Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting New guy intro and Idaho panhandle whitetail story

Hi, my name is Will. I'm a simple blue collar guy, family man from NW Oregon. Outside of my family the outdoors is my #1 passion more specifically big game hunting (bow and rifle) and salt water fishing. Recently I've gotten into hand loading and want to give long range shooting a go. I've been on ifish dot net for a number of years and am looking to branch out. I mostly like looking at pictures and reading success stories from people's hunts. This seems like a good place to do so! If you're a member there too drop me a line so I can put the pieces together I'll add some more stories as time permits to the appropriate board. Here's one of mine you might enjoy...

November 2016

My out of state trip this year was supposed to be an October antelope hunt in WY but things fizzled out. I had taken first coastal rifle elk season off earlier in the year in case I could talk my wife into being drug through the woods but starting a new job and being 6 months pregnant with #3 she was in no mood for that. Since I had a block of time and the money set aside I started looking around of what other hunt I could put together in a couple months and landed on Idaho whitetails. I spent a lot of time on the computer google scouting and on the phone with biologists, the forest service and timber companies. I thought I had it figured out and bought the allowed 2 nonresident deer tags and a wolf tag. I was able to talk one of my best hunting buddies into buying off on this fly by the seat of your pants, going in blind hunting expedition.

We left early Wednesday morning, the 9th, and rolled into the campground just as dark settled. We threw camp together and hit the hay eager for what the next day may bring. We decided to spend the first day driving roads getting a feel for the area. At the top of the ridge we spotted a total of 6 mule deer does, 2 cow moose, and a cow elk. We figured we had overshot the whitetail and headed back down the mountain. We ended the day only finding one whitetail doe and wondered if we had made a mistake.

The next day we picked lower drainages that emptied into each other and got behind the glass. About 830 my friend was working his way to another vantage point when he looked down on to a bench and spotted a nice 3pt running off a smaller 3x2. When the big 3pt came back he touched one off and we were suddenly in business and thought we would be on easy street.

5 days passed without either of us having a chance at another buck despite hunting, hiking and glassing our A$$E$ off. Fighting a nearly full moon that was up all night and temps in the 60's during the day we were struggling to stay optimistic. The one thing we had to look forward to was the weather was changing so we made a game plan for the next day.

As the horizon started to gain color we snuck to the edge of a cut and started picking it a part. Within minutes I found a doe up feeding over 400 yards away at the bottom of the canyon surrounded on three sides by nearly vertical walls. I almost got hung up on my nemesis, the ever prevalent stump-deer, that was bedded 10 yards behind her in a little pinch of reprod. I persevered and continued to scan all the likely places a real buck my be lurking keeping tabs on her when I noticed the ear flicker of said stump-deer. I refocused and my jaw dropped in disbelief. I spoke to my friend in our prearranged sign language from 100 yards away what I was seeing all while not taking my eyes off him. After my newly assigned spotter was at my side I tried to get a good rest to make the over 400 yard shot in a gusty wind. My friend quickly became my voice of reason and we began to pick out a route for me to close the distance to something more reasonable given the dicey winds. When the doe bedded I made my move and got inside of 200 yards where I readied myself. After what seemed like hours the wind had changed and the doe was becoming aware of my presence. She tried to sneak to the tree line of the cut but the buck would not allow that. He stood, stretched, scratched, took three steps and quartered slightly toward me. I settled my crosshairs on the point of his shoulder and sent a handloaded 180gr Partition from my old '06 at 2840 fps his way. The shot felt too good to be true but I was shaking like my first deer all over again. I wasn't sure if I heard the tale tell WHOP with the wind howling but I thought I saw him kick when I shot and trip at the tree line and only saw one white flag bouncing through the timber. I made my way back to my buddy to compare what we both seen. He confirmed everything that I thought I saw so he stood by where I shot from as I went down to look for sign. No hair, no blood and I started to get that sinking feeling until I took one more big step down hill and looked toward the tree line and saw the long fluffy white of the underside of his tail draped over a log. I turned and yelled up hill the first think that came to my mind, "Go get the quad!" And the a wave of the full body shakes came over me again.

I waited for him to make his way down the hill to me and we both walked up to my buck together.



Ground shrinkage was not an issue with this guy. Hands down the biggest buck of my life. I've always had the first come-first serve approach to filling tags so I can't believe it worked out this well.





Wanting to keep the momentum going we headed out again after my buck was taken care of. Nothing much happened that night in the world of deer hunting but I managed to sneak up on a bull moose at less than 30 yards on accident. Neither one of us was expecting to see the other. He spun around lowered his head, pawed the ground and started swaying those big paddles back and forth. I shouldered my rifle, took the safety off, started kicking rocks at him and hollering. He made the best decision for both of us and eventually turned and sauntered off very confused about what just happened lol
-MAN those things are cool!!!

sorry I know it's not the best picture but it was all I could get after I felt safe to try.

