pretty fortunate. I, and it’s, that deer definitely grew as I walked up to it. I, I looked at it in the scope for two seconds and thought it’s good enough spotting scope. Yeah. Yeah. So, and then went in, how far of a shot went in and it was, it was a perfect setup because I, when I spotted it, it was probably only, you know, 800 to a thousand away. But there was a ravine right in front of me that ran almost all the way to the deer. Wow. So I dropped down the ravine and there was a, a tree on top of right where I wanted to shoot from. You knew where you had to pop out? Yep. There was a tree. So I said, okay, I’m gonna drop in the ravine. Walked to that tree, walked to the crest, set up and shoot. Was he still out when you got there?
00:29:32:15 –> 00:30:31:10
Yeah, so he was exactly the same spot. And he was, I originally thought he was with a dough and I was getting real excited thinking the rut was starting. But as I watched a little two points. Yeah. As, as I watched the video, it’s this tiny, it’s the smallest three point you’ve ever seen. I could barely tell it was a buck in the video, but, so I had my friend there with me and so we both went down into the ravine and went down to the tree, hiked up to the top, and Buck was still there. So I just set up my bipod, put a jacket under the back, arranged it four 60 and all on video, man, it’s all on video. Sweet. You’ve center punched him, pulled the trigger. But the only thing I regret is he was, he was looking down, down the ridge and so something, and he would never, he never turned to look at me, but I wasn’t gonna not shoot. But you didn’t know, like, is he, is he really good? He’s looking away. Yeah, he might’ve been looking at a 2 30 30, but knew, I knew from the, the first time I looked at him in the scope, he was looking right at me. And I, I knew he was That was burned in your head at least.
00:30:31:10 –> 00:31:30:09
Yeah, and I’m, this steers were shooting kind of opens up a that and, and I’ve made mistakes in the past where I tried on my own hunts, where I tried to video too much and I lost a buck. And so this time it’s put up the scope, put the video on, pull the trigger. So I can’t You did better or not remember. You did better night. I, I can’t remember the last self video hunt I’ve tried. It’s not, I’m not, I’m not letting something get away. It’s not easy ever. When, when ever you Jason, ever. That’s the last one. I don’t know. It’s been, Hey. Oh, you did your Colorado buck like three or four years ago. That was a while I think. And then No, with you. Oh, with, yeah. But I was on the virgin of shooting it walked for three hours. He walked outta the screen I think when he shot. Yeah, he did. He walked outta the screen after 19 minutes. But he was also dumb in a fence post with a dough. You’re like, he can’t get away. I might as well video this one. And now I look back at that and I’m like, you are so dumb. Yeah. What did you just crush him? Why? It was Well I was with you. I was, I’m you’re an idiot. Why are you videoing, why did you video for 14 minutes? There was like 15 minutes of video. Crazy.
00:31:30:13 –> 00:32:35:29
You know, I had a solid three minutes of video setting up and everything. ’cause I, I set the scope up, hit record, and then set up my bipod, set up my gun. Well Chris, you’re from Utah. You’re from Utah. Sometimes seconds means the other guy shoots. I mean, it’s true that you video his, what if that thing went down in your scope? Oh, you’d be bad and somebody shot it. I mean, and that’s what happened to me in Colorado. I was like, I could hear razors or something. I’m like, if somebody else were to shoot the steer right now, I’d be sick to my stomach. Yeah. I’m gonna smash it. Well, and it, I mean every really every second counts. Like I’ve, like I said, I’ve, I’ve lost bucks that I waited just that much too long because I was trying to video and, but it’s an epic kill shot and we appreciate it. Yeah. Yeah. One is a white to all regret the older, the rest of my life in Kansas. Yeah. It had double cheaters out. My buddy killed it. Well, congrats Chris. He’s a stud. He’s like a five by five. He also has an extra guard, but big, like three and a half, four inch eye guards. Just big open, airy frame open kind of beams in the front. Yeah. Just stares at yas. He is what he’s Colorado built. That’s what you’ve, that’s what you think when you see that deer.
00:32:36:02 –> 00:33:56:04
Yeah. He’s like Colorado. He’s probably the Well he is, he is. I’d say he is the prettiest frame buck that I’ve ever killed. Yeah. Yeah. Just big, big frame. His, I mean his tall G twos and Yeah. Yep. Boxy and tall. Anyway, awesome. Buck and dark antler sucker. Yeah man, that’s, there’s, that’s something about them. Chocolate antler. Yeah. I don’t know why color matters Cam from the pines up Pine that dark chocolate. Jeez. Anyway, so it can happen. And, and so if we’re talking about weather, talking about sunshine, talking about lack of snow, don’t lose hope. You’re still in Colorado. We’re still doing what we like and just keep grinding it out. I mean, there’s nothing you can do. You got it. Your points are gone. Just hunt it out and man, stuff happens. Their genetics are too good in Colorado. That’s get a little age. You got a good chance. Lemme give a quick shout out to a couple of our sponsors here Midstream here. Chris, you mentioned video on your buck. I’m sure you did it through a phone scope. Yes. Awesome, awesome. Kill shot there. Allows you to be able to attach your phone to be able to attach it to your spotting scope, your fifteens, twelves, whatever you got. Visit phone scope.com. P-H-O-N-E-S-K-O-P e.com. They’ve got something for every phone and spotting scope there.
