A family man's 2018 season log

[jeremy.b]

Thanks guys, I really appreciate the encouragement!

I genuinely enjoy writing and putting these experiences out for you all.

Everyone that hunts and fishes loves to tell stories, and loves to hear/read/see them told. I'd wager that sharing our stories (and hearing others shared) is actually a FAR more satisfying part of the outdoor experience than most give it credit for.

 

[jeremy.b]

And so the recount of my deer adventure begins!

Wednesday 10-31 Travel Day

I throw the last cooler of food in my truck and take off to meet up with my Dad and uncle in Boise. They were traveling south from north Idaho. We meet up mid-afternoon, grab some last minute groceries and head down to my unit to locate a spot to camp.

Our biggest concern was to find a spot that would be sheltered from wind as we were setting up a tent camp and there was significant wind forcasted later in the week. The first couple spots didn't have much in the way of wind-breaks, and we decided to bypass any other spots and head deeper into the unit. Eventually we locate a spot near where I had scouted in August that had topography to provide great wind relief and a bit cover if any significant rain came in with the bonus of not being TOO far off the main road so we could crawl out in the event that rain turned the spur road into soup. This location was also right at my plan A location to hunt.

We set camp, got settled and worked out plans for the next day. Dad and my uncle plan to cover some of the ground I scouted in August looking for birds (and coyotes) and I would head a slightly different direction based on some local intel I received in the summer.

 

[jeremy.b]

Thursday 11-1: Plan A (I'm deer hunting I promise!)


We got a little bit of rain Wednesday night, and it was gently "misting" when I got up and headed out in the morning (the other two were in no hurry get moving ).

From camp I hike over to a small set of gentle valleys that had decent feed for first light. All I manage to turn up are some moo-cows in said decent feed, some elk sign and one set of deer tracks.

Shortly after sunrise I heard a distant bugle quite a ways above me. It was a touch odd, but I had heard a bugle the night before too when fine tuning our camp location. The bugle came from a series of stair-step ridges that might offer some decent glassing, so I started wandering in its general direction.

As I worked my way up a couple ridges toward the bugle I glassed over some good looking country. Unfortunately I did not turning anything up (nor finding ANYTHING in the way of fresh deer sign). After a while I got close enough to the bugle that it sounded like he was somewhere on a ridge directly above me.

Not seeing anything in the way of deer sign I decided to fully put deer hunting on the back burner for a bit and go see this elk. I worked my way up to the next ridge using some juniper for cover as I crested the lip of the next ridge. I could hear some cow calls too, so there were more than one elk, but could not see them at all. It sounded like they might be just over a little basalt ridge 300 yards further.

I headed to that basalt ridge, snuck up over the edge of that and was presented with a series of rolling basalt+juniper+sage ridges/rises that gently rose up in front of me for at least 1/2 mile.. I could hear the bull much clearer now, but still couldn't pick him out of the juniper. Glassing eventually turned up a hand full of cows about 500 yards out on another basalt rise.

I also started hearing something that sounded like an elk bark. I had the wind but thought maybe I had been busted. I hung tight for a bit, and after a good 20 minutes it was clear the elk were just talking amongst themselves, and were not in any way alarmed. In that time I picked out more cows, a couple rag-horn 4 & 5-points, but not the bull that was bugling.

With the elk still not aware I was there, I used the topography to cut another 200 yards off. I eased up on the next basalt rise and was able to pick out quite a few more elk. All told I saw at least 12 cows/calves, 4-5 rag-horns and two smallish 6x6's. It was one of the two 6x6's that was bugling. I'm not sure if there was a calf or a cow that was coming into estrus on a 2nd or 3rd cycle, but something had that bull riled up. He and the other 6x6 would occasionally spar pretty aggressively (not a full fight though) so that was cool to watch.

After 20 minutes of watching elk antics I switched gears back into deer hunting mode and eased my way out of the area. On the way out I jumped ANOTHER small 6x6 only about 300 yards from where the other elk were congregating at.

 

[jeremy.b]

I planned to drop off the ridges I was on, cross a couple drainages and go glass a grassy flat that might draw some deer in. Now the drainages I had to cross required some very careful planning and map work to make sure I could actually cross them without the need for a parachute, hang glider and/or ladder:

I also needed to be careful as it had continued to rain a little bit all day which could make footing a bit touch and go. Eventually I did make it across, and while I was working the last bit of the main climb I stumbled upon an elk shed!

