colorado

[.270]

got back from colorady. 3 good goats. one nice one, one really good one and one exceptional. Bernie, Grayghost85 and F-bomb did a fine job. i sent a story and photos to Amanda and she'll post soon i'm sure. the one F-bomb got has, in the words of my oldest son, "stupid long" prongs. real impressive for sure. later, Lark.

[CouesWhitetail]

from Lark:

 

Here is the story. we hunted in a unit about 100 miles east of Colorado springs. it is all private land, like about everything east of I-25. but this unit has about 45,000 acres of BGAP land. BGAP means big game access program. for another 40 bucks you can hunt those acres. it's a real zoo for about a day and a half, but settles down after then. we only saw a half dozen hunters on monday, and 3 of those we driving the roads.

 

day 1, My son in law, Bernie shot one at the crack o' dawn the first day. they had just got across the fence into the bgap area and there was a buck with a buncha does a couple hundred yards away. he got down in the prone and with the first shot at an animal out of his new 7mag, he shot his first pronghorn. they drug it back to the truck and we took care of it and got it in the ice chest and they took off back into the open area and spent most of the day there, with a lot of other hunters. Forest (f-bomb) got a shot at one later in the afternoon but didn't connect.

 

day 2, Bernie is in the last months of a phd program at UNM in las cruces and needed to be home by monday morning so him and his dad split sunday. my youngest son Bridger, (grayghost85), F-bomb and me loaded up in my ol' dodge, Leonard, and headed out to hunt. there were noticeably fewer hunters, but still quite a few. from the perimeter of the BGAP area we glassed up a good looking buck and i dropped of grayghost85 and f-bomb and they began the pursuit. after a several mile stalk that had quite a few twists and turns they outwitted the wily pronghorn with a well placed shot in the neck fromhis .264 at about treefitty, he went down. they boned him out and punked him to the truck. spent the rest of the day looking here and there in some of the other BGAP areas and never saw one in a legal place to shoot that was big enough. did see one that was a real trophy, i mean a good one, but it was on land that we didn't have permission to hunt. i.e., we didn't want to pay to hunt there.

 

day 3. nobody hunting today. saw a total of about 6 folks wearing orange and half of them were in the road mode only. there was a guy with 2 women hunting and they walked a mile or so into the big bgap area, but didn't connect. the boys spotted a small buck that came in real close and they got some good video of it and f-bomb thought seriously about shooting it, but luckily he passed on it. a little later, from almost 3 miles, i glassed up a buck that looked like a good one. i had my 15x60 docters and could tell he looked real interesting. he was in the middle of nowhere all by himself. i knew the fellers were in the area, but didn't know where and was real happy when i saw them less that a 1/4 mile away. they were moving in the right direction so i kept watching. they saw him, f-bomb sat down for the shot, the goat suddenly disappeared and i was afraid he ran off. i put the glasses back the boys and they were standing up and about that time i faintly heard his 300 ultra go off and then i could actually hear them hollering, celebrating their success, from 2.81 miles. i watched them walk down to where the goat had fallen and immediatley my cell phone rang and Bridger was telling me f-bomb had taken a helluva buck. 15 incher, nice and heavy, crystal clear tips on his horns and over 7 inch prongs! from the best we can tell, he'll go over 80 by a couple inches.

 

day 4. loaded up and droov home. 13 hours. 900 miles.

 

got up this morning and cut up all 3 goats, ground the HB, all that stuff and it's all in the freezer. i couldn't walk much, knee got quite sore from being in the truck for 2500 miles, didn't even have a tag and didn't even fire a shot and it was one of the more memorable hunts i've ever been on. got to watch Bernie and F-bomb shoot their first pronghorns. Got to see Bridger get another fine buck. and got to realize just what a rugged kid i have raised and renewed my love of the outdoors and sharing them with folks i care about. i also told F-bomb that he was worthly of wearing the "rugged" label and is welcome in our camp any time. just a dang good time. there are goat tags out there to be had fellers. there are a lotta units in colorado that are really easy to get drawn with no preference points. some are in the middle o' nowhere, like this place. and some have access problems, but there are ways to get access and if you really wanna shoot a goat you need to think about applying for other states. there are good times to be had. we saw muleys and whitetails. 8 muley bucks together under the same cottonwood. saw a buncha turkeys. and hundreds of shootable goats. a real nice adventure and lotsa fun. we have brung home 5 goats this all. and were with friends that shot 3 others. later, Lark.

 

 

Bridger's antelope:

 

 

Forest's Antelope:

 

 

Bernie's Antelope:

[pwrguy]

Great goats. I have a few bonus points there, I might have to pick your brains some time. Those prongs on that middle one WOW

 

Congrats

[elkster9]

Great Bucks and Story.

[.270]

it were a lotta fun. on the way up you see goats everywhere from wagon moung new mex north and everbody gets all jacked up by it. we saw a gigantic funnel cloud on the way home, east of trinidad, curling up over the mountain. couldn't see if it hit the ground anywhere because of the mountain. Bridger and Forest had never seen one before. Lark.