Colorado Cast and Blast (Pic Heavy)
10-27-2014, 12:51 PM
#1
Giant Nontypical
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Join Date: Oct 2013
Posts: 9,230
Colorado Cast and Blast (Pic Heavy)
I was finally able to return to my native CO this year for some hunting and fishing. It has been several years since I have been able to do so since the Navy seemed to think that I needed to make multiple trips into the combat zone of the Middle East. I finally had enough of that and retired in Apr.
For this season I had a buck pronghorn tag for unit 12 and 211 in northeast CO. The area is directly south and a little west of the city of Craig. The area was kind of hard hit by weather a few years ago and the pronghorn numbers are down but the bucks that are there tend to be pretty good. I also had a doe deer tag for a private ranch that a family friend owns in eastern CO. The antelope season ran from Oct 04-Oct 11 and the deer tag was for later in Oct. In between I went elk hunting with my brother. I didn't have a tag but went to be a pack horse if he scored and just to enjoy myself. Here's how it all played out:
As I left my Mother's house in Erie, CO I entered the high country via HWY 14 outside of Ft Collins. There had been some rain the day before I left and I found a nice dusting of snow on Cameron Pass.It had been quite awhile since I'd seen snow in my beloved Rockies.
Fortunately, the snow was restricted to above 9000 feet so my antelope camp was still dry. I set up at the foot of a dry wash that was surrounded by bluffs and juniper.
This was the bedroom and pantry
Here is the kitchen and living room
My front yard
The back yard
And the scenic view to the east
No house is really complete without making accommodations for guests. My father has passed on but I always make sure he has a spot at the fire
Pack Rats are a fact of life around rocky bluffs in CO and they decided to pay me a visit as well. It appears as though they approved of my choice in toilet paper! LOL
Opening day found me glassing basins for pronghorn. I was willing to spend the entire season looking for a good buck and I passed on a couple of small guys right at daybreak. As sometimes happens, the hunting gods smile on you and less than 3 hours into the hunt they sent me a good buck. The shot was about 120 yards and the buck was good enough to consider an opening day buck so I took him with a single round from my old 7mm Mag.
He was just a little over 15 inches on one horn and the other had a broken tip that made it about an inch shorter. He also had double prongs on one horn and he had something I have never seen on a pronghorn before, a 3rd horn about an inch long on the bridge of his nose.
After I had him dressed and back in camp I boned him and got him on ice. Supper that night was the fresh grilled heart of the buck and I spent the night thinking about all the hunting trips I made with Dad over the years and how much I wished he could have been there with me.
Since I had time to kill I spent a few days just chilling out and looking around. I amused myself watching cottontails and sage grouse and watched a group of cowboys bring a herd of cattle down to winter range before I headed back to town. Out here, the old way is still the best way.
After I got cleaned up from the antelope hunt I met my brother to head over to the Grand Mesa for an elk hunt. We would be staying in my cousins elk camp. I'd never hunted this area and since I didn't have a tag I was along to do the cooking and be a pack horse if they were lucky. There is nothing like driving to elk camp after being away for years.
This particular camp is located near several meadows and they hunt it mostly by watching the meadows. On a normal year it produces 3 or 4 elk.
How ever, this year not many elk were moving so I dove into the thick timber and sort of walked around. I pushed out a small raghorn bull to my brother but he was carrying a cow tag and had to let him walk. One thing I noticed on my walk was a lot of grouse sign so I broke out my 22 pump and borrowed a truck and went to an area where I could chase them without impacting the elk hunt. In CO the limit is 3 per day and I spent 3 days potting grouse.
Unfortunately, the grouse was all the meat we took. It was a great hunt with my brother and my cousins and I hadn't done that with them in years but in this case the elk won.
Some days you just have to stop for a minute and appreciate the sunset
And then turn around and look at the moonrise and realize all is good in the world, elk or no elk.
We always have a few camp robbers hanging around and they can get pretty tame. I named this one Bob.
So we went back to town and I got ready for deer hunting. In this case, the deer hunting was pretty straight forward since I have hunted the ranch for years and know where the deer tend to hang out. plus I had a doe tag and wasn't going to be picky. To make along story short, 22 minutes after I left the truck I took a nice fat mulie doe with a .54 caliber T/C Renegade at about 40 yards.
I had a little time left after the deer hunt and decided I needed to go to my favorite trout lake and do some fishing. The name of the lake is Monarch Lake and it is located just inside the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area. I have always thought it was a beautiful lake
In addition to being beautiful, the lake usually produces fairly well for me. On this day it was especially good to me and I took a brown trout that was 26 inches long and weighed right at 7 1/2 lbs on an ultra-light spinning rod and 2 lb line.
