It seems slightly ridiculous to hunt other states for animals I can hunt on an over the counter resident tag here at home but that's what I did this year with a good friend of mine. We both drew a muzzleloader mule deer tag in Colorado for an area that is only about a 3.5 hour drive from my house, actually have to drive through the area I have a coveted deer tag here in Wyoming to get to where we camped and hunted.
We spent a week hiking, hunting, stalking, and glassing for big deer at above 10500', we found a couple real studs but the numbers were down in this particular area. One of the locals told us the snow pack this spring was bad enough he didn't think all the animals made it to the top. My buddy said numbers were way lower from two years ago when he had an archery tag in the unit both deer and elk.
I shot this little meat buck Friday afternoon, we had to pull camp Saturday morning and after a week of hunting big deer with only a few hours left to hunt this guy walked into a clearing 25 yards away broadside and stopped while I was still hunting through a patch of thick pine with alot of blow down. 54 caliber, 465gr conical, and a 110gr of powder might have been a little much but he only made it 15' AFTER he found his feet and remembered how to stand up.
Lyman Great Plains bullet it shoots fist sized groups at 80 yards for me in my TC Black Mountain Magnum. I'm normally a heart eater but there wasn't much left in his chest.
Trophy pic that matters to my family.
I was really trying to hold out for a bigger deer but I have a young family of meat eaters and I'm just not at that point in my life where I'm fine with not filling tags. I sent my wife a picture and said Im pretty sure the shot knocked the milk off his lip, she said our 5 year old was so excited he is going to help me grind burger he didnt care it was a small one.
It was such a fun hunt with my friends we are planning on making it a fairly regular thing. We hopefully can draw every couple of years. I'm already looking forward to growing my muzzleloader collection.