For many years, Dale Moore and I were constant companions, going to different places many times each season. There were so many one day trips in the late 50’s and 6O’s that it was hard to put an exact date to each one. The fall deer hunting season finally opened in area 39, which was the largest hunting unit in the state. It covers Emmett, Idaho on the Northwest to Mountain Home, Idaho on the East to Lowman, Idaho on the North. The season usually lasts for three to four weekends. Dale had heard through a friend, mostly just talk, that there were lots of deer on the North side of the Emmett Valley. Hunting was mostly done in the sage brush covered foothills, there was not timber pockets anywhere for miles. No matter though the deer feed in the lower hills on bitter brush and willows, some green grass was included in their diet. We started out early on a Saturday morning before daylight. To get there, we would need to drive for a couple hours, to be where the deer should be. The sun was coming over the mountains when we finally reached, where we were told to hunt.
We slowed down to watch for deer on the nearby foothills and when nature called it was time to take a pit stop. A truck with one hunter in it had been riding our bumper for a while so this was a good chance for him to get past us and out of the way. We had stopped in a low ravine a few hundred feet deep. We were taking our time, Stretching our legs and walking around when We heard a shot up on top of the flat land. We hurriedly drove to the top where the guy that had passed us was just off the road dressing out a fine young two point buck. We could have shot, him had we not stopped but that’s the breaks. We did the same thing on Grimes Greek, on one other hunt. This guy could handle the small buck by himself so on up the road we went.
After passing the fenced farmland, the terrain changed drastically to mostly sage covered hills with some brush pockets around here and there. This seemed like a good place to start. The truck was parked by the roadside in a wide place so the truck would be off the road. With some water and a sandwich in our backpacks, away we went to find us each a deer. Either sex deer was open during the early season, which doubled our chances of finding something to shoot. We walked to the top of the first hill, where we could see the surrounding hills, if that was all they could be called. I spotted a couple of other hunters, about a half a mile away but no deer. Suddenly, Dale started yelling at me to Look behind me. I finally figured out what he was hollering about, as four does disappeared over the next ridge. I did not have time to shoot at them besides they were too far away, when I spotted them. There were lots of deer in the neighborhood, so we should be able to find something soon. We walked down in a flat meadow with lots of sage and grass. This would be a good place to eat some lunch and rest awhile. Dale started out before I was ready to go. He wanted to go on up the ridge to check out another brush patch. I was about ready to go on up the ridge myself, when a large four point buck came slowly walking my way. He seemed to be limping slightly from one hind leg. He was not paying me no mind at all, he seemed to be preoccupied completely. When he was about thirty yards from me, I shot him behind the head. As l neared him I found out he had been shot in the ham sometime back and his leg was badly infected and rotten. He would have died on his own in a few more days. When I shot, Dale came back down to me to help with getting him to the truck. The buck was so bad, I would have just Ieft him there for the coyotes to eat. He really had a foul smell. We put a rope on him to get him down the hill to the truck anyway. We would have a short pull up hill and then across the grassy flat. From there the rest of the way was downhill on a good trail. We had just arrived at the road when another truck and hunter stopped to look at the buck we had. The guy turned out to be Dale’s friend that told him where to hunt. The buck had a very impressive set of antlers They were wide and uniform. Because of his condition, I wanted to find a Game Warden somewhere to verify he was not fit to haul out. This guy really wanted the antlers in the worst way. I finally gave in to let him have rotten buck. Dale talked to him about a week later. He said only the one leg was spoiled, the rest of the meat was okay. I sure would not have eaten him, he should have been strong as could be.
Dale and I went back to our own hunting business. The afternoon was slowly slipping away. We would not have too much time left to hunt. We took another walk up a long draw. There were deer at the upper end, but they went out ahead of us to far to shoot at. The sun was getting low in the west by the time we were back to the truck. We wanted to hunt on the way back to civilization. There was nothing at all along the road home, but we did have a good time during the day. We would probably go somewhere the next weekend anyway.