My 10 year old drew one of the better rut mule deer hunts in idaho. We did a fair bit of scouting this summer and practice shooting.
Airguns at the shooters bench in Nampa.
We spent a bunch of time at the airgun range and shooting the 22. She is very recoil sensitive and even with the 243 was pretty hesitant to shoot it. So I picked her up a Ruger Precision 6 creed.
Its barely Idaho legal by weight, but the recoil is minimal and its a tack driver..
Madelynns words were, daddy you need the exercise so carrying my heavy rifle will help.
So fast forward through my hunts in October and early November and we got our first day out on 11/10. We went to a new spot and started glassing. (sorry no pictures I lost my phone on a stalk that day) and there were deer everywhere. It started with A couple of small bucks (I struggled to not put my expectations for this tag on her).
We soon spotted a mature 3x4, 3x3, and another nice buck. Maddie and I had a quick conversation about what was going to happen and I had her dry fire the rifle a couple of times. We dropped off the ridge and drove about a mile closer and then started our stalk. Within the first mile, we got on the 3x4 after passing up a young 3 point. I started getting her set up on the ridge waiting for the buck to feed out, then the deer just came out of everywhere including the biggest deer I have seen in Idaho. (28" 4x4 with trash, had mid 190's on this frame) needless to say he didn't give us an opportunity as he bounded away with 20 does. We were both in Awe and Madellynn wanted to kill the giant. I started glassing up country and spotted mid 170's type 4x4 working 4 does about a mile off. We dropped into a fold and worked our way up to the ridge he was on. After 20 minutes we were there and began looking for him. We soon realized we couldn't find him and started back on the ridge towards the truck (which I couldn't exactly find because I had lost my phone with my gps on it) so we incrementally peaked over ridges and eventually found the buck bedded at 150 yards but he spotted us at the same time. Game over with him.
After about another mile, I was spotted the truck which looked like an ant on the valley floor at this time. My daughter had to grab my 12's to spot it. Anyways 2 miles and 45 minutes later we made it to the truck. We decided to call it for the day and grabbed lunch for the drive home.
I called my best friend and hunting partner that night and asked him if he'd like to come up the next day and help me find my phone I lost on the stalk and spot with us.
The next morning started out again with an hour drive to the mountain and glassing off the knob. We had deer like fleas running everywhere, saw several smaller bucks and eventually spotted a different 4 point from the day before that was a nice mature buck. We started our stalk, trying to make it past the myriad of does to find where this rutting giant had went. We worked our way down canyon to the bottom glassing every fold with only a couple of glimpses. We thought he went to the bottom with a hot doe and we worked the shelf where we could have a 100 yard opportunity if we found him. As we worked our way north, I was slightly above Jason and Madelynn and stopped dead in my tracks when I caught a flicker of an ear. I tried to stop Jason and Madelynn but, they stepped out into site just to see 20 does and 4 bucks trot up the hill. We made a quick loop back to the truck and went to cut them off around the top, had a couple opportunities an experienced hunter could make happen, but not a first timer. After another couple hours of cat and mouse we called it and headed over to find my phone. Maddie took a nap, and I hiked 4 miles to no avail to find my lost phone.
Once we got back to the truck, we started glassing fingers to the south and quickly turned up several more bucks including a nice 4x4 that was younger, but Madelynn was ready to kill. We did a big steep loop to get above him and dropped in, we made it to within 150 yards before the wind swirled and ended that stalk. We made the steep walk back to the truck in as the sun set and started on our way home.
Airguns at the shooters bench in Nampa.
We spent a bunch of time at the airgun range and shooting the 22. She is very recoil sensitive and even with the 243 was pretty hesitant to shoot it. So I picked her up a Ruger Precision 6 creed.
Its barely Idaho legal by weight, but the recoil is minimal and its a tack driver..
Madelynns words were, daddy you need the exercise so carrying my heavy rifle will help.
So fast forward through my hunts in October and early November and we got our first day out on 11/10. We went to a new spot and started glassing. (sorry no pictures I lost my phone on a stalk that day) and there were deer everywhere. It started with A couple of small bucks (I struggled to not put my expectations for this tag on her).
We soon spotted a mature 3x4, 3x3, and another nice buck. Maddie and I had a quick conversation about what was going to happen and I had her dry fire the rifle a couple of times. We dropped off the ridge and drove about a mile closer and then started our stalk. Within the first mile, we got on the 3x4 after passing up a young 3 point. I started getting her set up on the ridge waiting for the buck to feed out, then the deer just came out of everywhere including the biggest deer I have seen in Idaho. (28" 4x4 with trash, had mid 190's on this frame) needless to say he didn't give us an opportunity as he bounded away with 20 does. We were both in Awe and Madellynn wanted to kill the giant. I started glassing up country and spotted mid 170's type 4x4 working 4 does about a mile off. We dropped into a fold and worked our way up to the ridge he was on. After 20 minutes we were there and began looking for him. We soon realized we couldn't find him and started back on the ridge towards the truck (which I couldn't exactly find because I had lost my phone with my gps on it) so we incrementally peaked over ridges and eventually found the buck bedded at 150 yards but he spotted us at the same time. Game over with him.
After about another mile, I was spotted the truck which looked like an ant on the valley floor at this time. My daughter had to grab my 12's to spot it. Anyways 2 miles and 45 minutes later we made it to the truck. We decided to call it for the day and grabbed lunch for the drive home.
I called my best friend and hunting partner that night and asked him if he'd like to come up the next day and help me find my phone I lost on the stalk and spot with us.
The next morning started out again with an hour drive to the mountain and glassing off the knob. We had deer like fleas running everywhere, saw several smaller bucks and eventually spotted a different 4 point from the day before that was a nice mature buck. We started our stalk, trying to make it past the myriad of does to find where this rutting giant had went. We worked our way down canyon to the bottom glassing every fold with only a couple of glimpses. We thought he went to the bottom with a hot doe and we worked the shelf where we could have a 100 yard opportunity if we found him. As we worked our way north, I was slightly above Jason and Madelynn and stopped dead in my tracks when I caught a flicker of an ear. I tried to stop Jason and Madelynn but, they stepped out into site just to see 20 does and 4 bucks trot up the hill. We made a quick loop back to the truck and went to cut them off around the top, had a couple opportunities an experienced hunter could make happen, but not a first timer. After another couple hours of cat and mouse we called it and headed over to find my phone. Maddie took a nap, and I hiked 4 miles to no avail to find my lost phone.
Once we got back to the truck, we started glassing fingers to the south and quickly turned up several more bucks including a nice 4x4 that was younger, but Madelynn was ready to kill. We did a big steep loop to get above him and dropped in, we made it to within 150 yards before the wind swirled and ended that stalk. We made the steep walk back to the truck in as the sun set and started on our way home.