The shed was only 50 yards from a trail but was perfectly located such that it could not be seen from said trail. I was just at the right place to see it when I crested a ridge. I left the shed with plans to get it later in the trip, and headed up to the near-by flat.

I hung tight, and watched the flat for a bit, but didn't turn anything up. I eventually picked my way along the edge of the flat looking for deer sign, but didn't find anything in the way of deer sign.

It was late afternoon at this point and I had a solid 4 miles back to camp. I was also wearing my old boots and with the little bit of rain we had throughout the day I was thoroughly soaked in the feet department. Even a change of socks didn't help much.

I made the call and started back down to camp, eventually following the trail where I left the elk shed and grabbed it on the way. My dad end up coming up the trail with the 4-wheeler and met me at a mile out from camp. With at least 12 miles of boot leather down I was sure glad to see him!

We got back to camp and I started refueling:

After comparing notes with my Dad and uncle, we had collectively seen very little in the way of deer sign, and no live deer. For their part they didn't run into any birds or coyotes either.

I decided to go to a new spot, one that would require either a 35 mile drive, with 15 of that over a really nasty/rocky 2-track (it took me 1 1/2 hrs to drive it in August) or a 60-70 mile drive around the long way, but on much better roads. I decided to go the long way since travel time would be about the same, I could stop and gas up on that route, and not risk taking a tire out (or two) on the 2-track.

My dad and uncle, having been inspired by my elk shed find decided to switch gears from birds and coyotes over to shed hunting and planned to hit the general area I found the shed hard the next day.

 

[jeremy.b]

Friday 11-2: Plan B

I was got a bit of a late start on my 1.5hr+ drive to my plan B spot(s). Along the way I did manage to spot a small band of does right off the road. I parked and snuck in closer to look them over. There wasn't any bucks around, but hey at least I saw some deer!

I continue on my way and actually decided to hit a different spot that was on my way to my main destination for the day. I park and take a little 2 mile hike to look over some drainages but didn't turn any sign or anything while glassing.

The wind was really starting to rip that morning too, so I have to assume that had pushed most deer to bed already.

After the little side trip I drove into my main location. On the way in I jumped another 3 does that were bedded down in a juniper covered draw/flat, but again no bucks around.

This next spot was mostly a small easy drainage that meandered down into a much larger canyon over a couple miles. It was mostly open sage compared to the juniper country I had been in the day before.

I worked the area pretty slowly, hopping up on one side of the drainage to glass the small feeder drainages on the other side looking for anything bedded in the sage out of the wind. I didn't turn up anything and a pretty dedicated little rain squall passed over so I found some cover and stayed put for a bit. After the majority of the rain passed over I continued to wander the ridge for a mile or more glassing as I went. Eventually not turning anything up and the howling wind started to get to me and I had to fight through an obnoxious wave of self-doubt. Eventually kicking myself into gear I dropped into the drainage and working up it for another mile or so.

It was creeping up to late afternoon and I did finally have enough of the wind. I hopped up on the opposite side of the drainage and headed back to the truck (straight into the wind now, yay!). About a mile from the truck I had another rain squall cruise over and this time I had completely run out of cover so I rain-geared up and pushed through a nice pelting rain for the last 1/4 mile to the truck.

I headed out, gassed up and got back to camp, not having even seen any actual deer or fresh sign in either of the two spots I hiked in (but at least saw the does from the road!)

My Dad and uncle had not turned up any more elk sheds, but did do a little driving around exploring the area more and had seen 5 does near some private property 10 or so miles from camp. They were in some typical juniper flats and it seemed like it would be a pretty hard area to hunt.

Given the lack of sign and sightings between plans A and B and not convince that the few does we saw were in good areas to hunt, we decided it was time to gain some elevation. The hope was that maybe deer would be easier to locate where we could glass larger areas, and that the deer might be higher up as it was still fairly warm for the start of November.

So we set plans for all three of us to go up near the very first area I had scouted in August where we had seen all of the elk. The specific area I planned to check out was a couple good sized drainages with access that would let us glass a ton of country pretty easily. The only catch was it would be another 65+ mile one-way trip, but hey, thats what they make gas for right!

 

[jeremy.b]

Saturday 11-3: Plan C

We all woke fairly early, had enough time to make a nice breakfast and get on the road with plenty of time. We managed to make it our plan C location right at legal shooting light.

