successful idaho trip

[Western-Extremist]

well guys ill start off by saying i did not shoot the biggest buck i had an opportunity at. That being said i am not disappointed one bit. this trip was absolutely amazing and i will be going back. so it all started out with an awesome road trip from cougar washington. it was a 12 hr drive that me and a buddy turned into 20 hrs. between the piss stops, glassing with our spotters off of I84 to simply enjoying the scenery we finally made it to challis, id. we spent the night in the spike tent in the airport parking lot where both me and my buddy could hardly fall asleep because of the excitement to come the next day. we flew out at 8 am and landed in the backcountry at 8:30. what an amazing flight and view coming in. absolutely stunning!!! so we landed set up our camp with the help of our 4 buddies that had already been 3 days prior to our arrival. they already had 3 bucks down. two very good bucks and a small forky. the day we got there was the last day of the general season and they were still trying to fill one of the tags left. at about 5 pm the two that had been hunting came walking back to camp with a little 3x3. "meat buck" i was excited at how things were panning out. at 4:30 am the next morning me and my hunting partner woke up excited and started our 3 mile hike to spike camp. we sat at spike camp eating breakfast so excited to get the day started that i had to keep reminding myself that we had to wait till daylight before we could move on. as soon as daylight hit we started climbing. we started up a ridge and by 10 we had hit the summit. what an amazing place this was!!! we seen quite a few does and some small bucks but didn't spot any shooters till about 2 pm. as soon as we spotted them a mountain storm blew in and we were racing against fog to get to the other side of the draw. we moved in but could not spot the two shooter bucks that we had spotted. we moved back up out of the fog then back down. then back up then back down. seemed like every time we spotted them the fog moved in on us. after several attempts we said heck with it and just started moving down the hill. we were running out of light when i spotted some does moving down the draw and coming up on the other side. then..... there he was. a beautiful 24+ wide 4x4 with eye guards. dark chocolate horns and heavy. we were on a hillside that was at a 1:6' pitch and trying to find a good rest for a 400 yrd shot deemed difficult. after finally finding a rest i had him in my sights for about 10 sec skylined. i pulled the trigger and nothing happened. #@%$^ i was screaming inside. the buck went over the hill. i replay this moment over and over again in my head. getting dark we started back towards spike camp. about the time we got to spike we got hit again by a nasty mountain storm. we made a team decision and head back to base camp to dry our clothes out. the next day as we were walking up the trail when i spotted a good buck about 900 yrds up the hill. i made the decision that i wanted to take him. he was sidehilling and moving fast. we got into position where we thought he was going to pop out. he never showed. my buddy decided to head into the draw and try to circle around him. as i watched him across the draw i heard something moving. about 10 min later i looked up and there he was. at 400+ yrds away i had about 20 seconds to make a decision. i took the opportunity and pulled the trigger. he hit the rocks. i was absolutely ecstatic. being a muzzleloader and archery hunter my whole life, watching something drop from that distance was pretty awesome to say the least. we drug him down the rockslide a 1000 yrds to the trail and began going to work. i dont regret shooting him but wish i would have held out a little longer. next year i will be a more picky. all in all we filled all 10 tags we had for 6 guys. thanks to everyone for all the help and all the guys i met. you know who you are

[Western-Extremist]

a

[Western-Extremist]

b

[Western-Extremist]

c

[Western-Extremist]

d

[DRENALINJUNKIE]

Very cool!! Nice buck. Looks like a great time!!!

[Western-Extremist]

f

[kirkl]

Dandy hunt.

[gotcha]

Nice hunt. We have some very successful hunter that live in our small little town.

[denali]

nice photos, you guys slayed them 

[Western-Extremist]

Nice hunt. We have some very successful hunter that live in our small little town.

Yup!!

[Elkrunner]

Holy whack and stack!

[Watimberghost]

Awesome trip! Great animals! Thanks for sharing the pics

[stew pidasso]

That looked like you guys had a great time. So you shot him on the second day. How many days did you have to hunt total?

[elkoholic1]

dam alot of nice bucks congrats!!!