A day like no other - part two

We rambled along a four wheel road out through the sage brush to an area I had marked on the map while I was scouting on Google Earth the week before.  It looked promising, it was a huge area of bitterbrush and juniper surrounded by a vast plain of sage brush.  As soon as we started hunting it looked like exactly what would hold some game, there were a lot of rubs, and fresh droppings all over.  It was easy to see that the deer were spending a lot of time in this area.  Fortune smiled on us as the wind was in our favor as we headed through the brush.  We spent the next few hours working our way out through the scrub brush, glassing carefully and often.  It's a tough thing trying to keep the hopes of a 12 year old alive.

As we stopped for another glassing session I picked up on some movement along the treeline, it was well over a thousand yards out, but it was enough to put a smile on my daughters face, and give us both a second wind.

As we watched I saw another deer come out to join the first.  At this point I'm wishing I had a spotting scope, as my 10x42's weren't getting me zoomed in as close as I would've liked to have been to see if it was a buck or not.

We decided to move in closer, and were able to cover a third of the distance.  The wind was still in our favor and the deer still had not been alerted to our presence.  The problem now was that it was all open sage brush in between us and them, there was no way we could make it to them without being seen.  As we watched them they moved back into the brush.  We decided to backtrack and circle around them and try to come in from them from another direction.  When we finally caught sight of them it ended up being a doe and her two yearlings.  We searched hard and long for any signs of a buck but saw nothing, so we continued hunting.

On the way out we saw the same doe and yearlings, but a buck was silhouetted on the horizon about 75 yards back from them.  Taylor was getting set up with her bi-pod as he stepped out into the open and stopped and looked at us.  Taylor dialed in on him and fired a shot, and his ears perked up.  I could tell it was a miss.  As she chambered another round he took off.  I whistled to him loudly and he stopped in his tracks after he was about another 25 yards.  As he looked like he was ready to take off again I let loose with another whistle, and he decided to do a very strange thing...he ran back to where she originally shot at him.  This time she was ready and let loose with another round.  This time he jolted and I knew that she had hit him.  As she stood up and we started towards where she had shot him she was full of emotion.  I can only imagine how many feelings must have been going through her mind and body as all of this had unfolded easily in less then 10 minutes even though it seemed like forever!  I threw the scope up as we headed towards the area to see if I could see him anywhere and I saw antlers on the ground.  When I let her know she was more excited then I had ever seen her in her entire life, and I don't think I've ever been more proud of her.

As we walked up to him we could see he was a nice buck, nicer then we thought he was when we first spotted him.  He was a very nice four pointer, and fell well within her original criteria for what she wanted at the beginning of the season.

It was well after dark when we finally made it back out to the main road and were heading home.  My wife hadn't heard from us in almost 24 hours as there was no cell reception in Grand View either.  I'm sure she was very surprised when I sent her back a picture of Taylor with her deer.  We made it probably a third of the way back home before Taylor was out like a light.  It was a long weekend for her, lots of ups and downs, and lots of emotion, but she was a trooper.  She's a tough girl, and when it came right down to it she get's the job done.  She's made her mom and dad very proud of her.

She's already talking about spring bear hunting, and wanting to get an elk next year.  I think you could say she's already addicted to hunting.  That's my girl!

A day like no other - part one

Our third weekend of trying to fill my daughters deer tag had us doing an overnight-er out of a nearby town.  Only nine more days of the season remained.  Even though this was a trophy deer hunt that she had drawn we never really looked at it that way.  We were looking for a mature buck, and her criteria to start off with was four points or better.  There is no doubt there are some good sized mule deer in the unit we were hunting.  The problem was the weather this year wasn't quite cooperating like it should.  The weekend before saw some extreme cold temperatures and snow in the higher elevations, which was a good sign as it gets the deer on the move, and gets them migrating more south into where we were hunting.  Unfortunately that weather didn't hold and it warmed up again.  All the deer we had run into had been herding up and contained one or more bucks in them, but finding those herds was tough as they seemed extremely spread out.

To say our first day was unproductive is in understatement.  We hunted a few different areas and saw absolutely no deer the entire day.  I could hardly believe it myself as we have seen deer every day that we have been here hunting.

We did see some of our usual buddies though.  Interesting seeing so many of these birds around while we were hunting.  These birds are magnificent, and if you would like to learn a little more about them then you can start here, sage grouse are pretty interesting birds.

