COLORADO HUNT!!

Ben's Buck

After a few days of close calls and lots of shots at some serious whoppers, we decided that we better split up and start filling some tags. Dad and I went togother to try a new spot while Nate and Uncle Jeff went after some deer that we had spotted earlier in the week. After glassing for a while, dad found some good deer that we wanted to go after. I hiked for about an hour until I got to the spot where I needed to sneak up to the deer. The only problem was, the mountain was straight up. I began sneaking/climbing on all fours after the deer. Dad was on the radio guiding me up. When I was about a third of the way up, I jumped up a nice four point. He wasn't the buck we origanally wanted but he was running straight to the other deer. I knew I could either have a shot at this deer or nothing. At 125 yards I took aim at the buck on a move. After a cloud of smoke from my muzzleloader, I heard my dad say from my ear piece as the deer ran out of sight, "You missed him, try to reload." But it was too late, the deer was gone. Then I heard, "Wait, you got him, he's going down. He's rolling, he's still rolling, he's still rolling, etc..." I then saw the deer roll past me and about 200 yards later he stopped and I had filled our first tag with a nice buck. Did I mention that the mountain I was on was straight up?

Uncle Jeff's Buck

Nate and I were the designated hikers on this one. Uncle Jeff strategically placed himself in some pine trees and waited patiently while Nate and I took a death march around what seemed to be an entire mountain range. Dad was our radio man again, and just to let you know how far we were, we lost radio contact for much of our hike. Finally Nate and I got to the spot where we needed to come over the summit on a nice buck we had bedded down earlier. Dad guided us in because the mountain was so steep we couldn't see the deer until we were basicly right on top of him. Dad guided us like a pro and we snuck within 30 feet of the buck. Nate was on his tippy toes aiming down at the buck but we could only see his head above the bushes. Nate took the tough shot but just missed. The deer started running right to Jeff. We started yelling, "Get ready Jeff, he's coming your way!" The deer ran right to Jeff and at 20 yards we had deer number two.

Nate's Buck

Nate and I both had chances at some of the biggest bucks we had ever seen. But now it was the last morning and Nate was still empty handed. Seeing that we were in an area where the only deer we saw were at 13 thousand feet and an all day ordeal to get, our chances were looking slim for only a single morning to go. Luckily on our fourwheeler ride to our area, we spotted a nice little buck. Nate went after him and got him in the pines at about 90 yards. Our coolers were then filled with meat and our families won't need to starve this winter.

Beautiful Colorado/Fun Camping

A huge thanks to dad and Uncle Jeff for allowing us to have the most wonderful hunt ever. We had an absolute blast. We saw some of the most breath taking country this land has to offer. Camping was amazing and Uncle Jeff set up all the tents before we even got there (1st class service). We had gourmet dutch oven cooking. We filled our three tags and I even got a beautiful fox. Nate provided a home-made shower by filling a garbage bag with river water, it was awesome. Dad took care of my sprained ankle by wrapping it up every moring and giving me Celebrax every night. Dad helped me pack out my deer which took all day. So thanks dad and Jeff for all you do so that we can get to the outdoors and enjoy an amazing hunt. And a gigantic thanks to my dear wife for watching the kids and roughing it with out me so I could have this amazing trip. I love you honey!