Post by: elkinrutdrivemenuts on September 15, 2011, 08:20:36 AM
Post by: GoldTip on September 15, 2011, 08:55:24 AM
Post by: bearpaw on September 15, 2011, 09:01:36 AM
Post by: WAcoyotehunter on September 15, 2011, 09:03:21 AM
Post by: bearpaw on September 15, 2011, 05:30:14 PM
Post by: mulehunter on September 15, 2011, 06:04:08 PM
Mulehunter.
Post by: carpsniperg2 on September 15, 2011, 06:17:18 PM
Post by: villageidiot on September 15, 2011, 09:31:43 PM
Wednesday, Sep. 07, 2011
Hunters have seven months to kill two wolves, but Stan Burt of Boise did it in two days, and in reality, closer to two minutes.
Burt drove from Boise into the mountains near McCall on Aug. 30, the first day of Idaho’s wolf hunt. He camped that evening but didn’t have time to hunt.
He got up the next morning and drove to a spot where he suspected a pack was roaming. He sat down to lunch around 1 p.m. and then howled to see if any wolves were in the area.
“A whole chorus erupted,” Burt said.
Not only had Burt located a pack within a quarter mile, but the wolves had located him, and they headed in his direction.
He positioned himself in a clearing with a good view of the terrain.
Within minutes, Burt said at least eight wolves were milling around and looking for the source of the howling.
“They were basically all around me,” he said.
A large wolf, which Burt suspected was the alpha male, closed within 50 yards, but it blended in with terrain, and at first he didn’t notice it. When he did, the wolf faded into the trees before he could get a shot.
Burt got his sights on another wolf about 75 yards away and shot it with his Ruger bolt-action rifle chambered in .223.
“It dropped like a pancake,” he said.
He expected the wolves to scatter, but they continued stirring in front of him.
“The gunshot did not bother them,” he said. “It really unnerved me that they were not afraid of me after firing a rifle shot.”
He dropped a second wolf “within two or three seconds of the first,” and it fell within 30 yards of the first one.
The wolves started moving away, but Burt used a predator call that mimics a rabbit, and the pack turned and looked back again.
“Needless to say, it was exciting,” he said. “If I would have had five wolf tags, I probably could have killed five wolves.”
Burt estimates about 15 minutes elapsed from the time he first heard the pack howl until he shot two and the remainder of the pack ran away.
“What a rush,” he said. “I could hardly believe that it happened. I hadn’t even put my camo on.”
Burt, 60, is an Idaho native and lifelong hunter who often archery hunts for elk.
He tried hunting wolves in 2009 and heard some howl, but he never got close enough for a shot.
He said wolf hunting was the purpose of his trip, and he bought a pair of tags because Idaho raised the bag limit this year.
“We need to thin the wolf population,” he said. “I think it’s good for the elk herds.”
He’s getting a full-body mount of one wolf and a rug made from the hide of the other.
Burt’s kills were the second and third for the wolf season, according to Fish and Game. Wolf hunters are required to check in any wolf they kill within 72 hours.
While Burt wasn’t the first successful wolf hunter this year, he’s the first ever to kill two in a single day during a sport hunt.
“It took awhile for that to sink in,” he said.
This year is Idaho’s second wolf hunting season since 2009. A judge halted the hunts in 2010. But in 2009, hunters could only kill one wolf per year.