Bearpaw Season - Fall 2017

[headshot5]

Did he shoot it with a 223 or a 300 blackout?  Just curious.

[bearpaw]

Did he shoot it with a 223 or a 300 blackout?  Just curious.

I think he said it was a .223, we've had lots of cats killed with .223's.

[Rainier10]

Did he shoot it with a 223 or a 300 blackout?  Just curious.

I think he said it was a .223, we've had lots of cats killed with .223's.

That is what I recall from our dinner conversation at the tavern.  Scott was a solid guy and I was glad to have met him.  Really glad that he was able to connect.

[bearpaw]

Did he shoot it with a 223 or a 300 blackout?  Just curious.

I think he said it was a .223, we've had lots of cats killed with .223's.

That is what I recall from our dinner conversation at the tavern.  Scott was a solid guy and I was glad to have met him.  Really glad that he was able to connect.

Yes, totally agree, Scott was a super good guy too. Once you get caught up with your life and business and can afford to take a few more days off, let me know and we will finish the hunt! 

[Rainier10]

Did he shoot it with a 223 or a 300 blackout?  Just curious.

I think he said it was a .223, we've had lots of cats killed with .223's.

That is what I recall from our dinner conversation at the tavern.  Scott was a solid guy and I was glad to have met him.  Really glad that he was able to connect.

Yes, totally agree, Scott was a super good guy too. Once you get caught up with your life and business and can afford to take a few more days off, let me know and we will finish the hunt! 

Will do.

I assume you guys are going to be on snowmobiles when this weather finally breaks.

I also assume you will be done binge watching "justified" by then. 

[bearpaw]

Did he shoot it with a 223 or a 300 blackout?  Just curious.

I think he said it was a .223, we've had lots of cats killed with .223's.

That is what I recall from our dinner conversation at the tavern.  Scott was a solid guy and I was glad to have met him.  Really glad that he was able to connect.

Yes, totally agree, Scott was a super good guy too. Once you get caught up with your life and business and can afford to take a few more days off, let me know and we will finish the hunt! 

Will do.

I assume you guys are going to be on snowmobiles when this weather finally breaks.

I also assume you will be done binge watching "justified" by then. 

I'm home waiting for a front driveline to repair my truck, Daniel went home for the holidays, two of the guys are out hunting and I can't reach them yet today so I'm pretty sure they are walking or running a cat in big remote country again today. We figure one more snow and it will be snowmobiles. I'll keep you posted as soon as I know more.

[2MANY]

Looks like fun.

[bearpaw]

Andy passed on some females last week just before Christmas, he went home for xmas and was going to come back, then it started snowing, we had heavy snow for several days, now we have gone from almost no snow to almost 4 feet of snow! 

I contacted Andy as soon as I could see an end to the storm, "Can you come over on the 31st and hunt, the weather is looking good, the storm is ending!" Andy replied, "When do you want me there?", I told him to come about 3AM. Andy came early, he and Brian broke trail in deep snow all morning on snowmobiles and finally found a track, they checked some more roads and that was the best track they had so they gave it a try with the hounds. It was an older track and took quite a bit of work, most of the day in fact! But Andy finished the year right, today he nailed this nice Idaho tom cougar with guide Brian. HAPPY NEW YEAR ANDY!

[Gringo31]

Awesome!

Way to start off the new year! 

[Kit Carson]

Sweet! Happy New Year! 

[bearpaw]

Rainier10 and Kenny were able to return after New Years Day, I found two older tracks on my first run early in the morning, a female and tom traveling together, Brian and I checked additional areas but that was the only tracks we found and so we elected to try and run those cats. The tracks were cold and the dogs had quite a lot of trouble, the cats had circled while hunting and at times the dogs were separated trying to figure out all the tracks. At one point two dogs were hung up in one area for some time so Brian snowshoed in to see what was happening, we were getting late in the day and you don't want dogs out in wolf country after dark, there were cougar tracks everywhere and the snow was frozen hard under the trees where the cats wouldn't leave any prints, Brian tried to round up some of the dogs and I snowmobiled back toward the beginning to catch some of the dogs, we got all but two dogs rounded up.