My daughter was still in good spirits though as the day wrapped up and we were headed into town.  If your ever in Grand View, ID I recommend the Owyhee Restaurant, they make a great homemade pizza, as my daughter can attest to, unfortunately that's all I can recommend from that town, maybe we were just hungry...I may never know.

The next morning had us up bright and early in time to get to a spot we had seen deer previously.  We got to our vantage point a half hour before any sign of light.  In our favor it had snowed lightly the night before.  We glassed a herd that had a decent buck in it and decided to make a stalk on it, but in the end things didn't work out unfortunately.

These harvester ant hills out in the Owyhee's are everywhere, I had no idea what they were till I came home and my wife remembered what they were from one of her nature classes she had taken.  It would have taken these guys 18 months to two years to build this mound, I feel bad now for having destroyed one to see what it was, at least they have job security now when they come out of hibernation in the spring.

Stay tuned for part two.

Weekend two

Our second weekend of hunting found the weather changing, cold and snowing.  This is good news for the rut and helps get it going, and gets the animals moving.  It was in the teens as daylight broke, and with the wind chill it easily was in the single digits, and there was a light snow.  Sounds like some great late season hunting to most of us, not so much to my 12-year old daughter.  She agreed that ice fishing was much more enjoyable.

The cold weather had the game moving though, we ran into about 25 does, two bucks (a 2-pt, and a 3x4), a small herd of elk w/ no bulls, and a flock of about 20 sage grouse during our day of hunting.  These birds are pretty big, it's overwhelming to come upon them out in the middle of nowhere in the sagebrush.  Here is one just sitting out in the sagebrush.

Here are the marks another one left as I flushed it and it took off across the open sagebrush.

I managed to grab some video of this one flying away.

We ran into a nice rub out in the mahogany brush, if this was a monster muley I'd like to meet him.

It was a fairly miserable day being cold, and me with the on sought of the 24-hr flu coming on.  It was about everything I could do to keep from hurling all day with the nauseous feeling I had.  But we braved through it, like you have to do when your hunting.  We saw quite a bit of game so it was a good day in the end, and once again my trooper made it through with a smile on her face.

Unfortunately the next day we both had to stay home because the 24-hr flu hit us hard, the two of us were the last ones in our family to get it, so hopefully that is the end of the epidemic in our house that has gone on for the past few weeks.  We're on our road to recovery, and we'll be back at it again this weekend.

Let the fun begin!

My daughter was lucky enough to draw a control hunt for a trophy deer hunting unit this year in her first year hunting!  I know people that have put in for this unit for years upon years without drawing.  She isn't taking it for granted, she knows how fortunate she is to have drawn this tag.  As luck would have it the 24-hr flu decided to swing it's way through our household the week before opening day.  First my 3-yr old son got it and puked his guts out for, well.....more then 24-hrs, I think it ended up being two days.  Next up was my 6-yr old son who was lucky enough to only get it for the 24-hrs.  No need to stop there, now it's my wife's turn.  She actually doesn't end up puking, but nauseous and uncomfortable could pretty much sum it up.  I've been playing with a cold for the past week or so myself, but it's been manageable.  The day before we are heading up for our hunt my oldest daughter gets a cold.  She is tough as nails so I know when she actually acknowledges that she is sick, then she is really sick.  The next morning she is looking a little better so about mid morning we decide to go ahead and drive down to our hunt area and get at least a half a day in.

We spent the afternoon hiking around and glassing some areas.  If you live in Idaho and have never made it to the Owyhee desert lands, I would suggest you make the trip.  Especially if you live in central or north Idaho, you will be amazed at the scenery.  You will have thought you had just transported to Africa.....that's what it reminds me of, it's amazing.

We didn't see any shooters, but we bumped one small herd of elk out of the mahogany brush, one lonely sage grouse milling around, which is pretty cool because I've never seen one before.  We ran across a lot of sign for them too, so I know where I'm headed next year if we are lucky enough to get a season again.  We ran across one herd of mule deer as we were headed out that had a large 3-pt, and a decent 4-pt in it with at least a 24-in spread.  Considering how dark it was getting making a play for the buck wasn't an option so we let him go and headed out.

We had a good day, saw some game, and some new country.  We'll be back at it this weekend.  She's excited, and so am I.  She's a real trooper and I'm proud of her for giving her all when she's out there.