Today's hunt didn't go as well as I'd hoped. It was a lot farther drive than I should have done for a day hunt. I left the house at 3 AM and wasn't hunting until almost 8 AM. I saw some does right away but did not like the country. It is not the typical sage/Badland type country that I hunt. It wasn't quite what I was thinking. I'm sure there are some bucks around but I didn't see any with the does that I saw.
I did not stay there long before moving to look at some other country. I was surprised how many folks were out hunting the next area that I checked out. I saw one decent rack sticking out of the bed of a truck but. It was midday at that point, so it was mostly pairs of nonresidents, Washington, Idaho, North Dakota, driving around trying to decide what they were doing for the evening, same thing that I was doing.
I didn't like this country either, the number of hunters and the terrain just didn't impress me. I'm sure there are some deer there. I'd be happy to shoot a big buck in any country,but it just wasn't what I had in mind. I drove back to some country that I've glassed before but still isn't my usual hunting area. I saw several deer but no big bucks. I saw four bucks this evening, two that were chasing does but neither were shooters.
A buck with a doe in a sage flat that I put the spotter on to confirm that hec as not in any way a shooter.
At one point I thought I spotted an awfully tall beef cow. It turned out to be a bull moose in mule deer country. I didn't get a photo of his antlers. They weren't real wide and were not palmated. They looked more like a heavy deer rack than moose.
I saw a dozen or so does this morning and around 15 does and 4 bucks this evening. It was a disappointing day. Considering how far I drove, I should have drove a little farther and hunted country that I'm familiar with and spent the night.
Walk back to truck. I got home at 9:15 PM.