Background

I hadn’t filled my over-the-counter (OTC) non-resident Idaho deer tag at the end of rifle season, so my daughter and I each had deer tags in hand as a late November archery season opened. This late muley rut hunt could be a lot of fun, based on some online content I’d stumbled on. I love mule deer hunting probably above all other big game, except maybe sheep hunting, and I was excited to chase November bucks with a bow in the cold. Even more than that, I love hunting with my kids, both of whom have their own passion for hunting. With my wife added to the mix, this was a trifecta hunt if ever there was.

We had a couple of long weekends to hunt this tag and I was excited to start. We elected to “camp” from a hotel this time as we’d be staying two nights and hunting Friday-Sunday. Hot showers, warm beds, and prepared meals outweighed the “cost” of camp! We were still DIY after all and could treat ourselves to a few creature comforts for this hunt. The tradeoff was having to drive to get to the hunting area, something we could live with, since the hotel provided prepared hot meals from a breakfast bar! All good.

Muley Rut Hunt: Day One

Tammy and I arrived around noon on Friday and quickly hustled out to our pre-scouted (digitally) hunting area. As is nearly always the case, the best laid plans never survive first-contact. This is why in-person scouting is so important to any hunt. It isn’t about the habitat so much as it is access and figuring out hunting pressure. It took us most of the afternoon to figure out how to access our hunting area from private lands. We finally found one solid public access point which was completely unmarked and required good GPS maps of private land on my phone to locate.

Since it took us almost the entire afternoon to locate our hunting site, we decided to explore other parts of the area when Amanda joined us . As we explored other parts of our unit, we relize that we would have to focus on our Plan A. Private lands continued to offer significant limitations to our access, although we did find some additional areas to hunt as plans B and C if needed.

Let’s Go!

We left the truck in the pre-dawn at a chilly 15 degrees. I packed light, knowing it is always good to walk away from the truck cold. The girls opted for a bit more comfort to start, electing to pack their coats around for the remainder of the day. If we had to sit for any length of time in the cool high-desert November breeze, their strategy would win the day. We immediately noticed other archers wandering around us in when it was light enough to see! I’d say hunter density was about one per square mile! Yikes. While annoying, I remained pretty confident in our patience and persistence. We did almost immediately jump a herd of does which lifted my spirits some.

Our first stalk was on a small four-point in the sagebrush between two other hunters only an hour after sunrise. Unfortunately for us, as we stalked in we drew the attention of another hunter. That hunter located “our buck” and chose to rush in and try for him. The buck busted him and bailed out of there while we were still 80 yards away. Annoying as hell, but that’s public land hunting. We were luckily able to watch the retreating buck and figure out roughly where he was headed. The other hunter couldn’t see the deer so we’d already outmaneuvered the competition, partly by luck but also due to my wife’s awesome eyes. Amanda agreed we probably should follow this buck which had gone back to browsing and feeding his way over the ridge unperturbed. Just too many hunters in our area for us to walk away from deer.

Round Two

We followed that buck over the ridge, backtracking and crossing our early morning path. Try as we might, we couldn’t locate him. We were able to spot a three-point buck in the valley on the other side though. As we watched that buck, we soon started to notice other deer bedded in the nearby brush. Tammy and Amanda eventually found what they thought was a pretty nice buck bedded in with the group. As I neared them to learn of their find, they became even more excited about this buck. Now they really had my attention.

Yeah, they’d found Jake. This buck was a true toad in every sense of the word. He was about 28 inches wide, but he was nearly as tall! Heavy horns with some of the deepest forks I’ve ever seen on a mule deer and a long fifth point on one side. This was that once-in-a-lifetime buck we all dream of and our team had found him on our first morning. Spectacular. There was one small problem…he was lying about 400 yards from a crew-cab pickup. From our angle and with only binoculars, we could see at least one person in the truck, but we weren’t sure if it was a rancher or hunter. There was no way to know. In the spirit of OTC public lands hunting, we elected to put a careful stalk on this buck.

Muley Rut Confusion

Amanda led off while I trailed back a bit as we worked our way off the bluff down toward the bedded deer. Within minutes people started bailing out of the crew cab. One person strode purposefully toward the bedded buck, bow in hand. I quickly tried to get Amanda’s attention and finally got her to notice what was going on. I figured the hunter would bust this buck and wanted to put us in a spot to intercept him if possible. Sure as shit, this guy basically ran up to the buck and busted him. I could imagine his frustration in us because I was feeling the same.

