Idaho 2015

idsharp

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Like many others, my luck was not sufficient to draw a good tag. I will be hunting the general season for deer and elk this year. I almost always do a spring bear hunt to kick off the season. I hope this successful hunt is an indication for how the fall will go. I've been shooting my bow everyday to prepare. Soon I'll have time to begin some preseason scouting.
 
Here is a picture of my bear shot at 40 yards with my 308 Win. while stalking through the woods. No baiting or dogs in this unit due to the presence of grizzly bears.
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I was out scouting today for deer. I love looking for big mule deer bucks. This particular unit in Idaho has the genetics to produce many true 200"+ bucks but none of them reach a mature age because as soon as someone sees a good buck with a 160-170" frame with or without extras they shoot it. These 3 1/2 year olds rarely make it another year. I held off shooting several of these type of bucks last year with the hope that some of them would make it through the following year. Judge for yourself. Wouldn't it be nice to see how big this buck would get.
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I went scouting for mule deer again on the 15th of August. I was looking for two nice four points, one with a large hook cheaters coming off of each side. These are different bucks than my previous post. I only managed to find the straight four point. Sorry for the shaky footage.
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I finally found a truly large buck. This is a general archery unit that gets a great deal of pressure during a generous rifle hunt so I'm not expecting to shoot a giant but I've been trying to find one anyway. I finally did.
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He was a long ways off and there was thick haze from the wildfires. The images are not very good. I took some video that I'll post as soon as I can. The buck is even more impressive. He has two kickers and two droptines on his right side and three kickers and one droptine on his left side. He'll go over 30" wide with good mass and good eyeguards. I'm thinking he'll pass the 200" benchmark but I'm not a reliable judge on scoring. I'll be back out looking for him.
 
I've seen this buck three times and have established his routine and bedding area. I hope to tag him but will need some good fortune. My dilemma is that the Idaho general archery hunt opened on Sunday (Aug. 30). I don't hunt on Sundays and I have work commitments on Monday and Tuesday (Aug. 31 and Sep. 1). There is a chance he might not be around anymore.
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At least I've been able to see and watch such an awesome buck.
 
I have been out for my first two days of archery hunting and have not seen the big nontypical again. I know there were some hunters in the general area during the season opener so I'm worried they killed the buck or tried and scared him out of the area. I found a water trough that some deer are using and will place a game camera there to maybe learn if he's still around. There's a chance he's gone completely nocturnal. I can't hunt for the next five days due to family and work commitments. Better luck to all of you.
 
This is the closest I got to taking a deer with my bow. I watched 12 bucks feed up a draw in the morning. the conditions were perfect to make a stalk on them. There was only one buck that I would shoot for sure (a nice 7x7) and two that were tempting me( a heavy 3x4 and a nice 4x4 with good front forks that I have recorded on an earlier video). As is my usual luck this season the 7x7 left the other bucks and bedded by himself in some rocks where I wouldn't be able to stalk him. I had all the other bucks within 65 yards and just couldn't bring myself to shoot one in the hopes that I might get a chance at one of the really big ones I've seen.
 
My Archery mule deer hunt is over and I never even saw the one I wanted, that big nontypical. There were two other big bucks but it just didn't come together for me. I held out for a big last year during the rifle hunt and went home empty, also. For me it's the challenge of trying to kill a trophy buck.
My next adventure will be helping some friends get a big buck. We'll see how that goes starting this weekend.
 
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