Two Hunting Stories... Multi Challis Mega Bucks and Rockland Big Buck

 

Sam Crane and I think Frank Garner

Lewis, Rebel the horse and Sam Crane

Sam and Dean

Fall 1979

Dean Shaw, Ron Crane, Sam Crane, Lew Roberts, Frank Garner and Blaine Shaw planned a deer hunting trip up Challis, Morgan Creek in the late eighties.

Equipment consisted of one cattle truck, 7 head of horses, (I took two, Rebel being one of them) one pickup mounted camper, one empty pickup with a shell and feed and lots of excited anticipation.

Frank and I drove the cattle truck loaded with horses.  Dean drove his pickup with camper and Ron and Sam were in the pickup with supplies and feed. 

It took us pretty well the whole day to get to Challis and up Morgan creek where we decided to camp,

We stopped and talked to a range rider about deer and he informed us he didn’t think there was very many around because he didn’t see very many on his trips taking care of cattle.

We settled in a canyon that went up past his line cabin and found a fairly flat camping place with lots of quakes’ and pines.  Very pretty place.  The canyon was steep and had snow on the lee sides showing there had been a storm through there recently.

We had some late sandwiches and decided to hunt the canyon we were camped in for the couple of hours we had left before the sun went down.

We all spread out with Frank and me hiking up towards the top of the ridge.  We hunted down hill towards Morgan Creek in somewhat of a line moving slowly through the brush, quakes and pines.

We immediately started to see deer tracks in the snow where there was some.  As Frank and I worked our way down the ridge, we could see through openings below us the rest of the party walking slowly through the foliage.   

As we approached the end of the ridge, it put us above the line cabin way below us.  It opened up with a lot of buck brush and grass.  As we slowly came out into the opening, a big buck jumped up between Frank and me and ran back the way we had come on Frank’s side.  He was shooting a 32 special.  He started shooting and probably shot about three rounds.  I ran over to where he was standing and it was just starting to get dark.  I ask if he connected and he said he thought he did but it didn’t stop.  We started tracking him back up the ridge and found him about 50 yards or so piled up dead.  He was a very pretty 4x4 with a measurement of 32 inches.  By the time we got him cleaned out it was dark.  We drug him straight down the ridge towards the bottom until we came to a fence and propped him open so he could cool him down and left him for the night.  The next morning we took the horses in there and loaded him on one of Ron’s horses and took him back to camp and hung it up.

We decided to ride the horses straight up a trail to the ridge and Frank and I stopped and the rest turned right and rode up the ridge higher.  We figured we could catch deer coming up from below from water so we prepared for that.

In a little while we heard a shot above us and figured they had got one.  We waited a while to make sure we didn’t miss any coming up and then rode up where we could see them.  Rather than leave one horse in camp which would have been Rebel we had saddle him and brought him with us.  As we approached them they were hiking up the real steep side that was fairly open and they had shot a nice two point about half way down the ridge.  

They were debating how to get a horse down there and were a little spooky about their horses on the steep side and loading a deer on one of them.  They ask about Rebel since he was a good ole docile and I said o.k.   

We worked out way down the side on an angle and it was steep enough that we could load the deer straight across into the saddle.   Dean started to get out all this rope out of his saddle bags and I said what you going to do with all that.  He said tie the deer on the saddle.  I said no, I’ll do it and do it my way since it was my horse.  I took some baling twine out of the bags and tied him down like we have always done it and led him on an angle up to the ridge.  It worked very well.  

When we got to the ridge, the party decided that they wanted to hunt down another canyon to camp and could Frank and I take the horses and deer down the ridge on the trail so they could hunt.  Frank was anxious to get back to camp anyway because his deer was down there hung up and he didn’t want someone to steal it.  We start to lead the five horses, we were on two, down the trail and those bitties of Ron wouldn’t trail,  they wanted to get ahead, go behind and it was terribly frustrating and both Frank and I was ready to shoot them.  Finally I said Frank let me send Rebel down ahead of his then we can handle these broncos with just two apiece.  He agreed.  I took Rebel up ahead, threw the rope over his neck and kicked him in the butt down the trail towards camp.  He started down and I knew we’d find him in camp ok.  We then took two apiece and wrangled the others down the trail back to camp.  When we got there, Rebel was eating grass and the deer was just fine. 

