Idaho buck results

[Bait O' Eggs]

I had another great hunt in the Middle Fork of the Salmon River in Idaho. The general theme this year was “hey look another hunter”. :depressed:

Last year we dropped into our runway and shared it with about 4 other tents, this year there were 13 tents pretty much at all times, and the tents were coming and going on a daily basis. Each camp had several hunters in it. Several people were spike camped out in the brush and not even using a base camp at the runway. In short there was a ton of people where we were.

We got flown in right away on Saturday and had our base camp set up by noon, and headed down river to get a spike camp set up. 6 people headed down river while we were setting up base camp that first day and they were headed in the general area we were but they crossed the river about a mile before we did. We hiked about 2.5 miles, rafted the river and climbed about 750 ft +/- up a ridge and set up a light spike camp. We figured this would save us several hours of hiking each way on a daily basis. We did some glassing and saw a couple 3 point bucks that evening (the hunt is a 3 point or larger hunt) but no horns that were special. After spending an extremely cold evening in full thermals, coat, hat, gloves (all the clothing I had with me) in a sleeping bag it finally got light the next morning. We hiked to the top of the ridge and saw a few small bucks but nothing that peaked our interest. Around mid day we see the 6 people that left camp just before us the day before headed up the ridge we were headed for. We could also see 2 people already on top of the ridge, 1 across the canyon, and 2 across the river, and who knows how many in camo we couldnt see. The drainage we wanted to hunt was just to crowded so we headed back to spike camp, packed up and headed back to base camp at the runway, to hunt a different direction. We did see a couple 20 plus inch 4 point bucks across the river those first days but there was no way we could get to them that day and they didnt look to be very heavy horned. The next day we decided to hike up the river a couple miles and climb the ridge I killed my buck on the year before. We get to the bottom of the ridge as it is getting light and there are 2 guys about 100 yards up the hill that must have left camp before we did. As we sat there a bit discouraged, thinking about the 2 guys ahead of us, the 4 spike camps up the drainage around the corner we had heard about, we spot a nice buck on the hill behind us. Ken climbs up the ridge a couple hundred yards and makes a 365 yard shot bringing down a 4 point buck that was 21 inches wide. It was the nicest buck in camp so far and there were lots of bucks stacking up in camp. This buck was pretty deep forked, and heavy and very symetrical.




If Ken hadnt decided to go shoot it, I would have probably been tempted to make a hunt on him. I really had plans of holding out for either a wider or heavy tall buck but we were seeing very few really nice bucks in camp and nobody was seeing any really big ones. After an easy 2 mile pack back to camp with Kens buck we headed to the hot springs to scrub 3 days of barnacles off.

The next day we decided to head up the ridge behind camp and try to get into some of the high country to get away from some of the people. We get up the ridge 1500 feet or so and there is a hunter coming up the ridge along side us. We saw a couple dink bucks, and a couple little 3 points. The guy on the ridge next to us walked right by a 3 point that was probably 18 inches and we figured he wasnt hunting for 3 points like us. After going another 1000 feet we drop off the ridge a ways so we can hopefully see the draws below us. The ground is very steep and from the ridge you cant see much. The snow was coming down pretty hard and visibility was minimal. We climb back up to the ridge to find the hunter we had been watching earlier was now on our ridge and after a short talk with him we decide on a plan to keep us away from each other. Since it was foggy and snowing and going up would allow you to see 100 yards at the most, I wanted to lose some elevation so I could see a ways if we could get below the weather. The other guy wanted to head on up the ridge, We side hill around and down the draw in the timber and I spot a nice big 3 point ahead of us. We decide we are going to try and get close to use the camcorder on him. We cut tracks in the timber about ½ way there and low and behold there is our buddy again. I asked him if he would shoot a 3 point and he said he would shoot any legal buck, I tell him where to go and we walk him within 100 yards of this buck and he shoots the buck while we film the hunt on camcorder. This young guy was extremely happy. The buck was 21 inches wide, 2 x3 and each of the main forks were 12 inches long with a little 3 inch third point on the one side. I don’t think this young guy had shot many deer which made showing him the buck kind of special. We take his picture and move on knowing he wont be messing with us on the hill anymore, 1 less tag in camp means one less gun on the hill. He didnt see the 3 point down low which bummed him out when we told him where it was, when he walked by it at about 200 yards.

