Hunting Prayers

A big hello to all you avid readers out there. My name is Toby Heward and this is my story of how I got an answer to my prayers throughout a very rough and stressful year of hunting.

I am a very passionate hunter and love exploring the outdoors. To some hunting is just a past-time or hobby, but to me it is so much more. The act of hunting has been around for generations and it was how our forefathers provided for their families in order to survive. It was also a way for early settlers to explore the landscapes around them and find a suitable place to settle down. This year my goal was no different than the last except for a little twist; get a deer in order to help provide food for my family to take off some of the strain of raising food prices.

This year our hunt began on the 10th of October with the general rifle season of Idaho's southern mountain ranges. When hunting, our family usually goes out as a group and works as a team in order to bring back as many animals as possible. We weren't able to all go out on the first day however, due to some of my younger siblings and I having some school to finish first. Our father was able to go out on the opening day to hunt and was even accompanied by an old friend of his. They saw dozens of animals on the first few days and my dads friend was even lucky enough to harvest a 3 by 3 mule deer buck on the opening day. Once the weekend rolled around, my younger brothers and I were finally able to meet up with our father to hunt and said goodbye to my dads friend.

Our overall group consisted of four people: my father Jeremy, my younger brothers Dustin and Gavin, and then me. It was my younger brothers first year hunting and both were quite anxious, as was I since I was in charge of teaching them some of the ins and outs of hunting. We also have a tradition that we have kept with us as we have been hunting for as long as I can remember, and that is to pray for a successful hunt. We were very hopeful that we would get something since the family camped next to us had three nice bucks all hanging around their campsite. That first hunt we had as a group however, ended with a bit of disappointment. During those first two days working together as a group, we only managed to find one little 2 by 2 mule deer buck that someone else had wounded. We tried to get a shot on him and put him out of his misery since it is cruel to let an animal suffer like that, but he ended up disappearing on us.

The next week we all got together again and decided to try a different mountain range; one where we had been successful in seeing many bucks come out of before. Upon reaching our destination at the crack of dawn, our group managed to find a few does roaming around the bottom and we decided to get a closer look. Soon those does were able to catch wind of where we were and decided to hightail it out of there. We searched that area for a few more hours but only found a few coyotes and jackrabbits running around. When we had decided to start going back to our car, we met with a kind young man on the way and found out something shocking. The young man has been up there on the first day and every mountainside had been crawling with hunters to the point that almost all harvest-able deer were taken within the first few hours. He also mentioned that it sounded like a war-zone with gunshots going off almost every few seconds.

Feeling a little dejected, we decided to try our luck on a deeper mountain range farther in. It wasn't long before we noticed that smoke had started to rise in the distance and within the area we had intended to hunt.

Quickly we decided to back off from that area and try somewhere further away. To our relief a fire crew showed up and was able to dowse the fire after a few hours work. That evening we were able to find a few more does, but no bucks ever showed themselves. We then got back to camp and decided to rest up for another day and prayed that the next day would be more successful, but what came next put a big damper on our plans.

A large storm had rolled in overnight, and we were not able to go hiking into some of the places we had intended to go. One such place that we tried to hike up into was right next to our camp, but after about 30 minutes of rain and snow, we were soaked to the bone and we couldn't even see 50 yards in front of us. Soon we made our way back to camp and decided to take a few hours and dry off. During our break, we played some friendly games of Uno and Farkle. I never won but it was fun to play with family while waiting for the storm to pass. After a while the storm lightened up, we decided to try hunting from the roads for a bit. We never did see any bucks but we saw almost a hundred does just grazing on the hillsides. Our father did manage to find a few grouse and got one for dinner that night, which we happily partook of.

The next week after that was our last for the rifle season, and this time we were determined to get something. We said our prayers before we started hunting, and decided it would be better to go up to an area where my younger two brothers could harvest a doe and get at least some meat for the freezer. That second to last morning, or the 28th of October, we ended up in the middle of the Minidoka County desert where not many hunters choose to go.

Within the first hour of the hunt, we managed to find four does near the road. We quickly hopped out and tried to get my younger brothers set up for a shot. Unfortunately, they ended up jumping a fence and ran right into someones private property so we had to keep moving on. Luckily, our father had one place in mind which almost always had deer. Upon reaching our destination, we scanned the horizon in order to see if our fathers desired hunting area still had animals. After a few minutes of glassing, I managed to catch a does head poking about the brush and signaled to my father where I had seen her.

We quickly got our equipment and made a very stealthy stalk towards this doe. She was about 900 yards from our truck and right in the middle of a small hill. We got within about 200 yards of her position, and then all of a sudden about 12 more does pop our of the brush. We hunker down and try not to give away our position. Soon they climb over the hill and we follow soon after. Fortunately, they had decided to stop just on the other side of the hill and we had the perfect vantage point snipe one of them. My brother Dustin was the first to come forward and take up the gun. However, upon trying to load his gun, it jammed on him. Not wanting to blow our cover I quickly loaded my rifle, a 270 Savage, and handed it to him. After about a minute, we was ready and the does just sat there grazing. My brother picked out the first one that stood broadside and slowly squeezed the trigger, and that doe dropped like a rock. All the other does ran off but it didn't matter, we had one down.

