For a lot of people out there, it is all doom and gloom. School started back up. Sleepy-headed kids that have been staying up until midnight are suddenly getting jerked out of bed at ungodly hours, thrown into a car and dumped out in front of some strange establishment called school. If they daydream and their thoughts drift off to their summer backpacking and fishing adventures, suddenly they’re snapped back to reality by the sharp crack of a ruler on their knuckles.
And a lot of adults didn’t escape this tribulation transition either. Some of them are the cruel ogres that inflict such pain upon the kids. Their schedules have been disrupted too. They’re the teachers! They’ve cruelly been snapped out of a lull as well.
I have first-hand experience with the above. I watch it on a daily basis. My wife is a school teacher and my daughter is a college kid and works part-time as a teacher’s aide. You’d think every year they were 18-year-old kids getting jerked out of a peaceful life and thrown into Marine boot camp.
They jump out of bed (well, crawl out the first week) and run around with their tail feathers on fire scrambling to get out the door only to dart back in once or twice for some forgotten item.
So, what the heck does the above have to do with hunting? Ha, I’ll tell you what! A bunch of us hunters are no different. We wake up a day or two before season acting like we didn’t have a year to get prepared. We’re running around searching for a list of items that seems to have disappeared. Well, actually they never got around to writing a list so they’re running around the garage like a kindergartener randomly remembering items needed to have a successful hunt.
I just had a buddy call me Thursday and ask me if I had his hunting knives. Where’s my tent? Then opps, where’s my HS Strut scent wafer? Then where’s my ammo? Where could my new Sierra Designs sleeping bag possibly be? Only to discover that the kids used it for a sleepover. After finding it you discover they spilled a 2-liter bottle of Coke inside of it and the neighbors dog slept with them and chewed his way out of the bottom of it.
I guess humans are just humans. Whether they’re school kids, teachers or hunters, they create the same disasters wherever they go, just in different scenarios. But despite the drama, the Idaho hunting season is in full bloom right now! It’s like watching a fireworks show. At the end of the show, they always send up multiple rockets in rapid succession. Well, that’s exactly how fall is in Idaho. She offers so many hunting opportunities that it is almost impossible to list them all. We have grouse, dove, chukar hunting, deer, elk, bear, wolves and if you drew tags (which I didn’t) antelope, moose, big horn and goat hunting. And I probably missed listing your favorite species. Such as upcoming duck, goose and pheasant hunting. And what about the lowly rabbit and squirrel hunting? Or cougars!
So if you live in Idaho, you’re totally blessed. What other state offers all the hunting opportunities that we freely enjoy? And we have multiple options in which to hunt. We can hunt with pistols, bows, crossbows, airguns, blackpowder and rifles.
If you’re new to the state of Idaho don’t be bashful. Grab your bow/rifle and hit the mountains. No one is going to show you their secret spots so you’re going to have to learn on your own. Buy a forest service map and go out exploring. When you find a spot you like, buy a detailed map from MyTopMaps.com.
It’s going to take you a few years to find some good hunting spots but that’s true no matter where you live. Over time you’ll meet new buddies at work, church or neighbors that will take you. But don’t go back to their spots later by yourself or you’ll be tar and feathered and run out of Idaho.
And if you handle and cook your game right, it’ll be the best organic meat you’ve ever had. I’m excited. In January we filmed three shows on processing and cooking game. I think they’ll be the best outdoor cooking shows ever produced. I met Charles and Jody Allen — the owners of Knives of Alaska on their ranch to cut up a deer, wild hog and a wagyu steer. They also had the High Road With Keith Warren crew there to film it all — Keith Warren, Matti Tackett and Johnny Piazza and one of the top 15 chefs in America, Michael Scott. I learned a lot from them. You’ll learn how to pull some unique cuts off your wild game and how to cook them. Here’s a link to some of the footage. Click on the pic with Keith holding the hog then next on the tray of meat. Two more shows to come. highroadhunting.com.
So don’t set out another season. Get out in the woods and if your kids are old enough, take them, too. Dad started taking me deer hunting when I was 7 or 8 years old. If the guys in your camp are too rough to have your kids around then you need to make some new friends. Have fun.
Tom Claycomb lives in Idaho and has outdoors columns in newspapers in Alaska, Idaho, Utah, Nevada, Colorado and Louisiana. He also writes for various outdoors magazines and teaches outdoors seminars at stores like Cabela’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse and Bass Pro Shop. He can be reached via email at smileya7@aol.com.
