Bearpaw Season 2009

[bearpaw]

Yesterday two deer were missed and last night we killed a couple deer nothing big, unfortunately didn't get photo's, sorry. This morning good buck sighted but not within range.

What is really exciting, we saw a big whitetail buck last night that we have never seen before. He is living smack in the middle of one of the properties. He's a 5x5, 21" to 23" outside spread, extra-extra-heavy mass, dark antlers, some 10" tines, good eye-guards, probably 170's.

He's super smart and did not provide a muzzy shot, but come late rifle his odds will be lowered a bit.

This buck gets the blood flowing.....I hope I am able to provide a photo of him before the season is over....

Almost forgot to mention, I still have hunts available this year, guided or unguided on private land for whitetail.....

[nw_bowhunter]

cool pics. nice updates

[bearpaw]

This is the 348 bull (greenscored) that Anthony guided the other day in Utah.

[Craig]

great looking bull.

[bearpaw]

3 MULIES DOWN
Three mulies down during the first two days of my Utah ranch mule deer hunt, 24" 5x3, 24" 5x5, and a 17" 4x4, fourth hunter would have his buck too, but his gun doesn't shoot straight...  
Hope to get some photos posted of these bucks soon.

WHITETAIL SIGHTED AGAIN
The big whitetail that we saw last week was spotted again today by one of our bear hunter's, the buck was bedded down next to the ranch road less than a half mile from the last place we saw him. We might get some close up photos of this guy with a lucky hunter...

WOLF DOWN
Talked to one of my guides who is hunting wolves with his dad in Idaho, on Oct 1, the opening day of the Idaho County wolf season they took the first wolf in Idaho County. What's really cool is they trailcammed these wolves in advance and then killed what they think is the same wolf shown in the attached trailcam photos.

They have been seeing another black one and he hopes to get it soon....

[bearpaw]

Keep in mind these guys are about 6'6" tall.

[rainshadow1]

Awesome! What a rug that'd make! Thanks for posting!

[bearpaw]

rainshadow I recieved the calls, thanks a million, first time I blew it, it actually sounded like a coyote howl....I have never used a howler before....I think they are going to work well....man I wished I had time to do some wolf huntin' now myself......I'm afraid the quota is going to fill before I get a chance to hunt....

[bearpaw]

Here's Bobby's Story About The Wolf Hunt

Oct 1 2009,
Opening day of Wolf season in Elk City and Dworshak Zones, Dad and I headed out to our blind in "Secret Meadows".  We reached the meadow at 6:45am, parked the 4 wheelers, 50 yrds from the blind, and walk out to the blind in the middle of the meadow. We got settled in and I range-found 4 or 5 different spots for dad then turned to watch my sector. No sooner than I got relaxed I caught some movement out the corner of my eye. I siad "*censored* there's a wolf" turned around and we both aimed in on him. He walked  in the middle of the meadow stepped up on a small knoll looked at a couple "moo cows" and started to let out a howl. Dad and I counted down 3......2.....1 and bang I hit him next to his right eye and dad hit him center of the chest. Dropped him cold. Time was 7:00am.

I have also attached a few pics of him that we caught on our trail camera.

[Machias]

Sweet!

[jackelope]

SWEET is right...that's a good looking woof. is he gonna rug it?
congrats to the hunter.

[JackOfAllTrades]

One more dead deer and elk killer!  Sweet!

[bearpaw]

I imagine the wolf will get rugged or lifesized. I know what I would do if it was mine.

UTAH UPDATE

BULL ELK HUNT
This week we got a 4x4 bull in a general season any bull elk area. Any size bull is a respectable bull for an over the counter tag area.

COW ELK HUNT
Saw elk every day, but most were at very long distance and across canyons that were probably out of reach for Larry, the guy who was hunting. Yesterday morning I spotted a group of elk 3/4 mile away and we stalked to within 503 yards, no cover to get any closer so we decided to take the shot rather than risk spooking the herd. Larry had never shot much over 200 yards, but we set up with shooting sticks, it felt good, so he picked a broadside cow, held over about two feet and fired a shot, she never moved, I said "hold over a foot higher and shoot again", this time she moved about 20 yards and stopped again, I said "hold over only 1 foot this time", another miss. The elk moved a few more yards and stopped again, I said "try 4 feet over her back", another miss. I dug up a big rock and got Larry in a prone position, another miss. After about 12 to 15 shots we ran out of catridges and the elk had moved out to 648 yards and some started feeding again.  