Day three we decided to drive down the canyon and go up another canyon and work up to the top of the ridge and hike down it to drive any deer out.  Ron said he would wait up with the pickup until just before dark and if we weren’t back we would have to hike all the way out and down to the main rode of Morgan creek to meet him.( The road was not a very good one, steep, rocky  narrow and scary).   On the way on our drive, Dean shot a five point that was 28 inch spread and he cleaned it and knew we would have to come back the next day with the horses to get it out.  Needless to say, it got dark on us and so we ended up having to hike all the way down to Morgan creek road where Ron met us with the pickup.  It was a long hike and lucky we had a full moon.  It took us until 10 that night to get to the road.  I was really tired.  

Day four, Dean and I decided we would ride the horses straight across the bottom of the two canyons and get his deer and take it to the top of the ridge that we previously hunted the night before.  Consequently I was riding Rebel.  It took a long time.  

About noon we stopped to have a lunch and it was warm and pleasant and it was really pretty.  As we laid there eating and talking, we spotted a bunch of does with a big buck chasing them They were about half way up the canyon where it started to get really steep and lots of pines.  We figured we could stalk them and maybe get close enough for a shot.  Dean crossed over to the side where the deer were and I went straight up the side we were on.  When I got almost where they disappeared in the pines, I got off the horse and kept hiking up the side across from them hoping to get a shot at the buck.  I found a good spot and settled down to see if I could get a glimpse and a shot.  I saw them in the pines and the buck walked into a clearing,  I took a steady aim and shot,  He disappeared and then I heard Dean shoot,  Just then the buck came out of the pines dragging his hindquarters and I leveled down to finish him off and Dean yelled don’t shoot”.  I looked up just as he shot and it dropped dead.  I went back to the horse and rode over to it and Dean was there and I said thanks for finishing him for me.  He said well I think I’ll give him to Blame, I was a little stunned and I said what for, he didn’t shoot it and he was not there.  You have your deer already tagged and I figured I hit it the first shot.   I said I would have finished him if you hadn’t yelled don’t shoot.  The deer is mine and I’m going to claim him.  He said we’ll see. We cleaned it and started up the steep climb to the top of the ridge where Ron would be with the pickup.  

When we got there, Sam, who was just twelve or thirteen at the time had shot a two point.  Dean called Blaine over and said theirs your deer and I said you know that’s not true Dean.  Blaine said I didn’t shoot him, he not my deer.  I had already tagged him but it caused some feelings between Dean and me.  

We unloaded the buck which measure 30 inches. And He and Ron went down the canyon and brought Deans Five point up to the pickup.  It was so late we left the horses tied up at the bottom of the canyon and we went to camp and we brought back feed for them for the night. The next morning we were back over with the horses and went back up to the top of that ridge.  Blaine was the only one left having not filled his tag.  Dean, Blaine and I kind of stayed fairly close together but Dean stayed on his horse above us.  

Blaine and I was slipping quietly along  the steep side when someone above us spooked a three point out and it came straight down the side in front of us through the pines,   He was trotting and Blaine got hasty and started shooting,  He hit the deer but it didn’t stop it but slowed it up considerably.  As it ran past us and Blaine was shooting, Dean yelled from above, Blaine run down the hill and get in front of that deer and shoot it.   Blaine took off running down that steep side and I could see him when he got in front of it but he didn’t shoot.  Dean yelled, Louie shoot that deer.  So I quickly found an opening as he went through it and dropped him.  When I got to Blaine, he said he had run out of bullets and didn’t realize it until he was trying to stop it.  We quickly cleaned it and Dean brought Rebel down and we tied him on and took him back up the ridge to the rest of the party and Ron with his pickup.  

