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Author Topic: Idaho Backcountry Success  (Read 12608 times)

Offline CavemantheHunter

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Idaho Backcountry Success
« on: October 12, 2018, 09:47:41 AM »
My Dad and I have strictly been WA hunters for the last 18 years, focusing on rifle deer and archery elk, with quite a bit of success. The last few years, our "secret spots" have not been so secret and we have had frustration and difficulty getting away from other hunters. During last archery elk season, we sat on a log discussing how great it would be to hunt in an area where we could go as deep and far as we wanted without worrying about hitting a road or having other hunters bump us. After season was over, I began researching areas that would allow us to push ourselves to that limit. I talked my dad into purchasing OTC deer and elk tags for Idaho, which would give us the opportunity to hunt both game simultaneous and also have a chance to pursue rutting elk with a rifle. Over the next five months, I spent substantial time speaking to biologists, reading everything I could about the unit on forums, including harvest statistics, and creating numerous pins on Google Earth.

Most would be discouraged reading forum opinions on the unit, with many people stating there was very few game, too many wolves, and the rugged unit would chew you up and spit you out. But my gut was telling me that if we pushed ourselves to the limit, we could find success in the steep backcountry. I thought there would be two types of hunters in the area: 1) Those that didn't stray more than a 1/4 mile from the road. 2) Those that packed in on horses 7+ miles and hunted within a 3 mile radius of that. I figured that if we could push ourselves to the brink of insanity and place a bivy camp 3-5 miles deep and hunt from there, that we may put ourselves in prime un-hunted area. This became the plan. We were going to spend the entire September season hunting, with my trailer set up as base camp and our tent set up as a bivy camp. This would give us options. Google Earth and an early Labor Day scouting trip helped us to pick our bivy camp location. During Labor Day weekend, we packed 6 gallons of water and other necessities into the wilderness and buried them under a tree. We would come back opening day of season with the tent, sleeping bags, Jet Boil, and food, and start the adventure from there.

The other part of our Labor Day plan was to leave our "trusty" hunting rig parked in the nearest town, that way we could drive my truck and trailer over together for the start of season. During our scouting trip, which we trailered the rig over, we blew a brake cylinder on the top of a steep grade. We were able to granny-gear it down the mountain, but were forced to trailer it back home and put all-terrain tires on our secondary hunting rig, which we would then drive over at the start of season.

We spent the next two weeks anxiously awaiting and discussing our plans for the upcoming trip.
« Last Edit: January 16, 2019, 01:42:25 PM by bearpaw »

Offline CavemantheHunter

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Re: Idaho Backcountry Success
« Reply #1 on: October 12, 2018, 10:09:25 AM »
Day Before Season:
A little bit of anxiety had built up for me, as leaving my wife and two young kids for 15 days had not been something I had done. This was compounded by the fact that there was no cell service where we were going. To combat that, my Dad and I had split the purchase on a used sat phone and a pre-paid phone card that was good for the month, but two weeks was still going to be a long time. My Dad didn't work on Friday and I was able to get off substantially early, so I drove my truck and trailer and he followed me in hunting rig number two for the ten hour journey. We arrived before dark and were able to set up the trailer, pull out the chest freezer, and get our gear ready for our early morning pack-in.

Opening Day:
We were up by 3 am, with heavy bags loaded down with tent, sleeping bags, extra clothes, food, Jet Boil, and all of our standard hunting gear. We had a three mile hike from our vehicle to get to where our water was stashed, and another 2 miles to go from there to where we wanted to start hunting. We both had a little bit of worry that someone would be parked and packing in to where we wanted to go, so we spent the drive up to the spot stressing that we weren't going to be alone. To our surprise, we were the only vehicle in there. We unloaded our gear and began our heavy pack in several hours before dawn.

We reached our bivy camp location, dropped our gear, and began the hike to the ridge that we would take to our starting glassing point. We hiked in slowly and spent time glassing, as it was slowly turning daylight on our way in. We arrived at our spot about 30 minutes after daylight, got out our spotting scopes, and sat down, not knowing what to expect. The spot we were at was extremely open and you could see for literally two miles, so the amount of places to glass was a little overwhelming. After about 20 minutes of glassing, we spotted a lone elk on the other side of the ravine below us, feeding towards us. It was about 1500 yards away, but feeding towards the ravine that separated us from it. It was a bull, a 5 point unicorn. This was a great start to the hunt and I wasn't going to be picky as my freezer was almost empty. We watched him feed into the ravine, where we were sure he would bed. We were going to hike up farther to what looked like a nice timber bowl and then work our way back to our spot in the evening to see if he would pop out closer.

