Bearpaw Season - Fall 2020

[bearpaw]

Nice animals dale, I'm curious why you stop your tarp on your wall tent there?  We usually carry our down to the ground for a little extra storage, but is there a certain reason why you stop there?? 

In my area high winds can occur so in addition to staking around the bottom of the tent we have ropes angled off the top of the walls to the ground to hold the tent down. I’ve put tarps on that hang past the walls but if heavy snow slides off it can cause problems if you don’t get the snow off sagging tarp ends. I try to keep it all worry free so nothing can happen regardless of weather or failure to do something. I usually put more rafters than the tent manufacturer suggests too.

Last week we had one camp that was out for a week unattended after the hunters left before we could get it picked up, even though we got a foot of snow the tents held up.

[bearpaw]

Herb was more than excited to get his first elk tonight, guide Tate got it quartered and hanging before they hiked the 3 miles out to the truck. In the morning we’ll retrieve it with the horses. Congrats Herb!

[trophyhunt]

I'd say he looks happy!! 

[bearpaw]

Bill nailed a 6x6 wall hanger this morning in Idaho, one shot to the heart did the quick trick, congratulations Bill! 

(if you look close some of the tips are chipped, the buck took a couple bad flips on a steep rocky hillside)

[carlyoungs]

$4500 for a mid size bull. I guess that is reasonable for most people. Not bashing just seeing what the price is for that hunt. What is the charge for a b&c bull? Want to get my Dad on a shooter.

[bearpaw]

$4500 for a mid size bull. I guess that is reasonable for most people. Not bashing just seeing what the price is for that hunt. What is the charge for a b&c bull? Want to get my Dad on a shooter.

We charge a set fee for an elk hunt, sometimes hunters get a spike, sometimes a 6x6, sometimes something in between, and sometimes nothing, they are paying for an elk hunt, we don't charge extra if they kill a bull nor do we charge extra if they are lucky enough to get a big bull. That is our pricing policy, there are some outfitters who hunt free range areas that do charge extra if you kill a big bull so you should ask about that, but most don't.

Generally speaking it's high fenced elk hunts where you pay for the size of the bull that you kill. I'm not looking down on these operations, I'm just trying to explain how pricing generally works for different types of elk hunts.

[bearpaw]

We’ve got three or four big old bulls available that we need to shoot in November. A couple of them are pretty mean so we need them gone! Two of them are over 10 years old, some years we don’t ever get this old of bulls to shoot. Give Dale a call or text if you want one of these giants! (208) 852-6494

Price reduced $1000 from $7950 to $6950.

[bearpaw]

I started our last two Utah deer hunts on the 9th with two days of season left, as luck would have it, it was very cold, heavy wind, and snowing most of the day on the 9th, the deer were not moving very good, I only saw 44 deer and only two bucks that day. Nov 10 was the last day of our Utah CWMU deer season and we still needed two bucks for my hunters and then maybe I might get a chance to hunt if we filled them out early? The storm was still throwing snow flurries at us and the temps were in the teens and later in the low twenties but at least the wind had mostly backed off, so the deer were moving better. We passed a few small bucks on our way to look for a large heavy 3x3 we had seen the day before that was a couple hundred yards on the wrong side of the fence. There were a dozen does in some cover on our side of the fence so I was hoping he’d be with that group of does

Unfortunately he was still in almost the same spot on the neighbors property but another 3x3 was with the does, we stalked within 336 yards but Kriss couldn’t get steady, so we let the buck walk out of sight and figured we would make another move on him. That was working good until a couple does busted us and took off running, they blew up the whole group and they all took off.

We watched the group move into another canyon and tried stalking again, as soon as Kriss crested the ridge looking for them another doe busted and took the whole group to another big open side hill. There was no way to get close, they knew they were safe, the closest we could get was about 656 yards and Kriss needed a 200-300 yard shot at the longest, so we left them and figured we would check back later.

Meanwhile Eric was making a move on a decent buck which he hammered, so with one buck down. Kriss and I decided to go after another 3x3 that had been passed, now because we weren’t seeing any 4x4s and it was closing in on noon, we needed to notch his tag soon or risk not getting a deer. We hiked out where we thought they should be but nothing, I told Kriss to go all the way to the road in the bottom of the canyon and I would go back and get the Viking and pick him up in the bottom. He jumped the deer on his way but all he saw was does, they crossed the road where I was going to pick him up just before I got there, he told me what happened so I suggested we continue down canyon and go around in case the buck went a different route, we only went about 200 yards and the buck broke up the hillside out of the wash, “wait for him to stop” I bleeted loudly and the buck paused, whammo, a sure hit and the buck summersalted backwards and started rolling down the hill. We had about a 20 yard drag, I gutted him and deer number two was done.

I dropped off Kriss at his truck and said goodbye, he offered to go hunting with me but I told him I’d be fine and to get his deer to the processor. Amazingly I had 4 hours left to fill my own tag. I had not shot my 257 Roy since loaning it to another hunter so I broke off a 1/2 “ piece of black electric tape and put it on a small piece of paper in a sage bush and backed off, I ranged the paper at 118, good enough. I took two shots and checked, there was one bullet in the top and one in the bottom of the tape and only 1/2” apart, gun was dead on at 118, good enough.

