Bearpaw Season - Spring 2014

[quadrafire]

That is why I hunt........... For all the varied experiences. That is awesome!!!!!!!

For me, if I didn't bag a bird, but had that experience with the owl.........That would be the greatest.  Thanks for sharing that story 

[ribka]

Looks like a great season 

[bearpaw]

Here's a blue grouse we encountered over the weekend, it's always nice seeing different species of wildlife when hunting.

[ribka]

Looks like another great season!

[bearpaw]

The rain and snow has gone, today was a much nicer day and it showed with the turkey hunting. My two hunters in camp bagged a  jake this morning and two longbeards later in the day. So three birds today. Sorry no pics of the jake. Congrats to Marc and Dennis. 

[Machias]

That is why I hunt........... For all the varied experiences. That is awesome!!!!!!!

For me, if I didn't bag a bird, but had that experience with the owl.........That would be the greatest.  Thanks for sharing that story 

 

[bearpaw]

We just started another turkey hunt today, jakes were called in and passed, a long beard was missed, a coyote was called in, one black bear was seen (first this spring), and a cougar was called in to 75 yards, he stopped for a moment, then turned and disappeared into the bush. A mixed bag of entertainment for sure! 

(sorry, the cell phone footage is not very good, the cougar is right on the edge of the timber in the video)

[bravo]

My 13 year old son says NICE BIRDS . i think he is getting excited about hunting season . Thank you for a good thread filled with good times.

[bearpaw]

My 13 year old son says NICE BIRDS . i think he is getting excited about hunting season . Thank you for a good thread filled with good times.

Awesome, glad to hear he is getting excited. 

[bearpaw]

We just started another turkey hunt today, jakes were called in and passed, a long beard was missed, a coyote was called in, one black bear was seen (first this spring), and a cougar was called in to 75 yards, he stopped for a moment, then turned and disappeared into the bush. A mixed bag of entertainment for sure! 

This group of 6 unguided hunters came from all parts of the country for a get together and turkey hunt the last 2 1/2 days. Hunting has been tough, they did manage to kill a 3 year old 9 1/2" 20.5 pound tom with 1 1/4 spurs. They also had the excitement calling in the cougar and seeing the bear, missed a bird, called a few that wouldn't come within range, and passed several jakes. I'm sorry they didn't have better luck but I guess that's the way it happens some times. I invited them back for a fall hunt if they can slip away from work.

[bearpaw]

More Cougar Tales

Kevin (dad) and Hunter (son) come up every year and stay at our place for an unguided turkey hunt, they've been doing this since Hunter was about 5 or 6 years old. He's nearly finished with college now so in all these years they have become really good friends. This year on the first day of their hunt they saw a cougar, the first cougar Kevin had ever seen and he thought that was pretty cool.

Yesterday they went to an entirely different area, gobbling was pretty slow so they went driving around looking at some new country. They stopped the truck and decided to walk a ways up the road and try calling for a gobble. They didn't really expect to hear a gobble so they didn't bother taking their shotguns, they figured they could go back to the truck for guns if they heard a gobble. They walked a ways and Kevin called, nothing, but there was fresh turkey tracks in the mud so they decided to walk a little further and call again. They had also noticed fresh cougar tracks in the mud and thought that was pretty neat too. They walked a ways and Kevin called again, nothing, so they walked another hundred yards or so and called again, a third time, nothing!

They turned around to walk back to the truck and there was a cougar stalking up the road toward them, the cougar keeps coming, at this point they both have visions of their shotguns sitting in the truck and wondering why anyone would leave their guns in  the truck. The cougar is now only about 20 to 30 yards from them and finally stops in a crouched position, not knowing what else to do they both raised their arms and jumped toward the cat yelling, the cat turned slowly and went into the woods, he didn't run, he just sort of trotted out of sight. Needless to say this really shook them both up and it was hard for them to hunt the rest of the day without constantly watching behind themselves. That cougar incident was the talk and joke around the dinner table last night. We had a little fun joking with them about that, yet we all knew this is pretty scary when a cougar is actually stalking you and you have to make such a concerted effort to shun it off.