We spent the next several hours hiking up a down a ravine that included several 500 foot elevation increases and drops to get into that bowl. Being the first day, 80 degrees, and having an early morning heavy pack in, we were both pretty wiped, so we took a nap in the timber bowl. We woke up to 30+ mile an hour winds and an overcast sky. This could get interesting. We hiked back up to our spot and got there about an hour before dark. By this time, the wind was blowing close to 50 mph on the ridge and it began raining. The thought of sleeping in a tent in half-burned timber with a lot of deadfall, in the pouring rain and gusting wind was not appealing to me. I told my dad if the rain picked up, I would be game for hiking back to the trailer tonight and coming back the next day. He did not want to hike all of the way out, so stay we did. Through gusts of wind, I was able to hear a bull letting off bugles in the ravine. I decided to let off a few responses, though I wasn't sure they would make it to him. I was hoping this would at least keep him close come morning. The weather died down that night and we anxiously awaited our next morning's hunt
« Last Edit: January 16, 2019, 01:45:53 PM by bearpaw »

Offline Mark Brenckle

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Re: Idaho Backcountry Success
« Reply #2 on: October 12, 2018, 10:17:14 AM »
Awesome pics and story so far!

Offline Elknut1

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Re: Idaho Backcountry Success
« Reply #3 on: October 12, 2018, 10:21:06 AM »
Good stuff, looking forward to more!

  ElkNut/Paul

Offline Elkcollector82

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Re: Idaho Backcountry Success
« Reply #4 on: October 12, 2018, 10:40:36 AM »
Awesome Wright up. Can’t wait to read more.  :tup:

Offline mfswallace

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Re: Idaho Backcountry Success
« Reply #5 on: October 12, 2018, 10:49:58 AM »
👂👂👂👂

Offline shallowforks

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Re: Idaho Backcountry Success
« Reply #6 on: October 12, 2018, 11:18:42 AM »
Great pics, pretty country, cant wait to hesr the rest!

Offline CavemantheHunter

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Re: Idaho Backcountry Success
« Reply #7 on: October 12, 2018, 11:41:48 AM »
Day 2:
We were up early, made coffee, and back to our glassing spot by daybreak. A few minutes after daybreak, the unnerving sound of wolves howling came from the bowl we had napped in days before. It sounded like there was at least a half dozen of the worthless creatures. We looked at each other and said that the wolves were most likely inhabiting this bowl, that's why we had only seen one elk and no deer the entire day prior. We decided that maybe the elk were still in the ravine since there was a ridge between the wolves and them and the howling noises may be blocked by the ridge. I pulled out my bugle and let a locate bugle rip down into the ravine where we had heard bugles the windy eve before. No sooner did my bugle echo off the other side of the ravine, when a screaming response came from about 1200 yards down. We looked at each other in excitement, no way was that the 5 point unicorn, that was a big, mature, pissed off bull. I sent a challenge roaring back down into the ravine and he responded immediately and had already closed some of the distance. We went back and forth probably 2-3 more times when my dad spotted two elk pop out of the woods and onto the ridge below us at about 750 yards. It was a young 6x6 and a spike. They began sparring down below as this other bull continued to scream from the ravine. Was this really happening? This was a scene straight off of a hunting video, not the public land hunting that we were used to.

We decided that if they got to the next nob at 520 yards, we would take a shot at the 6x6, as this was well within the range on our 338 and 300 Win Mags. As I'm still screaming back and forth with the ghost in the timber, these bulls start working their way up the ridge towards the desired nob. They decide to take a turn towards us and drop into the next ravine (un-wooded) and hit the ridge directly below us. We would then lose sight of them due to the steepness of the terrain. If they continued up this pattern, we wouldn't see them again until they were at 250 yards. As I'm letting out another challenge to the angry bugger that sounds like he is now around 800 yards away but still in the ravine, my dad spots the unicorn 5 point pop out of the timber and on the ridge at about 650 yards. I let out another scream, and the big guy is closing it. This time he responds and a fifth bull responds to him from farther up in the timber. Five bulls, I cannot believe it! I go back to trying to glass for the spike and 6 point to make sure they haven't popped back into range. While I'm glassing for them, the screamer decides to finally make an appearance on the ridge. Wow, there he is. He's a big six and he is pissed! He stands on the ridgeline trying to locate us. He is standing around 650 yards just screaming at us. He is waiting for a response, but he is looking right in our direction. We are sitting on a rock bluff down from the ridgeline, so it would be tough for him to pick us out, but I am still paranoid that if I continue to bugle, either he or the other two bulls coming at us will blow us out. The wind is also blowing down, so I'm getting nervous as to the whereabouts of those two bulls. I stopped responding for a few minutes and he must have thought that he scared us away because he made his way back down into the timbered ravine.

