So, I'll start with saying I was involved in and followed the conversation in a couple of threads about the frustrations of being a new hunter, and the discussion of needing to put in significant time to have a good chance of success. What follows then is a story of working harder (and smarter) than in past years, but also I recognize a good amount of luck is involved.
My dad's friend let us hunt his property in Idaho this season; about 30 acres of sloped, pretty thick timber with a few openings, and some logged-out areas. The friend hunts ducks, geese, grouse on the property, but doesn't hunt big game. Dad and I both bought regular deer tags, which allows WT deer to be hunted from Oct. 10 - Dec 1.
I first visited in late Sept, hung some trail cameras, and we scheduled a 4 day trip just after the Idaho rifle opening day (around mid-October). We saw little on the cameras, and less in the field. Repositioned the cameras, and were supposed to come back the next weekend. That turned into waiting till after Halloween. The new camera positions had some good nocturnal buck movement. We hunted a weekend and didn't see anything, then went back in mid-November to grab out our blinds and cameras, thinking we wouldn't have another chance to hunt this spot.
Last week, we got a message from the owner that he had booked us a day at this spot for this week. We were going to have a chance to hunt at least some time during the rut! It was a short trip, just Wednesday evening, and then all day Thursday. In preparation for the trip, I really took to heart someone's advice to "hit the search" on the forums, and came across 3nails rattling series. It was awesome, and gave dad and I a whole new game plan for this hunt.
Wednesday evening we tried two spots without rattling anything up; Thursday morning things were completely different. We hiked into a spot in the dark, and as soon as day broke, there were does moving everywhere. We just watched them leave their beds, and then in prep for a rattling set, I hit the grunt tube a couple of times. When I reached down to set it down, a deer had snuck up behind me and bolted from about 5 yards away to a clearing about 75 yards away. I looked, but couldn't put antlers on it, and didn't have a great shot anyway, so waited till it left. A couple more does came in around our spot, but at about 7:30 we decided to move up the hill.
Got set up, hit the grunt, then hit the rattle bag hard. Seemed like a few minutes went by, and then I caught some movement to my right. That direction had a patch of trees about 30 yards away, so I was looking through trunks and branches at a doe with a buck a few yards behind, nose to the ground. I had been facing a clear slope that we had seen lots of deer moving over, so I was hoping for a shot there, but nope. I was able to swing to my right without being seen. Dad was in a pop-up blind he brought ("I hauled it up here, I might as well use it"), so he had no idea I was getting ready to shoot. I spotted antlers through one opening, then got my rifle set up on the next opening through the trees where they would move through. Luckily he stopped just perfect so I could see his front shoulder, and I pulled the trigger. I saw muzzle-flash, then nothing.
I didn't see the doe run. I didn't see the buck run. It was like they vanished. I didn't know if I had hit a tree trunk, a branch, any part of the buck...dad came out and said "What did you shoot at?". We walked up to where I thought the buck had been. Nothing. I went back to where I shot, and made dad walk around till he was between the same trees. We marked that spot, then circled around a few times. Nothing. I went up a hill the left, dad went up a hill to the right. Nothing. No blood, no real visible tracks. I was circling down my hill, pretty resigned to the fact that I had hit a tree, and dad yells "You got him!"
I had hit a little high of the shoulder, but destroyed the spine. There was no trail cause the buck hadn't moved. He was further up the hill than I thought, and fell in a little depression where you couldn't see him from the downhill side. We took a few pics, gutted him, got him down the hill. The best part was the property owner came in to see how were were doing, and was really happy that we were able to harvest a good buck. He claims it's the best buck taken off that property. That's simply luck on my part. Had any smaller buck walked in that spot at that time, I would have given him the same treatment
.
Anyway, it's the first major success after 4 years, and I know there's still lots I have to learn. There's thanks to be passed around to members of this forum, the land owner, my dad, etc. I wish we could have also got a deer for my dad, but we didn't see anything after this guy.
