Colorado Elk/Deer hunt - Day 4 By Jason Balazs
Nov 2, 2007 - 6:46:44 PM
Day 4
5:00 A.M.
I woke and up and started the coffee again. The plan was to sit the same place that we were last night. Jodi and I were the first ones up and since we had a long walk ahead of us, we wanted to get ourselves going.
6:45 A.M.
Once we were back at our tree again, we set up some of the Wildlife Research Scent Wicks with some bugling scent on them. The wind was blowing perfect, but we wanted to try to ensure that our scent was covered up. I also walked around with some of the Elk Herd in a Stick, from VS1, and rubbed that on some limbs and rocks. I made a huge circle around us to try to stave off any crazy wind thermals. As the sun started to come over the horizon, there were no bugles to be had.
The wind started picking up a little bit and it became breezy. As the morning was happening like it always does in the mountain, I spotted a doe out in front of us about 300 yards. She was on the private side of the fence grazing towards the patch of timber that the buck had come out of the night before. I poked Jodi and pointed the doe out to her. I reached over to grab my camera off of my side and found it not to be there. I asked Jodi if she remembered me wearing it this morning when we got ready. She said she saw it sitting next to my pack in the tent. I guess I was in too much of a hurry to get back out here and left it sitting on the table. I had kept that thing on my belt the whole time, but last night I wanted to share all the pictures with everyone.
The doe just kept feeding her way until she entered the patch of trees that was to be her bed for the rest of the day. Jodi said, "Since time is getting short, I will take a doe or a cow if one presents me with the shot." I said, "I am with you, we are only hunting until tomorrow and I want to really ensure you get a shot at something. Hopefully this morning, that herd will work its way back through here and maybe give us a shot."
The breeze started to become gusts as is normal when a storm is blowing in, but the morning was still happening and we were sitting in our spot. That is when we herd a truck sound coming. I looked at Jodi and asked her if she heard that. She shakes her head yes. I thought, "We are so far from a road on public land and I am hearing a diesel truck." That is when we saw it. A big F-350 barreling across the meadow on the private land and heading right towards the tree line on the other side. I looked at the truck through my Nikon Monarchs and could make out the ranch name on the side. Once they stopped, both doors flung open and out jumped one guy in full camouflage and one in a camouflage shirt with blue jeans. They both slammed the doors and started walking into the meadow. Then, one turned back and went to the truck. He opened the door and grabbed something from off the seat. As he proceeded to slam the door again (Which by the way could be heard all the way from Wyoming to New Mexico), he stopped and started to bugle. I thought to myself, "Are you kidding me?"
Ralph had said there was a guide service on that ranch; I have to take a note never to book with them. Anyway, the guide and the hunter started walking right across the meadow bugling every 3 steps. This was prime elk moving time and here these guys were traipsing all over the meadow. This was another one of those "I watched them do this on the hunting video, so I know it works," kind of guy. I don't know, but it was almost amusing to watch these two guys sneaking from sage bush to sage bush letting out bugles. Jodi and I figured the morning in the area was pretty much shot, so we discreetly picked up our Scent Wicks and left the area un-noticed.
While we were walking back, we figured we would just slowly still hunt and maybe sneak up on something. I said to Jodi that we needed to go check out the trail camera that I had put out the first day for pictures. There was a spring bubbling out of the ground with tracks all around where I put it. We decided that once we got back to the truck that is where we would go.
After not seeing anything, we made it back to the truck and drove over to the area that had the camera. I took the camera down and we headed back to camp. I needed to find my camera to put the SD card in to view the pictures. Once back, everyone was sitting around the fire. I went into the tent and sure enough, my camera was right were I left it. I plugged the card into it and started going through the photos. There were 35 pictures on there. First was my mug when I was setting the camera up, then some birds, and then bingo; deer after deer walking right into the spring to get a drink. I went out and showed everyone. There were no bucks, but there were some does. Most of them were in the morning around 9:00. Seems they would walk right in and take a drink, then go back to bed.
I told Jodi that she needed to hunt that place in the morning since it would be our last. That is, if she didn't get anything that afternoon.
A quick hair washing with Scent Killer.
