BDB
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Well, we got back into the Bay Area yesterday morning after the all night drive home. If you read the tail end of my "Off to Idaho post" you know basically what happened but I thought I would post up some more info and a couple of pics.
We took off Friday afternoon to be in Idaho on Saturday the 14th in time for the elk opener on the 15th. We arrived, unpacked our gear, set up the trailer 2 of us would be sleeping in and then took off for a Saturday evening deer hunt.
A few deer and a small heard of elk were spotted on Saturday evening but nothing legal.
Day 1:
Sunday AM showed up quick and we ate and grabbed our packs for the hour long walk to our starting point. We planned to be out all day and were packed for it. We headed straight up hill and worked out way out of a draw at day break to have our first view out into the area we planned to hunt. The area is mainly ridges that run up hill to the West (or the East depending on the side of the highway you are hunting) with deep draws. The hill sides facing north (south side of ravine) are dark timber and hill sides facing south are meadow and sage. Within 5 minutes we spotted a large herd of elk, 45-50 head in the herd. They were still down in the valley bottom feeding and bedded on private land but we new they would head up into the timber soon so we started working on a plan. While we were working on our plan a shot rang out from the valley below and when I peeked back over the hill the herd was no where to be seen. We later came to find out that the land owners' 12 year old grandson took his first elk that morning, a spike with his 30-30. The herd bailed out to the South at the shot, we needed them to the North, oh well, I guess it was on to plan B!
We all split up to cover the mountain side and a couple of the draws. I have hunted quite a few places but I don't think I have ever hunted country that was as consistently STEEP as this area is. It was always straight up, straight down or steep side hilling it. Anyway, I chose high and started climbing. One guy stayed in the middle and one went low. The plan was to get 2 people in position and the low person to slowly work one of the main drainages and either shoot one or push the herd up. I got into position and about 30 minutes later a shot rang out. Brett had poked his head over the hill and was scanning down into the dark timber before his push through it and spotted a 5*5 that broke off from the herd bedded alone. Luckily the bulls head was mostly obscured behind a tree so it couldn't see him while he got into position for the shot. 1 shot from the 300 Win Mag to the vitals at 140 yards and bull stood up, took 5 steps and dropped. So at 10am opening morning we had the first one down. Not a bad start. I worked back down the draw and finally met up with Brett around 11. Brett was all smiles, as he should be, and the usual congrats, high fives and pictures were done then we started the work. The last piece of meat was loaded in the truck around 5pm!!!! Talk about a tiring first day. Once back at camp I crossed the road and climbed up another hill to watch the sunset trying to find a mule deer. Considering the day I just had, I didn't climb too far, probably only 45 minutes until I sat down. Nothing was seen except 2 white tail bucks in the valley bottom (private land).
Day 2: Day two started with tired legs, sore knees and calves and one hunter down due to a pull in his knee. I headed deep up a draw by myself to watch a ridge and a water hole the elk hit pretty regularly. A cold rain kicked in pretty good and I only stayed a few hours before heading back to camp and dry out and decide what to do in the evening. The afternoon and evening was a deer hunt as we wanted to leave the elk area alone. They hadn't come back yet but there weren't pressured much yet either. Brett and I took off for deer and Mike stayed back to get his knee fixed up and to glass for elk and try and work on a plan for day 3. We saw a bunch of deer but all does and fawns, and I spooked up a nice badger who was hauling butt to get away from me. When we arrive home after dark on Monday, Mike has located the herd again so we start working on a plan for the next day.
