Hunting with Wes Atkinson of Atkinson Expeditions in northern Colorado. A guide named Chance picked me up and we headed out to the ranch about 20 min east of Wellington. The ranch is open fields with rocky hills bordering, mostly red clay with aqua colored sage brush and rocks green from lichens. The surrounding hills are rocky with flat shelves on top. On the way in past cattle in fields we get to an area with maybe 25 deer, mostly does but a couple bucks, one that looked pretty good to me but I've not shot many deer so my problem is every one I see looks better than the last one I've shot. Further along there is another small group of does with a nice sized buck. He's kind of an odd configuration with a long mainbeam with a crab claw but otherwise I take a couple pics at like 40 yards. They call him 'Hal' for some reason and I think Hal knows he's not a shooter.

Driving, Chance spots two bedded deer one is a 3x3 and the other is a pretty nice 4x4. Sounds like what I'm after a nice deep forked typical 4x4. We watch, Chance vacillates, tries to figure what he would score. We finally move on believing he'll be there as he has been for a couple days now. We near a quarry and Chance spots another nice buck bedded in some bushes in a fairly open area. This buck is a little wider and heavier, has nice fronts on the right, it's left back is not very deep. He still looks amazing to me through the spotting scope. We move on and eventually come back to video this buck but he's gone. It's unusually warm and by about 10am we aren't seeing many deer as they have probably all bedded down early. We decide to head back for lunch. On the way back we stop at Wes' to see Bracken's buck shot yesterday. He took a really good non-typical, really heavy. He looks great, scores 180.

Meet Wes and Chance at 2:30pm we head out and pick up Larry Stokes on the way. Larry shot a nice 28" 4x4 yesterday. He hunts with Wes often and I've seen him in the videos. We are heading back to the ranch now. It's really windy. We try to glass some of the hills but the wind shakes the truck even making it difficult to see through the spotter. At one point two guys on horseback drive about 100 cows around our truck going the opposite way. We don't see any shooters here and move back to where Chance and I were before. We quickly find the deep 4x4 that Chance and I had found earlier. Wes says he's not good enough, maybe a 160 deer. I'm trusting Wes at this point but to me he looks amazing. We drive around a ways looking for the other deer. We eventually find him bedded down with two other smaller bucks. We look at him for a long time until Wes decides he's not really a shooter either. Maybe a little better than the 160 buck. We head back around to where Larry shot his wide 4x4 apparently he passed on a larger buck so now that's what we are looking for. Larry spots a couple deer cresting a distant hillside but then they are obscured in a small valley. We go back and forth with Larry on this as Larry is like me, ready to shoot anything, so no one believes they are shooters. Finally going up back and forth in the truck Wes is able to spot them.

Unbelievably Wes says he's a shooter buck and we have to get to him right away. We turn the truck around and zoom to a closer point, quickly through a gate and closer still to some hills opposite where we saw him. Now I'm trying to run as fast as I can with Wes without screwing my knee up. We climb up a steep rimrock to a shelf above, nearing the top I have to stop to catch my breath. We started at a little over 6k feet and I'm still way out of shape since ACL surgery in July. We get to the top and sneak close to the ridge, I finally stop wheezing. Finally we spot our buck, he's moved through the vallley and is now 600 yards away and we have about 20 min shooting time left. We finally concede that it's not enough time to close the distance and make the shot. I don't think I could have done it in time and then been composed enough to make what I'm sure would still have been a long shot. After catching our breath we head back down to the truck. The plan is to come back in tomorrow early.

11/7/06

Tuesday morning. Chance and Wes pick me up at 5:30. It's already 50 degrees, unseasonably warm and a little windy, not good signs for the day's hunting. Wes is really concerned about what that will do to our chances which gets me a little concerned too. Our plan is to head back to the same ranch and scout for the same buck we left last night. We head out and by the time we get to the ranch the sky is starting to turn pink on the horizon. We glass some fields and find mostly does, we see Hal again, the same deer that's always with the does. We head back to the road that faces the rock shelves that the buck was headed towards when we abandoned the hunt last night. We are spotting some small two points bedded. After a while Chance says he's found him. I can't believe it. He's actually walking with a 2x3 near the base of the rock shelves. We keep watching him, Wes puts the spotter on him and confirms that it's him. It's lucky that they were still moving and not bedded down in one of many spots that we would never have spotted them. We watch them moving slowly up a small rocky hillside and the grey 2x3 beds down. It seems like an eternity until the 5x4 beds down too. While we are engrossed in watching the buck two horses appear right outside our truck, one nice small horse with blue chalk eyes and a big bay. Larry fed one the other day so now they are back. They eventually move off and finally the 5x4 beds down too.

Wes and Chance are so confident. Especially Wes who is practically saying he's a dead deer. In my short hunting career of four years i'm used to shooting soon after seeing what we're after so spending hours in between is a new nerve wracking experience for me. It does look like a great spot and the wind will be in our favor.

