Family Man's 2022 Season Log

[jeremy.b]

Made it back from our annual whitetail hunt in central Idaho.

Obviously it turned out well based on my post above!

Andy's dad (Rod) and uncle (Jeff) headed up early last week to grab our camp spot from 2021. Snow had come in the day before and they were the first one's to break tracks in the most up to camp. They also saw a ton of does moving and a dandy of a buck but no chance to make a move on him.

The weather was COLD (single digits at night) and with the amount of snow that came in the deer had moved down from higher elevations already. Add to all of that the rut really heating up the amount of deer activity turned out to be borderline ridiculous.

Rod passed on a smaller buck later in the week and they continued to see tons of does. Andy, Mike and I showed up mid-day Friday. We got camp set and headed out for the afternoon. I dropped off the ridge behind camp, jumped a couple does as I worked out the ridge.

Eventually I hit a good spot to sit a series of openings for the last hour of daylight. A couple does and a fawn filtered under me. Shortly after that I heard a shot from an adjacent ridge where Andy had headed down followed by a text that he had a buck down. I held out for the last few minutes of legal light and headed back to camp passing by a doe who just stood on the ridge and let me walk past at 20 yds.

Brian, my brother-in-law had made it to camp so we gathered up Mike (who hadn't seen anything that night), a sled and headed down to go help Andy get his deer out. After wrestling with my inreach we finally made it to Andy, helped finish processing the deer, loaded up the sled and hiked the mile or so back to camp.

Mike ended up having to head home the next day first thing, while the rest of us headed out.

Rod and Jeff hunted a couple stands setup on the ridge behind camp while Brian (who didn't have a tag, but was just along for the fun) and I headed back down the ridge Andy had gotten his buck.

On our way down that ridge we heard a shot over on the ridge behind camp, turned out to be Andy's uncle who shot a spike from his stand. On the board again!

We setup in the same spot Andy had sat the night before. It was in some open timber and in a position to watch a couple major trails and travel corridors.

Within 5 minutes Brian taps my arm and points down the ridge into the timber to a deer crossing a saddle at just over 100 yards out. I see that its a small buck, big enough for the freezer though!

I had a narrow lane he would walk through so I got settle and as soon as he crossed into the opening I took the shot. The hit sounded solid and the buck humped up hard on the shot then took a few steps and got out of sight. We gathered up our stuff grabbed a quick pic of how close we were to where Andy had been the night before (his butt print is on the log to my right).

As we eased down toward the deer I saw a deer slip through some trees headed away from us out the ridge just past where I had shot the buck at. I didn't get a good look at that deer and wasn't sure if it was my buck or a different deer. It took a few minutes but we eventually found a big pool of blood in a bed and more blood going where I had seen the deer.

Since the deer was on his feet again I decided to step back a minute. Brian also looked at the blood and there was paunch mixed in as well showing it was a bad hit. Even with that said he was hit hard based on his reaction and I felt pretty confident he'd die fairly quickly.

Out of an abundance of caution though we backed out a couple hundred yards and gave the buck almost 2 hrs.

While we were waiting a doe walked up to 10 yds from us and as we got up to take the track back up a really nice 5x5 buck jumped up behind us and dropped offer the ridge back into the drainage between us and the ridge behind camp.

We dropped back on the track following sparse blood finally turning up the buck after 100 yds. He had been dead a while (thankfully) and was pretty stiff already.

Great little 2 1/2 yr old with some character.

While we were tracking we heard another shot on the ridge behind camp. Turns out the 5x5 made it over there and right in front of Rod!

We finished processing my buck got loaded up and headed back to camp.

Lots of stories, catching up, a visit from the local game warden (because Andy's uncle lost is tag in the snow) and we were settling in to wind the trip down...

 

[jeremy.b]

Then we got a text from our buddy Tim saying he'd cancel his work trip and come up to get a doe for the freezer if we were going/able to stick around!

We all had the time off so Tim was green lighted and on his way Sunday morning first thing!

Tim made it by lunch, got settle and headed out with Andy on the ridge behind camp. The rest of us stuck around camp (I was cooking my and Rod's bucks for euros).

Mid-afternoon we heard a shot then got a text from Andy that it was a marginal hit. We all saddled up to go help. We got on the track and fairly sparce blood. Tim hurried the shot and it sounded it was a grazing shot, maybe brisket or clipped a leg.

We had enough blood to follow though and if she was hit bad she wouldn't make it out of the canyon she dove into. So Andy Tim and I followed the track down into the deep hole of a draw towards the ridge where Andy and I had gotten our bucks.

As we were loosing light we heard a deer blow as we hit the bottom of the draw, about 600 yards into the track. We got eyes on it and confirmed it was the doe (we were still on the sparce blood trail going right towards her). Tim tried a quick follow up shot but missed clean (no hit and she stood there after the shot) eventually taking off and seemed to be moving fine and not acting at all sick.

We had a mini conference to talk it over the evidence and all agreed it was a non-lethal hit. We climbed back out of the hole to camp just as it got dark.

The next morning Tim and Andy headed out behind camp again while the rest of us cleaned up camp. Mid morning I heard a shot, but didn't hear from either Tim or Andy. After lunch they showed back up at camp with a doe in their packs! They had gotten on deer again, and even had eyes on a nice buck but no shot was offered. Tim WAS offered a great shot on a doe and this time slowed himself WAY down and made a clean hit and she was down quick.

So all to say, it was a bit of a whirlwind! 5 tags punched in less than 48 hrs! We packed up camp that afternoon and all headed our separate ways.

Another year of great memories, and getting a chance to experience one of those "you should have been there!" events with how crazy the deer activity was. We saw over 100 deer between all of us and they were on their feet all hours of the day.

We also connected with a great group of guys. They normally hunt higher country and confirmed there was enough snow up in their location that all the deer had moved out (hence why they came down into our neck of the woods to look for deer!). They hadn't had any luck yet but we offered some pointers and I suspect they'll get some luck before the weeks out too.

Season is getting close to being done, but I can still chase elk with ye ole smoke pole. I'm hoping to get in some scouting to locate some cows for the cow hunt in early December, so we'll see how that goes!

 

[Sheffield5k]

I’d like to say that’s officially the killing log I sat down on. I’m officially designating a day every season from here on out for sitting on it.

 

[jeremy.b]

I’d like to say that’s officially the killing log I sat down on. I’m officially designating a day every season from here on out for sitting on it.

If we get another year like this year I think half of the crew will be arm wrestling over who gets to sit that spot!