Ep. 113: Hunting Idaho Whitetails

in Idaho. Now, as all you know, I love archery, elk hunting, and to be honest, all elk cunning. But what you probably don't know is whitetail hunting was my very first love, hunting white tails from twelve years old with my dad. Looked a lot different at age thirteen, and then a lot different today. Back then, it was all big timber deer hunting, much zero clear cuts. At least where I began hunting. This was state land, private timberland,

and sometimes private property. Sometimes I'd get permission from these local farmers who I worked for in the summertime putting up hay and come fall, you know, I'd ask him if I could hunt, and they would say, oh, absolutely, because farmers, most farmers, they want to trim down the deer herd and the elk hurd as much as they can. Well, twelve year old me hunting, was riding around in the truck with my dad all day looking for deer, hoping

one wouldn't magically appear. But man, did they ever appear. There were deer everywhere back then. It was crazy. You didn't have to drive very long and you would see a deer run across the road or be standing next to the road. But the funny part was they were almost impossible to get right, you know, by the time you'd get out, run off the side of the road and run out in the brush, you'd try to get one, and they were always gone. And so I kind of

made a decision. Thirteen year old me had had enough road hunting that very first year. Every deer we saw it was on high alert and running. So I wanted to shoot a deer more than anything in the world, and I knew doing it from a truck was definitely not the way I was going to get it done. So honestly, I think I think my dad he hoped

we didn't get a deer. I think he was just just out enjoying the fallwoods, you know, taking in all the sites, all the pretty all the pretty fall colors, and driving around, sipping on coffee, having a candy bar. You know. It was that kind of a kind of a vibe, and I think he was just out there enjoying it. I feel like he had zero intention of actually getting a deer back then. So at thirteen, I made the decision that I wanted to get out of

the truck and I wanted to hunt hunt deer. I wanted to get in the woods on foot and find find a big buck. So I'd have my mom or my dad dropped me off in the woods for a morning hunt or an evening hunt, and then meet back where they dropped me. And this may be, you know, they may drop me thirty minutes before first light and pick me up later on that morning. They may drop me off right after school, and I'd hunt till dark,

a little after dark. In fact, most most of the time, I would hunt every single day before school until I got my deer. I'd go out for an hour or two, just get out there my mom. Sometimes my mom would go with me my dad. He was just like, yeah, it's cold out, I'm not into it. I think he was pretty much over it by that time. I think he'd go, if we want to drive around, but he didn't want to. He called it beating the brush. He's like, I'm not gonna get out there and beat the brush.

He's he always he always thought if you beat the brush, you're gonna just spook the hero over to someone else. So he didn't want to do that. So today hunting looks completely different. There's virtually no big timber. There's clear cuts everywhere on state and timberland. There's a little and some of the private stuff is not cut up so bad. But a lot of those farmers, you know, they that I used to go hunt on their place, then they've long since retired or passed on. So it's definitely a

different game these days. And i'd say there's there's less deer today too, And I attribute to a couple things that dominate those things. But some of the things I'll talk about before I tell you what I think the key key things are is predators. Predators are taking their

fair shared deer, that's for sure. You know, back in the early or in the eighties and nineties, you know, mountain lions and coyotes were thick in Idaho and they I think they took their fair shared deer, but I don't think coyotes had the population like they do today in my opinion. Today today, wolves and coyotes probably doing most of damage. There's still some lions out there, but I think the wolves and the coyotes are taking down

the larger numbers. For one, coyotes, there's just no market on their fur these days, and nobody's really trapping coyotes in a large scale like they used to do. There was a lot of guys just out trapping a lot of coyotes back in the day, putting a pretty good dent in their population, but we just don't see that as much today. The hides are hardly worth a thing, which is unfortunate because it really helps with, you know, creating some balance out there. Another thing to think about

is disease. You know, when as a kid, we'd never had any disease to speak of. They we'd never had any blue tongue, we never had any EHD come through, and then in the nineties we saw our first first cases of that. It seemed like we had more droughts during the mid to late nineties and we had some pretty substantial die offs where you know, we lost like eighty to ninety percent of the deer in some spots.

And today, you know, continue through the last you know, if you look at the last decade, the last two decades, you know we've had I have had quite a bit of drought and we've had a few more HD and blue tongue die offs. So that definitely does put a put a nail in the coffin on some of these deer herds. But they seem to bounce back after a few years and you start getting your deer herd built up again after a few years. But my personal opinion on one of the main the main culprits is too

many tags and habitat loss. I'd like to say, first one hundred percent, I support logging in the timber industry, but with the massive clear cuts that have removed security cover for the deer and also an abundance of deer tags for residents and non residents alike, it's really taking its toll. I'll say the herds are starting to slowly look better as the clear cuts are starting to grow up a little bit and offer more security, but we're just not there where we were at back in the

eighties and nineties. I think without you know, reaction from the fishing game. I don't want to pick on them too much, but there's a lot of nuance I feel like in big game management, and one of them is loss of habitat and security cover. And when when they started making those clearcuts, you know, they were really great because you'd have big blocks of timber and then you'd have a clearcut and that would give the deer a ton of food and they still had somewhere to hide.