On the way back Eric was just wrapping up the ending to his video of the hunt, Eric asked where I was going and offered to help me, we discussed some of the bucks we had all passed but I told him I wanted to try and find a 4x4 until the last hour when I would shoot any meat buck. I told him I’d be fine, I was headed out the ridge past where he shot his buck, nobody had hunted that yet, Itold him to get his buck home and taken care of, so we said our goodbyes and parted.

As I worked out the ridge I spotted a few does, next I pulled up over a little top and glassed a large area, down in the bottom I spotted two doe and a fawn, one doe was looking at me, next I spotted a bedded doe then a bedded buck at 406 yards. He was in some sage but looked like a 3x3, so I just kept glassing. After 5 or 10 minutes one of the does moved toward a patch of junipers and out of sight, the buck got up and chased her into them, dang it, he was a 4x4 and bigger framed than I thought, bummer, I could have shot him in his bed!

I decided to hike down the ridge toward them, I went about 100 yards and realized I had left my glasses behind, oh well I would get them later, I stopped and glassed but nothing so I advanced another 50ish yards and glassed again, nuts, the buck and doe were in the wide open but had not seen mr yet, so I slowly got down, I was in an uncomfortable position, steep hill, no good rest, my shooting sticks broken and I hadn’t got a replacement yet, so I put my day pack on a short sage bush but it wasn’t a good rest, I wiggled around, layed down sideways on the hillside, rifle on the pack,, very uncomfortable but rifle was pretty solid. I waited while the buck passed behind another juniper, he walked out following the doe, he paused, I ranged him at 416 and give him 3-4 inches over the back, whammo, thwack, the sound of a bullet hitting, but at the recoil I lost the deer from in the scope and didn’t see the hit, I dropped the rifle and put up my binos, I spotted all the does going over the ridge but no buck, I glassed back to the area where the buck was but could not find him, next I headed down to look. After crossing the wash I wasn’t exactly sure where he had been but found him in about 15 minutes, that was a relief because I didn’t know for sure I had hit him. He’s not a real big buck but I caped him to add to my collection of mounts. I think the most satisfying thing was that we all three found a buck we wanted to shoot that day, it was a good day on the mountain! I love it when a plan comes together!

Photos in the order they were killed.

[bearpaw]

North Idaho Cougar Hunts
We have snow early in our north Idaho area and no hunter this next week. My son went scouting yesterday and found a few cat tracks. If anyone wants to come and hunt for a cougar this week or next week we can fit you in. These early hunts are usually some of our best cougar hunts. Call Dale 208-852-6494. Our hunts are $4950 plus sales tax and license. We guarantee our cougar hunts, if you don't get an opportunity to take a cat you can return for another hunt for half price, not many outfitters do that!

A couple past successful hunts!

[bearpaw]

Washington Late Whitetail
We have 10 bucks down and 100% success so far, with the current weather I expect continued great success for our next group of hunters as well. No big bucks so far, a lot of average 4x4 bucks and an 84 year old on his first deer hunt got a spike, he said he will be back next year. Jeff and Chuck hunt with us every year, here are their bucks!

[Twispriver]

As a practice do you encourage your clients to hold out for better bucks or is this a shoot the deer you see hunt?

[bearpaw]

As a practice do you encourage your clients to hold out for better bucks or is this a shoot the deer you see hunt?

It's entirely up to our hunters to shoot what they choose to shoot on any of our hunts, we never tell anyone they have to shoot anything. Some hunts are more likely to see better quality animals and on those hunts we may suggest passing animals but I am very cautious about that, it can be a double edged sword when you suggest passing animals that your hunter wants to shoot but then if they don't get an animal you obviously offered bad advice. For the most part we advise size and let the hunters choose if they want to shoot or pass.

[pygmy1985]

North Idaho Cougar Hunts
We have snow early in our north Idaho area and no hunter this next week. My son went scouting yesterday and found a few cat tracks. If anyone wants to come and hunt for a cougar this week or next week we can fit you in. These early hunts are usually some of our best cougar hunts. Call Dale 208-852-6494. Our hunts are $4950 plus sales tax and license. We guarantee our cougar hunts, if you don't get an opportunity to take a cat you can return for another hunt for half price, not many outfitters do that!

A couple past successful hunts!

That's a great guarantee!  Do you hunt with dogs only? How many days are the hunts?

[bearpaw]

North Idaho Cougar Hunts
We have snow early in our north Idaho area and no hunter this next week. My son went scouting yesterday and found a few cat tracks. If anyone wants to come and hunt for a cougar this week or next week we can fit you in. These early hunts are usually some of our best cougar hunts. Call Dale 208-852-6494. Our hunts are $4950 plus sales tax and license. We guarantee our cougar hunts, if you don't get an opportunity to take a cat you can return for another hunt for half price, not many outfitters do that!

A couple past successful hunts!

That's a great guarantee!  Do you hunt with dogs only? How many days are the hunts?

We offer 5 day or 7 day hunts with hounds in Idaho.

[bearpaw]

One of our deer hunters in Montana, he missed a monster on the 2nd day of his hunt but nailed this old buck the next day, congrats Bob!