Hunter Carries Out Search For Phantom Buck

A local hunter found an unlikely ally in bagging his buck last week.

Post Falls resident Scott Patterson and a friend hunted a week ago Friday in the hills behind Wolf Lodge Bay.

Early in the morning, Patterson walked up a draw and sat down. From behind, a white-tailed buck with large antlers came walking toward him.

Patterson aimed, fired and hit the buck, which then limped away.

“They chased it until about 2 or 3 p.m.,” said Jeremy Patterson, who joined the search for the buck last Saturday.

In the snow, the hunters were able to find the wounded animal’s tracks. They led uphill, downhill and even went down the bed of a creek.

“We went back and looked at a map and found out the creek he was running up and down was Phantom Creek,” Patterson said. “So, we called him The Phantom. We couldn’t catch him and he always disappeared.”

With no success Saturday, the Pattersons tried again Sunday without any luck. Friend Steve Nail of Rathdrum convinced Scott Patterson to try one last time on Monday.

Patterson returned and discovered cougar tracks in the area. He followed them.

“He found a cougar bed with a deer’s tail. About 30 feet away, the deer was laying under a log where the cougar had finished it off,” Jeremy Patterson said.

The deer still was warm and the cougar had eaten only a few bites from a hindquarter. An examination of the deer found that Patterson’s bullet only had broken a front leg, which explained why the deer had made it so far.

Scott Patterson then worked all day to get the deer a mile and a half back to the road. The buck’s antlers displayed 4-by-5 points and had an inside spread of 19 inches, Patterson said.

“I was really impressed,” Jeremy Patterson said. “My dad really broke his back getting his deer.”

Hunters are required to make a reasonable attempt to retrieve wounded or killed game, said Mark Taylor, the landowner-sportsman relations coordinator for the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

Hunters strive for a clean, quick kill, but it doesn’t always work that way.

“Based off the story, they did well,” Taylor said of the Pattersons’ search for the phantom buck. “I have to commend them for it.

“A lot of hunters wouldn’t go that far.”

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