The next day we head back into the same canyon hoping the weather would allow us to see. We get back up on the ridge and there is about a foot of fresh snow. We drop off the ridge in the same spot we did the day before to look over the one canyon and when we climb back to the top there are fresh man tracks headed up the ridge, again we have company on this ridge and we are quite a ways from camp. We hike up the ridge a ways and hike out a side finger so we can glass ahead of ourself and here comes another guy from camp who walks out and talks to us. He had just met up with other guy who was making the tracks in the snow. This made 4 of us on one ridge that I could confirm. We show him a 3 point we could see from there and a dozen does, this guy will go home with nothing before he shoots less than a nice 4 point. Finally Ken spots a doe in the canyon a couple thousand yards ahead of us. While looking at it in the spotting scope we see a 20 inch + class buck that must be a 4 point just on size alone laying near her. We decide we are going to get closer to see if he will meet our standards. While hiking up the ridge to get into position, we are following several deer tracks in the snow. Then a large cat track comes from the side, and follows the deer tracks up the ridge. I sort of get that feeling that not only are we hunting, we could possibly be, being hunted. :shocked: I have heard there are a lot of cats in the area, but the cat tracks that morning in the snow kind of brought it to reality. I have heard an Idaho deer tag can be used for a bear or cat if you wish. I have never read it in the regs, but that is what several of the hunters in camp told us. All of a sudden I would rather punch my tag on a cat than a buck. This cat would be easy to follow in a foot of snow and we proceed to follow him since he is headed the same way we were headed. We had to go over a small nob on the ridge and the tracks went into a bunch of christmas trees that were thick enough you could easily hide a cat or two in there. All of a sudden hunting that cat didnt feel as exciting, I kind of had a pucker factor going on and didnt really want to head into the tree patch to follow it. :blush: I wish my buddy was packing a gun but he had already filled his tag. I swung to the outside of the trees staying in the open and proceeded to head to the buck we had spotted. After getting around the tree patch and back out on open ridge we rejoined the cat tracks and headed up the ridge. As long as I could see tracks for 40 yards or so I felt kind of safe. We had to side track about 100 yards to check out the buck, and if the buck didnt pan out I was all for tracking the cat down. We get out on the ridge to check out the buck and he is only a forked horn. I figure he is at least 21 or 22 wide but probably 18 or 19 tall. It was truly the largest fork I have ever seen. I think he was an older buck that had reverted back down to a fork. While looking at him and a doe, another large buck appears out of nowhere. This buck is very heavy, nice deep 4 point and the nicest buck we had seen on the trip dead or alive. I don’t think he was as wide as the forky but a lot heavier. The cat was forgotten and shells were chambered. We range the buck at 414 yards. I lay my pack in the foot of snow and lay over it. I take the first shot and Ken tells me the buck is headed away from us, but I saw it running and it was coming right towards us, I question which way he went, and he confirms running towards us, the buck came about 50 yards our way and makes a due right turn, I take a second shot and know I shanked it and shot low. I chamber a third shell and when I get back on the buck he is doing full endo cartwheels down the hill, hitting the ground about every 10 yards, after 4 or 5 endos, he goes in a toboggan slide and comes to rest over a 100 yards down the hill in a small fir tree. I am kind of excited I just knocked down the biggest buck we had seen. About then we hear voices on the ridge a couple hundred yards above us and there are 2 guys who are not happy we are there and they head off. I set the spotting scope up on the tree the buck slid in and all I can see is a head of a doe

:depressed:

:depressed:

I look over at Ken and say, “I just shot a doe”. Which one was the buck when they ran??? you said it ran away, I thought it ran towards us, then you confirmed it came towards us and I shot again at that deer, I am sure I could see horns on it in the scope when I shot both times. We debate what went wrong, I don’t know if I want to just walk away and say we missed the buck, or go face the music with a doe which is not legal. After about 30 minutes of glassing for the buck and debating what the heck happened, because I was sure I could see the bucks horns when I shot even though the cross hairs were low when the gun fired that second shot, just a flat out bad shot on my part, probably part adrenaline, or tired from the 3700 foot vertical climb that morning to get to this ridge, and who knows what else. After Ken looks at the deer in the scope for the upteenth time, he tells me he can see a knubbing by the ear, and he thinks the horn broke off flush and the other horns is out of sight. We finally pack up and hike over to see what happened. All the way over, I am confused, the first shot felt good, but the buck didnt flinch he just ran towards us, the second shot was low and now we have a dead doe on the hill. We get to where the first shot was taken and there is blood in the snow, We follow it down the hill, and find the buck with a horn missing on one side and the other horn buried in the snow. I feel a lot better knowing I didnt screw up, we spent almost an hour looking for the other horn and found it where the buck was doing cartwheels down the hill. The antlers were very heavy and I have a hard time believing the antler broke off from the tumble, and part of the antler is missing where it is broke, making me believe I maybe hit an antler with the second shot. I am quite sure that second shot was low, I can see the cross hairs around the knees of the deer when the shot fired, and my gun is 15 inches low at 400 yards so I know I would be well below the deer. I cant explain the busted antler, but we took some pics with the antlers back in approx location. The deer was hit in the rib cage, thru the liver and up into the shoulder on the other side from the first shot.



