Well boys. I've been looking forward to this write up for sometime...7 yrs actually. I completed hunters ed and got my first hunting license back in 2018 when I turned 30 and that's when I found this forum. I've made some good friends along the way and hunted hard in the 16 but unfortunately I never was able to tag a D16 forky before I moved away to Idaho in 2022.
I moved out here shortly after my 2nd daughter was born so having a newborn/toddler has limited my time to be able to scout and learn the country in this area as much as I would have liked. I've been successful in fishing and waterfowl hunting but was still on the hunt to get a big game animal.
My wife's uncle lives in the unit I planned to hunt and have hunted with him before but his new job is keeping him super busy so I had to go solo. I drew a cow elk tag that opened Oct. 15th and had that day off so I wanted to go check an area out I had never been to and poke around. I also picked up a general deer tag since deer opened on the 10th. My wife got out of work early Tuesday afternoon so I was able to head out the afternoon before and get eyes and boots on the ground.
I said a prayer with my family and headed up..I arrived to the area around 3:45 in the afternoon. Drove up trail for a bit and decided to head off and search for some sign. I saw lots of turkey tracks and what looked like bobcat tracks and only a few elk tracks and some light deer tracks. I worked my way on and off the trail for about a mile and a half and found an area that had some fresh looking rubs and decided to head off and look around from there. I got to a spot that looked down into some small draws on either side of me and I felt something telling me to just sit there and wait.
About 30 min later a side by side comes barreling through and I flag the guy down just to let him know im there. We have a quick chat..he says he's barely getting started for the afternoon and that he was headed up the trail I was walking and maybe he'd push something my way. He also said it was a good area for deer. I sat back down and waited.. everything in me wanted to just keep going but I kept hearing something telling me to be patient. It was around 5:00 when I got to this particular spot and I knew sunset was at 7pm and was hoping I might see a deer since the elk sign was pretty minimal.
Well 7pm hit and all was quiet and I knew I had until 7:30 for legal shooting light. I sat 10 more minutes and figured I could get back on the trail and head to the rig and maybe I'd run into something since I always heard stuff gets western right at sundown. I got back to the trail and walked about 5 min or so and started to round a bend and as I am doing so I look up and there is a deer standing at the edge of the trail about 70yds in front of me. It catches me off guard and I stopped dead in my tracks. The deer turned his head and looked at me but just turned his head back. He was quartering away from me and it was hard to tell if he had antlers at first because it was getting dark so I threw my scope up and confirmed he had antlers. I contemplated the type of shot to take because he was almost facing dead away from me not to mention I was just standing there about to shoot offhand. I moved to my left a bit, saw the crease behind his shoulder, removed the safety and let her rip.
The deer disappeared and went off the side of the trail. I racked another one, picked up my casing and hurried to where he was standing to listen for brush breaking but it was dead quiet. Looked on the ground for blood and found some. Marked the pin and it was 7:23pm. The trail dropped off to the right about 45° straight down. I turned my headlamp on and started to head down. I didn't see anything at first but to my surprise I had a buck piled up just 25ft from where it was standing. Hit him right behind the shoulder and I walked up to him saw him taking his lasts breaths and just went back up to where he was shot and gave him a few minutes.
I saw that I had a couple bars of signal and called my wifes uncle to come help with the extraction. Right after I called my wife and let her know that I did it..I finally got my first deer after all this time. She hates that I go out in the woods on my own and always worries about me but she has always been supportive because she knows its what I love to do. I knew that the holy spirit guided me that day and was telling me to wait and be patient and if I had not listened I would have never ran into that deer. I got off the phone with her and walked up to this animal and thanked him for giving his life and thanked God for providing me with this opportunity.
I pulled the deer up back onto the trail and onto level ground. I saw that the bullet went behind his shoulder and exited in the middle of his chest. I started to gut it and eventually my wifes uncle showed up and brought some sled he just picked up at the gun show and we finished gutting him, tied up the deer and I dragged him back to the rig. It was still a mile and a half back to his truck and this thing was heavy. Lol once back we took it back to his place, hung it with his tractor and got to work. I had brought a bottle of whiskey up there from the first time I came up here to hunt 4 years ago and wanted to open it when I got my first big game animal and finally got the chance. Got myself the D16 forky I always wanted out here in Idaho!
I know this was a Larry length write up but I keep reliving this moment and just super grateful for the opportunity. I have never had a deer in the cross hairs so was not even sure how I would handle it. Up on that mountain I prayed for composure if the opportunity arrived and it did. I went out the next day to a different area and I did see a cow elk crossing the road but it was private land all around. Didn't see anything else but grouse that day. I dropped my deer off at the local processor in town because I had to start my work week the following night and was going to be drained from the last 2 days. Cooking up the heart tonight! Cheers!