Day 3: Brett, having already filled his elk tag was headed up high into where the muleys usually hang and Mike and I were headed back up looking for the elk. Lots of hiking, lots of chasing 3 different herds up and down the hill and getting busted by winds. About 9am we spot another herd that sky-lined them selves briefly below us heading into the main drainage where Brett shot his elk two days earlier. Mike and I side hill it over above them hoping to get into position if they move up the drainage. Mike drops off low in to the bottom to watch up hill and I stayed higher on the ridge and high up the drainage from him. I was in position with a 310 yard shot to the top of the ridge and a 100 yard downhill shot to the bottom. I suspected they would move through the timber some where in the middle. A big problem I had was a stable rest. I was sitting in a steep downhill slope looking to shoot directly across or up hill. I had to rig up my backpack on the ground and my shooting sticks on top of the backpack to get a stable rest. Finally getting set, the wait started. Seemed like hours (actually about 25 mins) but finally the lead cow showed up in the timber in front of me, 220 yards away, with a train of animals behind her. Now all I needed was antler! They moved very slow and were quite spread out. Turns out Mike was down in the bottom below me and about 60 yards to my left. He was watching them from 76 yards file right on by, luckily he had a good wind. A few of the cows had spotted him in the bottom but remained still and they didn't know what he was so they didn't spook.
Finally near the end of the line an animal stepped out into a small opening between the trees. The color looked different with the naked eye. I put the binos on him and was pretty sure he was a spike. With the sun right in my eyes, as it was 9:45 and I was facing South East, I could barely see anything clearly in the scope or binos. After a good 10 minutes he finally moved his head and I saw the horns move and that was it game on. My plan for this trip was a spike elk (meat hunting) and a big muley and here I was with a spike elk 218 yards away, slightly downhill, broadside and standing still in the timber. I settled the cross hairs on him and slowly squeezed. At the report of the ott-6 I lost him, when I regained him again he was tumbling down the hill end over end. He came to a rest about 30 yards uphill from Mike who walked over and put a finishing shot in him. Again the work began. Mine was shot about 200 yards uphill from where Brett's was shot earlier. We got him all done up and off the hill that afternoon with the exception of the two hind quarters that we decided to get in the AM. It was cold and dark down there so the meat would be fine.
1 hour after I shot mine, another shot rang out and the radio crackled. Brett shot a nice 4*4 (with 1 eye guard) way up on top and was starting to work on getting him down. So, with 3 days done, we had hiked our butts off and hauled a lot of game. The time had come to throw down a couple "hockey-pops" in celebration and sleep in and rest of the legs for the deer hunting!!!!
Day 4: Slept in. Brett and I hiked up and hauled out my 2 quarters. Mid day was dealing with ice, coolers, some general meat work and deciding on the afternoon, evening. Brett was tagged out so Mike and I headed out with his dad for a deer hunt. 3 mile hike in, then the hunting started. More uphill!!! I jumped a nice buck coming into this bowl from the top, he exited down hill to the left in the left of the picture below. No other bucks spotted.
Day 5: Thursday, the plan was to butcher meat then hit the woods in the evening for deer. I started cutting meat at 9:30am finished up for the day at 7:30pm with one hell of a sore back. It was raining and I decided the hell with it for the evening hunt, I'll just cut meat as I really didn't want to deal with another animal even though I still had a tag. At 5:30 I stopped, walked out the garage and took this picture. You can see the 2 deer in the driveway and a cow and yearling up on the hill, hard to see them in this picture but they are in the upp left below the dark patch. It is an amazing place, that's for sure.
Day 6: Pissing rain and cold, so I just finished off the butchering and started packing as we were headed out at 4pm that afternoon.
I could have gone out for a couple of more deer hunts but the weather was really bad at the end of the week. Also the locals said the big bucks hadn't dropped down yet and they were only seeing smaller bucks. I had no intention of working my butt off and shoot a smaller buck so I didn'spend much more time in the field. I butchered my entire elk with the help of Mike so I saved some money there and I know how it's done. More backstraps on the grill tonight
We loaded up the trailer and pulled out of Salmon at about 5:30 on Friday night for the long drive home.
Anyway, it was a long read but that is what happened on my first hunting trip to Idaho. The area is truly amazing and we had a great time. Lots of meat in the coolers and memories in the head. Good times, good friends and good eats, can't beat that !!! Oh and check out the whitetail on the wall int he cabin! Definitely a shooter buck.