I headed back to town and enjoyed the splendor of my native state. It was good to come home.
So, the tally was a good buck pronghorn, a nice mulie doe, a really good trout and a bunch of grouse and enough memories of a good hunt to last a long long time.
For this season I had a buck pronghorn tag for unit 12 and 211 in northeast CO. The area is directly south and a little west of the city of Craig. The area was kind of hard hit by weather a few years ago and the pronghorn numbers are down but the bucks that are there tend to be pretty good. I also had a doe deer tag for a private ranch that a family friend owns in eastern CO. The antelope season ran from Oct 04-Oct 11 and the deer tag was for later in Oct. In between I went elk hunting with my brother. I didn't have a tag but went to be a pack horse if he scored and just to enjoy myself. Here's how it all played out:
As I left my Mother's house in Erie, CO I entered the high country via HWY 14 outside of Ft Collins. There had been some rain the day before I left and I found a nice dusting of snow on Cameron Pass.It had been quite awhile since I'd seen snow in my beloved Rockies.
Fortunately, the snow was restricted to above 9000 feet so my antelope camp was still dry. I set up at the foot of a dry wash that was surrounded by bluffs and juniper.
This was the bedroom and pantry
Here is the kitchen and living room
My front yard
The back yard
And the scenic view to the east
No house is really complete without making accommodations for guests. My father has passed on but I always make sure he has a spot at the fire
Pack Rats are a fact of life around rocky bluffs in CO and they decided to pay me a visit as well. It appears as though they approved of my choice in toilet paper! LOL
Opening day found me glassing basins for pronghorn. I was willing to spend the entire season looking for a good buck and I passed on a couple of small guys right at daybreak. As sometimes happens, the hunting gods smile on you and less than 3 hours into the hunt they sent me a good buck. The shot was about 120 yards and the buck was good enough to consider an opening day buck so I took him with a single round from my old 7mm Mag.
He was just a little over 15 inches on one horn and the other had a broken tip that made it about an inch shorter. He also had double prongs on one horn and he had something I have never seen on a pronghorn before, a 3rd horn about an inch long on the bridge of his nose.
After I had him dressed and back in camp I boned him and got him on ice. Supper that night was the fresh grilled heart of the buck and I spent the night thinking about all the hunting trips I made with Dad over the years and how much I wished he could have been there with me.
Since I had time to kill I spent a few days just chilling out and looking around. I amused myself watching cottontails and sage grouse and watched a group of cowboys bring a herd of cattle down to winter range before I headed back to town. Out here, the old way is still the best way.
After I got cleaned up from the antelope hunt I met my brother to head over to the Grand Mesa for an elk hunt. We would be staying in my cousins elk camp. I'd never hunted this area and since I didn't have a tag I was along to do the cooking and be a pack horse if they were lucky. There is nothing like driving to elk camp after being away for years.
This particular camp is located near several meadows and they hunt it mostly by watching the meadows. On a normal year it produces 3 or 4 elk.
How ever, this year not many elk were moving so I dove into the thick timber and sort of walked around. I pushed out a small raghorn bull to my brother but he was carrying a cow tag and had to let him walk. One thing I noticed on my walk was a lot of grouse sign so I broke out my 22 pump and borrowed a truck and went to an area where I could chase them without impacting the elk hunt. In CO the limit is 3 per day and I spent 3 days potting grouse.
Unfortunately, the grouse was all the meat we took. It was a great hunt with my brother and my cousins and I hadn't done that with them in years but in this case the elk won.
Some days you just have to stop for a minute and appreciate the sunset
And then turn around and look at the moonrise and realize all is good in the world, elk or no elk.
We always have a few camp robbers hanging around and they can get pretty tame. I named this one Bob.
So we went back to town and I got ready for deer hunting. In this case, the deer hunting was pretty straight forward since I have hunted the ranch for years and know where the deer tend to hang out. plus I had a doe tag and wasn't going to be picky. To make along story short, 22 minutes after I left the truck I took a nice fat mulie doe with a .54 caliber T/C Renegade at about 40 yards.
I had a little time left after the deer hunt and decided I needed to go to my favorite trout lake and do some fishing. The name of the lake is Monarch Lake and it is located just inside the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area. I have always thought it was a beautiful lake
In addition to being beautiful, the lake usually produces fairly well for me. On this day it was especially good to me and I took a brown trout that was 26 inches long and weighed right at 7 1/2 lbs on an ultra-light spinning rod and 2 lb line.
I headed back to town and enjoyed the splendor of my native state. It was good to come home.
So, the tally was a good buck pronghorn, a nice mulie doe, a really good trout and a bunch of grouse and enough memories of a good hunt to last a long long time.
Last edited by flags; 10-27-2014 at 01:57 PM.