But man, over the last five six years, all these big clearcuts they'd put out there previously, they've all started connecting them. Now they've they've wiped out a lot of the big blocks of standing timber, and the deer run kind of running out of places to hide. But I will say in the last three or four years as well, some of those earlier clearcuts are starting to grow up, and we're starting to get little fir trees and brush and deer starting to find some new places to hide.

So so I feel like in the next five ten years there should be a pretty good heyday of deer. For deer, I feel like, you know, they're going to be a lot less vulnerable and a lot harder to see no matter how many tags are going to be out there. But one bad thing about having too many tags is you know, and I'm I'm all for everybody getting the hunt every year. I love to hunt every year, but man, at some point it gets tough because it gets overcrowded. And you have to look at Idaho's population,

the resonant population. In the last three or four years, it's exploded from a lot of folks moving to Idaho because they love our resources, they love the outdoors, they love to hunt. They they're looking for a different life or a different way of life. So I feel like there'll probably be some corrections or changes in tag availability in the next few years, you know, which I don't look forward to. But I feel like for the greater good.

Sometimes you know, it's painful, but man, we we have to have have something done, so you know, it's still a pleasure of pleasurable experience. Again for those kids, Like if you take kids out, you know, you want them to have a good time and have fun hunting, you know, what makes what makes a good deer hunt for me? Well, I personally, I just want to see a lot of deer. I just want to see does and fawns. I want to see young bucks. I want to see middle aged bucks,

and I want to see mature bucks. Basically, I want to a well balanced herd with the possibility of taking home a mature buck from time to time. I want to be able to take a kid hunting and keep him or her engaged by showing them a bunch of deer. I want it to be fun. We're competing with all this instant gratification of electronics and all this other stuff, and it's it's really tough to get kids out there and show them a good time if they're not seeing

a lot of deer. So that's for me, that's really what it's about. You know, I don't need to try to shoot one hundred and seventy inch deer every fall. Some people might say, oh, you're just a trophy hunter, but honestly, I just want to see a well balanced herd. I want to see just a lot of deer. I want to see does and fawns and little bucks and middle aged bucks and old bucks. I just want to see I'd like to see this kind of same kind of deer hunting we had when I was a kid.

That way this generation can can enjoy that same thing I did. Now I want to switch gears a little bit. And this week's Pendleton Whiskey Question and answer A question is from that was kind of funny. Question and answer. Question is from an Instagram direct message. Now I didn't get the guy's name, but I'll read you the question he said. I'm taking my kid on an Idaho whitetail hunt in a month and have been crushing maps as

its new hunting unit for me. Some of the areas I've been eyeballing or clearcuts at timber edges and on state in private timberland. I've not done a mountain whitetail hunt in Idaho before, so I'm assuming they act similar to our Willamette Valley whitetail in Oregon. But if you have any thoughts aside from that, I'm all ears. Current plan is to archery spot in stock I'll bring provisions to get in a tree if need be. This tag being new to me, I'm curious to see what kind

of hunter numbers I run into. That's a great question. I've actually been getting similar questions a lot because on Instagram, Facebook, because folks know I've you know, grew up in north central Idaho and have you know a little bit of insight on on the hunting up there. But first off, I'd like to say, you know, archery spot and stock will be kind of like taking a knife to a gunfight. The area, it's it's rifle season, right Everybody's gonna be

running in with a rifle. The area has a large number of other hunters using rifles and they're gonna be using ATVs extensively. The area is very roaded. There's a lot of roads that are open to ATVs. Recently there's been some some closures to some of the roads, but I still feel like you're going to run into a lot of people run their side by sides and four wheelers around, whether that's whether they're supposed to or not. It seems like there's always a bad apple out there

abusing abusing the the laws. But I'd say, if you're committed to bow hunting, I would a one hundred percent suggest setting up a tree stand or ground blind. Personally, my style of hunting Mountain white tails is a lot more mobile than folks who hunt in Eastern States. I'm more of a I'm more of a get on the ground and hunt the guy than a tree standing guy. I like to cover a lot of country, whether I'm on foot or on four wheels. Either I'm a pickup or I'm in an ATV, you know, on roads that

are open. I really hate running an ATV at that time. It's cold, and I'm just not into hunting from the truck or the four wheeler. I really want to get out there and just enjoy, you know, the quiet once once it starts snowing. Man in the deer woods, it can be so quiet. There's no birds chooping, there's no bugs, there's no bees buzzing. It's just very quiet, just you and the sounds are like maybe some squirrels or the deer,

and I just really love that. So I would just like to cover for a lot of country to begin with. I like to look specifically for tracks. I want to look for deer trails. I want to look for rubs and scrapes. Then I dial it in from there. Ideally, I like to watch an area. I like to watch a place where deer cross crossing from fetting feeding or

from feeding to security cover. You know, this may give me a fifty yard shot or even a three hundred or four hundred five hundred yard shot, depending on the area. But I like to kind of sit and wait in those kind of places just because deer they've got a pretty good eye for people walking around. But I will say I do also love hunting big timber. I like to still hunt big timber, and that's kind of how

