Bearpaw Season - Fall 2017

[bearpaw]

Had an exciting hunt this morning, spotted critters at 900 yards, made a move on them, it's pretty open country, they spotted us at 650, I said "can you shoot at 650", he said I'm deadly at 400, I'll give it a try" so we settled in for the shot, I ranged 650 on the money, he paused breathing, kaboom goes the 338, reload shoot again, I think you were over him, kaboom, shoot again your still high or he would run, he lowered aim again, kaboom, you hit him, I seen him hunch up before he ran.

We waited 1 hour then headed over, we were getting close and I saw a magpie fly up, we walked another 20 yards and there he lay. Just got done gutting and found out it was a 650 yard heart shot. Last day of the hunt, I love it when a plan comes together.

[wsmnut]

Nice!
Beautiful day for it!!!
Congratulations to both of you!

[bearpaw]

He wasn't a big bull but we had a great hunt, we walked straight toward the elk in totally open ground for quite a few yards cutting it down to 650, when they finally spotted us Ron proved he definitely has the capacity for long range shooting. He had never shot past 450, but he said he could hold a real good group at 400 so I figured he could do it. When he set up for the shot he figured a little too high with the first two shots, but I watched his barrel and could tell he was rock solid and figured we could walk in the shots, the third shot put us in paydirt and was Ron's longest shot ever by about 200 yards.

I called Troy my wrangler and had him bring the mule, all the horses were out with guides and hunters and the experienced mule had an injury, so all we had was the less experienced mule "Clowie". I gutted and skinned one side of the elk while waiting for Troy to get there. Just as he walked up leading the mule, Clowie caught a good whiff of elk and spooked. Troy wasn't expecting it and Clowie headed back towards the trailer! 

Troy caught Clowie about halfway back to the trailer and brought her back, this time he tied her a ways off. I layed down a cloth Troy brought and finished piecing out the elk, we carefully introduced Clowie to elk, got her all loaded and we headed back to the trucks. Even though Ron has killed bigger bulls he is mounting this bull to remember the hunt that we had, the shot, and the young crowned antlers.

[bearpaw]

Guide Daniel filled out his last hunter with the first 4x4 buck they spotted, she wanted the first 4 pointer, another good shooter, this lady hunter "Cora" dropped him at long range with her .270 long range setup. (sorry I can't remember the exact yardage but it was a good shot)

[bearpaw]

Randall traveled here from the midwest, he had never mule deer hunted. Dustin put him on two large bucks that he missed during the hunt and on the final day he connected with this fork horn. Congrats Randall!

[bearpaw]

Ron Del Grosso, age 75 traveled to Idaho for his first mule deer, after dropping this buck he was unable to get up the mountain to it, but he was ecstatic when we brought it down to him. Congrats Ron!

[bearpaw]

I was able to sneak out for a day of hunting for myself. He's not a big buck but he was the best I had spotted and it was 5pm, I figured he would do.

[bowhunterforever]

Nice buck dale

[steeleywhopper]

Just curious if you make guides watch the clients shoot their guns at targets before you take them out hunting? Sounds like lots of missed opportunity from poor shooting. Not knocking you or the outfit but if I paid good money for a hunt I’d be shooting like crazy to make sure it counted when it was go time.

[bearpaw]

Jon nailed a big Washington bear with us in September, he and his brother Carl came back out to Idaho for a November cow elk hunt. We went to a spot I expected to find elk, the wind was blasting strong gusts that pushed us all over the highway on the way to the hunt area. As dawn broke I glassed the hillsides for critters, but everything was bedded down out of sight trying to avoid the wind. I went to a little different area and we hiked out a ridge glassing as we moved from spot to spot, but nothing was moving. We headed back up the ridge to move over onto the next ridge and suddenly spotted 5 or 6 elk, They were roughly 200 yards, I didn't bother ranging, I was on them watching for a hit, Jon shot first and his cow dropped like a sack of potatoes, Carl pulled the trigger and click, misfire!

Reload, shoot again, Carl pulled the trigger again and it appeared he missed, and then the elk ran out of sight. We sat tight and watched for a few minutes, then we went over to Jon's elk and he finished it off. We joked around a bit with Carl, I asked him if Jon did his reloading, we snapped a few photos and I started to gut. Jon and Carl went to look for blood where Carl had shot. I told them if they couldn't find blood to walk all over and see if they could find the elk. They couldn't find any blood but after walking around Jon hollered "here she is" he had found her.

We had to take back some of the ribbing we had been dishing out to Carl, in fact he made a better shot than Jon, but the elk didn't show any sign of being hit and ran a ways before dropping. By now my knife was getting pretty dull, I had done a bull the last day of bull season, done my buck, and had done Jon's cow, it wasn't getting the job done very well on Carl's elk so Carl dug out a custom knife he wanted me to try, I used it for a few cuts but the edge disappeared quickly, so Jon dug out his knife. It was good and sharp and I was able to make good headway.

I was cutting down the backside of a rear leg and I didn't have quit a tight grip, my hand slipped a little on the knife handle and I cut my index finger pretty bad on the first part of the blade where it comes out of the handle, there was no hilt on the knife, I should have had a tighter grip. I was bleeding pretty good and Carl dug out the first aid kit, I had to lay down I started to get light headed, Carl taped a piece of gauze around the wound and I slipped on a new plastic glove the best I could. I finished Carl's elk, and we got them out. After getting back to camp I hung the elk pieces up and boned out my deer. It was too late for the DR office so I waited till the next day.

In the morning we cut the elk up a little more to get them into coolers and Jon and Carl headed home. I made sure Jon took the "killer knife" when he left, LOL. I went to the DR who told me I waited to long for stitches, so he cleaned it some more, bandaged it carefully, gave me a tetnus shot, and prescribed some antibiotics. He expects it to heal up ok and thankfully I didn't cut the main tendon. He told me to keep it dry and not to do any dish washing, oh darn it!

[bearpaw]

Just curious if you make guides watch the clients shoot their guns at targets before you take them out hunting? Sounds like lots of missed opportunity from poor shooting. Not knocking you or the outfit but if I paid good money for a hunt I’d be shooting like crazy to make sure it counted when it was go time.

Well that's the first question I would ask too! 
We normally have everyone shoot before hunting, most of the misses were done with guns we knew were sighted dead on, people just get really shook up when they see big animals. How else could anyone miss a huge elk twice at 187 yards! It just happens! 

The shooting has been better now that we are later in the season. I think the buck I killed was the last animal that was missed, yes I missed him standing, before hitting him after he took off running! I was just giving him a warning shot, a fair chance so to speak! 

[bearpaw]

Here's a nice buck taken by one of the hunters who bought one of my cancellation hunts in Utah. He passed numerous bucks and on the last day of the hunt decided to pull the trigger on this buck. This buck had an absolutely massive neck! Congrats to Randy from California, nice shooting buddy!

[wsmnut]

Nice buck Dale! 
Sorry about your finger.  I hope it heals quickly.

[Jpmiller]

The doc didn't tell you he needed to open your cut back up so he could stitch it? That's what mine always says lol "it's already closed I'll have to open it so I can close it"

I always decline.

On a more positive note are your Idaho cow elk hunts a draw tag or OTC?

[bearpaw]

Nice buck Dale! 
Sorry about your finger.  I hope it heals quickly.

I'm usually a pretty quick healer.