Did I just blow it? I feel I've made a wrong move and may have ruined the chance of our trip. I decide to go for broke and try to pull him back up into the open. So I let off a few cow chirps and follow them up with a lip bawl bugle. The bull came flying back up onto the ridge seeing red. He began tearing up a 1-foot diameter bull pine while spitting and screaming. I screamed back at him and this time, he was coming on a rope up the ridge. When he got to 520 and broadside, I decided it was time to take the shot, as I was still unsure of the whereabouts of the other six and the spike. My ballistics go out well farther than 500 and I've shot bucks up to 450, albeit in far less steep terrain, so this shot is within my comfortable range. I pop one off. My dad says I was dead center but almost two feet high. The bull turns around and heads down the next ravine towards us. I'm frustrated and not sure why I would be that high when my turret is dialed right where it should be and I have a solid rest on my bipod. I re-dial my turrets to 450 since that's his new location and shoot again. Dead center but two feet high again. This turns him around again and now he is headed back towards the timber. I bugle to stop him. He stops at 480 behind two trees, leaving just a small window to his vitals. I dial my turret down to 1/2 of what my ballistics say I should be, and squeeze one off through the window. He is blown over and tumbling down the ridge. We high five, we did it! Not sure why my gun is shooting so high. Only thing I can think of is my True Ballistics mode is not working properly. The angel on the ridge is 42 degrees, so if it's calculating the actual distance and not just the horizontal, then I would be shooting high. Anyone had any issues on super steep country with the True Ballistics function on a Leopold RX-1000?

As he tumbles, the other three visible bulls re-appear and are walking single file into the timber. The other 6x6 stops at 450 broadside on the ridge. My dad decides to not take the shot. It is going to be a struggle for the two of us to get the one bull out of here in this weather without spoiling the meat. Two bulls would be impossible. It was a tough decision, but it was the right decision. Plus it was only Day 2, so we had a lot of hunting left to do. We leave our rifles, binos, spotting scopes, and other heavy gear hidden in the rocks and make our way down to the bull. When we get to his location, we realize that it was a 900 vertical drop from the ridge in only 1000 feet horizontal. Wow, this was going to be a tough pack out. The bull is big. His body is absolutely huge and he appears to be an old bull, perhaps even a little regressed. I could not be happier. As he tumbled down the ridge, his brow tine lodged in a log and snapped off. Thankfully this slowed him down enough to lodge him underneath a log, otherwise he would be 400 yards farther down and we may die getting this thing packed out.

We systematically bone him out, tag him, and start packing up the ridge. As we get each quarter boned out, I haul it up the steep ridge and put the quarters in the shade, then hike back down, as he keeps butchering. The bees are horrible and it is getting hot. Two trips up the ridge and I'm already worn out and we have the biggest, heaviest haul still left. Okay, we get it all boned out and start the last trip up the ridge. The ridge is steep and my pack is heavy. I have the head and a hind in my pack. I can't sit down since it is too steep and the rack is digging in. The hill is so steep that we are actually hiking on all fours. We finally make it to the gear and now need to get back to camp. We have about 2 miles remaining and 600 of elevation increase that consists of 4 peaks that we have to climb and drop. We are going to attempt to do it in one trip because we are gassed. I am out of water, cramped, and feel like I got hit by a bus, but I'm going to attempt to haul out a hind quarter, the back meat, and the head on my back, along with my gear, and then hand-pack a front quarter in a game bag. I make it about 1/2 a mile and am getting worked, my dad is quite a bit ahead of me, when the game bag carrying the front quarter breaks. The front quarter is going to have to sit on the ridge for the night, but at least the temp gets into the 20s. My bag is too heavy for me to get it off and on my back to re-situate the meat and my dad is too far ahead, so I'm going to have to take the chance. The next hour and a half are grueling and some of the toughest I have had. We finally make it back, get our packs off, meat hung, and I have the first water I've had in hours. It's ice cold and puts my body into a temporary state of shivering shock with the temperature differential. My dad wants to go back tonight to get the meat. I physically can't do it and tell him we can grab it before daylight. We go to bed, we are sore, but we are happy.

