Hunting Washington Forum

Other Hunting => Turkey Hunting => Topic started by: mikethehunter on March 25, 2009, 11:02:32 AM

Title: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: mikethehunter on March 25, 2009, 11:02:32 AM: Hi, my name is mike I'm kind of new to the site and new to hunting I was wondering if the Little Pend Oreille was a good place for a new guy like myself start? or are there better places in that area to try first? like i said I'm new and not real sure where to go
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: Dustin07 on March 25, 2009, 12:36:07 PM: where do you live? When I called the city of Colville they recommened Pend Oreille and I am a first timer as well.
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: Intruder on March 25, 2009, 12:44:47 PM: There are definitely turkeys on the refuge.
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: jackelope on March 25, 2009, 12:48:30 PM: several in fact.
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: mikethehunter on March 25, 2009, 12:50:53 PM: i live in the maple vally area
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: Big10gauge on March 25, 2009, 01:08:10 PM: Quote from: Dustin07 on March 25, 2009, 12:36:07 PM
where do you live? When I called the city of Colville they recommened Pend Oreille and I am a first timer as well.

Yeah, Colville only likes experienced turkey hunters coming to their area. :P
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: Dustin07 on March 25, 2009, 01:42:31 PM: I've replied to this thread like 4 times now and it keeps erroring out!! >:( >:( >:(

regardless, one last time...... the Coville people I called actually said colvile NF was good too. She even gave me tips on how to hunt Turkeys in the area, where to go, and said that even though some people say the winter hurt the turkey population, that she felt they were still doing very well because she sees them all over the place on her way to work in the morning.

I think Colville must recognize a positive economical benifit to having such a turkey hotspot.
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: bearmanric on March 25, 2009, 01:45:39 PM: i'll be there the 14th. you can do well there. i'll be camping there. Rick
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: turkey slayer on March 25, 2009, 02:41:09 PM: it's been 10 years or so since I've hunted it . There was alot of birds on it 10 years ago, and I am sure there is more now. I shot my first bird in 97 on the refuge. PM me and we will talk
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: Dustin07 on March 25, 2009, 03:15:13 PM: Quote from: bearmanric on March 25, 2009, 01:45:39 PM
i'll be there the 14th. you can do well there. i'll be camping there. Rick

Cool. my brother just got home from Iraq and he's taking a little time for himself so he'll probably head over on the 15th with my father-in-law to get camp started, then the rest of us will head over thursday/friday/saturday to join him.
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: jackelope on March 25, 2009, 03:17:53 PM: you will realize when you roll into town that they take pride in their turkey population. they have a turkey festival, all the stores are making money, etc. it's a major part of their economy.
the refuge is good turkey hunting, and so is the national forest.
watch out for moose.
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: bearmanric on March 25, 2009, 03:28:56 PM: you cant drive in till the 14th. this will be my third year the.seen a pretty blonde bear the last year. opening morning. couldnt go very high last year. snow. it go onto national forest. you will see alot of turkey's around colville to pump you up. very nice people in town. Rick
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: bowhunterforever on March 25, 2009, 03:41:56 PM: I would imagine theres still lots of snow up high again this year and maybe some down low too! :dunno:
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: bearmanric on March 25, 2009, 05:41:45 PM: i was at the snowline last year. Rick

