Leaderboard

I wouldnt drink the water in Mexico, let alone let someone drill on my teeth.

Since this tag is once-in-a-lifetime and I will likely never experience this again, I want to share my experience with those who might be interested in following along. For those who do not know, Idaho is a pretty well kept secret when it comes to trophy species. What I mean by that is not that they have a lot of trophy caliber animals, but when it comes to their once-in-a-lifetime species, they have a unique combination of circumstances that keep their draw odds curiously reasonable in a time when point creep, draw strategies and ever-slimming odds are the norm. There are three factors at work here that keep this phenomena intact: First; although Idaho is growing rapidly it is still one of the least densely populated states in the west. Second; There are no bonus points, your odds today are very likely going to be your odds a few years from now. In the ten years since I left Rexburg, the resident draw percentage for this hunt has only reduced from 20% to 18% despite a consistent success rate above 90% and maintaining an average bull spread near 40". Third; Idaho requires applicants to choose to either apply for any one of the three O-I-L species (Moose, Mt Goat, Sheep) or to apply for a limited entry for deer, elk and antelope. Because deer and elk both have OTC general seasons in much of the state residents can be guaranteed plenty of hunting without a special draw, but Idaho is as much mule deer country as it is potato country. So many residents are reluctant to pass up a chance at a rut/migration carp tag to apply for other tags many residents consider a novelty. Just as impressive as the draw odds are the resources that ID has available on their website. Along with harvest data and draw odds there are also interactive unit maps with surface management layers and boundaries. They do a top notch job of making it super easy to research and explore your options, even if you aren't previously acquainted with their regulations and systems. After calling some family and friends, I wasted no time in reaching out to an old friend who was the wildlife manager for this unit when I lived there. It didn't take long to find our that he was still in the area and happy to help get me pointed in the right direction. He even gave me the address of a bull he knew of in the unit. With that connection made its time now to start the process of figuring out gear, times, methods and locations for the hunt. I will likely only get one scouting trip in July, other than that I will be running off of what I can remember from a decade ago and a few dropped pins from my game warden buddy. So if you are interested in seeing how this turns out, check back and I will update the thread with gear prep, e-scouting, and other updates along the way. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and experience if you have any. Thanks for checking in.

I wouldn't rely on points, it is a random draw. For example last year my buddy and I drew 13B with 6 points, the year before that a friend and his buddy drew with 4 points and 2 years before that another buddy and his friend drew with 2 points. You can't totally rely on bonus points.

I have hunted both, I shot a 177" in 13B last year, that being said I have had 5 other friends get 13B tags also and 4 out of the 5 shot 200+ inch bucks and the fifth was 192". The difficulty with 13B is all the guides and their cronies running around. there might only be 50 or 80 tags there but once you get all the other guides and helpers up there its more like a thousand people. That being said it can still be an awesome hunt. These are the bucks from last year

Based on the 2018 BP report, I am slated for my first late December coues hunt in 2019 and I've been scouting new area since archery ended in January. I set new cameras Sunday and saw 15+ bucks with buds and at least 60 doe. I also found a nice deadhead on an unmapped water source and a "white" coues at 1.1 miles away. The weather was incredible, it was a glorious day in new country.

Be careful in Mexico. I went to dental school in Glendale and saw some really bad stuff come out of Mexico. Their cost per procedure is going to be lower but they are gonna make it up in volume. I can’t count how many times I saw someone who needed one crown and a couple fillings and they came back with 4-5 crowns. Yes they probably spent the same or less for those 4-5 crowns but the thing about dental work is that if you do 4-5 crowns poorly you’re setting yourself up for a really really expensive future. Everything dental goes up exponentially each time you mess with it. A sealant is $30 (sealing a crack before a cavity) a filling is $200 (cutting the cavity out and filling it back up) a crown is $1000 (cutting the tooth into a top hat shape and recovering it with a new ceramic top) a root canal and crown is $2500. Taking the tooth out and replacing with an implant is $3500. All of these prices will be lower in MX, but I can promise you they don’t stay in business at the prices they charge without doing volume. If someone comes into my office for a $1000 crown my overhead eats up pretty quick. If I do two the second one has much much higher profit and so on. That’s how they make money on a $300 crown. The other thing to keep in mind is the dental lab work from down there is atrocious. I saw stuff in dental school that I know I could have done better on when I was 8 yrs old. Just for reference, my dental lab charges me $250 to build me a crown. That’s what it costs for quality work. If I charged $300 for crowns I would go out of business in a hurry. Im betting they get their crowns from Mexican labs for $15-30. Scary thought if you ask me. When you think about the stuff a tooth has to go through, acid, hot coffee to cold ice cream in the same bite, hundreds of PSI of pressure. The thought that a $15 piece of lab ceramic made by an underage worker in a lab mill in Mexico is gonna make it more then a few years is not happening. That’s my two cents on it. Get a dentist you trust. Spend the money. You won’t regret it. I wish I were closer I could get you set up.

