For the past two years, I had been taking my now 13-year-old son, Hunter, to Idaho to hunt. Our annual Idaho trip is the one I look forward to the most. It’s a trip we take with a couple close friends and a tradition we will try to keep doing as long as possible. This brings us to IDFG’s non-resident tag system. Any non-resident who hunts Idaho knows the frustration, especially when you’re trying to get the same unit as a group. With that being said, we as a group have never all had the same tags for our preferred unit. We normally hunt on the border of two units with one being better than the other. Knowing this going into the 2023 season, we had to have a backup plan in case we did not get the better unit or our second choice.
On December 1, 2022, as our group, we were all logged on to IDFG’s website and placed in the (queued) room, patiently waiting for our random placement in the 2023 non-resident tag sale. We were trying to stay positive that we would get a good placement number when the clock hit 10 a.m. At 10, text messages were chiming in, asking each other what number we got, with the best being my son at 31950 and only getting worse from there. With every passing moment, you are watching the “sold-out list” nervously as each of the prime units start to appear on that list. With almost two hours passing and numerous system crashes, it was almost my son’s turn. And then, there it was! Both the units we wanted were on the sold- out list. Now I was scrambling to call everyone and tell them to go to our backup plan.
This unit never sells out because it has limited road access. I had previously hunted it in 2015 and 2016 and did pretty well. Both years, I harvested my elk, a mid 140" 4-point mule deer, and a good whitetail buck as well. Once we all acquired our tags, the planning began. This would be my son’s first fly-in backcountry hunt, and he was excited as he wants to become a pilot.
Fast forward to October, and we were headed to Idaho. Once arriving in Idaho, we couldn’t have asked for a better day flight into Idaho’s backcountry as there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I flew in first with all of our gear and then my son and our two buddies came in on the second trip. Day one was camp assembly and chore day. This involved cutting, splitting, and stacking enough firewood for the entire trip, gathering water, and so on. After that was done, gear was gone through and we got everything ready for the next day’s hunt.
On day two, we split up as one buddy went solo and the other went with my son and me. Hunting that day was extremely slow, and we weren’t seeing much of anything. As we pushed forward up the mountain, trying to get to the next spot, we were now peeking into the evening hours. My son and I were ahead of our buddy, and as I crested a little saddle and started glassing the burn on the backside, I immediately picked up a bedded little whitetail buck. We dropped down to our knees, and I started to get my tripod out to put the binos on him to get a better look. Once on the tripod, I confirmed to my son that he was little and definitely not one he wanted to shoot, especially this early in the hunt. We signaled back to my buddy down the mountain that we saw a buck and he immediately kicked it in high gear to get up to us. Once he was there, I showed him where the buck was, and about the time he saw him, I picked up movement above him. It was a bigger buck, a very respectable 4x4 whitetail. It was still not quite what my son was looking for, but Chris was more than happy to shoot, and that he did. It was a 150- yard quartering away shot with his 28 Nosler, and the buck went 60 yards and piled up.
The next four days, we put in between 10-15 miles each day with only turning a few does and small bucks up, not even seeing a single elk. Day five rolled around, and we were starting
to get a little discouraged. We woke up the next morning to a temp drop, and it was pouring, which boosted our mentality as a little weather always seems to get the deer moving. As we started the morning hunt, there were deer moving everywhere but no shooter bucks. As the morning slowed down and we were approaching mid-afternoon, I was picking the timber apart for bedded deer. Just as I was about to give up, I spotted a deer bedded. I could immediately tell it was a buck, and a good one at that.
Once I told my son I had spotted a shooter, the excitement started to set in. One problem, though. The buck was 456 yards uphill bedded on the hillside with his butt to us. Even if he stood up, he more than likely would not present a shot. If I moved two feet either way, I lost him, so my son set up to shoot and dialed for 450. I told my son and Chris if he stood up and gave him a shot to take it as I was going to work below him and see if I could get a better angle. I was able to get almost directly below him and cut the distance to 301 yards, so I hurried back and let them know I found a better shooting lane. We got up to the spot I had found, and I got the Phone Skope on the binos as my son got set up. Just as he started to dial, the buck stood up. Now I was starting to panic because you never know what they are going to do. To my relief, the buck started to groom himself and had no idea we were there, so my nerves began to calm a little. I told my son to take him when he was rock solid. Seconds later, his gun torched off. As I was watching through the Phone Skope, it looked to be a solid hit as the buck dropped to his chest and then reared up on his hind legs and ran out of frame on just his back legs. The timber and brush were so thick that we lost sight of him and had no idea where he went.
As we reviewed the footage, we were reassured that the shot looked good, but we still gave him an hour just in case. After what always seems to be the longest hour, we began to make our way up the mountain. We got up to the buck’s bed and instantly found blood and hair. There he was piled up 20 yards down the hill! Hunter had made a perfect 301-yard heart shot on his first whitetail, and it was an absolute stud 5x5. The excitement and joy on his face is something I will never forget. As a father, I hope everyone gets to experience this in their lifetime.
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