Thirteen and Lady were coming up a canyon, I headed there on snowmobile but thirteen beat me across the road, she would not come back when I called her name, I looked around and sure enough there were two cougar tracks crossing the road. I was sure I had not missed them earlier, they must be fresh tracks, the dogs must have finally caught up with the cats and jumped them. Brian got there just as Lady crossed the road about 100 yards behind Thirteen, we could have grabbed Lady but decided to let her go and to turn additional dogs into the chase behind them both. Thirteen would be in grave danger after dark alone and I had seen one wolf track a few miles further up the road, so we knew that wolf might be close enough to hear a hound and who knows how many more wolves might show up if that one starts howling when it hears the hound after dark?

We didn't have much time, the dogs needed to catch these cats quick and we needed to get there before dark to shoot a cat if we were going to get one. The chase was moving fast now the dogs covered ground quick, I went and got Rainier10 and Kenny who were waiting at an overlook. I quickly explained what had happened and that we needed to move out. We headed up the snowmobile trail, we passed Brian who was trying to find a turn around spot and stopped to check the dogs, they were still in front of us. We went further and stopped again, we had gone too far, now they were behind us and sounded treed. I called Brian on the radio and he said he was parked right below them and headed in as quick as possible, I told him we would head in as soon as we got there.

We went further up the road and found a turn around and headed back, we parked at Brian's sled. I told Rainier and Kenny to take their weapons, headlamp, and tags and to head in towards the barking hounds as fast as possible. Brian called and said to try and stay to the left in the big timber on the ridge, it was easier going. I told them "Don't wait on me, I am getting stuff together and will follow. When you get there after Brian ties up the hounds shoot the cat, don't wait on me!" I gathered my stuff but my radio was going dead I had to change batteries and I headed up the hill, dang I forgot my pistol, I went back down to the snowmobile to get it and then headed up again. We do not go into wolf country without protection, Brian has been stalked by wolves after dark more than once in the past, it scared the dickens out of him having wolves parallel him and howl on one side of him or the other, the hounds were afraid of the wolves too and kept very quiet during that whole hike out! It was as if they knew those wolves wanted to eat them!

Back to the story, I was almost halfway in, Brian called on the radio and said he was at the tree and could see one cat. I told him the guys were quite a ways ahead of me and if they got there not to wait, if they had a good shot do it, don't take a chance of the cat jumping by waiting on me. I made it about halfway and Brian called again, Rainier was there, the cat was nervous, he was going to shoot it. We really got lucky as it turned out the tom had treed and the female kept going, more often it seems the female will tree first and the tom keeps going, sometimes you catch both cats, but this time we caught the tom. Rainier made an excellent shot with his bow and the cat fell to the ground dead. Awesome shooting Rainier, congrats! 

Later that night rain started, it was raining in the morning with a couple days of rain in the forecast so the guys went home again.

[Gringo31]

 


Awesome!  Way to go guys!

[bearpaw]

Matthew arrived from Michigan, we got some fresh snow that evening, the next morning was perfect, we found 19 tracks, most were older tracks, 4 were older tom tracks, 4 were fresh female tracks that we passed. There was a small loop that I could make with the truck and we were just about finished for the day, I told Matthew that we had 1 mile left that was a good crossing area, we came over a rise and I thought I saw coyotes in the road, we both looked through binoculars and it was 3 cougar about 150 yards away. The smallest one saw us and jumped off the road, the two larger ones stood and looked at us, it appeared to be a female with two mostly grown yearlings. We watched them for a minute and then I drove down, the dogs struck from in the dog box, I got out and checked the tracks, yep, a female with a yearling tom and yearling female. The next day we hunted hard looking for a tom but only found three more females which we passed. That evening it began raining heavy and rained all night, we were out early in spite of the rain and began hunting. I was pretty wet from using the snowmobile and atv but kept hunting, we had found three rained out tracks that were unrunable because the bottom of the track was totally washed out to bare ground. I knew we were losing our snow so I told Matthew if I could find a track in deeper snow we might be able to run it.

Against All Odds
I kept hunting and went to a mountain where we had seen a tom track the first day, I knew there would be deeper snow and hoped that would make a difference. I didn't find the track until mid day, the dogs could barley smell any scent in the washed out tracks and moved pretty slow on the track, but amazingly they caught up and jumped this nice tom, it made a mad dash to lose the dogs but they treed it in a big fir. The cat scaled right at 150 pounds, congrats Matthew!

A photo of a fresh female track we passed, a photo of the cats we saw in the road, and a photo of the tom Matthew nailed.

[KFhunter]

that's awesome 

[Gringo31]

I love the conservation side of the talent you have in what cats you chose to go after.


Nice job Dale!