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Late-Season Colorado Buck
The buck was taken on the fifth day of the hunt. The unit is mostly a winter range area for the White River deer herd, so the deer need to be driven down by snow in the high country. Since the snow wasn't heavy, we decided to go back into the high country and hunt hard there.
The area we hunted usually holds the elk longer since they can make a living in deep snow better than deer can. We almost didn't make it up the steep hill even with snow chains on all four tires. But after Mike saw a Toyota without chains make it, he was bound and determined. On our fourth or fifth attempt, we finally crested the ridge. The plan was to descend into the aspen and oak brush to see what we could push out. Richard said he saw the horns of the buck sticking out of the oak brush; the deer tried to remain calm while the rest of us were making a drive down the ridge.
Richard used his brand new Browning rifle in .300 WSM topped with a Swarovski scope to bring down the monster. I green scored him at about 175 - 185 points. His rack had 18-inch G2s, 24.5-inch main beams, and an outside spread of 27 inches.
He had to have been fighting with another big buck because he had a piece of another buck's antler on his with fur from that buck, and his face and neck showed signs of where the other buck had gored him.
Besides this buck, Richard saw another one with a larger body (couldn't get a good look at its antlers) and a REAL BIG 37-inch wide buck on the last day (a 6x7!). The deer were all showing up at the last minute of the last day — it's a good thing he didn't shoot that forky he wanted earlier!
Submitted by Glenn Tessers
California
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