Day 3:
We are up well before daylight. We hike in light and grab the meat bag, putting it in a new game bag. Thank goodness the predators have left it untouched. We hike back to our camp and then hike all of the meat the 1.5 miles to the trailhead, putting it in a cool spot. We hike back to camp, grab our hunting gear, then hike 3 miles to the car. From there, we hike back to the meat, and hike it all back to the car. Takes us about 5 hours, but everything is still cool from the night and being in the shade. There are lots of high fives as we fire up the vehicle and drive back to base camp. We get the meat in the freezer immediately and then take a well-deserved shower. We head out for an evening road hunt and spot a few does.
« Last Edit: January 16, 2019, 01:43:47 PM by bearpaw »

Offline CavemantheHunter

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Re: Idaho Backcountry Success
« Reply #8 on: October 12, 2018, 11:59:17 AM »
I can't get some of the pics to rotate on the post, though they're saved right side up. If someone knows a trick, feel free to rotate them.

Day 4:
We decide to try a new spot and hike in for a day hike. The country is steep and it is thick. We get one bull to respond but he is way below us and we can't get to him. We hike out that afternoon. We decide to go back to our tent in the evening and hunt the ravine again in Day 5. Maybe the bulls are still there. We pack more water and food and are back at the trailhead a few hours before dark. We hike back in and get to our spot right at dark. We eat and go to sleep.

Day 5:
We are back at the spot of the kill right at daylight. I let out a bugle. A few coyotes start responding in the ravine. After about four yips, the entire canyon erupts with wolves howling. The coyotes shut up. Great, now the wolves are in this ravine, no way the elk are still here. We try howling the wolves out into the open, since we also have wolf, cougar, and bear tags but they won't take the bait. My dad spots a bear working its way towards us about a mile away on the other hillside. Over the next hour and a half, the bear works his way into our ravine and pops out onto the ridge. Not our finest moment, but we both have a shot at the bear and neither can seal the deal. We are pretty disgusted with our shooting, but also with the wolves. We hunt the other side of the ridge during the day and a different ridge that night. No responses to our bugles and still have yet to see a deer in this area. We decide to pack up our camp in the morning since the wolves have ruined this area.

Day 6:
Day 6 finds us hiking into another new spot on a gated road in a burned out unit. As soon as daylight hits, I see a cow running on the hillside above us at about 400 yards. She clearly spotted us. We spend the rest of the day hiking and are unsuccessful in kicking any more animals up. We have made several friends from different states around our base camp and no one has had a ton of success. Sounds like there have been very few deer seen by all and we only have heard of a spike elk and one more six point being taken.

Day 7:
We decide to hike into a thick timbered drainage that goes for miles. Pounding brush is not my favorite type of hunting, but we think the elk have holed themselves into the thick nasty. We are waiting to hike in until right at daylight as we don't want to be making a ton of noise. We speak to a gentleman on the road before hiking in and he says he is going to try to hike up from the road a ways while we hike down. We start our decent at daybreak. Once down close to a mile, I let out a bugle. I get a response a few minutes later from farther down the ravine quite a ways and then a response in between me and the bull. After that we hear three shots. We hike out. We talk to the same gentleman later that evening. He had went down and we had bugled, then that bull bugled, so he bugled. The bull walked right into him and he shot a nice six point.

Days 8-10:
We try all sorts of different areas and some of the same. Have not seen another elk, but have seen a few small bucks and some does. No one around is having much success. If I could do it all over again, I would have had a secondary bivy camp spot located so we could have option 2 if option 1 did not pan out. We are now hiking in as far as we can each day, but hiking back out each night. Morale is starting to get low as we are in crunch time.
« Last Edit: January 16, 2019, 01:38:51 PM by bearpaw »

Offline CavemantheHunter

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Re: Idaho Backcountry Success
« Reply #9 on: October 12, 2018, 12:17:04 PM »
Day 11:
We hike back into the thick timbered ravine that the guy shot the six point in. But this time we worked our way much further down. Lots of sign but no sightings yet. We sit down for a 10 am lunch overlooking a nice bench almost 2 miles into the timbered ravine. I let out a locate bugle before I start eating. About 15 minutes later I get a response locate bugle to our right in the ravine followed by another response the other direction up the ravine. I respond to it and the bull to our right is chuckling and grunting like it's going out of style. It's the worst bugle I've ever heard in my life, sounds like a person whistling through a cheap tube. We are a little hesitant that it's a person who snuck down, but I'm fairly certain no one could have beat us down this far. Every time I bugle, I get chuckles and grunts in response. We decide to make a move too late. This was in fact a bull and he had been pacing the ravine, not wanting to leave his cows. By the time we got close to where he was, he was chuckling his way up and over into the thicker ravine. We never did see him, but we spoke to some of the friends we made who had shot another bull in this area and they had commented on seeing that bull that chuckled with a real whistle-y sound. They said he was a good five or six. We aren't happy with ourselves, as we misplaced this one, but it was a fun day hunting.

