Wade Jones and his sone, Ben, had a fantastic year of hunting in 2004, both harvesting great bucks.
Wade writes, "It was the last weekend of the general season here in southwestern Idaho. We had hunted hard all season with the temps in the 80's for most of the season. We were happy to see some weather for the last week.
The first week we hunted hard only to see 4 does. Being the first year we have hunted Idaho, I began to wonder if I had made a error in the area I chose to hunt.
Low and behold I would be proven wrong as we climbed to the top of another desert peak to look around. We just happen to sit down to do a little glassing of a big bowl in the distance. As we looked around I looked straight down below us---There was a buck---he wasn't a monster, but for my son's second buck he was a trophy and with not seeing to much activity we talked about it and decided he was going to take the shot. What a shot it was! 200 yards straight down, he never knew what happened.
On the drag back to the truck (2 miles), we joked and laughed about the hard days of hunting we had and wondered just how many deer were hiding just out of sight like this buck thought he was.
Well, two more weeks went by and the weather was good for buck hunting in my opinion. It was a cold rainy day, we were out at daylight and had seen a lot of deer on the move. It was going to be a great day!
With that said, and a short walk over a hill, there he was just standing there looking at us as we looked at him. It didn’t take me long to say, "I'm taking that buck", and so I did. A 27" 4x3 in the Idaho general season. I have been told that it’s a dandy buck for a general season hunt---I must agree! It is a dandy buck any day for me!
Can't wait for next year!"