As a kid I can remember visiting my grandparents and cousins in Idaho and Montana. We'd all be outside eating homemade ice cream and reminiscing about old times when the conversation would inevitably turn to the time Grandma got chased up a tree by a moose, or when one got a tire swing stuck on its antlers at the cabin in Island Park, or when one chased my cousin Brian home after he fell off the snowmobile. Still today at just about every family gathering just when things start to quiet down someone will call out in his direction "MOOOOSE!" These experiences and many others shaped my admiration of the largest member of the deer family. When we would spend summers at the family property in Clancy, MT, the most prized of all sightings was a bull moose. Their huge black bodies, contrasted by wide flat, white palms in the creek bottoms or black timber are mesmerizing. While attending college in Rexburg, ID I spent as many hours as possible exploring the Big Hole mountains just outside of town. I hunted elk and deer there but was always distracted when an 8' ungulate would cross my path. One day in November while looking for a cow elk I watched a behemoth bull moose peruse the timber apparently roaming for a second cycle cow and I promised myself that one day when I had the time and money I would be back for one of the beasts. Those lean college years didn't allow me the opportunity to trophy hunt, let alone do justice to a once-in-a-lifetime venture. But I took note of the favorable draw odds, especially for residents, and committed that the day would come. Before leaving my native born state again I scrounged up the few hundred dollars to purchase a lifetime license ensuring that the NR cap for such a tag would never become a barrier to entry. So this year, 10 years removed from my post-collegiate departure, I decided the time had come to begin the process of grinding away at the 18% draw odds. I figured that even without a point system in Idaho the expectation was that I would draw a tag within 5 years. So imagine my surprise last Friday when I was greeted by this

Before January 2019, I hadn't taken a buck with a bow or taken one with a rifle since 2016. For 2017 and 2018 rifle seasons, I told my husband if I couldn't find one at least 85", I was going to pass. Coues meat is my favorite, but we had enough for the two of us with his bucks. Passed a handful of nice bucks on both hunts and had a couple blown stalks during the bow seasons. Opening morning of the 2018 rifle hunt, I glassed up 2 bucks a little over 500 yards away. The biggest was about a high 70's, maybe 80". Not wanting to shoot, we continued to glass. About 25 minutes later, we hear 2 guys walking up on us. My husband asked if I wanted to tell them about the bucks and I said sure. He tells them the distance and asked if they wanted to take one and the guy said "you bet!" We had him look through our optics that were a tripod so he would know where they were. He gets set up with his rifle and my husband gives him the range. He shoots and isn't even close... hits 3 feet below the bucks feet and way right. The buck doesn't even spook because the shot was so far off the mark and the other buck just continues to feed. He's getting ready to fire again and my husband told him to hold on and shoot our rifle. It's dead on... I took an antelope with it with one shot at 709 yards. My husband sets up the gun and dopes it for him. The guy slides behind the rifle and can't find the buck in the scope. After a few looong minutes of my husband dialing the power on the scope up and down for him, he finds him and is ready. We get in our binos, tell him just hold right on him and smoothly squeeze the trigger. The gun sounds off and the buck takes 5 steps and is down for the count. The guy is so excited! I think he thanked us and shook my husband's hand about 6 times. lol It was a great feeling to help someone and see them so appreciative and happy. Fast forward to January 2019..... We are on the archery javelina hunt and I always have an OTC deer tag. We have put in almost 4 miles and the pigs have given us the slip twice. Back in December I had sprained my ankle and it was still pretty sore. I told my husband I needed to give it a break, so lets glass a little bit. We set up the tripods and are only in the glass about 3 minutes when he says those words we all love to hear..."I got a buck." What follows was even better..."He's a good one." We didn't have to do "rock, paper, scissors" to figure out who gets to go after him, because he didn't get an OTC tag this year. Lucky me! The buck was feeding in certain direction and the wind was good. To make an already long story short, I was able to position myself in front of where the buck was trying to go. I was in the shade and had good cover. I had time to tell myself..."Make this count. This doesn't happen every day. Stay calm, aim and follow through." I had ranged a few areas where I thought he was going to come out as it was real thick. At the 40 yard clearing, he walked right on by. I can now see he is coming straight at me. I'm watching him through the brush and with the terrain, he's either going to keep on his path or turn and come broadside in front of me at 25 yards with a clear shooting lane. Well...he turns. This is it...it's gonna happen! Everything now slows way down...it was the strangest thing. Almost like slow motion. I can see him on the other side of the brush. I draw my bow and settle in. I see his nose clear the brush, then his eye. He has no clue I'm even here. Now his neck and then his shoulder. I place my pin in that sweet spot just behind the crease and follow him. My bow fires, I don't remember touching off the trigger. It hits it's mark. He spins and blows out of there running straight away from me, so I can't see the exit. I watch him disappear and crash into the brush. I'm trying to see if he comes out on the other side of the brush...he doesn't. I still haven't moved and I hear some huffing sounds that are either him or some pigs then all is quiet. I wait about 15 minutes and decide I can slip down and see if I can find my arrow quietly. I find it and good blood right away and mark it. My husband stayed up on the top of the ridge, so I figure I better go get him and let him know I hit the buck. From where he was at, he couldn't see me, but he heard the arrow hit and heard the buck take off. The second he sees me he asks "Well?" I will never forget the look on his face when I told him I hit him and it should be good. It's now getting late in the day and we're worried about it getting dark. Lucky we had one bar of service to get a call out to a great friend to head our way in case we needed help finding the buck in the thick stuff. It's now about 40 mins after the shot. My husband and I get down to my arrow where I marked the blood and start slowly tracking through the brush. A few drops here and there, nothing, then a big pile, then back to a few drops. I'm not gonna lie...I was wondering what the heck? Maybe I didn't hit him as good as I thought. Then, "There he is!" He is off to the left....in the thick brush...and he is done! I couldn't believe what just happened! From where he was shot, he went about 60 yards. So many things have to go just right. I'm so thankful it was meant to be for me! We had him hung in a tree and skinned when our friends got to us. 2019 has started off almost like a dream. Let's hope the good mojo continues. With 9 bonus points I have drawn an early archery bull tag. Please keep your fingers crossed!

