After tearing the medial meniscus on my right knee just weeks before this years hunting season, I was sure my season was over. All my big game hunting is done in the backcountry and in areas where the land runs more vertical than horizontal. With a surgery date scheduled for the first week of September I knew heading to my regular mule deer and elk spots were out of the question. After talking with my doctor, I decided that this might be the year to try for a whitetail in northern Idaho. The week before the surgery, my wife and I made a trip up north to visit a friend and drive a few logging roads to see if I could locate some possible locations for me to hunt. While visiting with my friend I mentioned my quest to find a place to whitetail hunt and he said, "I've got a friend at church that owns some land and is having trouble keeping the deer and elk out of his fields. Maybe he will let you hunt." The next day was Sunday and after the church service, my friend introduced me to his buddy Andrew. Andrew was more than happy to help me out and said that anytime during the season would be fine, but that if I was unable to find a buck to my liking, he wanted me to at least take a doe so he would have one less mouth to feed over the winter. I told him that he had himself a deal. After some more planning I decided to hunt the opening weekend. My surgery came and went and for the next month and a half I stuck to my PT's workout schedule and I started to slowly get some strength back in my knee. By the time October 11th rolled around, I was walking with minimal pain and the doc said that as long as I didn't overdo it I should be okay.
I met Andrew at his house at 6:45 am and he decided that I should hunt a section of his land that was recently logged after a fire. He said that he would take me down the hill on his ATV and show me where his property lines were on my onX app. After driving less than a quarter mile from his house we stopped on a small hill and looked down the ridge. "This is a good area to start your hunt. I usually see a few deer down in this draw. Oh, look there are two bucks, and the one on the right is a respectable buck." Andrew smiled and said, "You could end this hunt right now if you want to." I didn't know what to do. This private land hunting was foreign to me and I didn't know if the deer was big for the area, but since Andrew really didn't seem too excited about the buck I hesitated and the bucks made up my mind for me, as they took off on a run up the ridge. Andrew then showed me several logging roads, which I could walk, and places where he has often seen bucks in the past. He then sent me on my way. During that first day I passed on three more whitetail bucks, and saw three mule deer bucks and a 5x5 elk. When I got back to Andrew's home that evening, I meet two other gentlemen, who were from California, that Andrew had given permission to hunt on his place. They had harvested two whitetail deer and an elk during that week and were getting ready to head home.
The next morning, Andrew and his oldest daughter decided that they were going to go and try to fill her elk tag. I suggested that they come with me and I would show them where I had seen the bull elk the day before. While we were walking the logging road to the area, Andrew got a call on his phone from his neighbor. Someone had shot a spike elk in one of Andrews fields from the county road and the neighbor wanted to know if he had given permission for this guy to hunt. Andrew responded with a firm, "No" and you could tell Andrew was not very happy with the trespasser. The neighbor had already called the game warden because of the fact the guy was shooting from a road. When Andrew got off his phone, I asked him if he knew who the shooter was and he responded that he did. It was the father of a rather poor family that lived in the area. Andrew then called up the game warden and told him that he was not interested in charging the guy with trespassing and that he could keep the elk as far as he was concerned. But asked the warden to tell the fellow that next time he needed to ask permission or things would go differently. When he got off the phone, Andrew said, "That family has had a rough couple of years. I don't mind letting others hunt my land, but I would like to let my kids fill their elk tags first." In the three days that I was with Andrew, another group of hunters also decided to try and hunt on Andrew's property without asking first. I was amazed at Andrew's patience when dealing with these trespassers. I was even more amazed at the fact he was letting a total stranger from Boise and two non-residence hunt simply because we had asked. I wrote this paragraph because I have noticed how many poor examples of land owners I have read about on Hunt Talk this year. Please hear me when I say that I am in no way supporting a land owner that is trying to keep people from hunting public land or trying to intimidate a hunter because he is hunting near his property. I am simply saying that there still are some quality individuals that own land who are willing to let others hunt on their property even in this day and age when many hunters are not respecting their property. We need to help these landowners by continuing to call other hunters out when they make poor decisions. Otherwise we will loose out on the opportunity to hunt these properties as well.
Now back to the hunt. That second day proved uneventful as the only bucks I saw that day were a spike and a little 2x2.
