Teryn Lamoreux (aka TerynItUp) posted in the forums..........

"My brother and I both drew 4th season Colorado tags this year and had some high hopes for killing some true Colorado giants. We started hunting on Thursday morning the day after the opener and it was clear skies with a low of 32, much warmer than I expected it to be. Only saw a total of 12 deer that morning, 2 of which were young bucks. That afternoon and evening was slow again, saw 4-5 does and 1 buck at very last light but it was hard to tell how good he was. Friday morning was slow with little deer movement so I decided to go hike a big loop and see if I could kick up a buck or two for my brother. I ran into a group of 10-12 deer bedded in some thick PJ stuff but could never tell if a buck was with them or not. Friday evening we split up and picked a couple different areas to glass. I was watching a couple of bulls on the ridge in front of me when I heard my brothers rifle from down the canyon. Got a call on the radio that he killed a nice buck and that there was another mature buck with him that was sticking around. With the little deer movement and family coming in that night to celebrate an early Thanksgiving, I decided to go lay eyes on this second buck. I made my way down the canyon about a half mile to the spot they were watching, as I slowly crept in, I kept an eye out for where I thought the buck would be. After looking over the area and not seeing the buck I continued making my way further into the canyon to see if I could locate the buck when I noticed him to my left about 160 yards, he had me busted. He starting to exit quickly so I dropped to my belly in a prone position. He stopped at about 180 yards broadside and let one fly. I saw the classic mule kick and felt good about the shot, the only thing I was unsure about was how good he was. He looked like he had a decent frame but other than that I wasn't sure. The only thing I knew is that he was the smaller of the two because my brother picked the bigger buck to shoot. We walked up on him and I was a little bummed that I filled my tag so early. I am happy to have another mature buck and a freezer full, however, I am still in search of a 190 buck and will have to wait another couple of years before we draw this tag again.

What was cool is that this is the 2nd time my brother and I have doubled up on mature 4x4's. The last time we did it was 10 years ago in 2007. My brother's buck had been shot either the day before or that morning, had a hole clean through the bottom of his brisket and left front leg, incredibly tough animals. His buck also probably had 75-100 pounds on mine.

As for rut action, there was none. We saw one buck that showed a little interest in some does but not at all what we had hoped or expected to see on a 4th season tag. Not sure what was going on this year, we have hunted here for the last 30 years and this was by far the fewest deer we had seen. All in all, a good hunt!"