A total of three cougars were spotted in three different areas in two days this weekend. 

They had to leave this morning so Hunter (the son) could get back and study for his college finals. They went out hunting for a couple hours this morning before leaving and Hunter sacked up a real nice 9 1/2" gobbler with 1" spurs, good job, way to go guys. A happy ending after all! Can't wait to see you next time.   

[bearpaw]

A Pretty Good Sunday
After Kevin and Hunter got their bird this morning and left it was slow for a while, not many gobbles. I had two guided hunters in camp who were out hunting, Doug and Mike, and only one had a bird, Doug had bagged a 9" beauty on the first day of the hunt yesterday (Saturday) with guide Daniel. Later in the morning guide Ray moved Mike to another property and right away they sacked up an 8 1/2" long beard about noon, nice going Mike!

Unfortunately Doug missed a bird this morning and was a bit bummed about that, he doesn't usually miss, but he shook it off at lunch and headed out again after lunch for a different property with Daniel. Mike and Ray headed back to a property where they had seen birds in the morning. Doug had his chance and redeemed himself with a nice one shot kill on a young bird in the early afternoon. About 4 pm Mike had his chance and sacked up his second tom, so now they were both tagged out in 2 days of hunting. This evening we had a good time visiting and talking about their previous hunts, three years in a row and tagged out all three years, that's some great shooting guys! We enjoyed hunting with you again this year and look forward to seeing you again next year.

[jackelope]

Nice to see those guys scored. It was good talking with you and those guys on Saturday.

That cougar story was pretty crazy.

[bearpaw]

Nice to see those guys scored. It was good talking with you and those guys on Saturday.

That cougar story was pretty crazy.

Yes, it was great to meet you. Hunting has been tougher, but still finding birds here and there.

[bearpaw]

Kentucky Hunter Bags His Merriam's
My next hunter "Paul" was from Kentucky, he is the president of his NWTF Chapter and had been to South Dakota and New Mexico in search of a Merriam's but had not even seen a bird on either hunt. Paul and Vicky flew into Seattle a week early and spent time sight seeing in Seattle, Mt ST Helens, Crater Lake, and the Oregon Coast before coming to Colville for the hunt.

They arrived Monday evening and went to bed before I was back home from my Task Force meeting. At 3:00 AM I awoke and met Paul, we had breakfast and headed out for the morning hunt. At the first stop we had a gobble and planned a stalk. We made a big circle out around a large farm field and worked our way down a creek bottom to the roost. We stopped about 80 yards short and set up. I could hear that there were hens and multiple gobbles so I figured we better wait till they hit the ground to see what would happen.

Finally I saw several fly down and so I began calling, right away here come 3 jakes and 1 hen. They came to about 20 yards and just hung out for a few minutes before finally moving out of sight. By now I had heard another bird gobble across the creek and it sounded like a tom. I called pretty aggressively but could not get the tom to come. Suddenly I realized the jakes had come back and spotted us, pretty quick they took to flight and flew across the creek toward the tom.

I let the whole thing settle down a bit and tried calling the tom again, no luck. I whispered to Paul that I thought our only chance was to go to the tom, I thought he had the whole flock with him and he wasn't going to leave them. So we put a stalk on and got close. The jakes had joined up with the tom and hens and they happened to spot us, we kept still and their curiosity brought them closer, then a couple hens started getting curious too, pretty soon the whole flock was coming closer, we held tight, I could see the tom was the last bird, I whispered to Paul to get ready, I called a couple times, the tom moved into a better position and Paul dropped him. Awesome, we were less than an hour into the hunt and one mature bird down! 

We hunted the next 1 1/2 days, we called in a couple gobblers to only 20 yards but the way they came in Paul did not have a clear shot and they split before he could shoot. We saw another 30 or 40 birds including some jakes but was unable to get another mature tom. Paul was very happy with the bird he had and Vicki wanted to see Grand Coulee Dam and drive the North Cascades Hwy before leaving so they left before lunch on the 3rd morning. It was a great hunt and we had some really good conversation, Thanks Paul & Vicki!