ida homer
Well-known member
I'll be honest, I look forward to the dove opener more than the archery deer/elk the first weekend. At least until the bugles really start. Ended up with a ton of retrieves for the pooch Monday and Tuesday, getting him in shape for ducks and geese. We shot a bunch of bonus eurasians (no limits), they were everywhere, so that was fun. Ended the night cooking them up right there at the field.
Saturday night we headed up to our OTC deer/elk unit and packed in a couple miles with the goats. It absolutely poured down rain on us all night, really unusual for steady rain in Idaho. I'm sure a few of you enjoyed that storm as well. Sunday morning we glassed up a good bachelor group of bucks. One in that 160-165 range. All of his forks were really good, somewhere around 22-24". A definite shooter for this unit, as usually in this area 1 or 2 of the forks will be really weak.
We tried to move in on the bucks before we were interrupted by a "bull" bugling down the canyon. He seemed unusually fired up for this early, so we stayed put 1000 feet above him, but he kept coming, so what the hell. We setup and he kept coming. Finally, he fired off 5 or 6 cow calls in a row that sounded really montotone and funny. Sure enough, another hunter. Cow decoy deployed and arrow knocked! Felt bad because we made him climb 700 feet, but unfortunately he busted right through our group of bucks without noticing them, so they blew out. No elk or elk sign found, but I am excited about the bucks. A great weekend to get fall started.
Other hunter, bottom center.
Saturday night we headed up to our OTC deer/elk unit and packed in a couple miles with the goats. It absolutely poured down rain on us all night, really unusual for steady rain in Idaho. I'm sure a few of you enjoyed that storm as well. Sunday morning we glassed up a good bachelor group of bucks. One in that 160-165 range. All of his forks were really good, somewhere around 22-24". A definite shooter for this unit, as usually in this area 1 or 2 of the forks will be really weak.
We tried to move in on the bucks before we were interrupted by a "bull" bugling down the canyon. He seemed unusually fired up for this early, so we stayed put 1000 feet above him, but he kept coming, so what the hell. We setup and he kept coming. Finally, he fired off 5 or 6 cow calls in a row that sounded really montotone and funny. Sure enough, another hunter. Cow decoy deployed and arrow knocked! Felt bad because we made him climb 700 feet, but unfortunately he busted right through our group of bucks without noticing them, so they blew out. No elk or elk sign found, but I am excited about the bucks. A great weekend to get fall started.
Other hunter, bottom center.