Things were looking pretty bleak as Sunday rolled around. I was planning to hunt until 10 a.m. and then join my friend and Andrew's family at their church before heading home. I had four hours to fill my tag. I told Andrew that I was going to shoot the first mature doe or buck I saw as my time was running out. Andrew said he would like to join me and we set out for our hunt. At nine o'clock we walked up on two does and three fawns. Unfortunately, they saw us the same time we saw them and they all faced us giving us nothing but straight on shots. If I was going to shoot a doe, the last thing I wanted to do was ruin a back leg. I waited for a broadside shot but was never offered one. Time was running out. Andrew said he had one more spot he wanted to check. It was a steep canyon that had been burned two years prior. This opened up the area and provided some great feed. When we looked across the creek below us, we saw two nice bucks. I quickly sat down and decided the buck on the right was the largest of the two. At 404 yards, this shot was at my personal maximum distance, but with no wind the shot hit true. The buck ran about thirty yards and slid down the his to a logging road. Andrew said, "Nice shot, and we can take the 4 wheeler right up that road." With that I had my first whitetail and I got to meet a new friend.
I met Andrew at his house at 6:45 am and he decided that I should hunt a section of his land that was recently logged after a fire. He said that he would take me down the hill on his ATV and show me where his property lines were on my onX app. After driving less than a quarter mile from his house we stopped on a small hill and looked down the ridge. "This is a good area to start your hunt. I usually see a few deer down in this draw. Oh, look there are two bucks, and the one on the right is a respectable buck." Andrew smiled and said, "You could end this hunt right now if you want to." I didn't know what to do. This private land hunting was foreign to me and I didn't know if the deer was big for the area, but since Andrew really didn't seem too excited about the buck I hesitated and the bucks made up my mind for me, as they took off on a run up the ridge. Andrew then showed me several logging roads, which I could walk, and places where he has often seen bucks in the past. He then sent me on my way. During that first day I passed on three more whitetail bucks, and saw three mule deer bucks and a 5x5 elk. When I got back to Andrew's home that evening, I meet two other gentlemen, who were from California, that Andrew had given permission to hunt on his place. They had harvested two whitetail deer and an elk during that week and were getting ready to head home.
The next morning, Andrew and his oldest daughter decided that they were going to go and try to fill her elk tag. I suggested that they come with me and I would show them where I had seen the bull elk the day before. While we were walking the logging road to the area, Andrew got a call on his phone from his neighbor. Someone had shot a spike elk in one of Andrews fields from the county road and the neighbor wanted to know if he had given permission for this guy to hunt. Andrew responded with a firm, "No" and you could tell Andrew was not very happy with the trespasser. The neighbor had already called the game warden because of the fact the guy was shooting from a road. When Andrew got off his phone, I asked him if he knew who the shooter was and he responded that he did. It was the father of a rather poor family that lived in the area. Andrew then called up the game warden and told him that he was not interested in charging the guy with trespassing and that he could keep the elk as far as he was concerned. But asked the warden to tell the fellow that next time he needed to ask permission or things would go differently. When he got off the phone, Andrew said, "That family has had a rough couple of years. I don't mind letting others hunt my land, but I would like to let my kids fill their elk tags first." In the three days that I was with Andrew, another group of hunters also decided to try and hunt on Andrew's property without asking first. I was amazed at Andrew's patience when dealing with these trespassers. I was even more amazed at the fact he was letting a total stranger from Boise and two non-residence hunt simply because we had asked. I wrote this paragraph because I have noticed how many poor examples of land owners I have read about on Hunt Talk this year. Please hear me when I say that I am in no way supporting a land owner that is trying to keep people from hunting public land or trying to intimidate a hunter because he is hunting near his property. I am simply saying that there still are some quality individuals that own land who are willing to let others hunt on their property even in this day and age when many hunters are not respecting their property. We need to help these landowners by continuing to call other hunters out when they make poor decisions. Otherwise we will loose out on the opportunity to hunt these properties as well.
Now back to the hunt. That second day proved uneventful as the only bucks I saw that day were a spike and a little 2x2.
Things were looking pretty bleak as Sunday rolled around. I was planning to hunt until 10 a.m. and then join my friend and Andrew's family at their church before heading home. I had four hours to fill my tag. I told Andrew that I was going to shoot the first mature doe or buck I saw as my time was running out. Andrew said he would like to join me and we set out for our hunt. At nine o'clock we walked up on two does and three fawns. Unfortunately, they saw us the same time we saw them and they all faced us giving us nothing but straight on shots. If I was going to shoot a doe, the last thing I wanted to do was ruin a back leg. I waited for a broadside shot but was never offered one. Time was running out. Andrew said he had one more spot he wanted to check. It was a steep canyon that had been burned two years prior. This opened up the area and provided some great feed. When we looked across the creek below us, we saw two nice bucks. I quickly sat down and decided the buck on the right was the largest of the two. At 404 yards, this shot was at my personal maximum distance, but with no wind the shot hit true. The buck ran about thirty yards and slid down the his to a logging road. Andrew said, "Nice shot, and we can take the 4 wheeler right up that road." With that I had my first whitetail and I got to meet a new friend.
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