Unit 1 help.

wyobackcountry · Oct 29, 2018

Hey fellas,

My 10 year still has her general deer tag and after cruising the web, searching forums, and talking to a few guys about what opportunities she has left for the year, I settled on taking one last make/break trip and head to unit 1 for whiteys. I've got a hotel room booked in Preist River for November 15th-19th, and plan on hunting North from there. It looks like there's plenty of forest, state land (not sure if we can legally hunt it?), and Stimson property to roam around on. I plan on calling, rattling, and posting up on clear cuts,,,or basically doing anything I can, to get her a shot at a deer, haha.

So, am I on the right track here? Do you think she'll have a reasonable chance at a deer (any deer is fine), is there anything I'm overlooking?

Thanks for any tips or help you could offer.

N_Corey · Oct 29, 2018

I'll send you a pm

andrew12gauge · Oct 29, 2018

LAST EDITED ON Oct-29-18 AT 11:38PM (MST)[p]Is it a whitetail only or general tag because unit 1 with a general tag is open to either species of buck at that time, but only whitetail does. Also any national forest or state land should be open to hunting. Good luck and hope she gets a good one

wyobackcountry · Oct 30, 2018

It's just the general tag. I drug her all over the mountains in the Snake River region trying to get her a muley buck. We had some close calls but couldn't quite get it done.

She said she'd obviously like a buck, but she'd also be extremely happy with a doe. Her most important goal of the season was to have her friends over for a wild game dinner,,,with her first deer.

Any chance there's landowners that let youth hunt up there for a reasonable cost? Or is that even necessary?

Thanks for the help guys. I'm fairly knowledgeable with western Wyoming (6 punched tags so far this fall, which is about average for the past ~12 years).
If I can return the favor with local info please reach out to me.

andrew12gauge · Oct 30, 2018

LAST EDITED ON Oct-30-18 AT 11:56AM (MST)[p]I've never hunted unit 1 but I don't think you will need private land access to find deer. I certainly wouldn't think one would need to pay. Couldn?t hurt to knock on some doors

wyobackcountry · Oct 30, 2018

Great, thanks.
With our short timeframe, and never being quite that far north in Idaho I wasn?t sure what to expect and wanted to cover all my options.

ID_MW · Oct 30, 2018

I don't want to throw wrenches in your plans, but you could save a couple hundred bucks on gas and see some great white-tail hunting in north-central Idaho. Unit 1 is beautiful and you guys seem like you have a pretty solid plan, but you might look at a few units between the Salmon and Clearwater. If you guys are in decent shape, you could have a great hunt in canyon country. Good luck and enjoy the hunt with your family.

ID_MW · Oct 30, 2018

Gotta piggyback on that.
My second look makes me think that you guys don't have a white-tail tag, so unit 1 it is! Good luck on your regular tag hunt.

wyobackcountry · Oct 31, 2018

Thanks ID_MW.

Yep, my daughter has the general deer tag and the later season option (rut) is a big part of why I chose unit 1.

tagsoup · Nov 3, 2018

You shouldn't have a problem finding a small buck or 2 and you might even get lucky and find a good buck.

"Go hunt for meat at Walmart."

wyobackcountry · Nov 3, 2018

Thanks. I'm looking forward to the adventure with my first year huntress.

wyobackcountry · Nov 18, 2018

I just want to update anyone following this.
We got our butts kicked in unit 1, haha.
The day we got here my daughter came down with a nasty cold so I tried to let her recover as much as possible, and she was a serious trooper hiking an average of 10 miles a day. We hunted a lot of country from The Washington border east to Sandpoint, and from priest lake areas, all the way up to Canada. It took us a few days and a trip to B.C. to get things figured out for our style of hunting. Today, our last day, we hit a spot we saw a lot of deer around on our way to Canada yesterday and immediately got into deer. We had around 15 close calls, a few with big mature bucks, but we never could get her set up in time to take an ethical shot. Regardless of the outcome we had a ball, learned something new, and can't wait to come back some day.

A big thanks to Nick and also the (unknown name) US customs agent for helping us out...if I can ever Return the favor with Wyoming help/information please don't hesitate to ask.

Idahomilkteeth · Nov 28, 2018

Glad I could help. let me know next time you come up might be able to show you around a bit. I will take you up on the Wyoming help.

N_Corey · Nov 29, 2018

I just saw your update now. Sorry to hear you guys didn't end up filling the tag but glad you had a good hunt.

wyobackcountry · Nov 29, 2018

Haha, I was thinking you might see this Idahomilkteeth. Sorry I didn't catch your name up there. I forgot to ask you once I noticed the line of cars backing up into Canada while we were chatting, haha.

Thanks again, fellas. We have no regrets on how things worked out, and we definitely had a good time. I'm already setting aside funds to repeat the trip next year.

If I can help, reach out to me through here or shoot me an email @ [email protected]

BPKHunter · Nov 30, 2018

Sounds like you have a real trooper there!

Sounds like you also did it right, and I appreciate reading about that.

FWIW, I was in Kooskia area the same days on a WT tag and while we did have some opportunities to fill our tag with small 6pt's, twice, the activity that much farther south seems to be less active.

PS That must have been some drive!

wyobackcountry · Nov 30, 2018

Yeah. She always complains and whines for first little bit, but once she realizes she just needs to suck it up and have some fun, she'll literally follow me anywhere, haha. I drag her around the Wyoming highcountry backpacking/scouting all summer long, and have since she was 6.

We definitely tried our best. We learned a lot and look forward to doing it again some time.

I think I should point out I never saw any heavy rut action, or really any rut to be honest. We saw lots of lone does, and groups of lone bucks just milling around. The deer we were hunting were just in the area. I tried rattling and calling with zero success. I even called to deer I could see and they would lift their heads, and go right back to feeding.

Yeah the drive was long, but one I've never done before, so it was neat. Seeing the whiteys in Western Montana got those wheels spinning for fiuture hunts, haha.