Bearpaw Season - Fall 2015

[bearpaw]

That's a Yamaha Phazer 4 stroke, they seem to be good sleds for cat hunting. We put a lot of miles on equipment, had to get away from 2 stroke engines. We have 3 of them, unless it gets too cold I like riding this one with no windshield, easier to see tracks!

We have found old tracks of three toms in different areas the last few days, waiting for one of them to cross again!

[Skyvalhunter]

Looks like a good time and some happy hunters

[GrainfedMuley]

So jealous...would love to come on a cat hunt one of these years...probably not till the kids are out of the house

How about a wolf hunt? How much? I would love to do my share on trying to eradicate them again.

[KFhunter]

That's a Yamaha Phazer 4 stroke, they seem to be good sleds for cat hunting. We put a lot of miles on equipment, had to get away from 2 stroke engines. We have 3 of them, unless it gets too cold I like riding this one with no windshield, easier to see tracks!

We have found old tracks of three toms in different areas the last few days, waiting for one of them to cross again!

Too bad those don't come with 15 inch wide tracks     They're like a chainsaw in deeper snow, chewing their way right to the bottom. 

Look forward to seeing more cat pictures, love to see the chase just as much as the trophy shot. 

[bearpaw]

So jealous...would love to come on a cat hunt one of these years...probably not till the kids are out of the house

How about a wolf hunt? How much? I would love to do my share on trying to eradicate them again.

We do have some wolves in one of my hunt areas and tags are available but I don't want to book any hunts until we have figured out hunting them a little better. I might have time for that after we finish some of the cat hunts. A cat/wolf combo would be a good hunt!

[bearpaw]

That's a Yamaha Phazer 4 stroke, they seem to be good sleds for cat hunting. We put a lot of miles on equipment, had to get away from 2 stroke engines. We have 3 of them, unless it gets too cold I like riding this one with no windshield, easier to see tracks!

We have found old tracks of three toms in different areas the last few days, waiting for one of them to cross again!

Too bad those don't come with 15 inch wide tracks     They're like a chainsaw in deeper snow, chewing their way right to the bottom. 

Look forward to seeing more cat pictures, love to see the chase just as much as the trophy shot.

In real deep snow it's tough to beat a scandic. We've got an older skandic with about 10,000 miles we use to break trails into deep snow areas. I've been looking at the new scandics with the SW Track and 900 4 stroke engine. I've heard of guys getting 20,000 miles out of those newer 4 stoke machines.

[KFhunter]

One of these days I'd like to have a utility sled like that, mountain sleds are fun but sometimes I want a chainsaw, winch and scabbard.

[bearpaw]

First photo is the top of a mountain I snowmobile over to cougar hunt on the back side, any ideas which way the wind usually blows?

We had a big snow a week or so ago, there was about 26 inches of fresh snow where I was trying to cougar hunt. I made it 3/4 of the way to the top of the pass and starting getting stuck, I got tired of digging out, I had to turn around and go back to the truck.

I love the adventure of snowmobiling into remote areas in the winter, but you really have to bundle up when it's cold out and snowmobiling for hours!

[GrainfedMuley]

With all that fresh new powder, be careful of the avalanche danger. They are looking for a back country skier that failed to return Saturday up on Snoqualmie. Any wolves yet?

[bearpaw]

I blew a rear main seal in my Ford F-350 7.3 a few days ago on the way out cougar hunting. I had been watching for Dodges with the older Cummins and manual tranny for a while and jumped on this 2005 a few days later when I saw it had only 49,000 miles.

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

Nice rig! 

[BOWHUNTER45]

Nice ..Little different color ...that makes it sweeter yet !

[bearpaw]

Our first cougar of the season, the day before I ran a tom, and the dogs ran out of snow and we lost the cat. On this day, Dec 2, Brian turned out on another nice tom track and in the process of the chase the dogs ran into this female and treed it instead, this happens often, you catch a different cat than you start, sometimes you turn out on one track and catch two or three animals. You never know for sure what can happen!

Brian was at the tree first, the hunter was with Daniel and I hiking in. As we were getting within a couple hundred yards of the tree we heard Ruby, (the mascot, so to speak) running past us barking but no hounds, I wondered what on earth was going on with Ruby. Pretty quick I talked with Brian and he said the cat had jumped and circled and messed up the dogs. As it turned out Ruby was the first dog to figure it out and caught the lion on her own before the hounds got there. Some of you guys have seen Ruby, she is about a 12 to 15 pound Jadg/Irish terrier cross. 

The hunter said he wanted the female so we let him shoot her. He fired, she jumped and hit the ground running. We tie the hounds back but had left Ruby loose and she was right on the cats heels. Brian followed with a leash full of hounds which he soon turned loose. I told the hunter to follow as fast as he could. The dogs bayed the cat on the ground after roughly a few hundred yards. The cat had a broken front arm but no other damage and was taking turns biting dogs, it had Toes head in it's mouth so Brian grabbed the cat by the tail, it let go of Toes and came at Brian, the hounds all grabbed it before it got Brian and then it turned and had another hound in it's mouth. Brian grabbed it by the tail again and it let go and came at him again, the dogs grabbed the cat again so it turned on the dogs again, I think this time it grabbed Ruby, the cat had Ruby in it's mouth like a rag doll. Brian grabbed the cat by the tail again and it let go of Ruby. About that time the hunter got there and they shot the cat several more times which finished it off.

I was most worried about Ruby as she was losing a lot of blood and she's not a very big dog. We kept Toes and Ruby in the house for several days and poured lots of antibiotics into both of them. Fortunately Toes had been bit more on the nose than the skull and it seems there was no skull damage. They have both made full recoveries and are back to normal health and have chased more cats since then. We are fortunate no dogs or guides were hurt worse in that fiasco! I've had past similar experiences that have resulted in dead dogs or cats getting a hold of a guide!

At any rate it seems no permanent damage was done. Sorry no photos during the fiasco, we were too busy trying to save the dogs!

[BOWHUNTER45]

I love hearing lion stories ...Glad the dogs are fine .. Perfect weather for it .

[bearpaw]

I've learned a lot of good hunting areas through the years by following the big cats, essentially they spend their life hunting food or hunting mates. By following the cats I've found many good hunting areas that I hunt often. Brian found this buck a couple weeks ago, it was still warm and had not been eaten on at all, the cat, a medium sized female had just killed the deer before Brian spooked it off. He cut off the head which is legal to do in Idaho, we have a collection of nice bucks killed by cougars that it will join. The female ate on this buck for about 1 week, returning each night until it was finished off. The first time she came back to eat I have to wonder if she was cursing the thief that took her horns?