Just got back from an amazing 7 days in Idaho. This hunt had it all, easy success, hard success and an amazing time in the mountains. I'd done this hunt 2 years ago and had been hoping to go back. After some fun mule deer and elk hunting last year and a lot of success this winter convinced me this would be a good year to shift my focus back to whitetail as the areas I hunted last year got hit pretty hard by the winter.
My dad and brother in law and I hit the road at 10PM from Southern California and drove all night, picked up a rental car for my dad in Boise and with fading light worked out a spot well south of our intended area to get in a quick evening hunt the first night. Without high hopes and in an area I was sure got a lot of pressure we found the least roaded chunk of public land we could, a few hours from Boise and hit the trail 15 minutes before sunset. We made one quick stand along the edge of a 5 year old clearcut, seeing lots of sign but nothing came in. With fading light we worked up a ridge another 1/4 mile, got set up in some thick timber and I did a quick rattle for a minute. A few minutes later I see my dad perk up and bring his gun up to his shoulder. Minutes pass, I can tell he see's something something but he's not shooting. A few minutes later I hear the safety click off and boom! I was in disbelief, having never successfully rattled in a buck here we are 30 minutes into the hunt and the deer is definitely down. It was a 2.5 year old 8 point, nothing big but his first deer ever after many unsuccessful trips covering many miles in CA I was esctatic to get him his first deer and on my birthday! To have called it in for him was icing on the cake.
IMG_2559 by stephen miller, on Flickr
An easy 1/2 mile downhill hike and we already had meat in the freezer. It stormed hard that night and we woke up early to be 2 hours north in our old haunts the next morning. We'd seen over 100 deer and took 3 bucks in three days on our previous trip but this year we were just not seeing the same activity, despite this hunt being a few days later in November than the previous trip. We saw and heard a lot of wolf sign though I really doubt that was the issue. We hunted from 4000' to 5800' and saw a handful of deer and one buck about like the one already killed but that was it. We also saw a few bull elk and 6 mule deer down lower who had obviously migrated a long ways from where I expect mule deer could be found in this unit on summer range.
IMG_2565 by stephen miller, on Flickr
IMG_2607 by stephen miller, on Flickr
My dad and brother in law and I hit the road at 10PM from Southern California and drove all night, picked up a rental car for my dad in Boise and with fading light worked out a spot well south of our intended area to get in a quick evening hunt the first night. Without high hopes and in an area I was sure got a lot of pressure we found the least roaded chunk of public land we could, a few hours from Boise and hit the trail 15 minutes before sunset. We made one quick stand along the edge of a 5 year old clearcut, seeing lots of sign but nothing came in. With fading light we worked up a ridge another 1/4 mile, got set up in some thick timber and I did a quick rattle for a minute. A few minutes later I see my dad perk up and bring his gun up to his shoulder. Minutes pass, I can tell he see's something something but he's not shooting. A few minutes later I hear the safety click off and boom! I was in disbelief, having never successfully rattled in a buck here we are 30 minutes into the hunt and the deer is definitely down. It was a 2.5 year old 8 point, nothing big but his first deer ever after many unsuccessful trips covering many miles in CA I was esctatic to get him his first deer and on my birthday! To have called it in for him was icing on the cake.
IMG_2559 by stephen miller, on FlickrAn easy 1/2 mile downhill hike and we already had meat in the freezer. It stormed hard that night and we woke up early to be 2 hours north in our old haunts the next morning. We'd seen over 100 deer and took 3 bucks in three days on our previous trip but this year we were just not seeing the same activity, despite this hunt being a few days later in November than the previous trip. We saw and heard a lot of wolf sign though I really doubt that was the issue. We hunted from 4000' to 5800' and saw a handful of deer and one buck about like the one already killed but that was it. We also saw a few bull elk and 6 mule deer down lower who had obviously migrated a long ways from where I expect mule deer could be found in this unit on summer range.
IMG_2565 by stephen miller, on FlickrIMG_2607 by stephen miller, on Flickr
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