I moved out here shortly after my 2nd daughter was born so having a newborn/toddler has limited my time to be able to scout and learn the country in this area as much as I would have liked. I've been successful in fishing and waterfowl hunting but was still on the hunt to get a big game animal.
My wife's uncle lives in the unit I planned to hunt and have hunted with him before but his new job is keeping him super busy so I had to go solo. I drew a cow elk tag that opened Oct. 15th and had that day off so I wanted to go check an area out I had never been to and poke around. I also picked up a general deer tag since deer opened on the 10th. My wife got out of work early Tuesday afternoon so I was able to head out the afternoon before and get eyes and boots on the ground.
I said a prayer with my family and headed up..I arrived to the area around 3:45 in the afternoon. Drove up trail for a bit and decided to head off and search for some sign. I saw lots of turkey tracks and what looked like bobcat tracks and only a few elk tracks and some light deer tracks. I worked my way on and off the trail for about a mile and a half and found an area that had some fresh looking rubs and decided to head off and look around from there. I got to a spot that looked down into some small draws on either side of me and I felt something telling me to just sit there and wait.
About 30 min later a side by side comes barreling through and I flag the guy down just to let him know im there. We have a quick chat..he says he's barely getting started for the afternoon and that he was headed up the trail I was walking and maybe he'd push something my way. He also said it was a good area for deer. I sat back down and waited.. everything in me wanted to just keep going but I kept hearing something telling me to be patient. It was around 5:00 when I got to this particular spot and I knew sunset was at 7pm and was hoping I might see a deer since the elk sign was pretty minimal.
Well 7pm hit and all was quiet and I knew I had until 7:30 for legal shooting light. I sat 10 more minutes and figured I could get back on the trail and head to the rig and maybe I'd run into something since I always heard stuff gets western right at sundown. I got back to the trail and walked about 5 min or so and started to round a bend and as I am doing so I look up and there is a deer standing at the edge of the trail about 70yds in front of me. It catches me off guard and I stopped dead in my tracks. The deer turned his head and looked at me but just turned his head back. He was quartering away from me and it was hard to tell if he had antlers at first because it was getting dark so I threw my scope up and confirmed he had antlers. I contemplated the type of shot to take because he was almost facing dead away from me not to mention I was just standing there about to shoot offhand. I moved to my left a bit, saw the crease behind his shoulder, removed the safety and let her rip.
The deer disappeared and went off the side of the trail. I racked another one, picked up my casing and hurried to where he was standing to listen for brush breaking but it was dead quiet. Looked on the ground for blood and found some. Marked the pin and it was 7:23pm. The trail dropped off to the right about 45° straight down. I turned my headlamp on and started to head down. I didn't see anything at first but to my surprise I had a buck piled up just 25ft from where it was standing. Hit him right behind the shoulder and I walked up to him saw him taking his lasts breaths and just went back up to where he was shot and gave him a few minutes.
I saw that I had a couple bars of signal and called my wifes uncle to come help with the extraction. Right after I called my wife and let her know that I did it..I finally got my first deer after all this time. She hates that I go out in the woods on my own and always worries about me but she has always been supportive because she knows its what I love to do. I knew that the holy spirit guided me that day and was telling me to wait and be patient and if I had not listened I would have never ran into that deer. I got off the phone with her and walked up to this animal and thanked him for giving his life and thanked God for providing me with this opportunity.
I pulled the deer up back onto the trail and onto level ground. I saw that the bullet went behind his shoulder and exited in the middle of his chest. I started to gut it and eventually my wifes uncle showed up and brought some sled he just picked up at the gun show and we finished gutting him, tied up the deer and I dragged him back to the rig. It was still a mile and a half back to his truck and this thing was heavy. Lol once back we took it back to his place, hung it with his tractor and got to work. I had brought a bottle of whiskey up there from the first time I came up here to hunt 4 years ago and wanted to open it when I got my first big game animal and finally got the chance. Got myself the D16 forky I always wanted out here in Idaho!
I know this was a Larry length write up but I keep reliving this moment and just super grateful for the opportunity. I have never had a deer in the cross hairs so was not even sure how I would handle it. Up on that mountain I prayed for composure if the opportunity arrived and it did. I went out the next day to a different area and I did see a cow elk crossing the road but it was private land all around. Didn't see anything else but grouse that day. I dropped my deer off at the local processor in town because I had to start my work week the following night and was going to be drained from the last 2 days. Cooking up the heart tonight! Cheers!