Here's a close up.
We took off Friday afternoon to be in Idaho on Saturday the 14th in time for the elk opener on the 15th. We arrived, unpacked our gear, set up the trailer 2 of us would be sleeping in and then took off for a Saturday evening deer hunt.
A few deer and a small heard of elk were spotted on Saturday evening but nothing legal.
Day 1:
Sunday AM showed up quick and we ate and grabbed our packs for the hour long walk to our starting point. We planned to be out all day and were packed for it. We headed straight up hill and worked out way out of a draw at day break to have our first view out into the area we planned to hunt. The area is mainly ridges that run up hill to the West (or the East depending on the side of the highway you are hunting) with deep draws. The hill sides facing north (south side of ravine) are dark timber and hill sides facing south are meadow and sage. Within 5 minutes we spotted a large herd of elk, 45-50 head in the herd. They were still down in the valley bottom feeding and bedded on private land but we new they would head up into the timber soon so we started working on a plan. While we were working on our plan a shot rang out from the valley below and when I peeked back over the hill the herd was no where to be seen. We later came to find out that the land owners' 12 year old grandson took his first elk that morning, a spike with his 30-30. The herd bailed out to the South at the shot, we needed them to the North, oh well, I guess it was on to plan B!
We all split up to cover the mountain side and a couple of the draws. I have hunted quite a few places but I don't think I have ever hunted country that was as consistently STEEP as this area is. It was always straight up, straight down or steep side hilling it. Anyway, I chose high and started climbing. One guy stayed in the middle and one went low. The plan was to get 2 people in position and the low person to slowly work one of the main drainages and either shoot one or push the herd up. I got into position and about 30 minutes later a shot rang out. Brett had poked his head over the hill and was scanning down into the dark timber before his push through it and spotted a 5*5 that broke off from the herd bedded alone. Luckily the bulls head was mostly obscured behind a tree so it couldn't see him while he got into position for the shot. 1 shot from the 300 Win Mag to the vitals at 140 yards and bull stood up, took 5 steps and dropped. So at 10am opening morning we had the first one down. Not a bad start. I worked back down the draw and finally met up with Brett around 11. Brett was all smiles, as he should be, and the usual congrats, high fives and pictures were done then we started the work. The last piece of meat was loaded in the truck around 5pm!!!! Talk about a tiring first day. Once back at camp I crossed the road and climbed up another hill to watch the sunset trying to find a mule deer. Considering the day I just had, I didn't climb too far, probably only 45 minutes until I sat down. Nothing was seen except 2 white tail bucks in the valley bottom (private land).
Day 2: Day two started with tired legs, sore knees and calves and one hunter down due to a pull in his knee. I headed deep up a draw by myself to watch a ridge and a water hole the elk hit pretty regularly. A cold rain kicked in pretty good and I only stayed a few hours before heading back to camp and dry out and decide what to do in the evening. The afternoon and evening was a deer hunt as we wanted to leave the elk area alone. They hadn't come back yet but there weren't pressured much yet either. Brett and I took off for deer and Mike stayed back to get his knee fixed up and to glass for elk and try and work on a plan for day 3. We saw a bunch of deer but all does and fawns, and I spooked up a nice badger who was hauling butt to get away from me. When we arrive home after dark on Monday, Mike has located the herd again so we start working on a plan for the next day.