00:33:57:09 –> 00:35:28:24
It, it’s just an awesome way to document what you see, what you, what you shoot and all that. Another one of our sponsors is Blaine St. James is St. James Sporting Properties based in Colorado, but licensed not only in Colorado, but Idaho, Kansas, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming. Bla and his crew at St. James Sporting Properties. Some the best people you need to call about the western hunting, fishing, recreation properties, whether you’re buying, whether you’re selling, whatever you’re looking for. Give ’em a call. 8 7 7 3 5 4 7 2 4 7 or sj sporting properties.com. So pretty good guys right there. He knows what he’s doing. So Big time Hunter. So Big time Hunter. All right, well let’s give, let’s give my buddy Roger Smithson. I think he’s standing over a Oh, dead buck in Colorado, but I haven’t heard a lot from him. Dude. Hey man. And got him. You did? Yep. Just what you thought. Double lung. Yeah, he’s a, yeah, he, he fell right. The last place I saw him, it was just brushing and I couldn’t see him go down, but he went down right there. Okay, so you’re on the Epic Outdoors podcast, so anything you can, and so anything you do or say can be held against, can used against you in the field, honey, next year with some do so. So this is where all the Mule Deere hunters call to gimme a hard time, huh? Well, no, we’re just excited, Jason.
00:35:29:04 –> 00:36:40:13
We’re in the, we, it’s the only day this week we’re together and he happens to hit me. He says, Roger just said he crushed Buck one of his better white tails of his life with Bow and we’re wanting details and we were fearful that you didn’t like, you know, have a, I even tried FaceTiming you, but you wouldn’t answer. And I’m like, Hey, this isn’t good. Yeah. You know? Yeah. So he had no covers there where I got him, but he’s just a, he’s got about everything. He’s long beam. He’s white, he’s tall, he’s got good masks and just a blocky mature white tail. Wow. How many points aside does he got? Five clean as can be? Probably clean, not, maybe not one inch deduction through both sides. A clean tail. Absolutely. Perfect. Would you shoot him again? Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Even, even with the mule deer that I was seeing, I I, I just can’t see. That’s why I go, I mean, you’re seeing great mule deer. I’m thinking I’m killing one of those mule deer. That’s what I’d be doing if I was in your shoes. Those, there’s some nice mules that I was seeing, but I’m just, like I said, I’m not to the point of letting this type of whitetail go, but maybe next year. Did you, what did you, you rattled him in?
00:36:41:15 –> 00:37:46:21
Yeah, two came in and they were a vehicle size, but one was a little more broken up and one came in behind me and one came in front and it’s hard to pass 170 inch white tail. 10 yards broadsided. It’s 10 yards. That’s awesome, man. Good for you. Well, we’ll look forward to seeing a pick later on. We we’re, we’re doing a Colorado podcast with everybody getting ready to go. Third season, of course the eastern plains, they’ve been hunting forever. And there’s archery season at least goes on and on and on. But this is imagine strong white toe rutt going on out there, right around mule deer. But that’s awesome. We wanted to talk to somebody fresh that’s just had a phenomenal experience. Well, it’s kind of right in the middle of it right now because, but it just opened yesterday. The ruts going full tilt. I would usually be here earlier than now, but it did, it opened late this year, which was really not my choice, but I’d rather hunt a little earlier for the pre rutt. But yeah. Wow. They were going pretty good. They responded to the horns, so. Wow. That’s awesome. All right, well we’ll let you get him. Whatever taken care of and headed back to, yeah, Arkansas.
