Bearpaw Season - Fall 2022

[huntnfmly]

Very cool
Thanks again for sharing

[bearpaw]

This year Mike notched his Idaho elk tag early on his hunt, in addition to getting a bull, Mike also filled his Idaho deer tag, nice job Mike! Gotta love filling both tags!

[bearpaw]

A few bulls we found this year had crazy antlers, I think one of them was posted a couple pages of so back, here’s another one with messed up antlers.

[bearpaw]

Todd and Tim traveled from Ohio to hunt Idaho mule deer, they had a good hunt and went home with a couple nice bucks, well done guys!

[huntnfmly]

Nice👍

[bearpaw]

The Ironic Buck
A lot of guys say you have to go deep to find big bucks, you have to exercise and be in good shape, and many hunters say you’re not going to kill a big buck by road hunting. Many hunters will look down their nose at a so called “road hunter”, they figure he’s as unsportsmanlike as it gets.

I’ve always felt like any hunting method can be effective as long as you do it well and it’s legal. In many ways different hunters are somehow limited to what they can physically do, some more than others. As a hunting guide you learn to read and work within the ability level of each hunter. In todays busy world average people just are not in the same physical condition as average people were 30 or 50 years ago.

Richard arrived in Idaho to find himself intimidated by the steep rugged terrain, it can really be quite daunting to a flat lander from sea level. Ray was quick to adjust the hunt to fit Richard’s ability level and not burn him out. They did a number of easier hunts and one evening Ray and I discussed another spot nobody had hunted yet. Ray and Richard went there the next morning, they stopped, parked and walked 80 yards from the truck and sat down to watch, within sight of the truck.

About 11am a big buck stepped out at a little over 100 yards, he had gotten up to grab a mid day nibble, Richard put the crosshairs on him and pulled the trigger, the big buck faltered and fell, it was hard to believe, a trophy buck down, middle of the day, and only about 200 yards from the road.

The phone rang it was Ray, he said Richard just shot a big buck, he thinks the buck is over 30 inches and is big bodied, it’s steep going back uphill to the truck and he said there wasn’t any ground shrinkage, he needs my help if I’m not too busy! I replied “Are you serious?”, I thought he was joking, he said he’s serious and so I said I’d get there as quick as I can. “But send me a photo?”

The photo came on my text messages, Holy smokes, Ray wasn’t joking! I was anxious the whole time I was going to meet them, and Ray was right, there was no ground shrinkage! Congrats to Richard on the buck of a lifetime!

The only downside of getting this buck, we had other hunters in camp that kept passing bucks that normally would have been shot, thinking they might see another big one like this. Some of the other hunters just couldn’t believe Richard got this buck 200 yards from the road!

Interestingly, Ray poked around and found a well used bed where the buck had obviously been living and spending a lot of time, the bed was well out of sight in heavy cover but only about 200 yards from the road. The taxidermist green scored the buck at 197, greatest outside width about 31 1/2.

(they weren't road hunting, but a road hunter going by at just the right time could have shot this buck, that's pretty ironic)

[huntnfmly]

Aww sweet very cool congrats to Richard and you’re right Dale any legal means of hunting is welcome in my book
As you said some hunters are unable to do the steep and deep type hunts and this is a great example you don’t always need to

[Caseknife]

That is a stud of a buck, never know where they will show up.

[bearpaw]

We are getting ready for cat season now. I invested in a new sled, we put so many miles on them each year and I don’t want to risk breaking down and having to hike 20 miles through deep snow if I break down in a remote area.

This time I decided to try a skidoo Expedition LE with the super wide 24” track, high/low gear box, and the 900 ace engine. It even has hand warmers for the passenger, lol. The suspension is much heavier, it barely squats with two riders. Much more stable on the trail with a much wider ski stance than the tundras, but not nearly as agile for boondocking or side hilling. Last year one day I was pulling the dog sled with the tundra, I ended up with four of us guys riding the tundra and dog sled and four dogs inside the dog sled, the tundra would barely handle that, I think this Expedition would have no problem at all with that load.

I’ve ridden it twice trying to get the feel of it and understand which riding situations it will work best. I’ll probably still ride one of my tundras part of the time, especially breaking trails after a big snow or into remote tough to get spots that require some aggressive sled handling. But this beast is a pleasure to ride! I had it out one day during cow elk season and one day during the moose hunt, the day on the cow elk hunt I used it to get hunters to the top of a ridge on a very steep road that the trucks can't even get close, it hauled two of us up the worst stretch without even spinning the track at all.

[huntnfmly]

Very nice👍

[bearpaw]

Nasim and Waseem came cat hunting last winter with their brother Tariq, who got a nice tom. This year Nasim is the one hunting, on the third day of the hunt Tyson located a nice tom, at daylight the chase was on, the dogs did great and caught up with the cat, Nasim had to make a long hike in steep country but he made it to the tree, however before they shot the cat jumped out and ran uphill, that’s unusual, they usually go downhill. The dogs caught up again and the cat treed again, Naseem had the do some more climbing but made it, the cat was in a smaller leaf tree, Nasim made a good shot and notched his tag on a respectable tom. Next year they are coming back again so Waseem can get a lion, we are looking forward to another fun hunt with you guys!

The link right above the photo of the track (that's a quarter in the toe) is a video of the first tree.

[bearpaw]

This was a decent length tom but was very skinny as you can see in the photo. He should have been wearing one of those t-shirts that says:  Vegetarian Old Indian Word for Bad Hunter


the file link above the photo is another video of the shot at the second tree

[bearpaw]

One more photo

[huntnfmly]

Nice way to go congrats to the hunter

[bearpaw]

We still have a few bison hunts available this winter, this is near Missoula, not too long of drive from Washington.

$2500 Yearling
$3500 Cow
$3950 2 Year Bull
$4950 3 Year Bull
$5950 4 Year Bull
$6950 5 Year Bull
$8950 10+ Year Bull

We have a couple really old bulls available, we don’t usually have bulls 10 years old, these will make great mounts and lots of hamburger and roast!

That’s an older bull in the lower photo, the older bulls usually weigh 1800 to 2000+.