Bearpaw Season - Fall 2018

[bearpaw]

It's amazing how time flies, it seems like just a few weeks ago we were finishing up a steller spring bear and turkey season, now fall is here and we've started hunting on our new ranch lease in Montana that has killer elk hunting. Unfortunately we acquired the ranch too late to get many applicants for bull tags this year, we only had a few guys apply and they didn't draw bulls. We will have cow elk hunters and some deer hunters and a couple antelope hunters. This year the bulls get a free pass to get bigger for next year.

Our first cow hunter nailed a nice cow on the second morning. During the hunt they spotted exactly 70 bulls with 5 point or larger racks, six bulls approx 340 or larger, two approx 360-370, and one bull probably 370-380. The 2nd photo is a couple young bulls that were in one of the fields early last night.

We have a busy season lined up with a pretty steady flow of hunters until February for all sorts of game, it's going to be another fun fall and winter.

[mburrows]

Where's the new ranch at Dale? Congrats on the great start to the fall!

[bearpaw]

Where's the new ranch at Dale? Congrats on the great start to the fall!

The new ranch is near Lewistown, dead center in the state. The elk herd is over objective due to all the private land and there are lots of bulls due to bulls being a draw. The archery hunts are what we really want to sell, the draw rate for archery is about 30% nonresidents and 100% residents, the bulls are just crazy thick on this place, it will be amazing elk hunting! If anyone has a few elk points in MT and wants an amazing hunt, give me a call!

This evening the guys (cow elk hunting) were on a herd of over 100 cows, they cut the distance to 150 yards and getting ready to shoot but the storm front moved in and the elk disappeared in fog and rain. It's supposed to snow too, so it may be tough hunting for a couple days because getting around will be severely limited until the roads dry out some.

[bearpaw]

I've still got a handful of mule deer ranch hunts available in Utah this year. When I first got the ranch back in the 90's it had 30 tags a year allocated, there weren't enough 4x4 bucks the first couple years so we cut the tags back to 20 and the hunting got better. About 5 or so years ago we cut the tags back to only 10. Obviously I have to chage more for the hunts, but the hunting is so much better, everyone sees mature bucks now and at the end of season we leave more big bucks standing than what we kill. I'm really anxious to hunt that place this year, it seems to be better almost every year. There is another variable, a huge fire destroyed about 40,000 acres along the Nevada border not far from the ranch, we might have gotten a real influx of deer, if they didn't die from the smoke we might have one heck of a season. It's like throwing a coin in the air, I'm calling heads! 

[bearpaw]

Due to a lack of fall bear hunters we made the decision to not do fall bear hunts in Idaho this year so on the opener my son Brian was not busy with any hunters. One of the neighbors was out deer hunting that morning and ran into a big bear on the trail that he arrowed. The bear ran off and he couldn't find any blood, he was telling another neighbor who advised him to get in touch with my son to see if Ruby could find the bear. It was several hours later but Ruby was able to save the day and the neighbor notched his tag on this nice bear which green scored 19 5/16, it will easily put him in P&Y. Congrats Neighbor!

I really don't understand why WA will not allow blood trailing dogs, Ruby has found so many animals for us in Idaho, it's amazing how much game can be saved from wasting.

[Machias]

Nice!!!!

[bearpaw]

Our first bull of the year, Daniel called this 6x6 bull in and Bill sank his arrow where it counts, he hit both lungs, they waited a bit and tracked a short distance and actually heard the bull tip over just before finding him, great going Daniel and Bill! 

[Machias]

Beautiful bull!!

[bearpaw]

Our Idaho spring hunt is so good that most of our bear hunters have switched to doing Idaho spring hunts, in fact we are nearly booked full for next spring already. We did have three bear hunters on the opener of WA fall bear and two notched their bear tags, here's Ezra with his 6 foot boar taken with Daniel and guide Ray and hunter Ray from Missouri with a nice blackie a little under 6 feet. Our other hunter passed sows/cubs and I have to respect him for doing the right thing, he simply didn't have an opportunity at a good lone bear. Congrats guys, good going on all accounts! 

[bearpaw]

Beautiful bull!!

   thanks Fred!

[bearpaw]

Here's a dandy bull called in to 60 yards, that was right on the edge of effective range for the hunter but he did his best and capitalized by tagging this fantastic bull. The bull green scored 355 exactly. Believe it or not, we've actually seen bulls bigger than this guy this week that we are working on. Big bulls in areas that get a fair amount of hunting pressure are so darned smart it's really a challenge to outsmart them, they are truly survivors. We've still got a couple tricks up our sleeve, I'm fairly hopeful for more big bull photos before season ends, we have a hunter in a good position for one of those big bulls that we spotted this morning as I type this message.

[bearpaw]

Here's another 6x6 taken by Colton from California with guide Nick. They called this bull, about 15 cows, and another 6x6 bull in close, The other 6x6 came by Colton's dad but he just wasn't quite able to get a shot, then this 6x6 strolled right out in the open right in front of Colton, he found the sweet spot, in the video the bull stopped again to look back at what just stung him, meanwhile Nick keeps calling trying to get 6x6 number two to give dad another chance, but that didn't quite happen, that's ok, we'll take a single 6x6 any day of the week. Congrats Colton, you had an awesome experience! Great shot my friend!

[bearpaw]

We have had some great shooting this year, we did wound a bull this morning that hasn't died yet, I'm beginning to think he will heal up and grow older. Guide Daniel called him in, one hunter missed the bull and then his partner hit the bull. They waited and waited and then took up the trail, not much blood but Daniel was able to track the footprints and they jumped the bull but didn't get a shot. They waited again and then tracked again, same thing, they jumped the bull and didn't get a shot. So we had to back off and give him a lot more time, we are going to look again first thing in the morning. The only time we find blood is when he beds down, I'm thinking he's not hit hard enough and will probably heal up, but we are going to give it our best shot again tomorrow morning.

Cougar
We've been seeing lots of cougar tracks and we had a cougar only 6 or 8 feet behind a hunter who was watching a waterhole. The hunter heard a noise and started to turn to look then the growling started, she froze, she was afraid to turn and afraid to move, in fact it scared her so bad she was done hunting the rest of the time she was here. The guide picked her up and she was still frozen, shaking, and in tears. As she told her story at the dinner table tears came to her eyes and it was clear she really was traumatized. She stayed in camp the next day, then went along on the hunt the last day but wouldn't get out of the truck. They are a retired couple and her next hunt is in Kansas and I hope she can overcome this new fear. She is a very nice lady and her husband is such a nice guy, but he is really concerned about getting her back in the game. I was at a loss on how to get her back hunting while she was here, it was clear it scared her nearly to death, literally, I think she is going to need time. On the bright side, with all the cougar tracks we are seeing I'm sure we are up for another awesome winter cougar season.

Mule Deer
We missed out on getting a dandy 150ish buck at only 14 yards, unfortunately the disabled bow hunter had his crossbow slung over his shoulder, when he tried to get the bow off, the buck ran. Weve seen other deer but unable to get within range of most, then we missed two more mule deer. Finally, last night Marvin arrowed this fork horn mule deer just before dark, he's never gotten a mule deer and figured he could check another animal off his list and put some quality meat in the freezer. They were late finding the buck and getting him packed out, but he's in the cooler now! Congrats Marvin, he's not big but anything with a bow is a trophy in my book, good shooting!

[RB]

Nice animals, like the fuzz on that fork buck pretty cool! 

[Gringo31]

Congrats on your early success... love this thread.

Ruby does it again!