During the whole affair Larry had dropped one cartridge in the snow, we frantically sifted through the snow looking for this final chance, finally I found it, he chambered the round, took a very careful aim and another miss.  

No fault of Larry, this was just farther than his ability permitted, or his gun was off. I have had plenty of guys and gals kill elk at this range and suspect the gun was off. We discussed the only two options, which included sitting and watching the elk feed or slipping out and hoping the elk would still be there later after we went and got more shells, we decided to sneak off the mountain and come back later to see if they would still be there.  

We got back to the truck and as we drove back to check his truck for more cartridges we discussed sighting the gun, Larry said he had shot it just before driving over for the hunt and was confident it was dead on at 200 yards. After rumaging around Larry came up with 5 more of his carefully hand loaded catridges. Now another decision, do we try to sight in the gun with that few of cartridges, do we drive 2 hours to town and purchase more catridges which may require sighting the gun to different cartridges, or do we look for a 100-200 yard shot and make due with the 5 shells for the rest of the day. Larry opted that we look for closer elk and figured if he had a close shot he would be OK, he thought the gun should be fine.

We hunted the rest of the day only finding deer, when we were down to the last 30 minutes I told Larry we should check a nearby spot where we had seen some fresh elk beds out in a feeding area earlier. We got there and nothing, now we were down to 6 minutes, I told Larry we were hunting till the last minute was over, a hunt is never over till the last minute of shooting hours has passed. (honestly, that is what I told him). I headed around the next ridge looking for elk, as we rounded the ridge I looked at my watch, I said to Larry, "we only have 1 more minute", just then I looked down in the canyon and spotted about a nice 300 class bull and 6 cows. We quickly sat down and Larry settled into his shooting sticks (he never shoots without them), 3 cows are looking at us from about 80 yards, just as I figured the shot was gonna go off the cows whirled and ran, there was one elk still standing, Larry moved his gun onto that elk, I must have said it about three times "don't shoot...it's the bull" the cows stopped a couple more times, but just didn't stand quite long enough for Larry to sqeeze off a shot and then they were gone.

So we finished the 3 day cow hunt on an exciting but disappointing note. When Larry left I told him to check his gun and try to practice some long range shooting with a friend he has who shoots a lot at long range. He said he would be giving me a phone call and we would set up another hunt.

Looking back, hindsight is aways 20/20, I wish we would have moved through the open ground closer to the first herd that morning. After we started shooting it seemed the elk weren't even afraid of us, who knows maybe we could have gotten within 300 yards. I also wish I would have insisted that he shoot his gun before we started hunting, I still think it must have been off. One thing is for sure, we had a good time and that is what hunting is all about.

UTAH MULE DEER
Here's a photo of a nice 24" muley Nick guided recently on our private ranch hunt in Utah.

[JackOfAllTrades]

After about 12 to 15 shots we ran out of catridges

Uh, ya think? I carry eight. Four in the gun, four in a pocket. That's it. -And they don't stock mine on the store shelf.

OK, you didn't say what cartridge he was touchin off. Lets go with the 30-06 with a 180gn bullet. Ballpark, I'm going with ~48" drop at 500yds off the top of my head. Add another 150yds to that? Without knowing the dope for the scope/load, I would not have taken the shot. Crawl on my belly I would...

-Steve

[bearpaw]

270 WSM, and yes now knowing how placid that group of elk was, I would have carefully and slowly moved closer. However given that the hunter was not much of a crawler, a number of medical problems, and he said he could shoot 1MOA groups with his gun and it was sighted dead on at 200 yds, I figured the first or second shot at 503 would get it done. I never dreamed we would shoot that many times and leave elk feeding on the mountain side.....

Those of you who live in open country or shoot long ranges know that this was a very practical shot for a good shooting weapon. Because we shot in 1 foot increments to as high as 6 feet over the back, that's figuring for as much as 85-90 inches of drop, and we had a good rest so if the gun was on, I should have been gutting an elk. I still think the gun was off.

Too bad we didn't get the 80 yard cow at the end of the day, but that's why it's called "hunting" and not "getting".