00:37:47:24 –> 00:39:17:23
Yeah, headed to South Dakota now, so, oh, tax’s good for a white tiller mule there, so, oh, well maybe, I don’t know what it’s gonna take to flip the switch from Mule, but I guess we’ll see what, what wins there. Whitetail. The whitetail won in Colorado. Yeah, he did win. Or he lost. Well, he lost. He lost. He got the, he got the shaft. Literally. Alright. Alright. See you guys. Talk to you later. Okay. 200 inch mule deer, one 70 whitetail. We’re not talking, I don’t know, legit pig deer. Like the mule deer. I’m just like, he sent a picture of the lesser, and I mean I’d smash it anywhere almost. I mean, anyway, all right, we got, how many states can you hunt? Let’s just quickly can hunt mule there? I’m gonna say about 10 or 15 states, maybe 20. I don’t know. White tail feels like they’re in 47. Well, pretty much, right? You do one in Idaho, Montana, Colorado, but, but Washington and every and every eastern state. Yeah. What? Where can’t you, yeah, Utah even kills a couple randomly. Exactly. So anyway, hey, he, those whitetail hunters though, when they, they’re born and bred whitetail hunters, it’s hard to get ’em off ’em and one 70 with a bow. 10 yards broadside. That’s Yeah, I need one. Yeah, I need one. Well, I need, yeah. Anyway, we’ll throw a little shout out to Triple S Polaris here in Cedar City, Utah.
00:39:18:02 –> 00:40:47:23
Triple S, Polaris, selling everything Polaris and doing a great job at it. Good friends of ours built the Epic outdoors model Razor. Just incredible. Super good guys there. 4, 3, 5, 8, 6, 5, 0, 100 Triple S Polaris. They’ll to deliver anywhere, it don’t, doesn’t matter, you don’t have to live here in Utah. Big dealership got a lot of, let’s call it acreage up there. And a lot of machines, they’ve got a huge inventory, especially in CO, the C environment. So anyway, check out ss polaris.com. Don’t think you could go wrong. Also, red Rock Precision, excellent rifles. I love my Red Rock rifle, man. I’ve killed a lot of stuff with it. And anyway, we took it out there on the second and, you know, shooting a rock at 600 and some odd yards and, and you’re two inches off or something. It’s unbelievable. Red Rock precision, credible rifles, red Rock precision.com, check ’em out, they’ll do a variety of calibers, variety of scopes, whatever, very custom to what you’re looking to do. So anyway, proud to be associated with them as well. I shot my buck with a gun that they set up for me. What caliber? Shoot, 300 rum. And they, last year they put on a new, they modified and put on a new muzzle break. And it’s awesome now. Like it, did you not have a break on it before? I had an old break, an old model. An old design.
00:40:48:00 –> 00:41:55:21
And when we went out and shot with them last year, they were looking at it and they, they just said, you need a new break. So we had ’em put on a new break and it just, it was a game changer for tighten stuff up or whatever. Well, that, that gun just kicked and it would twist a little bit when I shot it or whatever. And so that, that new break has taken that away and so it’s way easier to shoot. Yeah, that shot I on my buck, 460 yards. One shot. And funny thing is, I, I, I got so rushed, I forgot to zoom in my scope. You shot him on four power, five power, come on. 460 yards, five power. And I’m, I’m thinking, man, it looks like a Phil bounce. Looks like a long ways away, but, but I have, the shot felt great though, and it drilled him exactly where my cross hair was. Yeah, it didn’t, yeah, I mean it’s not like you’re using the les, you know what I mean? Yeah, you’re dialing the crosser. Yeah. Yep. Oh geez. That’s funny. That is. Well hey, all’s well it ends well. One more shout out. Keep in mind we are in the middle of the hunts, but we’ve had a lot of emergency cells in the last couple of weeks as people have dropped scopes, backed over stuff from the field, whatever. They’re reaching us.
00:41:55:28 –> 00:43:10:27
And if you need something, whether it be binocular, spotting scope, whatever, Riflescope, give us a call. There’ll be somebody here or can relay messages to us in the field. But there’ll be somebody here to be able to see what we got right there on the shelf. We’ve got a lot of stuff, including vortex, whether it be binoculars, spotting scopes, rifle scopes, vortex makes great products, UN unlimited, unconditional lifetime, Morty and all their stuff. Yeah. Check their whole line of products out on their [email protected]. Great partner of ours. And we’re also a dealer of them. So anyway, keep it in mind, but wish everybody luck. If you’re going to Colorado on third season, fourth season, we may not talk to you until it’s all over. We got a lot of us gonna be gone for the next week or 10 days and we all wish everybody luck. Be safe. Take great pictures, take a little extra time. What else, Chris, in that regard, you know? Yeah, you’re only there once. So take, take a lot of pictures. A lot of times we rush through that. We just want to get off the mountain and you can never have that moment back. So take a lot of pictures. Take your time. Enjoy the moment. Anything else, Chris? We wrap this up. Call it a day. Call it a week. Yep. All right. Okay. Good luck all, everybody that’s headed to Colorado for family and friends or whatever yourself.
00:43:11:18 –> 00:43:27:00
Good luck. We wanna know how you do. Like Adam said, hit us [email protected]. Jason epic outdoors.com. Adam outdoors.com. We wanna hear from you. We wish you the best. Kill big.
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