We were done so decided to head for back and prepare to go home.  I rode and lead Dean’s horse back to camp up Morgan creek.  It took a while.

The next day we loaded up all the deer in the back of Ron’s pickup and broke camp.  We had to take the horses down to the main road to find a place to back the cattle truck up to, to load the horses.  It was quite a sight to see all of those bucks with three really big ones and three good average sizes.

As we traveled down the main road, we came to a checking station and stopped to be checked.  The fish and game boys were quite impressed with what we had.  There formed somewhat a line behind us waiting their turn; consequently, back a ways people couldn’t see the bucks because the cattle truck was blocking their view.  When the personnel started to check out one of the outfits, the hunters started to complain to the fish and game that there wasn’t any deer in the country and they were disappointed in their managing of the herds.  The officer ask them to get out of their pickup and come up and see what we had.  They were quite taken back when they seen our deer and especially the size of most of them.  They said they had driven about every canyon and road they could and didn’t see hardly anything.  We said they need to get out of your pickups and do some serious hunting on foot if you wanted any game.

When we got to Challis we stopped at a local café to get some lunch.  As we were eating, a fellow came in and loudly asked whose pickup and deer were out there parked and we said ours.  He offered to buy the horns and pay us a pretty good price for them.  We of course declined his offer. 

We arrived home safely that evening and gathered our gear to await another year. 

Rockland Buck

Is that the one where dad was sitting on a hillside in rockland and saw it trotting up the canyon below him? Shot it with his 7mm Rem Mag. Not a whole lot of interesting info if this is the same one. I remembered he recovered the bullet. That looks like Mitsy there next to him so the timeframe should be about right.

Best Regards,

Morgan Roberts

That buck is the four five point that I shot off of the peak in Rockland.  Took me twenty minutes to hike up to him;  I think David was with me.  That is when the fellow came up from the backside of our mountain, lost.  He saw us when he got to the summit and plowed right up through the brush and steep side to us.   He had missed a canyon and ended up down towards the ranch to the east.  he shot a two point and was dragging it down toward the bottom east when he ran into another hunter, who told him he was in the wrong canyon and pointed him back west our way. He was Drenched in sweat and beside himself with relief he had found someone. To help him. I took him up to the top of the ridge and showed him Stewart canyon and a s we talked a jeep came up the road below us in Stewart looking for him.  I showed him the way down and he shot down that canyon like a bullet.  It turned out to be a relative of ken Anderson who was up there hunting.  Don’t know what happened to his two point.  But he sure was happy to see us.  Dad

Sent from my iPad

Mule Deer Hunting Fall 2016

Our deer hunt went pretty dang quick.  You know how it goes, many years you can go hunting and either not see a single thing to shoot or get mighty few opportunities.  Last year I did not see a single buck the entire time I went hunting.  This year was different.  We did not see any does this time. 

On Mt. Harrison looking North toward the Magic Valley.  I'm angled approximately toward where I grew up in Rupert.  This is just with my iphone.  Its lame I didn't even bring a nice point and shoot camera.  As good as an Iphone is, it doesn't compare to any of my other cameras.  Bummer because  up here I could have had some phenomenal scenic shots with the clouds and landscape.

It had taken 3 years to draw this particular hunt.  It started out with me and Hugh showing up at dad's house Tuesday night, Oct. 4.  After work I drove to Hugh's house and picked him up and we got to Elba way late.  We made a plan to get up and take the ATV's up through his neighbor's land and onto the slope of the mountain about due west of his house.  We got up before dark, ate breakfast and jumped in the Wildkat and Mule.  Hugh rode with dad ahead of me in the Mule down the highway toward Elba.  Typically the Mule doesn't go super fast, and so just as we started to turn left off the highway a white car passed us going really fast.  Like so fast that I had looked in my mirror and seen nobody, looked down at my gears, shifted my gun and started drifting over to the center getting ready to turn.   WHOOOOSH!!  The white scar shot right by me and really startled me.  Dad was turning and he had just about turned into the car.  Hugh had yelled look out by screaming like a girl, which alerted dad just in time to not swerve into it.  It really startled me because it had only been seconds since I looked into the mirror.  I bet he was doing 80 or 90.

