Kelley Jones took a 170-inch Colorado plains archery buck during the 2008 late-season rifle hunt. Photo courtesy of Kelley Jones.

If your wallet harbors a tag from any Western state, you can bank on an unforgettable adventure and the chance to down a true wallhanger.

However, most hunters would go to the grave defending their home turf, and I’m no different.

Mule deer hunting in Colorado is magical, and there are some interesting facts that make it tough to ignore.

The all-time typical mule deer in the Boone and Crockett record book was shot in Dolores County. The second is that both the typical and non-typical Pope and Young records come from Colorado as well.

The typical record was harvested in the White River National Forest and the non-typical -- a 274 7/8-inch beast -- was taken in Morgan County.

Let’s take a journey through the state’s various seasons, look at how to hunt them, and find out the top places to down a trophy.

ARCHERY KICK-OFF
For hunters toting a stick and string, this is a perfect time to find a trophy buck.

During the summer months, bucks congregate in bachelor herds, spending their time lazily grazing along alpine slopes and bedding among seas of buckbrush. This gives ambitious hunters the chance to scout and locate the buck of their dreams months before the season opener, which typically occurs during the last weekend of August.

Hunters who glass a few trophies on scouting missions usually return to find their quarry haunting the same area.

Downing one of these ghosts of the clouds is quite possibly one of the most challenging feats in all of bowhunting. Hunters will need to be in excellent physical condition and be patient enough to spend hours behind a good pair of optics waiting for a perfect opportunity.

This chance comes when the buck beds in a location where a hunter can get the wind right, play the shadows, and come in on the buck from above.

According to Hoyt pro staffer and mule deer guru Marc Smith, hunters looking to find a hotspot for a high country buck can’t go wrong as long as they are along the Continental Divide.

"When it comes to archery hunting," Smith said, "there are truly no magic units. I have seen giants in every unit I have ever hunted, and that’s a lot of them."

Smith said hunters should spend time scouting their unit and becoming familiar with the habits of the bucks they will be chasing. He also mentioned that a never-quit attitude and the willingness to go the extra mile pay big dividends in the hills.

"Sometimes it seems hunters spend countless years waiting to draw a long-odds unit, but I like to hunt and want to have a tag in my pocket every year. I have killed monster bucks in units that most hunters ignore," Smith said.

A few units where hunters can start prospecting, and are known for their trophy potential in the northwest includes GMUs 12, 21, 22, 30, 31 and 40. Along the Western Slope and the rest of the southwest, many archery trophies fall in units 53, 54, 55, 551, 61, 66, 67, 71, 76, 77, 711 and 751.

MUZZLELOADER
Smokepole hunters take to the peaks in the middle part of September. Like archery hunters, they will find plenty of bucks above timberline across the state. During this phase of the year, bucks will be stripping their velvet and leaving sign on buckbrush, aspens and small pine saplings.

A muzzleloader hunter’s approach to killing a buck is very similar to the techniques of archery hunters. The major difference is that muzzleloader hunters have extended range and can poke a buck from farther away. This allows hunters to get more aggressive and press in on bucks.

Bill Seamans, one of the savviest hunters I have ever had the privilege of hunting with, recommends GMUs 66, 67 and 76.