Hawaii Idaho deer hunt.

First before I begin with the story I would like to thank a few people who made this hunt successful!

@p_ham ! Without him there is no doubt I wouldn’t have been as successful. He was there every step of the way for me to bounce ideas off and to put up with my stupid jokes.

@BackofBeyond ! Had some insight on the unit and what roads were good and bad. Also his willingness to provide support if the need ever arose.

Thank you to everyone else who provided insight to the unit via private message and text and for all of those who provided words of encouragement as I began on this journey!!!!
 
Day 1

I picked up Paul at his house Saturday morning the 28th at 0530 and we had a to make a brief stop for breakfast and fuel and we were on the road heading North East. The trip was filled with talk about big bucks and how big bucks awaited us behind every tree.

The trip went uneventful until we hit the unit. Not even 20 minutes into the unit Paul spots a nice 4x4 with a doe out in the open about midday. You could just feel the excitement in the cab of the truck as we haven’t even made camp yet and we are seeing bucks with does!!!! Oh boy this is going to be a good hunt.

As we are driving to the predetermined camping spot the road get worse, worse, and even worse! Speed is reduced to a crawl and still the camper is bouncing down the road it has no business on. As we rounded a curve in road almost to camp, 3 does spook from beside the road. We almost make it to the camping spot when we spotted a better camping site. We whip in and in a frenzy we get the camper set up in record time.

It’s about 1300 and we are dying to see what the unit has to hold. We are in the truck heading deeper in the unit to see what we have to look forward to. About 5 minutes from camp; DEER!!!! A good looking little 3x3 right by the road. Yes yes yes there are deer behind every tree!!!!

A little while latter I get a message on my inreach saying “ I think I’m here.” We turn around and head back towards camp. About a mile up the road we run into a pickup blocking the road. I lay on the horn and the most unsightly Sasquatch of a man steps out of the truck, @BackofBeyond has joined us for the weekend to scout and spend the weekend with us. We head back to camp to leave his truck and look over more of the unit. He stated that he saw a buck and doe on his drive in.

There is a nice glassing spot not far from camp. We head there and walk up to where we see an expansive view of the land to the east. We spot one doe bedded down right next to a small opening. That doe quickly becomes 4 deer as there are 3 others bedded near her.

I then wanted to try a road that leads deep in the unit. As we are driving up this tight road Paul spots a doe bedded down in the rocks. We look for any other deer near her and nothing. The roads gets so tight a side by side would be hitting the limbs on both sides. We back down the trail and get out and glass, nothing. We head to another spot and nothing there as well. The sun is setting as we walk back the truck to head back to camp.

Deer count: 13
 
A little while latter I get a message on my inreach saying “ I think I’m here.” We turn around and head back towards camp. About a mile up the road we run into a pickup blocking the road. I lay on the horn and the most unsightly Sasquatch of a man steps out of the truck, @BackofBeyond has joined us for the weekend to scout and spend the weekend with us. We head back to camp to leave his truck and look over more of the unit. He stated that he saw a buck and doe on his drive in.
You're just jealous of my strikingly good looks and well coiffed beard.
 
Day 2

Day 2 started off cold!!! It was 9 degrees!!!! Water pipes in the camper frozen, oh no. We were up and ready to go before day light. We picked a pretty good spot to glass. We got there before daylight and found a likely glassing spot. I left Cody and Paul at one knob and I had a longing to see what was over the next ridge so way I go. Found tons and tons of elk sign but no deer. When I returned to Cody and Paul they had similar results. So away we go to explore the unit around camp so more. Well nothing and not a lot of unit around camp is unaccessible due to tight and rough roads.

It was time to head back to camp to let Cody get off the mountain and we decided we were going to pack up and move to a different part of the unit.

It took us roughly 2 hours to transverse roughly 20 miles of rough road. During that drive Paul spotted a nice 4x4 with 4 does on private. It’s was good to bucks with does. We headed to an area that Cody had talked about… well what wasn’t talked about was how long it would take us to get there. Well what felt like a life time but was more like 4 more hours we arrived at an awesome camping spot. We once again got camp all set up and away we go to scout this side of the unit.

As soon as we left camp we came across a small forkie with a doe not even a half a mile from camp. We got set up to glass for a little bit and didn’t see anything. We wanted to go look over the other side of the ridge. We did a short little round and spotted a little spike working his way through some mahoganies. We glasses until after sunset and we saw a doe and a fawn from the truck on the way back to camp.

Deer count: 10
 
Day 3

After looking over onX the previous night we found a pretty looking glassing spot. We got the parking spot right before sunup. We climbed up to the glassing spot and discovered that it wasn’t the greatest so we moved 2 knobs down and found it have awesome views of the country.

Right as the sun was peaking I spotted a herd of elk on a distance ridge. Spotted deer and more deer. However, like the rest of the trip Paul spotted more deer than I did.

For the afternoon spot I went to a spot that looked like we would have good views, once we got to that spot it sucked. Paul recommended another spot that we ended up spending a lot of time at. We got up there with plenty of daylight left and glassed deer after deer after deer. Even spotted a herd of 18 elk far far away. None of the bucks we saw had any size.

Elk count: 27
Deer count: 70ishIMG_8708.jpegIMG_8711.jpeg
 
Day 4

Weather is still cold, it’s 10 degrees 12 degrees colder than what the Garmin said it was going to be and today there is some wind. We decided to go back to the glass spot from the morning of day 3. From henceforth this spot will be known as Fire Rock. This time because of the wind we set up below the rim rock and had a nice warm fire each. No deer this morning!!! IMG_8717.jpeg

We packed up around 11 and decided to go for a drive. This is when I learned from Paul that all trucks don’t drive rough. He did not like to beat all to hell in my 3/4 ton truck.
Well after what seemed like forever driving I felt like I hit my quota that day for roaming. On the way to an afternoon glassing spot we spotted 2 does close to the road. IMG_8715.jpeg
We arrived at the afternoon glassing spot. It was quite a hike to get there. As soon as we got there we jumped 4 does. The basin we are glassing isn’t very big. Almost at dark Paul who is glassing on the other side of the ridge spots a group of deer and one might have been a buck but couldn’t find him when we got the spotter set up. Well it’s dark and time to head back to camp. Tomorrow is opening day!!

Deer count: 34
 
Leupold BX-4 Rangefinding Binoculars

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