Another great Idaho trip in the books

[180-GRAIN]

I was not going to post this but what the heck! We decided to hit Idaho again this year for deer and elk from oct 23rd to nov 4th. We hit it perfect for deer but we fell short on the elk. Seen a few but just could not connect. Anyway first day I took a shot at a nice whitetail off hand in an old burn and somehow shot over his back. About 30 minutes later and 1/4 mile further up the burn I seen a gray body walking broadside at about 100 yards, I had 2 deer tags so I was going to take a meat buck and then hold out for atleast a 4 point with the second tag. Anyhow the gray body ended up being a muley buck and when I got him in the scope looked like a little 3 point so I went ahead and took the shot dropping him in his tracks. I have never had ground shrinkage before until this deer! I walked up to him and it was an embarrassing 2x1. All I could think was the way he had his head turned lined the tines up perfect and made him look like a 3? Oh well! We took him to camp and the other boys rolled into camp with a monster in the bed of the truck. The pics I have do not do him justice at all, we figured him to be 170 atleast maybe bigger. He was a massive 5x5 if you count eye guards with another cheater eye gaurd off the front of the bases. The next day we got on a small 3 point for my brother in law and after shooting it and it running to the bottom of the canyon we eventually got it packed out and back to camp in time for dinner. We hunted a few more days with nothing being taken, we saw a ton of deer just nothing worth shooting, we passed on over 45 bucks before the end of the trip. Did see some elk with bulls just could not get in on them before they moved. We also got stuck in a hell of a windstorm, trees coming down all around our camp! All of us chickened out and headed for a motel for the night, on the way out my truck was hit by a tree and got a pretty good ding in it. Also caught a tree out of the corner of my eye falling right in front of the truck, had to lock them up and came to rest with the front tires on that one. Pretty crazy night! I think we cut over 100 trees that night to get out of there. Anyway we came back in and camp had survived the storm so we continued hunting. Halloween day came and we went to one of our favorite glassing points and instantly spotted a decent 4x5 rutting a couple does, I dropped down the hill to go after them and about halfway down I glassed him going over the hill into the brush. I almost turned around but decided to keep dropping down, as soon as I hit the meadow at the bottom a deer was walking towards me on the other side of the meadow, I glassed and seen it was a little 4x5 so I let him come closer and took him at about 120 yards or so. I radioed my brother in law at the top of the hill to come down with packs and went to a little knob to glass and wait for him to get down to help with pics and processing. I sat for about 2 minutes and spotted a herd with what I thought was atleast a 30 incher with them, I kept glassing and found a second herd with another big buck and then a 3rd not more then 300 yards away. I told my bro and he was on his way faster then before. While I waited I saw 9 different bucks the 3 big herd bucks and a bunch of bucks cruising the ridges between the herds, the big buck close to me would let his does get about 20 yards from him then move, turn and stand watching down hill at the other bucks. Pretty cool to watch! Anyhow my brother got to me and we decided to go after the buck close to us, this usually happens a lot for some reason! I shoot something and end up doing all my work while he goes after another animal I spot him lol. So all my pics are selfies. Anyway he started working his way towards the buck and I posted up on a hill and tried to guide him in close for a shot. He ended up about 250 yards away and had a shot strait up hill so it was a tough angle, when he shot I seen he hit a branch on a downed tree he did not see in front of the buck luckily he ran about 30 yards and stopped with his does again. His second shot was around 300 I would guess and he hit him hard in the front shoulder and ended up with a nice chocolate horned 5x5 for the wall! I give him crap every year because I have spotted every animal he has shot and I'm waiting for paybacks lol. So after we got our 2 bucks on the ground the guys at camp called and said they knocked down a 6x5, Halloween was a good day to be in the woods this year for sure! We hunted hard for elk the next few days and all we could turn up were big bucks and a couple cows. Anyway it was a good season for us, can't wait for next year! Will add a few pics here shortly.

[180-GRAIN]

Ground shrinkage buck and the big buck taken. Guy behind it is about 6' 2  320 for size comparison.

[180-GRAIN]

4x5 I took

[180-GRAIN]

Bro's 5x5

[elkoholic1]

 

[180-GRAIN]

End of camp photo minus the big buck.

[HUNTaHOLIC5]

Great write up and awesome pics! 

[Magnum_Willys]

That was a great camp !  Damg gotta wait another year for the next one......

[longstevo]

I read the title, and thought to myself, "Is there any trip to Idaho that's not great?"

But when I saw the photo of all the bucks lined up, well, I wasn't expecting that.    And you said that the photo is minus the Big Guy?

Looks like I need to stop hunting my Idaho spot and start following you.

[Magnum_Willys]

Buck #2 on the log....

[180-GRAIN]

That was a cool buck!

[C-Money]

Very nice!!

[boneaddict]

I'm glad you decided to share your write up and pics.   Congrats on a great trip

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

Lots of nice bucks and memories!

[h2ofowlr]

Congrats on the great hunt.