It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything. Tired of seeing small bucks in D-15,-16 so decide to head out of state and try something new. Set out on a hunt with brother and Dad on 10/16/18 headed to Idaho around the salmon river area. My family used to hunt this area 40 years ago. Wow, it has changed remarked my dad. We had 7 full day set aside to hunt this mountain.
We made it up there by noon on the second day, made camp and headed up to the top about 8 miles from camp. The scenery was unbelievable and the anticipation of a big buck step out kept us on our toes. Spent the next 5 days of seeing two bulls, dad never had an opportunity to squeeze off a shot, 4 smaller bucks, and as many does as you wanted. The thick burned timber made it difficult. Morning on day 6 I decided not to set the alarm, sleep in a bit. We all needed it. We drove up to the area an hour and a half late and decided to check out an area from day one. Day 6 was the first day we had full cloud cover and slightly cooler temps 32 degrees. Had been 36-41 every morning. I stepped out of the truck and was heading to walk a ridge line when I bumped a smaller 4x4 at 60 Yds. Safety off, finger on the trigger, just waiting for the right moment to squeeze off and send one into this bucks vitals. Heart is racing as finally getting ready to seal the deal when shots rang out from less than a 100 yds behind me. One, two, three, and four shots!!! I turned and looked back and my brother gave me a thumbs up. In a splits second I looked back and my buck slipped out and was never seen again. Oh well, I new my brother or dad got a shot off (x4) . I headed over to them and my brother said “dad just dumped a good one” as I watched my dad get up off the ground and dust the dirt off of himself. That thick timber made it tough to get a round into that animal. As my brother and I started heading straight up hill to get eyes on pop’s deer, I glance over and saw a big buck getting off the ground. Only part of this buck I could get in the crosshairs was the front shoulder. I caught my breath, in and out then hold. Gentle squeeze on the trigger and all I saw was the buck fall over and roll on his back. As I had just realized, that was not my dads buck. I really thought my dads buck was injured due to the amount of shots that rang out. I had it in my head that I just sealed the deal for my dad, that’s when my brother looked at me and said dads deer is over his direction. I had just knocked down the biggest buck of my life, it was less than 10 yards from where my dads buck got knocked down. We had just filled two out of 4 tags in a few minutes. Dads deer ended up being 26” wide 4x4 and mine was a 24” wide 5x4. What a great end to a family hunt. Dads fourth and final shot was the only round that hit his buck, head shot from 125 yds!!!! Absolutely the luckiest shot ever!!!
We made it up there by noon on the second day, made camp and headed up to the top about 8 miles from camp. The scenery was unbelievable and the anticipation of a big buck step out kept us on our toes. Spent the next 5 days of seeing two bulls, dad never had an opportunity to squeeze off a shot, 4 smaller bucks, and as many does as you wanted. The thick burned timber made it difficult. Morning on day 6 I decided not to set the alarm, sleep in a bit. We all needed it. We drove up to the area an hour and a half late and decided to check out an area from day one. Day 6 was the first day we had full cloud cover and slightly cooler temps 32 degrees. Had been 36-41 every morning. I stepped out of the truck and was heading to walk a ridge line when I bumped a smaller 4x4 at 60 Yds. Safety off, finger on the trigger, just waiting for the right moment to squeeze off and send one into this bucks vitals. Heart is racing as finally getting ready to seal the deal when shots rang out from less than a 100 yds behind me. One, two, three, and four shots!!! I turned and looked back and my brother gave me a thumbs up. In a splits second I looked back and my buck slipped out and was never seen again. Oh well, I new my brother or dad got a shot off (x4) . I headed over to them and my brother said “dad just dumped a good one” as I watched my dad get up off the ground and dust the dirt off of himself. That thick timber made it tough to get a round into that animal. As my brother and I started heading straight up hill to get eyes on pop’s deer, I glance over and saw a big buck getting off the ground. Only part of this buck I could get in the crosshairs was the front shoulder. I caught my breath, in and out then hold. Gentle squeeze on the trigger and all I saw was the buck fall over and roll on his back. As I had just realized, that was not my dads buck. I really thought my dads buck was injured due to the amount of shots that rang out. I had it in my head that I just sealed the deal for my dad, that’s when my brother looked at me and said dads deer is over his direction. I had just knocked down the biggest buck of my life, it was less than 10 yards from where my dads buck got knocked down. We had just filled two out of 4 tags in a few minutes. Dads deer ended up being 26” wide 4x4 and mine was a 24” wide 5x4. What a great end to a family hunt. Dads fourth and final shot was the only round that hit his buck, head shot from 125 yds!!!! Absolutely the luckiest shot ever!!!
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