Day 12:
Day 12 we went back to the same spot as Day 11 and tried some calling and hiking, but the bull had moved out of dodge. We hiked out in the afternoon and did an evening road hunt, which kicked up a couple of does is all.

Day 13:
We are in the crunch time and decide to hike into another new area, down a timbered ridge that had a series of benches. Pretty quick into our hike, we heard the familiar wound of a mulie bouncing away, and ten minutes later heard another familiar sound of getting snorted at by a whitetail. The timber was thick but had openings, and we hadn't seen either deer. As we are making our way down the bench, I see my dad pull his rifle up, and scope out in front of us. I pull out my binoculars right as he fires and I see legs kicking. He turns and give me a high five and I ask "What did you shoot?" We had walked within 40 yards of a nice wide 5x5 whitetail buck and he was able to make one heck of a shot. Wow, the tides have changed. We gut him, sew up his belly, tag him, and start the .5 mile drag uphill. It won't be too tough. What made it tougher was dragging the deer over a log that had a yellow jacket nest, causing my dad to get stung 5 times and his face swelling up like a softball. What made it tougher yet was getting snapped in the eye by a limb and breaking a blood vessel in the eye. Finally, we are to the car and get the deer back to camp. We skin it with the old trusty golf ball method and start to quartering it out. The bees were absolutely horrible and we were swarmed, and I was stung, while quartering it. We get it in the freezer. Good start to the day! We are done in time for an evening drive. I tell my dad that I can hunt North Idaho during November with the wife's family, but I still wasn't going to be picky on a deer as we needed more meat. No sooner did I say that then my dad says, "Buck, three point!" I hop out of the car as I see this buck head out of the clearcut and hit the tree line. He was boogying through the timber with just his flag showing. I let out a grunt, the movement stops. I pull up the rifle and put it where the movement stopped. I see body between the trees so I let one rip. Down he goes like a wrecking ball hit him. Wow, what a night. We are laughing and high-fiving. This was purely a meat buck, but he would taste fantastic and my family solely survives off the deer, elk, and fish I get each year. We get down to this small 4x3 and commence the easy 150 yard drag to the car. We gut and skin him out that night and get him in the freezer and cooler.

Day 14:
We had out for a short morning jaunt. We see three spikes and three does and come across more wolf tracks. We have now heard howling on three different days and come across tracks on three others. Wolves are a real problem. No dice on the elk this day, so we get back to camp, pack up everything, and head home. It was a trip full of ups and downs, peaks and valleys, but we were able to fill 3/4 tags and could have filled another elk and bear tag, had we the ability to pack out multiple elk in one day or been better shots. The success rates in this unit are not high and we did not run across many people that had a ton of success, but we hunted are butts off while learning a new area and could not be happier with what we accomplished. I would love to go back and hope we can continue to swing it, while making it our yearly adventure.

I know this is a long write-up, but I appreciate sharing our adventure.

Offline shallowforks

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Re: Idaho Backcountry Success
« Reply #10 on: October 12, 2018, 12:31:19 PM »
Good for you guys!!!

Offline WAcoyotehunter

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Re: Idaho Backcountry Success
« Reply #11 on: October 12, 2018, 02:16:02 PM »
Awesome hunt story!  Congratulations on a job well done!

Offline bowhunterforever

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Re: Idaho Backcountry Success
« Reply #12 on: October 12, 2018, 02:17:10 PM »
Nicely done guys :tup: Congrats
You sure you know how to skin griz pilgram

Offline Milkman

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Re: Idaho Backcountry Success
« Reply #13 on: October 12, 2018, 02:47:31 PM »
Great read!

Offline Elknut1

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Re: Idaho Backcountry Success
« Reply #14 on: October 12, 2018, 03:42:24 PM »
Alright, you tagged a couple critters there, nice job fellas!

  ElkNut/Paul

 


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