We crossed the road and stopped to count our blessings and breath because that had been really close.  We then started to meander up the two-track dirt road to the west and up the side of the slope before the mountain.   Dad and Hugh were still ahead of me and I was looking up at the base of the mountain at a tan pickup truck that was parked up there.  I wondered how they had gotten up there.  As I was pondering that thought I caught some movement below and to the left of the truck about 100 yards.  I stopped and threw up the binoculars.   HUGE!  I saw a huge rack of horns.  I started panicking because dad and Hugh were still going and by now were quite aways ahead of me.  I thought they were going to spook the buck.  I jammed the pedal to the floor and went tearing up behind them and as soon as I could get around and wave them down I did.  The sagebrush was so big it was hard to catch  them and get their attention.  

We all stopped and we looked the deer over with the binocs.  We decided we could probably stalk up toward it.  Un-beknownst to us there were several bucks in that  group.  We just happened to see the biggest one first.  I couldn't understand why he hadn't taken off yet.  Big bucks are supposed to be some of the smartest creatures.  And they were not far from a pickup where obviously some hunters had parked it.  Anyway me and Hugh started walking up keeping the junipers in between us and the deer.  They were moving off to the south while feeding and we were heading west toward them until we realized they were going south.  We slowly worked through the junipers and sagebrush until we were going south as well.  We would see a  few tracks and at one point we saw horns over the sage brush about 50 yards away but couldn't get a shot.  I kept thinking this was the dumbest big buck ever because we were that close and he had no idea we were there.  Turns out I was wrong in thinking he was dumb.  

For awhile we didn't see or hear anything as we continued south.  We got to the top of a small draw and from that vantage I was sure we would see the deer down below but we saw nothing.  We waited and watched and then I went forward about 50 yards still wondering why I didn't see anything.  Hugh had hung back and was watching something else I think.  I went forward a little more and then heard a stick crack.  I looked behind me and about 40 feet behind me Hugh was saying "oops".  I turned back around to forward and I saw a bunch of horns sticking up over the sagebrush as the deer had heard the sound and had their heads up listening.  I didn't realize the sagebrush was so tall that it covered the bodies and we were a lot closer to them than we thought.  

We moved a little bit more down and cleared the sagebrush and found that we were looking at about 4 bucks, all nice sized.  I threw up the gun and shot at the first one.  After the shot he disappeared and I thought I had missed him clean.  For a few minutes there were no deer and then BAM! Hugh shot right next to my ear.  I was like "what are you shooting at?" and he pointed to some deer on a sidehill to the west of us and on the other side of the draw.  He shot again.  About that time another buck showed up to the south across the draw which I am sure was with the first group of bucks and had a heavier set of horns.  It looked like the same one I had shot at.  I threw up my gun and shot.  I heard the solid thud that time and knew I had hit him.  He went running off as fast as a deer can go.  Hugh was setting up to shoot again and I was like "whoa, lets stop for a sec and make sure we didn't shoot the entire herd."  There were two really nice bucks standing at the top of the hill which we had not seen before.  It was hard not to shoot because they were probably bigger than the ones we had shot.  There was also a really nice big two point down lower than them looking at us like we were weirdos. 

Hugh's

Mine

We go down to look and I crossed a fence and before long found one down under a juniper.  It was a nice tall 3x4 which Hugh had shot.  I yelled at Hugh and then he found dad while I went to look for the one I had shot that ran off.  Pretty soon I found a blood trail and followed it along.  He had ran about 75-100 yards and then collapsed in some dense junipers thinking he could hide.  He was still somewhat alive and made a lunge so I shot him in the neck.  His lunge took him to a road and he dropped right on it.  How lucky was that? Two nice bucks and one right on a road and the other close enough to hook the winch to it and pull it up.  That was the road that other pickup must have come in on.

