2022 idaho controlled hunt

[BULLBLASTER]

I havent posted much in a while, but the huntwa re booted thread inspired me to try again. Please excuse my fatfingers and typos/grammar. Im on my phone.

In 2022 i drew a controlled hunt in idaho with a November season. This was the type of tag that i could realistically shoot my biggest mule deer, though that isn't necessarily a very high bar.  Lots of anticipation and info gathering commenced immediately after.

 Talked with some prior tag holders and some folks i know that have elk hunted the area. Turned my Colorado tag back in for a refund, and managed to skip my September weekend of elk hunting for a weekend of scouting in September.

 Saw some cool country and got the lay of the land on that sept trip and added to my excitement. Ran into a couple of guys on horseback that were adamant that i specifically was the reason that more and more gates are locked and areas are closed because of me riding my atv and dirt bike where i shouldn't, though this conversation happened as i was putting my backpack on at my truck where i most definitely did not have a motorbike or atv. I was just the evil nonresident hunter ruining their day i guess. didn't see much for animal activity in September but it was a good trip.

[BULLBLASTER]

A couple more scouting pictures. Note, if you can tell where this is based on my pictures please dont blast it to the forum.

[High Climber]

That’s good looking deer country 

[Skyvalhunter]

A couple more scouting pictures. Note, if you can tell where this is based on my pictures please dont blast it to the forum.

It's in Idaho

[BULLBLASTER]

It was November before i knew it. After October being full of other hunts and getting my newly rebarreled rifle shooting, i was off in early Nov.

The drive down took much longer than i had hoped because of the weather and accidents but we made it, and got camp set up in an absolute downpour of rain. The rain at camp excited me because i knew it was dumping snow in the high country.

The morning of the first day was spent gathering firewood and seeing where we could get with the snow. That afternoon we tried to get to a high area to hunt and glass down the mtn, but could not get exactly where we wanted to go. Glassed in a different area that evening, not seeing much but some does and elk. Right at dark we glassed a bench far below us with a herd of deer, one of them absolutely dwarfing the others. Couldnt get a picture but i wanted to be there in the morning.

[Karl Blanchard]

I know what happens next 

[RB]

Wow cool country

[BULLBLASTER]

The second hunting day was fairly uneventful save for a long hike with lots of elevation to get to where we could glass the flat where the herd of deer was the evening before.

This country was very steep and definitely had limited areas that were holding deer. Unfortunately those areas were a bench/shelf of elevation that was either a 1500 foot climb up from a road or a 3000 foot drop from another road.

  We elected going up from the bottom and a couple canyons over to get around and above where we saw the deer. The hike was long and steep, and we didn't  start early enough. We managed to spot a couple of small bucks in another ridge, but there wasn't anything in the vicinity of where the herd was the evening prior. 

Also i am terrible about taking many pictures of my hunts.

[BULLBLASTER]

Here is a picture of the canyon we hiked up to get to the shelf elevation and of some bear tracked we saw in the snow.

[jjhunter]

Bullblaster is typing with his trigger fingers….unreal.  It’s almost my bedtime…

[BULLBLASTER]

Getting back down the mtn to the road was nasty! The draw was completely choked up with all the brush and devils club. It was clear the trail hadn't been kept up in years.

Once we made it down i dropped all my gear and layers and took off on the 1.5 mile jog to pick the truck up and come back for big G (my buddy that was helping me). For the amount of snow and cold up high it was hot as balls down at the bottom.

I was pretty gassed after that so we were going to head back to camp for a rest and then do some driving and glassing that afternoon. Half way back to camp i spotted antlers 100 yards or so above the road. After a couple turn arounds to get in view we watched him bedded for a bit. He was a nice buck but with his missing fork, just wasn't what i was after yet. It was nice to start seeing bucks tho!

Glassing that afternoon we saw a few other bucks as well.

[BULLBLASTER]

Another buck that afternoon, we also saw another that was very near the size of this one… again just not what i was after.

[BULLBLASTER]

Bullblaster is typing with his trigger fingers….unreal.  It’s almost my bedtime…

these fingers are very fast on the trigger, but struggle immensely with typing. 

[jjhunter]

 

Will we a pic of the buck or will I get CO deer results, first? 

[BULLBLASTER]

Won’t finish tonight, but probably will tomorrow evening. 

Third hunting day we wanted to hunt one of the long ridges in the picture in my first post, but someone beat us there. Off to plan B, another ridge line opposite a large valley. Another long like and no deer to be seen, lots of tracks though. The snow was pretty deep there.

That afternoon we went back to the area we saw the bucks in the evening before. It was so dang windy that i could barely work the spotting scope, but spotted a buck with potential a long ways off but with the shaking just couldn't see what he was.

We hiked around and above him and were able to confirm that he wasn't  quite there either. It was a good exercise though. Spotted another few small bucks that evening as well.

When we got back to camp we had been noticing a drastic increase in deer at the campground each night the first night there were 2-3, the second night 7-10, the third night 15-20, and the night of the 3rd hunting day there had to be 30+ deer in the campground. It was crazy, and we took it as a good sign that deer were moving down.