(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimg.photobucket.com%2Falbums%2Fv68%2Fbearmanric%2FP1000784.jpg&hash=cb12077983f6bf35c8d7005eca28b45579d77b1c)
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: turkeydancer on March 25, 2009, 07:13:57 PM: I took my first bird off of the refuge, and even had 13 distinctive gobblers answer my call one morning (I was surrounded). There is also a lot of state land and NF land. Two of my buddies took their 2 birds each in two days from state land last year. The only problem I ever had on public land wasn't calling in birds, but calling in at least a dozen new turkey hunters every day ... some even running at the toms I had coming in and firing from 60 to 70 yards. :bash: I even had one guy walk in and sit about 3 ft to my left. >:
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: jackelope on March 25, 2009, 08:36:32 PM: i killed my 1st 2 birds off the refuge in the same day a few years back.
i have actually never run into anyone else in the woods out there....wierd i am sure, but true story.
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: BLKBEARKLR on March 25, 2009, 08:51:42 PM: 3 years ago in that area had a nice bird talking to me, and about 5 minutes of talking back and forth I see this idiot on his hands and knees crawling by me at 40 yards. My decoys were about 15 feet to his left off a little shelf that I could see, he crawls up I in the mean time shift myself to the opposite side of the tree from the moron. He finally sees my decoys and starts lifting his shotgun up. I whistle to him a couple of times, he keeps lifting it up. So nice and loudly I say you can run up and kick them they don't fly to well. he jumps up and starts asking me what the hell was I doing?? Man took a lot to control myself that day.

Joe
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: MuleyontheWall on March 25, 2009, 10:10:06 PM: Seems like theres birds just about everywhere up in NE washington, I think anywhere you go your going to be pretty safe when it comes to seeing birds...just have to get away from the roads to get away from the decoy shooters...
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: NWTFhunter on March 25, 2009, 10:53:53 PM: Not to sound negative, but I didnt see too many birds in and around Colville the 3 days I spent there. I did see some on some private ground I have access to just barely out of town. But this year I didnt see many in the fields sunning themselves like years past.

Another thing to think about also... If your going to be in town on the 10th of April Colvilles NWTF chapter is having its annual banquet. The Nat web page says the 11th but it is incorrect.
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: hoytem on March 25, 2009, 11:05:53 PM: Quote from: MuleontheWall on March 25, 2009, 10:10:06 PM
Seems like theres birds just about everywhere up in NE washington, I think anywhere you go your going to be pretty safe when it comes to seeing birds...just have to get away from the roads to get away from the decoy shooters...

had a similar experience with a *censored* on a 4wheeler and his kid on the back ride off the road through the brush to where i was set up, ride right up to my jake decoy and yell to his kid "There's a gobbler right there!". I just jumped up and as soon as he saw me he rode off quick and yelled to his buddy also riding a quad that someone is hunting the area. >:(
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: Diehard0123 on March 26, 2009, 06:40:13 AM: This is why I don't use gobbler decoys :bdid:
I have heard stories of guys using decoys such as B moble and Pretty Boy that have been shot at or had their decoys killed by hunters that don't take the time to identify the target and shoot thinking that the deke is a tom.
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: yelp on March 26, 2009, 07:02:57 AM: The refuge can have great hunting...But I suggest you hunt mid week. Try to the Southwest and hunt Iron Mountain area. I like hunting in May up in the NW area Flodelle Creek. Go up to Beaver Lodge and take roads that run to the west over Mill Creek. Great hunting and not to many guys. The Radar Dome Area however is ORV Heaven...lot of quads at certain times of year. The Kalispell Peak side of the refuge can have some good hunting in spots..got to cover ground of course it is hard depending on snow. I used to camp at Starvation Lake and hunt the refuge and also hunt the other side of hwy 20 over toward Old Dominion...ther is a block of DNR that hold a lot of birds once in a while, especially over towards Alladin Area...Good Luck.
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: Intruder on March 26, 2009, 10:13:08 AM: Many of the posts in here regarding encounters with other hunters are a great testimonial as to why you don't stalk a gobbling bird. :bdid:
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: Dustin07 on March 26, 2009, 10:33:33 AM: Quote from: Diehard0123 on March 26, 2009, 06:40:13 AM
This is why I don't use gobbler decoys :bdid:
I have heard stories of guys using decoys such as B moble and Pretty Boy that have been shot at or had their decoys killed by hunters that don't take the time to identify the target and shoot thinking that the deke is a tom.