As I'm walking back to where dad and Hugh were, I saw the really big buck that I had seen right at the beginning.  He was about north and west of where we had been shooting.  He was standing out in the open looking at us and was quite a bit higher around 700 yards away.  He had a couple smaller bucks around him, that looked tiny, but in actuality were the same size as the ones me and  Hugh had shot.  The two big bucks that we saw at the top of the hill were  heading to join him and even they looked small compared to him.  He looked at me and I looked at him.  He looked a little smirky and smart-alecky.  I then knew he had led us into this group of smaller bucks to throw us off his trail.  I guess he didn't mind they got shot and not himself.  Knowing he was safe, he then started to mosey up the hill toward the canyon with the other bucks following him.   They all took their time and then I saw them all hop a fence one by one in typical mule deer fashion.  Quite a pretty sight!, and I wish I'd had a camera with a long lens.  They went up a little further and disappeared into the trees before the canyon and disappeared out of our lives.   Those guys with the truck were up on the mountain above that canyon and we found out later that they had not seen a single deer.  Dang these deer are smart.  

Dad was over there by then and had gotten one down on the other hill.  It turned out to be that big two-point that was looking at us like weirdos.  He was the dumb one and didn't run.  All those other bucks were learning what to do from the big guy but this one didn't pay attention.  I guess we were to interesting being weird.

Dad and Hugh were currently pulling Hugh's deer up the side of the mountain with a long rope and his winch so they could get it through the fence and then clean it.  I asked them if they had seen that really big buck at the end and they had not.

I've never had a hunt go like that.  We now had 2-3 days of just relaxing.   It's usually a lot of hiking and busting through brush creating a lot of sore muscles.  We have been rewarded mostly, but its usually the last day we are there and at the last light so we are taking care of them and taking them out at night.  I think it was for that reason we were so quick to shoot at the first nice set of antlers.  Had we been a little more patient and not blasted away right at the beginning we would have eventually seen most of the bigger bucks and could have had even bigger.

Not to belittle these bucks, they were all heavy, even the dumb two-point.  We decided to take them down to Burley to a guy who processes wild game.  We were supposed to hang up our own deer in the cooler.  We had a heck of a time getting them up on the hooks.  In comparison to all the other deer in the locker hanging up already, ours were considerably larger.  We all got a lot of good meat which may be a benefit of not shooting something bigger.  The larger deer seem to not be as good eating.  

Hugh

Me

Mine all roped up on back of the little space in my wildkat

Dad and the big 2 point

Behind dad's house and the mountain we had just hunted.  We got our deer on the bare mountain slope on the right that you can see between the junipers.

Since we now had a lot of time, me and Hugh decided to relax and explore a little after taking our deer to Burley.  We decided to go up to Lake Cleveland and Mt. Harrison to see if we could find a couple rocks to put in our garden.  We mostly drove up and down Mt. Harrison.  Lake Cleveland was quite low.  The funny thing is as we are up on top of Mt. Harrison and just starting down, a car is coming up.  I recognized the hair of Lola Nelson in the passenger seat.  They didn't notice us and so I started backing up the hill.  The only problem was I had the trailer on that we had hauled the deer into town with.  The road was so narrow and I was in a weird spot that I couldn't really back up very far.  Joan still didn't realize who it was and was starting to drive down the other road to get out.  I had to get out and run and flag them down.  It was really a funny coincidence.

Same as the first photo

Heading up to the peak of Mt. Harrison

Hugh was  getting the willies about here.  It gets windy and the dropoff is huge

On top now

Hugh admiring the scenery.  This is looking South and kind of East down  toward Elba.  Its the second highest peak in southern Idaho

The parking  lot from the guard tower

The guard tower

Looking west and a little north

Its cold.  

South and East toward Elba

Hi Joan, WAIT!

We are up on top of Mt. Harrison and look who else decided to go on a drive.  Joan and Lola!  How funny is that.  

selfie with me and Joan's car

dad's left, Hugh middle and mine is  right

Hugh's left and mine right

mine left and hugh's right