As an aside, for whatever reason, this day I finally felt like I didn't really care if we found animals or not, where the previous two days not finding anything definitely was getting to me. It wasn't a defeated kind of attitude by any means, but more of accepting (again!) that hunting can be hard, but that doesn't mean its not fun even not seeing anything. Going into this hunt, that very attitude of not enjoying a hunt when not having success was something I experienced during my cow hunt, and that I was very consciously trying to change for this hunt. Obviously that didn't happen until day 3, and to be honest I have NO idea what was different from Friday to Saturday that caused the change but I was sure glad for it. Anyway, back to it!

We had about a mile hike over a flat plateau like ridge before we broke out and had some country to glass:

We managed to turn up some moo-cows on a distant ridge, but nothing else. There were a couple large benches below the main ridge that would let us see further into the drainage and so we worked our way down glassing as we went.

We worked over to a bit of a rocky knife ridge that gave us a great vantage point down the drainage:

And back up toward the main plateau ridge we eventually needed to head back up to:

It was amazing country, the weather was fairly calm, but we just could not turn up any critters...

After lunch we started working our way back up to the main ridge, but at least a mile or so further south than where we had come down from. This meant we now had some two sets of rocky bluffs to negotiate between each of the benches we needed to climb up. Not a big deal but it did force us to wander around a bit.

My dad found a good gentle spot where we could get up past the first band. Right at the top of that little climb was a lone bleached out elk rib... I personally didn't think much of it, having tried finding carcasses in the past based on a few bones and rarely finding the rest.

We had about 2-300 yards of bench before our the next and final bluff we needed to get over, and a decent batch of brush (aspen, bitter brush and juniper) to work through to get there. We all wandered in, each taking a slightly different line. I headed left compared to my Dad and uncle and not 10 steps into the brush I notice a pile of elk bones and then a REALLY nice set of antlers! "Dead Head!!" I called out (they were only 15 yards away...).

Now, the irony of this was just two nights before (after I found the elk shed) when were discussing my dad and uncles plans to go look for sheds my uncle was saying he'd just really like to find a decent dead head.

My uncle and Dad walk over and my uncle is laughing, (and slightly disgusted in a good way) saying "and WHY didn't I go left and YOU go right!?" He wasn't at all mad at me obviously, to be clear. So, now, not having seen any animals, but a nice elk rack to haul out, we had a new plan, lets get back to the truck (and back to camp where we had steak dinner plans)! My uncle offered to carry the dead head and Dad and I would find clear paths for him to get through.

I have to say I was slightly bummed that my uncle wasn't the one to actually find the dead head, especially given our conversation from two nights before. On the other hand, at the same time I was super jacked. I've only found one or two really old elk dead-heads that were not worth hauling out of the woods. While this one was bleached out, it was in great shape otherwise.

As we were strapping up the dead head my dad says, "Now you're not going to shoot a deer while we're down off the ridge are you??"

 

[jeremy.b]

My dad and I lead out in front of my uncle (with me going a bit too fast at times since I was still amped up a bit).

We worked him through the brush and found a little drainage and ridge that let us climb up over the bluffs and on top of the main platuea ridge.

I was out in front again and rounded a set of brush/juniper, glanced to my left and there's a buck standing not 50 yards away!

I hiss out "DEER!!!" and my uncle, who was only 20 yards behind me gets down as do I. I look at the deer, and he's not big in any way shape or form. But at this point, he's within range, I don't care that he's not big as I can fill my tag and freezer right now (we just used up our last package of elk burger and were down to a few stew meat packages at home the week before).

I get my rifle set, stand back up and take aim. The buck is standing there hard quartering to me I hold on the lead shoulder and pull the trigger. The buck humps up hard at the shot and starts a death run down through some juniper and bitter brush disappearing from sight and a bunch of does break cover and start bounding off. My dad, who took a little different line over the ridge and just hitting the ridge when I called out says "you didn't just shoot a deer did you!!??". My response, "YEP!!".

My uncle and I go down roughly where I thought I saw the deer disappear and my dad goes to the other side of the juniper/bitter brush and starts looking in where he thought he heard some thrashing after the shot.

My uncle and I don't see him right away, head back up to where he was standing to follow the tracks. We make it to two tracks when my dad calls out "found him" and then starts laughing...

See, the same night were were discussing dead heads I made mention that at the very least I would like to get a buck that wasn't legal in the general 2 point only season for that area. That mean no 2-points....