We all congratulated Dustin for his first deer and headed down to begin harvesting her. It only took a few minutes to finish the cleaning and get her all prepped up to head back to the car. The journey took 45 minutes with both my dad and I using deer draggers, but we had managed to at least get one deer at that point. Then we spent the rest of that day and the next looking for more deer within the same area, but to no avail. So ended the rifle season for our group, but that didn't stop our hunt. My father and I still had the late archery season, which was from November 16th to December 10th, and the area we can hunt is literally within my family's backyard.

I decided to try my luck that first weekend of the late archery season and got up to my parents place the night before to prepare. The area had gotten a decent bit of snow already so traveling would be a bit tricky, but I came prepared and made my plan of attack. There was a place right behind our house called Grape Creek, which in years past had produced some amazing deer but at this point I was just planning on harvesting whatever was close enough. My other brother Seth decided that he would come on this trip, since he had nothing better to do and wanted to spend some time with me. We both said a prayer before we left and headed up towards our destination.

On the way up, there weren't very many people around so we had a very easy time going up the road to where I wanted to hunt. I saw a few does upon the first ten minutes of the drive and tried to stalk in close enough to get a shot, but the closest I got was 70 yards and unfortunately by bow has been set to 50 yards so I couldn't make the shot. Also, I could only see her head so it wouldn't have been a good shot either way.

Soon I made my way back down and talked to a few people who had stopped behind my car that were glassing the mountainside. They hadn't seen anything other that does so we decided to move on. Unfortunately, the place where I wanted to go up the mountain had become so slick with ice from traffic that we couldn't make it up, so in the end we decided to go back to where I had seen those does before and started hiking up around the mountain and into the juniper tree groves.

We had only hiked about 50 yards from my car when six does jumped out of the trees. I wasn't going to even try to take a shot off at them since I had already spooked them, so my brother Seth and I kept moving up the trail. About 300 yards from where those six does had been, another lone doe was standing broadside on the mountain looking at us. Using my rangefinder, I found out she was only 145 yards from our position and tried getting closer. There luckily a few juniper trees in her way so I was able to get within 25 yards before she saw me. She moved over to about 45 yards and then I tried taking a shot at her with my bow. Fate had other plans though, and my arrow was sent flying over her by deflecting off a bush in front of her. That doe headed for high country, and soon so did we but in the opposite direction. Another doe had shown itself at 200 yards, but this one didn't stick around.

After hiking up and around were that last doe has been, we came to an open gully with a patch of juniper trees in front of us. On the other side of the gully was 13 visible deer. I sent Seth up higher and asked him to try and brush any deer that were higher down to where I was as I moved towards those 13 does. Upon coming out into the clearing, those does had already caught wind of me and had hightailed it up the mountainside. Above me however, a lone doe hadn't caught wind of me and was soon getting chased by a 4 by 4 buck that my brother had managed to push out of the junipers. I gave chase to the occupied buck, but soon came to lose him in the dense juniper trees lying just above where I had seen him.

I then met back up with my brother and decided that we should had back down to the car. Upon coming back down that trail which we had just traversed, a big of movement caught my attention. A giant set of antlers had just bounded out from the brush below us and had stopped within throwing distance. I signaled to my brother to stay still, ranged the mule deer buck at 38 yards, and knocked my arrow onto my bow. The deer soon decided to head back from whence he came and in a desperate attempt to bring him back, I started doing a deer grunt. To my astonishment, he only went 120 yards and then did a big u-turn back towards us and stopped broadside at 68 yards. Not wanting to lose this buck, I drew my bow and using the space just below my lowest arrow sight, guessed the distance and let my arrow flow.

Soon the deer was off and running over to the right of us and making his way back up the hillside. I was so sure that I had missed my shot, but then I heard and saw something that gave me hope. The buck had stopped his ascent just above a lone juniper tree and was making a loud gasping noise. This went on for a minute or two before he moved forward a bit, bedded down, and took his final breaths in this world as he leaned his head back into the brush. I could not contain my excitement after what I had just witnessed. It was my first time getting the opportunity to use a bow to harvest a mule deer buck, and there he was just over a hundred yards laying down in the snow. He is also one of the biggest I have ever come across in my 13 years of hunting, and he surely won't be the last.

After cleaning him out, taking some pictures, and hiking him back the 800 yards from where I parked, with my brothers help we made our way back to my parents place and gave them the shock of their lives. Only my grandfather has every managed to get any mule deer bigger than I have this year, and hopefully my father will have just as much luck as he tries hunting in these next few weeks. One thing is for sure, our prayers were answered in full this year and I am glad to say that having the faith in something, even if not seen, can make a big difference in how things play out.