Several hours of hiking in daylight and for over 2 hours with headlamps getting back to camp, and it was pretty much unanimous the buck was the nicest one on the runway, broken antler or not.

We saw several bucks we did not hunt because they were not large, wide or heavy. On average we probably saw 4 or 5 spikes a day, 3 or 4 forked horns, 2 or 3 three points, and 1 or 2 four point a day. Toss in 30 or 40 does and you had our average day. We saw at least twice as many deer last year on a daily basis. There was less snow this year and the general consensus from the old timers is the snow hadnt pushed the deer down from the high country yet, the better hunting wouldnt happen until after more snow flew.

We were feeling like top dogs at our runway with the other camps coming by to check out our bucks and telling of there desire to get a buck like that, that feeling went away when we flew out. My plane had to stop at another runway to pick up some gear headed out and the bucks that were laying around there made ours look like junior bucks. When we got back to the airport there were a couple bucks there that were over 30 inches, and one that was 28 inches that were so impressive I just kind of kept my buck out of sight.

Weather was very cold, low to mid teens at night, and up to mid to high 30's on most days, though on some days it didnt get that warm.

The pilots were telling us, there were only a few hunters on some of the other runways and those guys were bringing in some monsters, I think we went to the wrong runway this year, the deer were scarce for the standards I expect from there, the number of hunters were high, and the bucks were probably smaller than average this year at this runway.

As much fun as I had hunting for large bucks, I will remember other things about the hunt like:
1. The tight pucker sensation I felt when I was following cat tracks in the snow thinking I was not apex predator at the moment
2. Watching the hawk try to have chucker for breakfast and after a feather flying fiasco, the chuckar got away
3. Showing Jeremy his buck, and taking his picture with an ear to ear smile
4. Trying to raft a river about the size of the Clackamas, with 10 feet of ice from the bank to liquid portion on each side, and wondering what would happen if I lost an oar and we floated around the corner where the river was frozen solid across the top. (Getting up on the ice out of the water after crossing the river in a raft was quite a problem)
5. A hunter on every ridge and 2 or more on most
6. The bond each hunter had in our area, we all came from different backgrounds, yet had one thing in common that brought us all together for a week. We knew what radio freq each of us were hunting on, and the night we were packing my buck out, we got a call from a person in camp after almost 2 hours of darkness wanting to know if we were OK, it was getting pretty cold and they knew we hadnt made it back to camp. They were just checking to make sure we were all safe for the next day of hunting. Every person I met last year was back on the runway again this year (along with a few others) and the core group will be there next year, I think I would rather hunt with caring friends than take on a new runway with strangers and have a chance at maybe a bigger buck.

[TheTexan]

Great story again. Congrats!

[Small Fry]

Sounds like a good time. Congrats on the nice buck.

[jet]

Roy, you sure know how to tell a great story about your trips. Nice buck, I bet you could JB Weld the 1/2 of the rack back on...

Jet~~~

[Fish Hunter]

Great post. That's an awesome trip your doing. Congrats on the bucks. How many days do they leave you in there for? Did you get a wall tent in there or did you go nylon?

[Born to Fish]

Roy, I remember your report from last year and really enjoyed this year's great report and pictures. No doubt you guys had to work hard for what you got, and there were frustrations with the growing crowd in that area, but it sounds like you thought it was worth it and will return.

Was hoping to see the report from IdaHewes, he apparently did a similar trip this fall with his Dad - that'd really be something if you guys flew into the same area. Don't know if he did as well as you guys, and unfortunately I doubt that we'll see a report from him.....doesn't post much, apparently more of a reader than a writer. [img]graemlins/program.gif[/img] Maybe Denali can get Adam's attention and get him to post something here.

[Firedog]

Nice Buck Roy, also great story. Sounds like you had a grat time just like last year. I leave this afternoon to go hunt the last few days of the Coast Valley Elk hunt. Hopefully we can find a legal bull to shoot. I will get a hold of you when I get back because I need to order a couple blanks. Congrats again on the nice buck.

[TheRogue]

Roy...

That's a great experience. Nothing like building up some comraderie amongst fellow hunters. Too bad about the antler, but not a big deal.

Hope to do Northern Idaho for whitetails next year.

TR

[OneLastCast]

Thanks for sharing that great story and the pics.

[skein]

Great story and congratulations to you both. That is a real hunt, with cold and snow and base and spike camps - just the way it ought to be. Appreciate going along with you, if only vicariously.

So...you still wanna go cat hunting? We need guys like you. You know, the ones with experience. :grin:

Skein

[Beer Waggin]

Nice trip Roy! Now get back to them shot gun plugs! :grin:

[blacktail]

Thanks for sharing Roy. Great pics, story and bucks.

Mike

[Bait O' Eggs]

How many days do they leave you in there for? Did you get a wall tent in there or did you go nylon?