Quote from: Intruder on March 26, 2009, 10:13:08 AM
Many of the posts in here regarding encounters with other hunters are a great testimonial as to why you don't stalk a gobbling bird. :bdid:

the NWTF site talks about the ethics of turkey hunting, and if I remember right, condemned stalking as being down right dangerous for this reason. they also tell you to carry your turkey decoys with the head covered 100% so no silly hunter mistakes it (while you're carrying it......................) for a live bird. :yike:
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: bearmanric on March 26, 2009, 11:18:46 AM: be safe every one. i'll be hunting by myself. has been a few scary time. been shot by at turky's coming in. Rick
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: Dustin07 on March 26, 2009, 11:23:22 AM: Quote from: bearmanric on March 26, 2009, 11:18:46 AM
be safe every one. i'll be hunting by myself. has been a few scary time. been shot by at turky's coming in. Rick

armed turkeys are intimidating

(https://hunting-washington.com/smf/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.londonderrynh.net%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2008%2F06%2F20080608_turkey-armed.jpg&hash=8880eeddf7ee787fb09e3be2157bec72cc2495c9)
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: turkeydancer on March 26, 2009, 12:21:23 PM: State land over towards Cole Road use to be fairly nice until they logged/thinned. State land off Haller Creek, Slide Creek Vanasse, east end of Evans Cutoff, etc still holds birds. In fact, it should be fairly easy to find birds on most state, DNR, or other public land throughout the area.
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: hoytem on March 26, 2009, 12:38:28 PM: Quote from: yelp on March 26, 2009, 07:02:57 AM
The refuge can have great hunting...But I suggest you hunt mid week. Try to the Southwest and hunt Iron Mountain area. I like hunting in May up in the NW area Flodelle Creek. Go up to Beaver Lodge and take roads that run to the west over Mill Creek. Great hunting and not to many guys. The Radar Dome Area however is ORV Heaven...lot of quads at certain times of year. The Kalispell Peak side of the refuge can have some good hunting in spots..got to cover ground of course it is hard depending on snow. I used to camp at Starvation Lake and hunt the refuge and also hunt the other side of hwy 20 over toward Old Dominion...ther is a block of DNR that hold a lot of birds once in a while, especially over towards Alladin Area...Good Luck.

last year i got my truck stuck at mill creek, sunk it in about 3 feet of snow, after a couple hours we finally got towed out with some guy with a dodge 2500, yeah it's usually a great area if there isn't much snow.
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: Dustin07 on March 26, 2009, 12:57:28 PM: Quote from: hoytem on March 26, 2009, 12:38:28 PM

last year i got my truck stuck at mill creek, sunk it in about 3 feet of snow, after a couple hours we finally got towed out with some guy with a dodge 2500, yeah it's usually a great area if there isn't much snow.

I got my rental car stuck in about 2FT of snow in Mound City, MO chasing snow geese last month. It took me about 2.5hrs till a local farmer came and towed us out.
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: Diehard0123 on March 26, 2009, 03:29:31 PM: Quote from: turkeydancer on March 26, 2009, 12:21:23 PM
State land over towards Cole Road use to be fairly nice until they logged/thinned. State land off Haller Creek, Slide Creek Vanasse, east end of Evans Cutoff, etc still holds birds. In fact, it should be fairly easy to find birds on most state, DNR, or other public land throughout the area.
Haller Road is a great area, lots of land to hunt if the snow isn't too deep.
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: jackelope on March 26, 2009, 04:28:05 PM: i'm curious to know how close most of you guys are hunting to the roads. i will add upfront this is not meant as some sort of low blow or anything. i'm just curious. we hike in a little ways, maybe 1-1.5 miles usually before we even start locator calls and what not and honestly have never run into another hunter in the woods. we are hunting in the refuge and pretty much only on the weekends...and only have been there the opening weekends. i did not go there last year but the 2 years before that we were there.
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: bearmanric on March 26, 2009, 05:40:01 PM: I camped at bear creek camp last year. you could only go another 1/2 a mile. snowed in. bringing a mountain bike. to get farther. was way in talking to some bird's and the Ranger drove up on me was a bummer.i have some great spot it's if i can get to them.the turkey's i know of are useaully a 1/2 from the road. two year's ago i hunted high less people. Rick
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: Diehard0123 on March 26, 2009, 06:21:50 PM: I usually find birds close to the logging roads, they use them as strutting zones and use dry mud puddles to dust. They also travel on these roads to get from one field/medow to another.
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: turkeydancer on March 27, 2009, 06:32:55 AM: Normally I like to mountain bike as much as possible when scouting or hunting, probably about 2 to 5 miles back in. Where I was talking about was about 1/3 mile on foot straight up the hill near the top of the ridge from where I parked ... not nearly far enough it seems.
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: MuleyontheWall on April 02, 2009, 09:13:09 PM: how about places to camp on the refuge? tried to look on their web page and couldnt find much...have a 24ft RV trailer to park somewhere....
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: SpokaneSlayer on April 02, 2009, 09:30:41 PM: There are a ton of places to camp. We camped by the river past Starvation Flats near the horse camp during deer season. There are also some good spots on the road that goes past the HQ building. There's actually a good map on the website. Follow this link:

