Hunting and Fishing News Blog Articles

The Idaho Deer application deadline is June 5th. If you have put off your research, I’ve put together a little last minute cheat sheet to get you up to speed. The past winter was hard on the deer herds. Snowfall in most areas was well above average. Fawn mortality has been extremely high in some areas. In response Fish and Game eliminated antlerless general season hunts in the following units: 48, 49, 52, 66A, 68, 70, 71, 72, 73, 73A, 74, 75, 76, 77 and 78. What this means is there will be a gap in the age class of the deer going forward, and in the 4-6 year old group it will be harder to find mature bucks.

Surveys indicate strong survival for mature bucks. On the plus side, high snowfall can mean a very wet and green spring and summer as the snow melt lasts longer into the year. These conditions are ideal for bucks to get enough nutrition to maximize their genetic potential. It could be a good year to be in the Idaho mountains. This article focuses on limited quota hunts, but Idaho also offers an extensive OTC opportunity. If you don’t pull a premium tag, plenty of big boys can be found in the general hunts.

1. Owyhee Unit 40 has the magical ingredient to growing big animals. The habitat doesn’t encourage dense populations for deer, so finding your buck may be tough, but the quality is there. The average hunt has taken 6 days, and 80% of hunter fill their tags. 76% of the unit is public land.

2. Smokey-Bennett Unit 45 access is notably better than its cousin to the North, at about 64%. The terrain is mostly lowlands and very easy for an Idaho hunt. Draw odds are very steep for both residents and nonresidents. Harvest success has been 85%, and 90% of the bucks taken were 4+ points. The average hunt has taken 6 days.

The days of “range guesstimation” are long over, or in your case they should be. I will admit, being a traditional bowhunter for many years made me resist the idea of rangefinding technology being incorporated into my gear. Boy, was that wrong!

In my humble opinion, I since feel that having a quality rangefinder in your chest rig makes you a more conscientious hunter. So instead of guessing you now know precisely how far that critter is. Couple that with the knowledge of your weapon of choice’s ballistics, and you have the formula for success. In short, knowledge is power and yardage is everything. It gives us the information we need to either stalk closer, or take the shot. Just a few yards either side of that can spell a missed shot, or worst of all – a wounded animal.

So where is all this leading? I guess it’s leading to the fact that if you don’t have a quality rangefinder you should, and I have fallen in love with SIG’s rangefinders, specifically the 2400ABS. This rangefinder is a permanent fixture in my hand and the information it provides is priceless!

It’s the most powerful in class rangefinder you can buy and power is everything when it comes to ranging “soft/non-reflective” targets like game animals. Power equates to distance at which you can read a soft target. With the 2400ABS ranging a game animal at 1,300 yards is no problem. Reflective objects, like a rock or hillside an animal is standing on, no problem, I have gotten readings back from 2,200 yards. That’s well over the 1,760 yards in a mile!