Amanda and I trailed the deer from the rim above, watching them bed, leave, and re-bed. Finally, we were about 200 yards above them when the wind shifted and they caught our scent. These deer immediately shot out into the valley and we watched them travel a couple of miles out into the middle of private lands. The does were on edge and leading the buck around. Ugh! We were able to find those animals again on public land late in the afternoon, but not in a way we could approach them. We regrouped and scouted some additional country and then confirmed where the big buck was at dusk before leaving the field for tacos and drinks. Tough trip!

A Second Chance

We modified our wakeup the next morning to arrive 30 minutes earlier. As we hiked near the area where the large buck was, we stumbled across another herd of deer meandering up into a short canyon to bed in the predawn light. There was no way to proceed without busting them. We retreated as much as we could to avoid making a mess of the world. Finally, we were perched again above the massive buck and Amanda elected to crawl down off the rim to make a hunt on the buck. Unfortunately, as she worked her way in to about 100 yards from the bedded buck, along came another hunter in a loud diesel who spooked the deer away. Part of them headed to the valley with the monster in tow, and another large buck joined others in heading more on an upward route.

While Amanda made her stalk, I elected to creep back down in the canyon where we’d seen the earlier deer. I was able to sneak down deep in the canyon above where I though deer might enter, keeping the wind in my favor. As I sat there, it wasn’t 15 minutes before I noticed a deer feeding and walking 70 yards from me and across the canyon coming into view. Over the next 15 minutes, about 15 more deer joined the party with several mid to small sized bucks in tow. At one point I had a three-point at 57 yards but I neither wanted that buck nor felt good about the shot. I waited out in the open across from them but the wind was my friend and my camo was complete. I had these suckers ambushed if things worked out right. The problem was I couldn’t move more than a finger for fear of attracting attention.

It Gets Better

As I watched the herd for the better part of an hour I suddenly noticed movement below them. Two mature bucks, one of them a really nice buck, were joining the herd from the valley. Wandering through the herd grunting, they meticulously checked each of the does. The big boy got within about 55 yards but was moving and not presenting a good shot, so I waited. He bedded about 65 yards from me so I could see only his head above a sagebrush. While all this unfolded, I noticed my wife on the ridge about 250 yards away. I couldn’t lift my binoculars up for fear of spooking deer but I was able to let her know I had deer bedded down.

She retrieved my daughter and I tried to convey that I couldn’t get a shot and would try to bump the deer to them for a try. I felt like I could move them right up a draw to the top where Amanda could ambush them. Once I felt everyone was in place, I jumped up and hauled ass to the right (toward the valley) on the slope across from them. The deer froze for a few seconds then all hell broke loose. They busted for the valley, but I was ahead of them and they quickly realized they couldn’t beat me to the gap. They milled around on the far canyon wall for a while then turned and filed straight up the draw I’d intended them to use! Awesome!!

What Happened

The deer filed up the draw to the ridge and stopped and milled around right where my daughter waited in ambush. I was so excited to know she would at the very least get to draw back on this big buck. I hustled up to join the girls and hopefully get on a blood trail. Amanda and Tammy were huddled up talking as I approached. I asked if she got him or got to shoot…she looked puzzled and said, “are you kidding?”. Now I was puzzled.

It turns out because I couldn’t use my binoculars, I was positioning my daughter based on the location of my wife. At that distance I couldn’t tell who was who. In hindsight, my daughter was wearing a beanie and my wife a visor which I could clearly see. I thought I’d positioned everyone perfectly. Unfortunately I positioned my daughter maybe 200 yards from where I’d hoped she’d be! I was sick to my stomach. No doubt in my mind she’d at least get the adrenaline rush of drawing back on that buck even if she didn’t get a clean shot. No dice. We trundled back to the truck to end our Sunday hunt.

What Next

Thanksgiving and other family commitments kept us from getting the team reassembled for a second muley rut weekend hunt, but I treasure the memories we made anyway. I figured we’d just do it all over again next year. What I didn’t realize was the full ramifications of the new Idaho limits on non-resident hunting. Residents like my daughter can use their OTC deer tag for any open season. She can hunt early archery, rifle, and later archery seasons around the state. Us non-residents now must select one specific area and whatever hunts are available in that area. It’s complicated to explain, but because of this, I haven’t committed to buying the $350 tag and $80 archery permit for this three-week muley rut archery hunt.

As I write this, there are still some tags available, so I may be able to take this tag. Philosophically, would I be happy to have access to this hunt in Nevada for 3 weeks? Yes, but I’m only paying $30 for the privilege. I think I should be more thoughtful and it appears I still have a few days or weeks to decide. This is another $400-plus hunt with a bunch of residents crawling around in the sagebrush. On the other hand, I saw one Boone and Crockett buck. Also, in only two days, we saw another big one, and several other bucks in just 48 hours of hunting. What would you do?