A week before Idaho’s general deer season opener, a buddy and I were out elk hunting and I glassed up a decent 4-point buck skylined nearly five miles away. Being so passionate about mule deer and having such low densities of deer these days I always get excited when I see a buck so I instantly started scanning around for more.  I picked out a few more just down the ridge but they ended up just being does. While it started to become a little more light out I began looking hard into the shadow of the ridgeline where the buck was and I could make out another deer that was with him. Still being a little too dark to tell what it was, I continued to glass for elk and kept checking back every couple minutes to hopefully see what the other deer was.  

Finally, on the second or third time checking I caught a glimpse of horns as he made his way onto the skyline and knew right away it was a stud buck! I excitedly told my buddy Colton, “That other buck with him is a dandy!” and immediately we were both out of elk mode and focused on this buck taking videos as he made his way onto the ridge.