I call out asking whats so funny, dad answers "you shot a 2 point!" and I'm laughing too. I didn't (and don't) care that he was "only" a 2 point in a "trophy" unit. I was super happy to get him, and both my dad and uncle didn't care in the slightest and were super happy too.

We grabbed a few pictures:

This one for fun to send to those who expected me to shoot a monster:

My dad offered to work on the deer while my uncle and I headed back to the truck to drop the dead head off and grab a couple pack frames since I had the GPS on my phone and both my uncle and I move a bit quicker when need calls.

We hoof it the 3/4's of a mile back to the truck (way closer than I thought we were at first) re-arrange gear and head back to my dad and the deer.

Dad had hung and was just about finished skinning the buck when we got back to him. I look over the damage from the shot, I hit the bone just below the forward shoulder joint and it complete grenaded the 130gr Accubond out of my 270 at that close distance. There was literally NO portion of the bullet that exited the chest cavity. I had a similar experince with the accubond when I shot the buck in 2015 as I hit him high shoulder which also it spine and very little of THAT bullet made it through that deer too. I had already planned on re-working my bullet selection for the 270 and this just cemented that for me...

Anyway, my dad and I quarter the deer, I load the two hind quarters on my Metcalf (I wanted to see how it did with a decent load of meat), with my dad and uncle splitting the shoulders and boned out meat between them.

We had a pretty easy pack back to the truck and made it back by 5:00PM (I shot the deer around 2:30). Here we have it all loaded up ready for the 65+ mile drive back to camp:

We swing into the nearest town to gas up again, where I get a little bit of grief from a local about shooting a 2 point with a "big buck" tag that he's been trying to draw for so many years. Guess you can't please everyone!

We head back to camp a bit late and spend the night chatting away and enjoying what ended up as a great trip and hunt.

 

[jeremy.b]

Edit: Sunday 11-4 The return home...
My dad and I had talked before this trip and I officially inherited the hunt camp after this trip. So we packed up the camp Sunday morning, loaded up the rigs, now mine with the camp too, and headed down our respective roads.

I returned home mid afternoon yesterday we started cutting meat today and should finish having the rest of the deer in the freezer tomorrow. Looks like tenderloin will be on the menu tomorrow night or maybe the next .


Couple musing over the season of 2018

This has been a bit of a different season than prior years. Having to travel 5+ hours for any hunt (and in generally new country to me) was different experience. I have to say its hard to do, especially when mostly hunting solo. I can't honestly say I've mastered the ability to stay confident and motivated when away from my family for more than 3 or so days at a stint. I recognize that very much impacts how successful I may be on a given hunt, but I have no idea how to work through that, other than working to hunt closer to home where I can hunt more often for for shorter periods of time, and eventually when I can take my family along on those adventures.

Now, for the deer hunt, I'm perfectly happy with how it turned out, even though going in I absolutely had dreams of shooting another slammer buck in that unit. The reality of it though is I didn't know the unit well, didn't know where and how to find the deer well and had limited time to hunt. Its easy to sit at a computer desk and have all the confidence in the world and lay what seem like fool-proof plans. All of that goes out the window when the boots hit the ground and none of the plans and expectations are coming together. Again, I'm very content with the result of that hunt. For those, like the guy at the gas station, who don't understand why anyone would do what I did with that tag, it was my tag to use, and I did get to use it and had a hell of a good time taking home the deer I did. I hope they get a chance at a tag like that someday and it goes exactly as they plan...

 

[duckhunt]

Great hunt

 

[Crossbowguy]

Those were some great finds and what an incredible hunt with family!!!! Awesome story!!!

 

[TheBenHoyle]

Great story. Thanks for sharing.

 

[bowhuntmontana]

Glad it all worked out. Sounds like you worked pretty hard at it.

 

[jeremy.b]

Glad it all worked out. Sounds like you worked pretty hard at it.

It sure felt like it!

From chatting with a few folks, I get the impression we may have had better luck finding deer by just hopping on the 4-wheeler and cruising 2-tracks instead of burning boot leather. That's just NOT our style though, as all 3 of us prefer to get out and put some miles on.

 

[OwyheeHuntr]

Congrats on a memorable hunt! Those units are far from a sure thing, even in November.

 

[villamor68]

Hey bud, I just moved from hawaii a few years ago and looking for company to go hunting, either you or I draw would like to either go or come with. keep me posted I put in for turkey but if I dont draw Im going general. Keep me posted. I got a big family to so hope timing works out lol