We drive the truck through a gate and down a long field to get to some rocky hills behind where the buck is bedded. Wes has us do a short video spot and now we're finally making our stalk. We hike back up to the hills and then climb the first rock hill. It's a little steep but not as bad as last night's race climb so I'm not getting winded. We start to skirt around the hill and as we do it's getting much steeper, with the buck just around the corner. We are now at the base of a rock point and Wes climbs up to the top and lays down flat. I peek around the corner and can see the bedded buck perfectly broadside facing us with his head on the right. Wes asks if I can shoot standing from there but I can't, it's too steep and I'm afraid I'll fall trying to do any follow up shots or if he runs left he'll be out of sight. Finally I climb up on top and slide down prone next to him. Flat slabs of rock we're laying on are staggered and end forming a small V iin which I can see the bedded buck perfectly.



I tell Wes I can shoot him from here. It's really windy and Wes' hat blows off his head. You can see the buck perk up a bit when that happens on the video. Wes loads a round for me and hands me back my rifle, I'm setting up to shoot and Wes notices I'm going to blast the rock right in front of me, he gives me his pack and now my shot will clear the rocks. He tells me to wait as he wants Chance below us to video. I get the go ahead, I'm at about 180 yards and can hold on what looks like a perfect lung shot. I squeeze and then boom, the buck is standing up in a cloud of dust. He turns as I'm racking a new round, he starts trotting off and I hit him again quartering away. My third shot misses high (inexplicably I'm thinking 'he's getting away shoot high' and hold over him, but he's only gone like 20 yards) I'm ready to shoot again but Wes is saying no. Then he jumps up over a barb wire fence and is over the hill. I'm pretty sure I hit him perfectly the first shot but him jumping that fence made me nervous. I am so excited, Chance is telling me he's a dead deer, that the second shot was perfect. I carefully climb down the point and then Wes and I are headed over the hill with Chance ahead of us. I've realoaded my mag and am thinking I should rack a round when Chance whistles and says he's done. Chance is there ahead of us filming again as Wes likes to do for his DVDs. I am so happy with him. He's exactly what I was hoping for and more, a tall deep forked 5x4 with the fifth inline point. He's big, I can't believe how much bigger than a blacktail. I continue to embarrass myself on camera but luckily have ceased swearing now. This is has been an unbelievable hunt seeing many great deer. Wes want's to let most of those 160s get better and really manages these properties for big deer. He was confident we'd get a deer like this. They had been estimating his score since we first saw him putting him above 170. Back at his place after watching the video they tape him out at 173 1/4. I really don't care about the score, he's better than the deer I was hoping for.

Excellent buck!! And a great story to go with the pic.

Great buck.

That country you're in looks like it is west of Wellington and not east. Am I mistaken?

MG

Dandy buck and super photos. Looks like you or the guide knows how to take nice "hero" pix. Kudos! -TONY

Hey Madgoat,

No I'm pretty sure we went north and then took a right Wes has access to several private ranches around there. There may be some northwest too. I can send you other pics of the area that would give you a better idea of the terrain. -Sean

Hey Sean, Right from here I'd estimate your smile at close to 180 3/8".

Congratulations on a really nice Trophy Buck.

Sean.
Good story and photography ... Great Buck!!
Charlie

No worries Sean, just looked like that stuff north of Ft. Collins and West of Wellington.

Great deer...will look great on your wall!!

MG

Sean<

Outstanding deer...a tad bigger than the deer in Parfield eh?

Sean,

Nice buck... I lived in Ft Collins for a couple years and saw a lot of bucks but I don't think I ever saw one that nice.

$bob$

Good job Sean!

Nice buck and nice report.

You're hunting faster than you can report though aren't you?

Great hunting with great hunters,
Kyler

Hey Kyler,

Yes this has been quite a year. I booked this private land mule deer hunt last february thinking I'll never draw any tags and then I went and drew NM elk and KS whitetail! My wife wants to kill me but in two months I've gone from hunting Ca pigs and blacktails to taking all three.

It's kind have been like my first hunt with you when we took that big boar. Each guides tells me how lucky I am and I may not take a better one for a long long time! I certainly feel fortunate.

Hunting with you sure prepared me well for all this. I'm sure the guy's at camp got sick of me saying, "well the guide I hunt pigs with says..."

Here is what started it all for me, thanks to you for that!

-Sean

You may have a little extra luck finding game, but the homework and good shooting is all yours.

Thanks for the kind words. I've always enjoyed hunting with you.

Kyler

Great Deer, friend. Man, I'll guide someone for whitetaill in Alberta, if they take me for a Mule Deer in Colorado.

piss on those white tails, there ain't nothing like a good mule deer, aka the gray ghost of the west

cummins cowboy,

Although I have a passion for whitetail hunting I must agree with you... The grey ghost is an absolute obsession with me that was kindled into a raging inferno when I lived in Colorado.

I'd gladly give up my whitetail hunting again if I lived within reasonable distance of grey ghost haunts again.

I once spotted a nice buck waaaay up high on a hillside and spent the better part of a day getting above and behind him. Just as I was ready to try to get a good rest to try to take him in his bed he jumped up for no apparent reason and bounded away with that curious pogostick gait they have.

I sat down and laughed a good one before sighing and heading down the hill... I LOVE mulie hunting!!! Too bad they seem to be disappearing so fast.

IMO there is no finer hunting than driving around for days glassing for mulie bucks and trying to put the sneak on one when you finally find the one you want.

$bob$

NIce buck. Congratulations. Good story.

Great story, great buck. Good job, and congratulations.

JMeier