I cut my teeth as a kid. And what I do is I interesstand a big timber on a game trail, and then I move really slowly, so slowly that it almost appear that I'm standing in one spot. It might take me an hour to walk two hundred yards. It's almost exhausting, honestly, just because you're moving so slow and you're just standing one spot. You don't want any perceivable movement from a deer. And if if you move that slowly,

a lot of times you can walk up. You'll as you move through there, eventually a deer will appear and you'll have the jump on them. They won't see you before you see them. And a lot of times I like to sit down when I get to the thickest cover likes as the forest, as the big open timber kind of starts closing in, and I start getting into more fir trees and more brushy areas where deer tend

to bed. I like to sit down, and then I like to use my grunt call or rattling horns, and then I intend on on calling in a deer out of that thick stuff, because a lot of times those doughs will bet up in there, and if there's a if there's a buck there that's not on a hot dough, and sometimes a buck's you know, depending on the period of the rep, there'll be a buck in there too bedded.

He may not be on a dough, but if you can call into there, I've had it happen several times where a buck will just come either come boiling out of there running or they'll just they'll they'll come so quick and silently. You'll look up and you'll just see their feet standing there, and then you see a piece and a part of a deer and you're like, oh, yeah, there he is. And then you have just enough deer to raise your rifle and put a bullet in them.

Now for archery hunting that would be that would be tough, so that that's still hunting for with an archery with a bow. I feel like it'd be really tough because just central Idaho and north central Idaho it's pretty pretty thick cover. A third way I like to hunt deer is to hunt them kind of like you would elk. I like to get on an old road or a trail, a travels shoe kind of some semi open timber or grown up clear cut that has lots of nooks and crannies.

More of a flat, more flatter kind of country. I'm not talking about steep canyon lands because if you're if you're into that stuff where it's more like canyon brakes or or big deep draws and ridges. As you come around the corner on an old road, you around the corner, you can see that hole here hillside, which is pretty effective. You can see and you can glass it up and look and see if you can see a deer. But

now you're walking. You got to walk another quarter mile half mile sometimes before you get to ever see another good site picture. But I'm talking about kind of more flatter ground, where as though ground unfolds as you walk maybe every two hundred yards, maybe one every hundred yards

or so, you'll see new nooks and crannies. Maybe it's a place they did a select cut of some logging, or they did some maybe a clear cut, you know, twenty years ago, fifteen, twenty years ago, and there's still some old old skid trails and logging roads that are exposed. And as you kind of walk your way around a main road or a main trail, you'll see you'll peer down into these other skid roads or old skid trails, and it's a great way to just walk right up on deer and a lot of times you'll find a

dough there that's eating or moving. And if it's November twentieth, I'm gonna bet there's gonna be a buck with her. More times than not there'll be a buck. If not, you'll know it because she won't be watching her back trail. But if she has a buck with her, she'll be looking behind her nervously, because not all doughs like a

buck following them. And if you see a dough acting like that, if she's looking behind her and then she kind of moves off, have your gun up, have your gun ready, and in that opening, because that buck's gonna follow that same line and you possibly could have could

get a shot at a really nice deer. Now another way, just like the folks back east in the Midwest, like the hunt, I'm looking for deer in the fringe, fringe areas and the tree you know, where the trees and thick cover, the thin trees and the thick cover kind of kind of meat. It seems like the deer love traveling that stuff. So I like to set up to where I can sit and watch a place like that.

And if I was to put a tree stand, I might put it up in one of those fringe areas, especially if it was a really good, really good trail going through there with a lot of a lot of tracks, especially this time of year that's a little bit muddy. You can find big buck tracks, you can find their rubs, you can find their scrapes where they've been traveling. It's a great way to set up. But as far as tree stands go, honestly, by default, I'm just not really

a tree stand guy. There's nothing wrong with him, and I'd probably do a lot better if i'd start using one, But it's just a different style of hunting. But I will say if you want to hear about how to hunt mountain white tails from a tree stand, you got to go back and listen to episode one oh five where Jason picks Troy Pottinger's brain on hunting mountain white tails. Troy is the real deal and literally has shot He just literally shot a giant another giant white tail last week.

Get on Facebook, look up Troy Pottinger. It's a it's a it's an impressive giant buck and he's got several of those under his belt. So that's a that's a great deep dive to go into. If you want to listen to more about hunting white tails as far as a tree stand and maybe even with a bow. Well, that's a wrap for this week's episode. I figured I'd share my thoughts on a subject that I hold near and dear to my heart and that sideahole white tails.

And if you guys have any other questions you'd like to answer, just shoot us an email at CTD at phelpsgame Calls dot com or call our super secret number two zero eight two one seven seven zero one. Just leave a voicemail and we'll play it on the air and answer it the best. We can. Try to keep that question about three minutes or less because it will cut you off if it's if you go too long. But anyway, good luck out there and we will catch you on the next one. St