Day 3: Brett, having already filled his elk tag was headed up high into where the muleys usually hang and Mike and I were headed back up looking for the elk. Lots of hiking, lots of chasing 3 different herds up and down the hill and getting busted by winds. About 9am we spot another herd that sky-lined them selves briefly below us heading into the main drainage where Brett shot his elk two days earlier. Mike and I side hill it over above them hoping to get into position if they move up the drainage. Mike drops off low in to the bottom to watch up hill and I stayed higher on the ridge and high up the drainage from him. I was in position with a 310 yard shot to the top of the ridge and a 100 yard downhill shot to the bottom. I suspected they would move through the timber some where in the middle. A big problem I had was a stable rest. I was sitting in a steep downhill slope looking to shoot directly across or up hill. I had to rig up my backpack on the ground and my shooting sticks on top of the backpack to get a stable rest. Finally getting set, the wait started. Seemed like hours (actually about 25 mins) but finally the lead cow showed up in the timber in front of me, 220 yards away, with a train of animals behind her. Now all I needed was antler! They moved very slow and were quite spread out. Turns out Mike was down in the bottom below me and about 60 yards to my left. He was watching them from 76 yards file right on by, luckily he had a good wind. A few of the cows had spotted him in the bottom but remained still and they didn't know what he was so they didn't spook.
Finally near the end of the line an animal stepped out into a small opening between the trees. The color looked different with the naked eye. I put the binos on him and was pretty sure he was a spike. With the sun right in my eyes, as it was 9:45 and I was facing South East, I could barely see anything clearly in the scope or binos. After a good 10 minutes he finally moved his head and I saw the horns move and that was it game on. My plan for this trip was a spike elk (meat hunting) and a big muley and here I was with a spike elk 218 yards away, slightly downhill, broadside and standing still in the timber. I settled the cross hairs on him and slowly squeezed. At the report of the ott-6 I lost him, when I regained him again he was tumbling down the hill end over end. He came to a rest about 30 yards uphill from Mike who walked over and put a finishing shot in him. Again the work began. Mine was shot about 200 yards uphill from where Brett's was shot earlier. We got him all done up and off the hill that afternoon with the exception of the two hind quarters that we decided to get in the AM. It was cold and dark down there so the meat would be fine.
1 hour after I shot mine, another shot rang out and the radio crackled. Brett shot a nice 4*4 (with 1 eye guard) way up on top and was starting to work on getting him down. So, with 3 days done, we had hiked our butts off and hauled a lot of game. The time had come to throw down a couple "hockey-pops" in celebration and sleep in and rest of the legs for the deer hunting!!!!
Day 4: Slept in. Brett and I hiked up and hauled out my 2 quarters. Mid day was dealing with ice, coolers, some general meat work and deciding on the afternoon, evening. Brett was tagged out so Mike and I headed out with his dad for a deer hunt. 3 mile hike in, then the hunting started. More uphill!!! I jumped a nice buck coming into this bowl from the top, he exited down hill to the left in the left of the picture below. No other bucks spotted.
Day 5: Thursday, the plan was to butcher meat then hit the woods in the evening for deer. I started cutting meat at 9:30am finished up for the day at 7:30pm with one hell of a sore back. It was raining and I decided the hell with it for the evening hunt, I'll just cut meat as I really didn't want to deal with another animal even though I still had a tag. At 5:30 I stopped, walked out the garage and took this picture. You can see the 2 deer in the driveway and a cow and yearling up on the hill, hard to see them in this picture but they are in the upp left below the dark patch. It is an amazing place, that's for sure.
Day 6: Pissing rain and cold, so I just finished off the butchering and started packing as we were headed out at 4pm that afternoon.
I could have gone out for a couple of more deer hunts but the weather was really bad at the end of the week. Also the locals said the big bucks hadn't dropped down yet and they were only seeing smaller bucks. I had no intention of working my butt off and shoot a smaller buck so I didn'spend much more time in the field. I butchered my entire elk with the help of Mike so I saved some money there and I know how it's done. More backstraps on the grill tonight
We loaded up the trailer and pulled out of Salmon at about 5:30 on Friday night for the long drive home.
Anyway, it was a long read but that is what happened on my first hunting trip to Idaho. The area is truly amazing and we had a great time. Lots of meat in the coolers and memories in the head. Good times, good friends and good eats, can't beat that !!! Oh and check out the whitetail on the wall int he cabin! Definitely a shooter buck.
Here's a close up.