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helv">We drove over after work on Friday of last week. We flew in Saturday morning with the plans of flying out on Saturday of this weekend. You can schedule your pick up any time you want. There were some hunters that were staying 2 weeks. When we filled our tags on Wednesday we managed to get word out thru an outfitters single side band to an airport in Challis who called our airport in McCall and they were able to fly us out Friday morning. There was a front predicted to arrive on Saturday and if visibility is limited the planes dont fly, we might have been stuck there for a few days if we didnt get out and the front hit.

We took a wall tent, wood stove, cots, tables, propane stoves, 5 gallon bottles of propane, lanterns, etc... all in all we had 978 lbs of gear. We didnt want to have to waste hunting time packing firewood and we flew in over 100 lbs of presto logs to warm the tent in the evening. [img]graemlins/dork.gif[/img] With the plane ride you get 150lbs of gear per person and after that you pay $0.27/lb, we had $183 in overweight charges but we were comfortable. Our spike camp was a little nylon pup tent that was very cold, crowded and a miserable night. Not how I would want to spend the entire week.

If I only had a horse in there I would have been uptown. [img]graemlins/dork.gif[/img] Walking everywhere gets old quick. To fill the water jug at base camp it was almost a 1/2 mile walk round trip.

[Gun Rod Bow]

BOE [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/applause.gif[/img]

Great read, great hunt, good job!!!

I appreciate your honest and hardworking hunt ethic. Takes an honest man to admit your gutcheck when you thought you'd popped a doe by mistake. Or the excitement of hunter that could be hunted. (kind of like sneaking on private land :shocked: )...just kidding!

Be proud of the quality of your hunt and what you made out of what you had to choose from, before the size of the horns.

We all know stories of greenhorns that scored a monster of the end of a skid road. I've been awfull proud of hard earned spikes before.

You and your buddy did some good huntin this year. Congrats

Hey, call me before you start working on "Connie 2"

HEY ROY Call my cell or e-mail me with the number where you are please,

[ 11-16-2003, 02:42 PM: Message edited by: Gun Rod Bow ]

[REEL HANDEL]

Roy Nice bucks sounds like a good hunt will post pics of bucks I have been takeing the last few days.
also found the elk i was hunting in Bow season today still there O well next year.

[nitrobass]

Nice deer, thanks for the story - really enjoyed it!

[birdhunter]

Way to go flatlander. Those are some hefty mulies. And a great story to boot. Too bad about the antlers. That happens sometimes when they fall. At least you didn't shoot them off. Might know someone real close who once turned a 3 point into a forked horn. Yup, wouldn't that be embarassing.

[Fish Hunter]

Thanks Roy. All those miles walked do take their toll. Sure do like those trips like yours where you don't even see a rig for all that time.

[fortywinks]

Nice buck Roy. Thanks for the good detailed story.

[Gus Orviston]

Sweet!
Outstanding story, glad you got a nice buck!

gus

[Mr. Fisherman]

Roy, I never get tired of reading stories from my old back yard.
Brings back fond memories.
Good ethics on your part...
Glad you had another sucessful season...

[Mello-Yello]

Great story and great hunt BOE! I'm kicking around doing something similar, only rather than ride a plane, maybe a jet boat. I might spend some time in the off-season seeing what I can work out. The tricky part with the jetboat is...freezing rivers. With a plane its snow storms. Nothing I'd hate more than having to eat frozen venison for a week waiting for the weather to turn.

[Kentucky Hog Hunter]

What an awesome hunt...

Great story to boot and beatiful bucks

Born to Fish

Turns out I was in the same strip as BOE. The guy he referred to that they video taped shooting the buck was my partner. I was in with him as well as my dad. Bait O Eggs it sure is a small world I had no idea you were an Ifisher. Good story it was nice to get back and get to see some more pictures and bring back the memories of the trip. My buddy Jeremy really did enjoy getting to see that film you guys took. I won't be in there next year so that will be 3 less people for you to contend with(and no cork tracks in the snow). Hope to see you there maybe the year after next. If I knew how to put a picture on here I would, but as Born to Fish said I don't spend much time posting.

[Grip It-N-Rip It]

Them look like some nice bucks, congrats man.I went to Idaho and come back with my tag. I saw the buck of my dreams but he saw mw first and I was busted. Glad to hear someone do well.. :shocked: :shocked:

[wak'm&stak'm]

Right On Roy, I read this at work last tom=night and then dreanmed about it for 12 hours.

Nextyear it the year of the hunt, We arenplaning a ekl trip in the same are, I may have questioh=n for ya...Thanks Dan

[elkaholic]

Those are some nice bucks and a great story! Sounded fun and satifying.

Do you think the lower deer numbers could be due to wolves? Did you see wolves?

[SHOUGALNITE]