After a quick half hour nap, Ralph came over and said he wanted to take me to this place to scout a little. I went with him and to my surprise; it was very close to camp. We found a bunch of trails that lead to this meadow filled with deer and elk tracks. All of the trails sort of met up in one area before crossing this old logging road and heading through some aspens. We decided that it would be a good area to sit that afternoon to see if anything comes out. You could sit on the logging road and see 400 yards up and down it, plus you could see into the dark timber for a good ways. I marked the area and we left it alone. The wind had really started to blow with the front moving in, so I figured any scent that we had left, would dissipate by that afternoon. No matter, we needed to do some laundry and take a scent free shower.
Doug's laundry service where Scent Killer Soap knocks out human odor.
Ralph said that morning he had found another spot that he was going to take Doug and Carole to. There were a lot of tracks as well and since we only have an evening and morning before we left, he thought it would be a great place to take them. Once we got back to camp, we did some well-needed laundry in some buckets that we had brought. Using the laundry detergent from Wildlife Research Center, we were able to accomplish this task quickly. As we let our stuff dry in the wind, we got ready for some showers. I had two of the Sun Showers that you let heat up in the sun. They have both been sitting out for a couple of days and were nice and warm. The weather was mild as it usually is right before a bad storm blows in, so we would not freeze to death while getting clean. I took my Scent Killer soap and shampoo from Wildlife research over there, and Jodi took her Lady Huntress pack. There is nothing better than being clean after a few days of not showering. Carole and Doug took showers too and everyone was a little happier to be around each other.
5:30 P.M.
Jodi and I headed back to the spot where Ralph and I had been that morning, while Ralph took Doug and Carole to theirs. I had the video camera along with the tripod to set it up for our hunt. Once we were set up on the other side of this downed aspen log, I told Jodi that if anything comes out, I want her to get the first shot. No sooner as I said that, I looked up and saw three backs moving through the dark timber. I said, "There are some deer! Jodi get out on the road and get ready!" The deer were walking from our left to our right and going to come out up the road a little bit. Jodi got out on the road, and I turned the camera on. I had it all set up and was going to get it on video. I turned to Sierra and asked her to run the video camera. "Just look at the screen and try to follow your mom working up the road. I am going to get on the road and give her the range of them." I said. She said ok, so I moved out on the road staying in the brushy part. I have my Guardian with me too, in case I could get a shot after Jodi. Jodi was about 20 yards in front on the other side of the road.
I looked into the woods and saw that two of the deer were still walking, but one was watching Jodi. I snapped my fingers and Jodi stopped. I pointed to the doe watching her. She froze and looked for the other deer. They were still making their way to the road. I tried to range where they were going to come out and it read 60 yards. I then ranged Jodi and she was 20 yards. I snapped my fingers and mouthed, "40 yards!" to Jodi. She nodded and got ready. Before the deer stepped out into the road Jodi drew. It was awesome! She was not shaking or anything and had perfect form. When the Doe stepped onto the road I whistled and she stopped. Perfect I thought, except for she was about 10 yards farther down the road than where I ranged. I tried to whisper the yardage again, but it was useless that far away. I almost didn't hear the shot from Jodi's Equalizer, but as I watched the arrow fly, I knew it was going to be a bit short. The arrow was flying beautiful right at the deer and then right before it; it dipped down and barely missed the doe. The deer jumped straight up and hopped into the aspens but stopped only 20 yards in. The deer had no idea what had happened, so Jodi knelt down to load another arrow. I tried to sneak up the road to give her the correct yardage. That is when the other doe that was watching her worked her way onto the road. I told Jodi, there was another one. I ranged it, but it was 80 yards away. Meanwhile, the deer she shot at was working her way towards the meadow and was not going to offer anther shot.
I finally made it up to Jodi and she was smiling ear to ear. She said, "I know I missed, but man that was awesome! I finally got to draw my bow on something and get a chance to shoot." I gave her a hug and told her she shot beautiful. The deer had just come out a little further than anticipated. We went up and got her arrow and worked our way back to our blind. I asked Sierra how the video was. She said, "Oh yeah the video." She had gotten all caught up in the hunt that she was watching us instead of the camera. We rewound the film and proceeded to look at the side of an aspen for five minutes. We all chuckled and settled down with hopes that maybe something would come through for us. Unfortunately, that was not meant to happen that night, so as darkness fell, we headed back to camp.
The end of another day. Nothing down but this is exciting hunting. Maybe tomorrow.
Once there, we found out that Doug and Carole had a bull bugling to them but it never showed itself. They were going to try back their in the morning for one last try. Jodi was going to sit the spring, and I was going back to where Jodi had missed that evening. If luck is with us, maybe one of us will see something.
To be continued…..
