Bearpaw Season - Fall 2018

[bearpaw]

Utah Long Range Buck
On the first morning of this hunt we passed a 24ish inch 4x4 at about 350 yards, the buck was a decent buck, pretty tall, but not real heavy, we almost shot and then decided to wait and look at more deer, he was in a bachelor group with several other smaller bucks. We figured we could always come back to this buck if we didn't find what we really wanted. As it turns out the 24" buck was one of the better bucks we saw that day out of 38 bucks and about 130 total deer that we spotted. The 2nd morning we ended up taking a smaller 4x4 with eye guards, it was a long range shot that was just too enticing. We had all the time in the world to set up, Brian dialed in and squeezed the trigger and the buck went down. He was very happy with the 700 yard shot even though it wasn't the biggest buck we saw. Sometimes the experience is more important than the size of the trophy.

[bearpaw]

The Last Chance Bull
This young lady's nickname is Chance and this is the story of her "Last Chance Bull". Guide Nick had Chance on numerous bulls, they were holding out for something special, something 300"+, and we had been seeing a few bulls in her hunt area that were in the 330ish to 360ish range, but it's amazing how tough it can be to find certain bulls again when you want to end their career. Finally a big 300-320ish bull came into close range, at only about 25 yards Chance pulled the trigger of her 270 and the bull whirled. The hunters waited a short bit and then started tracking. There was good blood every yard and it appeared the bullet had exited, there was blood coming out both sides of the elk. After a bit they started finding globs of coagulated blood like the bull was hucking it up to breath. After several hundred yards it was completely dark and the bull was still going strong so they decided to back off until morning.

The next morning they took up the trail again, they followed the bull for several hundred yards further and then the blood started to diminish. The bull had been going downhill, now he was going uphill, they continued tracking until dark, by now it was getting hard to follow the bull, in fact in some places the bull had quit bleeding and they were finding only tracks. They backed off at dark and figured on taking up the trail again in the morning. It had not rained in this area since late spring but mother nature decided it was time to rain, so it rained and it rained hard, it rained so hard it washed away any blood and all the tracks, they were not able to track the bull any further the next day. In desperation they spent hours searching the area in case the bull had died, finally they simply had to give up due to not knowing which direction to continue searching.

Having to give up on the bull was a pretty sobering event, but there really wasn't another option. So the decision was made to start hunting again, they continued to hunt the same area in hopes of finding birds, but that never happened. After a few more days of hunting the hunters were beginning to run out of time, something needed to happen and happen real soon, finally the next morning the bulls were on fire again and the hunters nearly closed the deal on another big bull. Later in the day a pretty decent 5x6 came into close range, Chance decided to pull the trigger again, the bull whirled again, they waited a bit again, and then took up tracking again, but this time the bull only went a short distance and dropped. This wasn't one of the biggest bulls in the area by any means but this probably was Chance's "Last Chance Bull" and she made it happen. Congrats to this young lady who stuck in there through the good, the bad, and the ugly, and was finally able to find success in the end.

[bearpaw]

Washington Turkey & Deer
We've had some good Washington hunts too, we've had more fall turkey hunters than ever before, hunters from Washington and hunters from the deep south and hunters from points in between, all have taken birds, most have filled out on the first or second day they hunted. Yesterday, opening day of rifle deer season, we had three buck hunters and one young doe hunter, all four hunters notched their tags yesterday, the first day of the hunt. We've still got openings scattered through the season, if anyone is looking for a good deer hunt, we've got more bucks than hunters on our properties, that's something a little different than hunting crowded public land in Washington. Here's one of the whitetails taken yesterday, congrats to John on an excellent shot!

[bearpaw]

Another bull arrowed, this nice 5x5 bull was taken in our Idaho hunt area, awesome job!

[bearpaw]

Huntingmoon
Every year or two we get a couple who plan a huntingmoon (a hunting honeymoon) with us. This year Lindsey and Matt planned an Idaho huntingmoon but Matt said he wanted to focus on getting Lindsey a nice buck and that he didn't want a deer tag, he wanted Lindsey to be the focus, one of his wedding gifts to her. We had a big storm come through the night before season opened and it snowed 14 inches in the high country. Guide Nick, Linsey and Matt jumped in one of the Vikings and headed out well before daylight to get into the area Nick wanted to hunt. Not too long after daylight Nick located a nice buck, this area can produce some really good bucks so they discussed whether to shoot this buck or not, they decided to take the buck and Lindsey put the hammer down on this dandy buck, one shot, buck down, great going Lindsey. Unfortunately deer tags are sold out so Matt was unable to get a tag now but Nick took them sight seeing throughout the area and trout fishing, they had a great time. What a beautiful couple you are, it was our pleasure meeting you and helping to make lifetime memories for you both.

[Machias]

Awesome deer, what a great Huntingmoon!

[bowhunterforever]

Nice critters 

[csaaphill]

 
Daaang Nice bucks and bulls 

[Wacenturion]

 

[bearpaw]

More photos to share, season has been busy, the economy is strong, people have confidence and are hunting more than in a long time. Don killed a nice bear with us this spring and booked one of our Utah ranch hunts for this fall. He took this buck with his muzzleloader on the second day of his hunt, nice job Don! 

[bearpaw]

Titus nailed this buck with guide Daniel, the first buck he shot at, dropped him right there, good going Titus! 

[bearpaw]

I've got more deer and elk photos to post when time allows. We still have room for a few more cougar hunters this year if anyone is wanting to go? We've already started cougar hunting, this is our first cougar hunt.

[bearpaw]

Another successful lion hunt...

We nearly lost a hound on this hunt, the cats have had the advantage with very little snow and mostly bare or icey conditions under the trees. This tom was back and forth across a large creek and one of the hounds got swept under a log jam trying to swim across. Guide Brian fortunately came through and saw the nose of the hound barely out of the water swimming like mad between the logs, he dove into chest deep water and was able to get her out of the log jam. Fortunately the lion treed not far from there, the guides and hunter made it to the tree, arrowed the lion, and were back out without any toes suffering frostbite.

[bearpaw]

Horseback Drop Camp
These guys hunted bear with us in Washington a few years ago. This year they came back to hunt Idaho elk and mule deer. We packed them in and dropped them into our camp, on the second hunt day they got a spike bull and texted me to pack it out, on the fourth day they killed a big mule deer, they also spotted 7 other bulls but only managed to get the spike bull, but on the last day they found a nice dead head, and then we packed them back out. The hunter who found the dead head is a big shed hunter and said finding the head was almost as good as a kill, he was only missing the meat.

[Skyvalhunter]

Sounds like a good time and a great trip