Idaho Mule Deer Hunt with David Long

[david long]

Provoflyfisher, I would say a bucks home range in the high country is approximately 1-2 square miles. That is why they can seemingly drop off the planet at times.

Typically, with the larger bucks, they hang out relatively close to heavy cover. A good example of this is a 190 class buck I chased around in Colorado last year. I spent 14 total days hunting him and during that time, he had three different mountains he would spend time on. All three mountains had thick timber on the backside of the places he hung out. They seem to like the option of escaping into thick timber.

Hope that helps.

 

[david long]

Desrtstalker, my goal for this hunt is a 190 class buck. It might be a bit unrealistic considering the units I am hunting, but nonetheless, that is my goal. Now, with that being said, if a lesser buck happens to show up that has characteristics that appeal to me, such as mass, etc, kaboom!

 

[david long]

7mag, no problem, it has been fun sharing the hunt, although there hadn't been much excitement.

Picking the hillside apart with the spotting scope right now. Just spotted a couple of moose.

 

[david long]

Thanks Ridgerunner.

Keep after it sreekers. Windy again today. Overcast as well.

 

[david long]

Clothing tip:

Always pack an extra base layer in your pack.

This morning we had a long steep climb and really got lathered up on the way to our vantage point. Once on top, I removed my sweaty base layer and put on a nice dry one that i carry in my pack. This makes for comfortable, warm glassing. I then hang my wet shirt on a tree or brush while glassing to let it air dry. Trust me, it works. Enough posts, I need to get back to glassing

 

[david long]

Scott's glassing setup: two Nikon spotting scopes mounted side by side. They make for an amazing set of binos when glassing several miles away.

 

[provoflyfisher]

David your information helps a lot!

I wish I would have read the post about two base layers before my hunt this morning. After a three hour hike, a dry layer would have helped. It was not too cold (~30 F), but the wind was strong on top and I welcomed the sunrise.

Good luck!

 

[david long]

Provo.... It does make a huge difference.

The weather is changing. Hoping for some snow.

Still glued to the spotter.

 

[david long]

Lots of glassing today but very few animals. Once again, we battled fierce winds all day long. Just cooked up my nightly brats. It is only 8:00, but I am ready for bed. Sitting in the wind all day wears you out. Still have our fingers crossed that it will snow. In the next day or two.

 

[ScottR_EHJ]

Snow makes spotting animals so much easier!

I feel your pain on the wind. Some of the worst i have dealt with.

 

[david long]

Sreekers, just read your thread. What a bummer. You feeling better?

 

[ScottR_EHJ]

It was a number this morning, but i an feeling better. Dad may be coming with me next weekend, so it will be worth getting healthy.

 

[david long]

Cool. Glad you are feeling better.

I am with you, snow definitely makes them more visible. This is really a plus when I am glassing them from several miles away.

One other reason I like snow is no matter how cagey a buck is, he is gonna leave tracks. I call snow the great "equalizer."

Not only do I glass for deer, but I glass for tracks in a fresh snow. Last year in Idaho I was hiking up a drainage and cut a fresh set of tracks. They looked to be decent sized, so I circled up around them and began working my way across the mountain. I went for a ways and never cut the tracks, that told me the deer was below me. I began slowly walking down and jumped the buck out of its bed. I didn't get to see the buck but I followed his tracks back down to the bottom of the drainage and noticed they went up the opposite side of the drainage.

The hillside was a good sized mountainside so I figured he wouldn't go all the way over the top since he wasn't that spooked. Therefore, rather than tracking him, I hiked back up the hillside I had just came down until I found a good vantage point to glass the opposing hillside he had went up.

I glassed his tracks from the bottom up through two small drainages until they disappeared into a patch of pines. I couldn't see any tracks exiting the timber anywhere.

I started using my spotting scope to pick the timber apart. Approximately 30 minutes later I spotted one front leg and part of one antler. The buck was bedded watching his backtrail. Had I simply followed his tracks, he would have seen me well before I would have seen him.

Anyways, I sat and waited for three hours for the buck to get up. Unfortunately, he wasn't a shooter, but my plan had worked perfect.

Without snow, this would never have been possible.

C'mon snow!

 

[ScottR_EHJ]

National weather service is predicting some for next week.....

 

[bearguide]

that requires a lot of patience

 

[david long]

Day 4

More of the same this morning. Picked apart several mountainsides without turning up anything good.

I realize this hasn't been a very exciting hunt. My plan is simple - glass as much real estate as possible! I feel that the greatest advantage I have is my optics; therefore, I use them a LOT! Big bucks are extremely rare and I feel the more country I cover the better my odds of finding one.

This type of hunt differs from my typical backpack hunt. On a backpack hunt, I am actually hunting the country I am in. On this type of hunt, the "hunting" doesn't actually start until I spot something worth going after. This type of hunting would bore most people to death. It requires an unbelievable amount of patience and more often than not, I don't ever get in a single stalk. But during those rare times when you actually lay eyes on a monster buck, you totally forget about all those hundreds of uneventful hours of looking through your optics.

Overcast today and it is threatening to snow. I will continue to glass all day. Hopefully I can turn up something good.

 

[Grizbacker]

David, are the deer where you are currently hunting in a transitional range right now? If it was November and you were hunting a migration route would you do more or less glassing? Thanks

 

[david long]

Griz,

We are glassing both summer and transitional areas on this hunt. Deer are inhabiting both areas right now.

I rarely get to hunt in November, but when I do, I almost exclusively hunt the quakies. They are absolute deer magnets when there is snow on the ground during November.

Basically I have two ways I hunt them. If the terrain is relatively flat, I prefer to still-hunt through them. I will move relatively quickly until I see fresh deer tracks. At that point, I slow way down. Even while walking through the quakies I use my binos a lot. A guy can see a lot farther than you think in the quakies with binos.

When hunting steeper terrain, I will get on an opposing ridge and glass across the valley into the quakies on the other side. I honestly think that bucks feel they are hidden in the leafless quakies but little do they know they stand out like a sore thumb. In 2003 I killed a 197 gross B&C typical buck using this exact strategy. It is extremely effective.

 

[ScottR_EHJ]

This thread its kind of a cliff notes version of your book.

 

[david long]

Sreekers, trying to keep it somewhat entertaining/informative considering the lack of action on the hunt.

I located some deer up high this evening. Great looking country. Gonna glass it again in the morning to see what we can turn up.