Bearpaw Season - Fall 2023

[bearpaw]

Just taken by my son during our Northern Idaho muzzleloader deer season, this is an excellent hunt open for mule deer or whitetail that I wish we could get more hunters interested in doing.

Congratulations to your son! This sounds like a dream hunt! Would you say there are as many muzzleloader hunters in Idaho as Washington or less due to better opportunities during modern etc over there?

I think there are fewer!

[bearpaw]

Here’s Aiden, age 10, with his cow bison taken in Montana on his first hunting trip, dad says he is still bouncing off the walls!

[kellama2001]

What an incredible season! So fun to read all of the success stories and see all the smiling faces. Thanks for keeping this thread updated!

[bearpaw]

What an incredible season! So fun to read all of the success stories and see all the smiling faces. Thanks for keeping this thread updated!

Thanks, the smiling faces is the best part! 

[Machias]

Very cool on the kid and the Bison hunt!!

[bearpaw]

We’ve been busy lion hunting, I really look forward to cat hunting every season.

Claude has lion hunted several times in the past. Last year he hooked up with us to try and find another nice tom. We passed several cats and we finally chased one big tom two days in a row, the cat was covering ground. In the afternoon of the second day the hounds finally treed the cat in a remote area but it got dark before we could get to the tree so we had to pull the hounds and leave the cat, and then Claude was out of time.

Claude hunted again this year, we were finding tracks every day and we had located numerous females and a couple Toms, the second bigger tom had worked an area that also had a female and kittens and tracks were everywhere, they probably crossed the roads in that area 25 to 30 times, I didn’t know which tracks were the freshest and figured we’d end up with kittens treed so we opted to wait until the next morning and hoped to find a new fresh track, unfortunately the cats must have made kills and never crossed a road again. I was disappointed but Zach had found a large tom track so I headed their direction.

I met them just before daylight, we loaded everything onto the snowmobiles and headed out to start the chase. We watched closely as we rode in case the cat had crossed again. We were within a mile of where Zach had found the tracks and suddenly there were fresh lion tracks where the lion had walked on Zach’s snowmobile trail, perfect, the tracks had to be no more than an hour old.

We found the fresh tracks leaving the road, I measured the tracks, 44" between footprints which confirmed this was the best tracks we've seen this year, we got the dogs out and led them to the tracks leaving the road, the dogs immediately exploded, we released them and the chase was on. It was a fast 20 minute chase straight up mountain and the hounds caught the lion near the top of the mountain. We rode the sleds in a different road to get closer, the snow was much deeper up there where we left the road to hike in, we slowly made our way through the groin deep snow towards the chorus of hounds. When we were getting closer to the top the snow wasn't nearly as deep and we started seeing deer, elk, and moose tracks, there were qute a few animals wintering up near the top of the mountain, no wonder the cat was headed into this area, the cats always know where to find the game.

We got to the tree, looked for a shooting lane for a clear shot, I tied the dogs back for their protection and Claude buried an arrow, the cat growled on his way down the tree and disappeared downhill in a flurry of falling snow, we couldn't even see him when he landed and took off down the hill, Zach and Claude followed quickly but only went about 50 yards, the cat was down but looked at them and growled again, then he expired. Zach radiod to me that the cat was dead, I could barely hear him on the radio over the frantically howling hounds. They took photos of the obvious P&Y sized cat and then I let the hounds go one at a time, they ran to where the cat was down and then I followed, I was surprised how close they were, I was expecting the cat to be a couple hundred yards down the mountain. After a little time shaking hands and reminiscing on the hunt I hooked a leash around the neck of the 150 to 160 pound cat and headed down the mountain with the big cat handily sliding behind in my tracks through the snow.

When I got to the snowmobiles I radiod back to Zach to turn the dogs loose one at a time, 15 seconds apart, as they come running to the sleds I boxed them up in the dog sled. Zach was only a few minutes behind the last dog, we got everything loaded and headed back to the trucks, it was truly a fantastic day on the mountain.

[bearpaw]

More pics

[Machias]

NICE lion!!!!!  LOVE the story.  Man I miss doing that soooo much!!!!!!  Thanks for the write up, sure brought back a lot of memories!!

[bearpaw]

NICE lion!!!!!  LOVE the story.  Man I miss doing that soooo much!!!!!!  Thanks for the write up, sure brought back a lot of memories!!

   thanks Fred, yeah cat season is my favorite season, I bet you do really miss it

[Rainier10]

Nice cat!! And with a bow, love it.

Great write up, thanks for sharing.

[snit]

Yesterday William (80 years young) notched his tag and today his son Bill also from Pennsylvania scored on another nice Montana buck with Derek, congrats to both of them.

Man what I’d do to be able to go back and have one last hunt with my dad… Absolutely love this, we all need to keep in mind what is actually important in life and this is on top my list.

AWESOME photo display; thanks so much for posting! Honestly, it's the 1st time I've seen your "Season Scorecard", now I'll have to search the archives for your prior seasons. You should be very proud of your guides, clients, and landowners too (and obviously you and your wife's commitment) for producing such a fine experience!

I'm assuming most of us were introduced to the outdoors by our dad's, (but it doesn't matter who it was) rather it was someone who cared enough to share their time, along with their hobby/passion while teaching it to someone they cared about. I too would love to be able to share one more sunrise with "the old man", be it hunting or fishing. Luckily, my son will continue with these outdoor hobbies well after I'm gone.

[bearpaw]

Yesterday William (80 years young) notched his tag and today his son Bill also from Pennsylvania scored on another nice Montana buck with Derek, congrats to both of them.

Man what I’d do to be able to go back and have one last hunt with my dad… Absolutely love this, we all need to keep in mind what is actually important in life and this is on top my list.

AWESOME photo display; thanks so much for posting! Honestly, it's the 1st time I've seen your "Season Scorecard", now I'll have to search the archives for your prior seasons. You should be very proud of your guides, clients, and landowners too (and obviously you and your wife's commitment) for producing such a fine experience!

I'm assuming most of us were introduced to the outdoors by our dad's, (but it doesn't matter who it was) rather it was someone who cared enough to share their time, along with their hobby/passion while teaching it to someone they cared about. I too would love to be able to share one more sunrise with "the old man", be it hunting or fishing. Luckily, my son will continue with these outdoor hobbies well after I'm gone.

Yeah most were probably introduced by family members, but its surprsing how many hunters each year get ahold of me to go on their first hunt, its most often millenials or retired persons who never had anyone to teach them about hunting.

[bearpaw]

Nice cat!! And with a bow, love it.

Great write up, thanks for sharing.

 

[bearhunter99]

Some great animals!  Thanks for sharing!

[bearpaw]

Some great animals!  Thanks for sharing!

Thanks, your welcome!