Bearpaw Season - Fall 2023

[TeacherMan]

More pics

That is a gorgeous tom… 🎃

[Boss .300 winmag]

Great cat , and write up. Congrats to Claude.

I bought a snow machine a couple years ago this is the year I’m
ready to hit the roads, but the snow just isn’t here yet.🤯

[bearpaw]

Great cat , and write up. Congrats to Claude.

I bought a snow machine a couple years ago this is the year I’m
ready to hit the roads, but the snow just isn’t here yet.🤯

That’s a bummer, hopefully more snow this month.

[bearpaw]

Courtney Evans with her first animal taken on her first hunting trip yesterday with her husband and Bearpaw guide Daniel Evans. Congrats Courtney!

Let the meat cutting begin!

[Rainier10]

Please send my congratulations to both of them on the hunt and the marriage.

[bearpaw]

Please send my congratulations to both of them on the hunt and the marriage.

I'll tell them! 

(Don't forget the little guy Finley, he is a real character, I call him Smiley and he knows that name too!) LOL

[bearpaw]

The Rest Of The Bison Story

My wife and I went along just to watch, we had a blast. The place is about 1000 acres, so we found the main bison herd pretty quickly. We were after a particular nice sized cow with a red tag in her ear. We were on the herd for a while but it was cold, foggy, and couldn't get a clean shot so decided to go to town and have brunch and warm up a bit. After eating we came back and got on the herd again, this time there were more bison, others had joined up. Courtney was trying to be careful to not shoot the wrong animal or have a pass through and hit a second animal accidentally. Plus being her first hunt it's not like she could pull up and shoot in a split second when there were split second opportunities.

There was a big bull and wherever he went the whole herd followed. A couple times he took off running and we had to take the truck to a different part of the property to get on the herd again. Finally after a several hours she got a clear shot, she was close but missed the drop dead spot by a few inches and we had to play the waiting game again.

The herd took off again to the upper end of the property, this time we got close and then followed the herd on foot, Courtney finally was able to get the same cow down and we were able to get photos just as it was getting dark. We were after that cow for 7 hours trying to get fairly close and get a clear shot.

Sometimes you go out and the one you want is easy to get a shot at and it only takes a couple hours total and you are done, then other times it's tough to get a shot at the one you want. The guide for our bison hunts is one of the most patient guides and a heck of a nice guy, even though it was brutal for Courtney out in the winter weather for that long she had a fantastic time as did we all.

Courtney is getting a shoulder mount and they are going to make a rug out of the rear half of the hide. We split the carcass, the Evans family took half and the Denney family took half. We got about 200 pounds of meat from each half, it was a pretty good sized cow.

I went to my son's place which is only a couple hours from the bison ranch to cut up our half. I butchered, my son ran the grinder, my wife packaged all the steaks and burger and then we had some of our northern Idaho friends over and we all had bison burgers, bison t-bones, and some beef ribeyes, along with some berry fruit salad, homemade salmon chowder, and baked potatoes. We all ate way to much, LOL. But it was a grand time!

[Twispriver]

If you got any of the recent snow it should be getting good for chasing cats

[bearpaw]

If you got any of the recent snow it should be getting good for chasing cats

Yes, snow was good to get, but wind has been a problem. Killed a cat Monday, was on tracks Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning that were going well until the cats went over the top of the ridge and the wind completely drifted in the tracks, then Thursday afternoon we treed another cat but it was too small, it was a different cat than the one we started chasing. Winds and snow were so extreme we took today off. Planning on hunting tomorrow if the storm lets off a little, but its going to be a cold day on the snowmobiles!

Will post another lion story from Monday when I get time, I've got another couple lion photos and stories to post too from before xmas, when I get time.

This is a bobcat my son got for himself a week or so ago.

[bearpaw]

An amazing winter sunrise!

[bearpaw]

Here’s another cat we got this winter. Jason traveled from Pennsylvania to Idaho for a chance at a mountain lion. We were having a lot of trouble with high winds drifting out tracks so badly we would lose the track altogether on the ridge tops.

On this particular morning I found where the cat came off a ridge it had been hunting and walked the road for a couple miles, then it left the road heading up onto another higher ridge, it had obviously made the tracks early right after dark most likely, the tracks were drifting pretty badly. The way the cat was moving I figured I would find it on the other side of the mountain so I headed around in hopes of finding fresher tracks.

I covered ground as fast as I could, I knew I had to get the dogs going on this track as soon as possible before it was completely drifted out. I found the tracks again crossing right at a pass going onto another ridge, the wind had the tracks almost completely filled in spots.

I had to check the next road to the south to make sure the cat had not crossed again, I made my way over there and no he hadn’t crossed so I buried the throttle on my skidoo heading back to the truck to get the dogs and Jason. I made good time, as soon as I got there I told Jason to get ready to ride, we have a track that we have to get back to as soon as possible.

I unloaded another sled for Jason and loaded dogs in the dog sled, by then Jason was ready and we were headed back to the freshest tracks. Upon arriving I was disappointed to see that some tracks were entirely filled with snow and completely gone. I was hiked leading the dogs a ways and found unfilled tracks under the trees, I turned Rip, Rio, and Carlos loose. In spots they were doing well and opening good, there’s nothing better than listening to hounds on a track!

Unfortunately the cat came back around to the open side of the mountain and the dogs made a huge lose, just as I was about to go try and help them they found tracks again and were opening on the track again. They lost it a few more times but after 15 minutes or so they would find tracks again and make more headway, but it was really touch and go on this chase.

After a few hours they made it all the way around that mountain side and headed toward the bottom of the canyon and moving faster now. I told Josh we need to get down there, I expected the cat was bedded in a patch of trees in the canyon. I had already been down that road earlier and the cat had not crossed. So we headed down there on the sleds.

Got a phone call will continue the story ASAP.

[bearpaw]

We got down there and it sounded like they had the cat treed in that patch of timber. I was getting ready to head in there and then a couple of the dogs were moving again back and forth in that patch of trees and one dog sounded like he was in the same spot the whole time. I told Jason I better check the road again for tracks, just wait here and keep listening to the dogs until I get back.

I hurried down the canyon to an intersection and then went up the other canyon, yep, sure enough there were fresh cat tracks crossing over the top of my earlier snowmobile tracks. I hurried back to Jason, upon arriving two of the dogs had figured it out and gone over the ridge toward where the fresh tracks crossed. It sounded like the third dog was headed that way too. I told Jason the cat had probably been laying under a tree and the dogs thought they had him in that tree, but he probably made a loop around them to confuse them and then headed out, we needed to get back to where he crossed the other road and make sure the dogs are all on it.

We headed back to the fresh tracks I had just found and the dogs had already crossed the road, we could hear them echoing loudly off the mountainside, they were in hot pursuit of smoking hot tracks now and making good time! They made it halfway up the mountain and it sounded like they stopped and were treeing again. We got rid of the heavy clothing and headed up the steep mountainside. We were closing the distance and finally got close enough to see and sure enough we had a nice lion up a big fir tree. The cat was hard to see well but we finally found a spot and the cat leaned forward and Jason had a good chest shot, he sent a perfectly placed bullet through the cat and it hit the ground dead, we got some nice photos, praised the dogs, and headed off the mountain, it was a great day to be a lion hunter from Pennsylvania!

[Machias]

Awesome!!!!

[teanawayslayer]

Awesome! He looks like one happy dude!

[Boss .300 winmag]

Nicely done. Was it a Tom?