Bearpaw Season - Fall 2020

[bearpaw]

November Velvet! As is usual with bucks that don’t rub, this Montana buck had no testicles!

[jstone]

Poor guy or IT?

[bearpaw]

David from Las Vegas finally drew a moose tag, we spotted 19 moose, one real good bull that was too hard to get to, and the last bull was a hike he could manage, we closed the distance and got to 249 yards, Dave shot him bedded, he stood and tried to walk, then Dave finished him off. It was a fun hunt and Dave went home with a head for the wall and lots of good eats. His brother Clayton and son Max were there for the entire hunt too!

[Skyvalhunter]

Nice Bull, Idaho?

[bearpaw]

Nice Bull, Idaho?

[bearpaw]

Congrats to Jeff for filling his Montana deer tag with guide Derek! 

[bearpaw]

Another nice buck taken this season, congrats to Bridger!

[bearpaw]

Yesterday Brian, Branden, and the hounds got it done, the cat had crossed roads multiple times, it’s always fun working out in your mind which set of tracks is the freshest so you aren’t wasting time. Brian said he wasn’t sure where the cat had crossed last, he picked a spot and loosed the hounds, they caught the cat in a few hundred yards, sheer luck on that pick, lol! Fred and his wife  only got to hunt a couple days but had a great time, congrats Fred!

[Rainier10]

Ah cat season.  Keep knocking them down Dale.  I love cat season.

[Machias]

Awesome seasons so far!!!

[bearpaw]

It's been a busy month, with the new Idaho license system I've been busy selling hunts, buying licenses before they sell out, and still trying to lion hunt! I didn't think I could get any busier, but this bold new world keeps coming up with new ways to make a guy busier! 

I really look forward to cat hunting, I enjoy looking for cat tracks and its such fun to hunt with hounds, to watch them work and do their stuff. Our snow was a little slow coming this year and we got a late start, I had to rearrange my schedule and hunters, but we managed to sack up some kitties none the less.

On our first hunt we chased a mature female all over the place all day long, she had really covered some country and then circled back to within a few hundred yards of where we had started her and then the dogs were treed. Branden gets to the tree first, he calls me, we have a kitten in the tree! 

Well nuts, praise and pet the dogs real well and leash em up, looks like we are done for the day! Even though the dogs did a great job, that was a bummer, we needed to notch a tag that day.

Next we had high winds, the fresh snow from the day before drifted really bad, we tried to run a nice tom but we completely lost his tracks due to the drifting and another day was wasted as far as filling tags! 

Next the cold weather moved in, as expected the cats didn't move much for a couple days and still no tags were filled! 

Finally on day 5 of hunting we find a good track, snow conditions are good, the dogs do their stuff, we have a cat treed, all three dogs did a great job, but there simply isn't a decent shot available due to all the thick limbs. Finally the best shot position is determined and Carey pulls the trigger, the cat comes out but takes off running, Zack follows a couple hundred yards and we determine  the cat is going to need to be treed again, so we release a young dog, I really try to avoid releasing the older dogs on wounded cats, that has not proved to be prudent through the years. So Duece takes the trail, he opens good but only goes a few hundred yards and comes back to Zack, so we let the older dogs go, they go to exactly where Duece had gone and start treeing again. Obviously Duece had treed the cat but didn't stay, but after the other dogs get to the tree then Duece started treeing like he should have in the first place, to top it off the cat moves around a bit and Duece sees the cat and really does a good job. Carey makes a good shot and we notch a tag! Finally we notched a tag and Duece gets a good lesson in treeing game.

Congrats Carey you got a nice cat.

The hounds are left to right: Cash, Banjo, Duece

[bearpaw]

If you noticed something yellow, that is an eartag, this cat had been in trouble before, it had killed a housecat on a porch and the IDFG had tranquilized it and marked it.

[Twispriver]

When my partner got a bear with one of those little tags we called it a prison tat - he left it in for the rug

[bearhunter99]

Good looking cats there!

[bearpaw]

Chris and Carey who were hunting with me came on the hunt together but Chris still didn't have a cat so I extended their hunt even though we had new hunters in camp. The pressure was on to find more cats which Daniel did, the dogs performed their magic again, and the next day we treed another decent cat for one of the other hunters who was hunting with Daniel. We get to the tree and Arlin tries to load his carbine for the shot but it jams. Somehow two 44mag cartridges got under the little plate that lifts and guides them into the chamber. We didn't have any screwdrivers with us but we poked around and I finally was able to push the cartridges back into the magazine with the point of my EZ Lap sharpening stick and we got the gun loaded. The cat jumped at the shot, was hit hard but run downhill, Daniel and one of the hounds caught up with the cat hiding under a big downed log, Arlin made it down and finished off the cat. Good job Arlin and good job to the hounds!