http://www.fws.gov/littlependoreille/pdf/PublicUseRefugeMap.pdf (http://www.fws.gov/littlependoreille/pdf/PublicUseRefugeMap.pdf)
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: MuleyontheWall on April 02, 2009, 09:41:12 PM: Ok....Im stupid...I have that map printed out sitting here next to me and I thought it didnt have anything on it about camp sites... :bash:
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: SpokaneSlayer on April 02, 2009, 09:43:20 PM: LOL! Yeah it does. FYI. Some of those roads aren't open to vehicles until June 1.
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: MuleyontheWall on April 02, 2009, 09:46:22 PM: Quote from: SpokaneSlayer on April 02, 2009, 09:43:20 PM
LOL! Yeah it does. FYI. Some of those roads aren't open to vehicles until June 1.

heres what i found on the web site about road closed.

The Refuge is closed to all unauthorized vehicle traffic from January 1 through April 13,
except on Bear Creek Road from Headquarters west to the Refuge Boundary, and on
Buffalo-Wilson, Narcisse Creek and Olson Creek Roads which are open year round.
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: SpokaneSlayer on April 02, 2009, 09:47:57 PM: That's true.
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: bearmanric on April 02, 2009, 09:56:13 PM: I stayed at bear creek cap last year. the cottonwood camp is the first you come to. past the big field's. you can only camp at desinated area's. i'll try to be at bear creek. going over on the 10th. stay at that motel in colville. going to scout around. i hope. call's are building up. i get quite a few done tomorrow head into the rfuge the 14th. was full last year. Rick
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: MuleyontheWall on April 02, 2009, 10:12:20 PM: We are coming into town the evening of the 14th so Im sure lots of places will be full...trying to find somewhere I can drop the rv quick and try to get out in the woods the evening of the 14th...
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: hawksfan75 on May 24, 2010, 10:46:13 PM: Alright, digging up an older post since I'm looking at headed up to this area this weekend. I'm assuming it will be slammed since it will be closing weekend and the holiday.

Or will I be far enough east that there will be spots when I can get out there Friday night?

Anybody have any advice for this area and where to explore. This is sort of a "turkey hunt on the side" sort of a trip and more about exploring a new area and seeing a different part of the state.

Thanks!
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: MuleyontheWall on May 28, 2010, 11:07:53 AM: Shouldnt be to crazy, last year was real slow as far as people the last weekend in there...we're heading over as well i think, 07 black chevy duramax with a big camper on the back...not sure where we'll be camped at in there.
Title: Re: Little Pend Oreille refuge a good place for beginner?
Post by: hawksfan75 on May 16, 2011, 05:44:53 PM: Digging this post up yet again. Headed over for Memorial Day Weekend last-minute turkey/deer scouting/fishingin/family camping. Will likely be staying at the Bear Creek campground and then adventuring out from there.

Anybody have any tips/tricks for the late season? Or tips/tricks on where to camp as well?