Looks like it found a home. I'll update if anything changes.

Cade Smith of All Smiles Dental Care. Great dude and owner/inventor of the triclawps. Great guy and good prices.

Droopy

This pic is from the last week of Apr.

Last year 14 woulda got you the tag. I’d expect it to go up this year as a lot of people will have the same idea this year and a lot likely held off last year due to drought. I’m gonna guess 16 or more will be required due to the small tag numbers on that hunt.

LOL, I missed the $17.50 deal, paid $28 -ish for them but haven't put any out yet. Reviews on the unit sucked, but your pics renew my hope.

Love it

Looking to trade my 7mm-08 for a 300 win or 7mm let me know hat you have thanks

Extremely good Deal! If I was not building a new rifle right now I would pick this up! GLWTS

1. Dont assume that you won't run into a rattle snake. Have a plan in place for if crap goes wrong, it's real easy to slip and hurt yourself in Coues country. A Garmin In Reach could save your life. Be prepared for temp extremes, can get hot during the day and cold at night. 2. I'd shoot for a southern unit. The ideal scenario for getting on a buck isn't picking a huge canyon. For archery the big canyons have long ridges that break down into smaller canyons and fingers. I think those outer fingers would be better to start with. Finding does is a good idea but may not be reliable until mid january when the rut starts going strong. 3. Understand thermal currents and how they work. Glass your buck early, wait until he beds and come in from on top of him because thermals by that time should be going uphill. Read threads on glassing, the how, where, when and why. 4. Imo, having a lightweight tripod is almost as or even more important then the glass. I'm assuming you know you should be glassing with your binos on the tripod. 8 power is a bit week. Keep in mind most typical glassing scenarios will put you 200-300 yards away from the deer as your minimum. My typical glassing range with 15s is 300-800 yards. I think you should have 10 power minimum. Although 15s are the standard 12s are getting more and more popular but for the most part its the high end 12s. The 8s are perfect for the stalk but not for glassing them up from a distance. Id seriosly consider looking into quality 10s or 12s. On the cheap range I'd say vortex vultures or viper as a minimum for glassing off the tripod. For what you can get viper 12s or 15s for they offer a lot of bang for the buck and they are pretty darn lightweight. If you can afford expensive there's a whole bunch of good options out there. Good luck

All of the white tails on my cams still have their antlers as of today

Seem like legit questions to me. I don’t have any spots to share nor would I put them on the internet if I did. But to answer your questions yes there are a ton of tags and yes the hunt can get crowded. But like others have said there are ways to escape it. As far as quality, this is more of a quantity unit than a quality but some big bulls can and do come out every year. My advice would be shoot the first bull that makes him happy. The only other thing I would add is to just try and enjoy the hunt for what it is. Taking a bull is a nice conclusion but the fun is in the hunting. Make the most of it. He didn’t ask for crap from you. There is no need to be a peckerhead. The dude wants to know if it gets crowded with all the tags in the unit and what caliber of bulls to expect. He even goes to the extent of saying HE IS NOT ASKING FOR SPOTS. Seems pretty fair to me. No need to belittle the guy for asking some simple questions.

For a late hunt, any of those would be just fine. I would take any and be thrilled to death.

This is is the buck that my hunting partner killed with me this year. The taxidermist doing his euro mount discovered that the deer has upper canine teeth. I know that millions of years ago most ungulates did have tusks, and some species still do but i have never seen this in all of my life. Has anyone else seen this in a deer?