The 2012 hunting year started like any other year.
I contacted my dad and we put in for moose. We have been putting in for moose for the last 4 or 5 years with no success and this year was no different. When announcements were made we were unsuccessful again. On a fluke I decided to check the second chance draws this year, I have put in on them in the past but the odds were so much worse than the first go around I had decided not to waste the time and money again. This year was different in the fact that there were a significant amount of area 39 doe tags available for the second chance draw. Normally I would not have looked at a doe hunt but my oldest daughter is now 9 and has expressed an interest in hunting. Before going to the effort of getting her into hunter ' s safety, which is another story into itself, I wanted to make sure that she truly was going to be able to handle hunting and had an interest. So with seventy odd doe tags left over in unit 39 I decided to try and put in for a second chance hunt. Since I was putting in any way I also chose an antelope hunt with one tag available and a late season muzzleloader cow elk tag with three tags left. Come draw time I was expecting to maybe end up with the doe tag. I was amazed to find that I had successfully drawn all three tags.
Fast forward to the start of the 2012 deer season. I was going to be greedy thinking that the doe tag would be a gimme hunt and super easy I decided that I would also attempt to become the fourth generation hunter to fill a tag with a family heirloom. My great grandfather back in the day had purchase a 303 savage rifle new to hunt with and it had been passed down to my grandfather. I never knew my grandfather on that side of the family but was told that he had used the rifle successfully to provide for his family. The only deer I have seen my dad shoot was with this rifle. It does not have a scope so I figured that my effective range would only be about 100 yards.
The first day out saw my dad, daughter, and I making a loop past Arrow Rock Dam, up and past Thorn Creek Lookout, and dropping over and down into Idaho City. The only deer we saw was up on top by the lookout and it was a forked horn, go figure, and me with a doe tag.
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