Redemption | Idaho Rifle Mule Deer

I always look at Idaho as a place to have an adventure hunt. With the new system for the over the counter tags and the high demand for these tags, the odds you’ll get your first choice unit are slim. Therefore, I look at these tags as an opportunity to learn new units and country and go somewhere I haven’t seen before. This year was no different. I picked up a rifle mule deer tag in a unit I have never hunted. This is exciting to me because it gives me an opportunity to study and scout a new area. Up to this point I had never been successful on a deer hunt in Idaho, but was hoping to change that this season.? I did a lot of research and e-scouting and headed down the night before opening day.

When I arrived in the dark to my camping location I hadn’t seen a single rig or camp on the way in so I was excited that I might have this area to myself! That dream was squashed in the morning when headlights from multiple trucks lit up the dark dirt roads. After talking with another local hunter about our plans for the day I continued with my plan of trying to get high while he hunted the bottom of this drainage. Conditions were tough, it was mid October, weather was hot and with my experience I figured the bucks would still be in the higher country.

As daylight broke and started to light up the mountain I was having trouble locating deer. I did not see a deer the whole first morning. With that I decided to hike into where it looked “bucky” to see if I could find any tracks or sign. I only found a couple sets of tracks which was discouraging, but I hiked into a hidden basin and set up for the evening glass with the same result: no deer. While I wasn’t seeing deer I was watching what the other hunters were doing. It seemed like they were all hunting the lower country near the private.

The lower country consisted of agricultural land that led up to cedar foothills. The next morning I decided to stay low and glass the agricultural fields and lower country. There were a lot of hunters in that country hunting both the public and private, but it proved to be fruitful as I located the first buck of the trip. The buck was too far to make out what he was but I could tell he had a decent frame. The buck disappeared into a draw. I even watched some hunters walk right where I had last seen the buck, but the buck held tight and the other hunters never spooked the buck. I spotted a group of does that fed up and on to the public and watched as they faded into the cedars and up a drainage. I decided to watch them and hike that drainage further up in search of deer that may have slipped up there in the dark before I was able to glass them. There I found deer beds and much more sign which was encouraging but no other deer. That evening I watched the same group of does feed back down towards the private land, but still no bucks. I was stumped at what to do the next morning. Was it time to go to plan B or stick it out in this area?

The next morning I headed to the edge of the drainage where I had watched the group of does feed up into the previous morning. I got some elevation so that I could glass more of the country, but there was a main trail that was only a few hundred yards below me. As the sun rose as I watched 3 or 4 different groups of hunters hike past me on the trail below along with several hunters on the private land hiking into the draws between the agricultural fields. With all this hunting pressure I assumed my best opportunity was to sit at the end of this drainage which I figured was the deer's’ escape route and let the hunting pressure work in my favor.

I had not glassed up any deer and was surprised when I saw a buck bounding over the sagebrush heading straight for me. I could see the buck was at least 4 point on one side. I quickly got the rifle ready, ranged the buck at 300 yards and dropped him in the sagebrush.? My plan to set up on what I thought was the deer's escape route worked perfectly. The deer died about 50 yards from the main trail. I wondered if this was the buck I had seen the previous morning that I lost sight of. Walking up on the buck I couldn’t help but think of the prior years of getting my butt kicked. Those years taught me lessons about mule deer and using hunting pressure to my advantage which finally paid dividends on this hunt! I loaded all the meat and cape and was able to get everything out in one load on a nice trail.?