The next morning was cold and they were calling for snow. After giving a couple of different cuts a hard look we turned to head on to the next one when I caught movement 250 yards below me on the edge of a landing. "Deer. DEER! Buck. BUCK! Too little for you-" BOOM! Knowing my partner was on a quest for a book buck or bust and after a couple of brutal packs where we practically had to bear crawl our way up and out of these hell holes, I had no qualms anchoring this tasty little guy in a spot I could nearly drive right up to him and refused to eat a $300 tag. I'll take the easy ones whenever I can get them



My partner continued to hunt the rest of the day while I took care of my little buck. He managed to scratch up a few more bucks that were more or less the same as what he had already but let them walk and kept looking for The One. The next morning we set out to find him that class of buck he was looking for but I bailed mid day to start packing (since it was our last day anyway) when I heard my 3 year old daughter not only had a bad double ear infection but she was now having a reaction and was apparently allergic to the antibiotics she had gotten. My buddy never found the one he wanted that night but he spent most of the drive trying to figure out how he could sneak back over for a few more days "I just don't even CARE about blacktails right now!" (Which is really saying something if you've ever seen the collection of big archery blacktails he's killed over the years.) Was just one of the many remarks I got to hear on the ride home.

It was an awesome trip start to finish. It tested, tried and rewarded us. Saw a lot of amazing country with some amazing animals.

I can't wait to do it again

And a big thank you to the guys at the Blue Goose sporting goods in St Marie's. If you're ever in the area stop in and say hi, they're good folks and happy to help a stranger.

I'll post up some more stories on the appropriate boards as time allows.

Thanks for reading

Great story and great bucks! I've flown by the seat of my pants before. One year I had CO Elk tag. As it got close to October my boss told me there was absolutely no way he could spare me in late October since I was his Drywall crew foreman and the jobs were pouring in. He offered me the first half of October instead. So I drove to South Dakota and bought antelope tags over the counter. I had a great hunt and killed two Pronghorn but I've still never got to go Elk hunting.

Thanks!

Like your signature quote by the way!

Welcome! And thanks for sharing - nice bucks.

Loved the story and the pics. Congrats on a great hunt. Thanks for sharing.

Great story and congrats on a successful hunt.

Bulls, cool story and welcome to the 'Fire. Keep'em coming

Another quick pic of my little buck

Awesome buck Will. Thanks for the story! And some beautiful country you hunted in!

Congratulations! Really nice bucks.
It's heartwarming to see young guys can still get out and do adventures.
What is that old rifle you used? Thought it might be a Husqvarna 640, then saw the bolt is straight down. Home smithed? Hand down in the family?

Idaho's whitetails are underrated. The mulies and elk get all the press.

Thanks! It was an awesome trip I hope I can do it again soon! We saw a gob of elk, at least one almost every day, even a couple branch bulls and a pile of spikes. I wish there was a cow hunt or something going in that unit that time of year. That would be a nice bonus on an adventure like this. We saw two other bucks that were bruisers and woulda been contenders for wall space if it worked out

My rifle is in fact a Husky but idk about the 640. It says "Husqvarna Vapenfabriks AB .30-06 US" on the barrel. Nothing more, nothing less. But It was the only rifle my grandfather ever bought for himself and it has been passed down from him to my dad to me. It killed his last deer and elk, my dad's first bull, my first buck and every one since minus my bow kills and one forked horn I shot with my revolver. The bolt handle isn't straight, it's just the angle of the camera. I had a timeny trigger out on a few years ago. 58.8gr of Ramshot Hunter and a 180gr Partition seated to SAAMI specs results in pretty little clover leaves at 100yds. The rifle shoots better than I do.

Here's my buddy's buck, shows some of the scenery a little better.

Great pics and story. Welcome to the fire.

Very nice and a fine heirloom with a story. You did your Grandfather proud.
Yes, it's a Model 640. They're built on FN 98 actions Husqvarna imported in the 1930's through 1950's. Fine rifles with very good hammer forged barrels. I always found it odd that FN sold highest quality commercial actions to a Swedish company during the war. I have one in 8mm.
Again, welcome aboard and thank you for your adventure story.

Welcome!!

Great story and photos....

Good to know, thanks! Dad passed a lot of that info down with the rifle but I never knew it was a 640. I'll have to do a serial number search to find the manufacture date now! I love that rifle it will be a bitter sweet to hand it down to one of my kids someday. If I shoot the barrel out before I pass it along I'm tempted to turn it into a 35 Whelen

Now that I've thought about it, that rifle killed my dad's biggest buck too, a nontypical 5x5 blacktail with eyeguards I just posted on the big bucks thread on the deer hunting board.

Deflagrate-I wanted to send you a pm and ask a couple Mauser questions but it says you're not accepting PM's wanna shoot me one?

Bull,
I sent a PM to you.
I never set it up to receive in 6 years here. All fixed.

Shoot me a message now.
Dennis

Nice to hear about someone who hunts with a rifle with some family history! I hope my kids do the same with my guns, when I am done.
Story is a good read and not that far from some of my hunting areas.