Winter kill ?

[TeacherMan]

Sure did, I've actually made it twice since I last posted all said and done I've put on close to 1000 miles of driving since that last post. Superbowl weekend I took my mom and step dad out looking at houses in the Colville area. We went from Northport to Inchelium, to Chewela. The Aladin Hwy had a lot of dead ones along the sides of the road. I would say we say close to a dozen dead deer from Colville to Northport but on the positive side we must have seen over 100 alive and doing well on the uphill side of the rd. After Northport we went up the Sherman Creek side and dropped down the Inchelium HWY and we didn't see any winter or car kills but we did see about 50 more deer before we hit the rez. Then for some reason they just disappeared.  Took the boat across at Inch and cut up the Cedonia Gifford Rd and didn't see a deer, I think they where all down next to the river. Once we got up to Addy we started seeing them again. One just outside Addy in a farmers field about 400 yds off the rd had a ton of birds including 3 or 4 eagles on it. I was thinking because of the distance off the rd. doubtful car kill. Around the former Hilltop cafe in Addy, behind it we must have counted 35-40 on that hill side stretched over a mile or so piece. Good looking location for sheds. On our way to the last house of the day about 5 miles out of Chewela we came into what looked like a deer heaven. The road we took off of the main rd was private to look at this particular house and there where several other houses on it and there where literally deer everywhere you looked. A sheriff lived on the rd you could see his car out in front of his house and he had several on his deck. In that mile plus driveway I would say well over 100 deer and that is being very conservative. This was all over superbowl weekend Saturday.

Last weekend little less uneventful I've started to see more around the mill on the North side of the Kettle River. I pulled up a rd to look at a house that was for sale and saw 20 or so. (off the beaten path but still low, the deer are thick in these pockets) The rest of the trip from Kettle to Deer Park I saw another 30 or 40 with no rememberable rd or winter looking kills. One thing that was cool looking was 8 or 9 mule deer where walking out onto the railroad trestle that goes over Lake Roosevelt just outside Kettle Falls on the Kettle side. If a train would have came toward them they would have been in a world of hurt. The cool part about that is I've never seen a mule deer down that low on that side of the river. Always whitetail in that area.

Overall report: the deer are doing good. Its been cold early in the day, 12 this morning , but 44 after work today. We got about 4" of new snow last Friday but that was our first real snow and that's not much since early January. We had a lot of the white stuff early but now they are saying the Mt. are starting to fall below snowpack.

Of course this is only my 

[TeacherMan]

Did the weekly drive from Curlew to Spokane yesterday and I almost got to get a new car out of the deal. I had to slam my brakes on three times in a five minute period around Arden, the deer kept trying to give me a new hood ornament. besides that I didn't see as many deer near the rd. Not a bad thing, the snow is breaking up enough to where the deer are moving back up in the hills a little farther.

[TeacherMan]

Came back from Spokane tonight, starting to see more deer working their way back up the Kettle from Lake Roosevelt. Before I turned and went up Boulder I saw 4 whitetail walking down the middle of the Kettle River (frozen) Nice easy walking trail  Boulder at 4600' still has 3+ feet snow, 4000' was around 15-20" open patches under trees.

[huntnphool]

I was in Montana this last weekend for a dart tournament and took a couple hours to check the hills. Loads of deer and elk and they were looking good. From Missoula east looked to have not gotten a ton of snow, there were animals feeding in all the typical areas you would expect. From Drummond to Butte I was spotting groups of 20-30 deer feeding in the low areas close to the highway, they looked very healthy as well and not a lot of roadkill either.

[Pathfinder101]

If things keep acting like spring we might come out OK.  The bad winterkills usually happen in March.

[NWTFhunter]

Thank you for your reports Teacherman..

[bowhunterforever]

How are the deer doing in the northeastern units 101-121? I have been seing alot of mulies here lately in gmu133 and the all look heathly.I havent seen any whites lately though! I Hope the deer are still doing good up north!

[MuleyontheWall]

Everything we saw this last weekend when we were over there looked real good..and we saw well over 100 deer..

[boneaddict]

Not seeing alot of winterkill yet.  Tons from last year.  Lots of clean old bare bones, but nothing fresh.  The only one I found was over in the sanpoil and it was  a huge muley buck with its head cut off and a bullet through the shoulder right off the road.  Don't think that counts.  The snow is way deep up there still it seems and its froze over still.

[TeacherMan]

Welcome to my corner of the world. I almost forget that there are other colors than white, gray and black until I go south to Spokane every weekend. The winter kills are looking good, when I say that not many of them from what I've seen. I saw a monster WT yesterday on Boulder, he had shed but his body was what was impressive. I would say 275 pounds on the hoof. I'm hoping we got our last major snow storm Thursday, depending on where you were up here it ranged from 4-8" most of which has already melted.

Driving down around the Kettle Falls area on Friday I must have seen 200 deer. When you are leaving Kettle on the north side of the rd (southern exposed hills) the hills are snow free and just covered in deer all the way to Colville. If anyone can shed hunt in that area and needs any help just give me a PM. 

I've been seeing lots of turkeys also, they will be just around the corner 

[Pathfinder101]

Thanks for the report teacherman.  Starting to look like good news, unless we get a winter like last year that goes til May...

My boy and I went and got a load of wood today.  Saw lots of turkeys too...starting to get an itchy trigger finger..

[TeacherMan]

I saw several whitetail yesterday that looked really healthy. I think the last day of winter in our area will be Tuesday next week. I hope, I've started spring sports and I hate practice inside 

[bowhunterforever]

Me and my buddy went up north this afternoon and saw around 100 or so whitetails and they all look heathly!