Archery opener in Idaho
GPWDeer
9/2/08 10:11am
No I didn't get anything on my first ever (long) weekend of archery hunting, but I learned a ton.
Saturday was very hot. I didn't see anything but one measly doe. I didn't hunt sunday. Monday was much much cooler and my buddy and I spotted 5 bulls and at least 8 cows spread out on a large hillside within one mile of each other, but not herded up at all. The most we saw in one group was three cows.
The five bulls we saw included a spike, two large six by sixes, and two branch antlered bulls which we could not see well enough to tell what they were. We put the spotters away at about 8:30 and drove to the top of the ridge and then began hiking down into where we thought we would find the elk. About 5 minutes into our hike a group of grouse hunters blasted about 15 rounds off and foiled our plan to hunt that area. We changed strategies and headed east since that was the direction all the elk seemed to be generally grazing.
We hiked and glassed and called and hiked and glassed and called...
We both had to be back that afternoon for various reasons so we left the drainage and headed back to the truck about 1:00pm.
Once at the truck and headed back down the hill we determined that we had hunted the wrong draw...The elk we had seen earlier were one draw to the east of where we ended up. I hate it when I am hunting new country.
Live and learn. Next trip will be a five day hunt around the middle of the month. I might squeeze one more day hunt in before then.
Anyone else have any luck in Idaho?
Saturday was very hot. I didn't see anything but one measly doe. I didn't hunt sunday. Monday was much much cooler and my buddy and I spotted 5 bulls and at least 8 cows spread out on a large hillside within one mile of each other, but not herded up at all. The most we saw in one group was three cows.
The five bulls we saw included a spike, two large six by sixes, and two branch antlered bulls which we could not see well enough to tell what they were. We put the spotters away at about 8:30 and drove to the top of the ridge and then began hiking down into where we thought we would find the elk. About 5 minutes into our hike a group of grouse hunters blasted about 15 rounds off and foiled our plan to hunt that area. We changed strategies and headed east since that was the direction all the elk seemed to be generally grazing.
We hiked and glassed and called and hiked and glassed and called...
We both had to be back that afternoon for various reasons so we left the drainage and headed back to the truck about 1:00pm.
Once at the truck and headed back down the hill we determined that we had hunted the wrong draw...The elk we had seen earlier were one draw to the east of where we ended up. I hate it when I am hunting new country.
Live and learn. Next trip will be a five day hunt around the middle of the month. I might squeeze one more day hunt in before then.
Anyone else have any luck in Idaho?
1,934
9er
Better luck next time out....please keep us posted!