Day 5 - A Doe for Dave

This morning we were hunting the BLM and Colorado land just north of our campsite so we got to sleep in – until 4:45. Ken’s knee was swollen up and painful so he stayed in the Winnebago while Eric, Ron and Travis accompanied us. The area we were hunting was rolling hills covered in sage. The only trees were down by Fourmile creek, over a mile to the east, and there were very few of them. We pulled off Highway 13 at mile marker 121 and parked by an oil well. We then walked east half a mile through the sage to the north-south fence line that marks a section boundary and spread out over several hundred yards. Dave and I stayed together and positioned ourselves at the northern end on a hill top where an east-west fence came in from the highway.

We spotted several does coming up from the creek. Their path was going to put them 300 to 400 yards away at their closest point. Dave put a sneak on them, trying to get to a lower ridge before the deer got there, while I stayed behind and watched through my binoculars. Dave was still below the ridgeline when the deer passed by on the opposite side. They eventually crossed the highway and into GMU 3 (Game Management Unit) where Dave’s doe license was no good.

Dave came back and joined me and a short while later I spotted more does coming up from the creek. These were much further away and it took them half an hour or more to make it to the north-south fence. In the meantime Dave had again dropped down the hill to a small ridge, hoping for a close shot. When the deer started jumping the fence I thought Dave would shoot but he never did. It turns out the deer were over the next little ridge and out of sight. These deer also passed by unharmed and eventually crossed the highway to GMU 3.

We spotted one more deer headed for the fence line but it bedded down before getting there. Another hunter came from the north, following the fence, crossed it, and walked within 25 yards of the deer, completely unaware of its presence. Dave walked down toward the deer and watched it for a while. The deer turned out to be a buck, no big surprise given its behavior, and Dave returned.

Dave and I headed to Craig for fuel and some other supplies, then hunted a ridge off Moffat County Road 70. We spotted a doe down below and in easy rifle range but it was on the opposite side of a fence and on private property. I was beginning to wonder if Dave’s luck would ever change.

Our next stop was a place called the “Cedars”, a parcel of land owned by Colorado and abutting Wyoming to the north and BLM land to the west and south. The main feature of the Cedars is a large cedar-covered hill that rises up from the south and drops off sharply before reaching the Wyoming line. On the northwest corner of the hill there is a bowl. From experience we knew that visibility into the bowl was limited from the east side as there were too many cedars in the way. Some hunters were parked on the road by the east end and that made our choice to climb the west end even easier. We worked our way up through the cedars along the western edge where it drops off. We had spectacular views of the land below but, not surprisingly, no deer or elk were out this time of day.



When we reached the top the ground dropped away steeply into the bowl. A few hundred yards to the north there was the fence that marks the Wyoming border. The land in the flat of the bowl was covered with grass, areas of sage and a few cedar trees while the north facing slope immediately below us had snow and sage. As the sides of the bowl wrapped around to the east the snow gave way to dry ground and the sage was replace by cedars. Almost immediately we spotted three doe mule deer heading through the cedars on the slope to our right.

Dave brought his rifle up and started scoping the deer while I used my binoculars. Once again I caught a flash above the ears of one of the deer and loudly whispered “Buck! The middle one is a buck!” The other two were indeed does and Dave took the one on the left. His rifle was a Ruger M77 MKII 7mm Remington Magnum with a handloaded 160 grain Speer Trophy Bonded Bearclaw bullet driven to about 2850fps. The range measured 274 yards with the laser. Dave headed down to the doe while I stayed high to keep an eye on the area and guide Dave through the cedars with hand directions. We got the doe to the truck and to Snake River Processing in Baggs, Wyoming, at 6:05 PM. Once again we arrived just before they closed their doors for the day.