HellsCanyon
Well-Known Member
Well last week was my first trip with my hunting partner to Eastern Idaho to chase goats with our bows! It was exciting, frustrating, fun, and depressing all at the same time! These critters make archery muleys look like a cake walk! This was all a spot n stalk hunt and we don't really enjoy blind sitting too much so we were out chasing them all day in the 80*+ heat for 4 days!
Most of the time we were up in the foothills and canyons chasing them but tried a few times around the alfalfa fields.
First hike on the first day we killed this rattler. He died shortly after this picture was taken, and as you can tell he was already badly wounded from running his head into a spare broadhead...
Next day I literally stepped on this snake at the edge of the hay field while he was coiled up! Scared the crap out of us and he too soon met his demise at the end of a spare arrow... sorry if ya don't like the "gruesome photos"...
With the aide of a few arrows I'm definitely LONG-ARMING this photo but you get the picture...
Here's the third and final snake we killed on our third day! He'd just got done shedding his skin...
This is about as close we came to cutting hair all weekend...
We did have an amazing opportunity at doubling up on our 3rd day on a group of 4 bucks... We snuck in and they were just over the hill bedded. We snuck a range on 'em through the tree and drew then counted and stood together. I had pins on my goat bedded but ended up waiting for my partner to get his shot lined up before I let 'er fly when they busted out. Should've just let 'er fly and there was some miscommunication between us on the shooting sequence which ended up costing us notched tags that day! VERY frustrating!
Our last full day we found a really nice buck alone in a hay field we had permission to hunt... It was 90* out that day and he ended up bedding down facing away from us so I attempted a stalk. Started at 225 yards and at 120 yards he got up and bedded facing directly at me! At 62 yards he got curious to the moving alfalfa plants in front of him and came to investigate. If only he would've stayed bedded away it would've ended the intense stalk with a bloody arrow... As you can tell from the video I'm a bit frustrated and trying to make light of the blown opportunity!
On our last day we ended up spotting this nice muley bedded in the field! These are some digiscoped pictures from about 200 yards away! Hunting partner walked up to 49 yards without even trying and the buck never knew he was there...
Overall it was a great trip! We saw moose, whitetails (one 155-160" beautiful 5 point!), muleys, turkeys, antelope, coyotes, fox, and lots of other critters! I got pins on bucks twice at full draw and the fault of not notching a tag lies solely with myself! I felt pretty good about the hayfield stalk even though it didn't end in kill! Now just can't wait to chase some elk next month!
Mike
Most of the time we were up in the foothills and canyons chasing them but tried a few times around the alfalfa fields.
First hike on the first day we killed this rattler. He died shortly after this picture was taken, and as you can tell he was already badly wounded from running his head into a spare broadhead...
Next day I literally stepped on this snake at the edge of the hay field while he was coiled up! Scared the crap out of us and he too soon met his demise at the end of a spare arrow... sorry if ya don't like the "gruesome photos"...
With the aide of a few arrows I'm definitely LONG-ARMING this photo but you get the picture...
Here's the third and final snake we killed on our third day! He'd just got done shedding his skin...
This is about as close we came to cutting hair all weekend...
We did have an amazing opportunity at doubling up on our 3rd day on a group of 4 bucks... We snuck in and they were just over the hill bedded. We snuck a range on 'em through the tree and drew then counted and stood together. I had pins on my goat bedded but ended up waiting for my partner to get his shot lined up before I let 'er fly when they busted out. Should've just let 'er fly and there was some miscommunication between us on the shooting sequence which ended up costing us notched tags that day! VERY frustrating!
Our last full day we found a really nice buck alone in a hay field we had permission to hunt... It was 90* out that day and he ended up bedding down facing away from us so I attempted a stalk. Started at 225 yards and at 120 yards he got up and bedded facing directly at me! At 62 yards he got curious to the moving alfalfa plants in front of him and came to investigate. If only he would've stayed bedded away it would've ended the intense stalk with a bloody arrow... As you can tell from the video I'm a bit frustrated and trying to make light of the blown opportunity!
On our last day we ended up spotting this nice muley bedded in the field! These are some digiscoped pictures from about 200 yards away! Hunting partner walked up to 49 yards without even trying and the buck never knew he was there...
Overall it was a great trip! We saw moose, whitetails (one 155-160" beautiful 5 point!), muleys, turkeys, antelope, coyotes, fox, and lots of other critters! I got pins on bucks twice at full draw and the fault of not notching a tag lies solely with myself! I felt pretty good about the hayfield stalk even though it didn't end in kill! Now just can't wait to chase some elk next month!
Mike
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