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Author Topic: Bearpaw Season 2024  (Read 59233 times)

Offline Craig

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Re: Bearpaw Season 2024
« Reply #285 on: January 21, 2025, 02:47:41 PM »
Awesome stories and pictures. I got my cat in December and  I already want to go again. watching those dogs work is something else.

Offline bearpaw

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Re: Bearpaw Season 2024
« Reply #286 on: January 22, 2025, 11:14:14 AM »
Awesome stories and pictures. I got my cat in December and  I already want to go again. watching those dogs work is something else.
:yeah: hunting hounds can get in your blood
Americans are systematically advocating, legislating, and voting away each others rights. Support all user groups & quit losing opportunity!

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Offline Machias

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Re: Bearpaw Season 2024
« Reply #287 on: January 22, 2025, 02:02:27 PM »
Great write ups Dale, Nice cats!!
Fred Moyer

When it's Grim, be the GRIM REAPER!

Offline bearpaw

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Re: Bearpaw Season 2024
« Reply #288 on: January 22, 2025, 03:21:46 PM »
We waited a few days until the weather looked good and I called another hunter I had postponed from December. I told Jake there was going to be a warmup for a few days and probably a little snow and I expected cats to move again. Jake said he would get flights arranged for himself and his son, Colton is doing the hunt, it was a gift, dad is coming along.

Even though they are from Michigan their flights had a stopover in Texas, and that day American Airlines was all screwed up and they got hung up in TX for half the day along with many other passengers. They finally made it to my place in Idaho about 11PM. They got a little sleep and we headed out early, long before daylight. We found about 6 to 9 cats had moved, I'm honestly not sure because there were single tracks, females with kittens, and a good big tom, all over the place, we weren't sure which tracks were made by the same cats and which were different cats. It appeared that the big tom had actually moved the day before and that numerous female and kitten tracks were all fresher and over the top of the tom. I spent a few hours trying to figure out where the tom went after the last tracks I found, but with all the drifting I think his tracks got drifted in and I never was sure where he went.

Colton wanted any adult cat but I advised them that I thought we should hold off another day and try to find that big tom. On one hand I hate doing that because if we don't find another cat then its my fault if they don't get a cat, but we prefer to hunt toms and if you don't pass females you won't get many toms. Additionally it was the first day of the hunt and I figured we were very likely to find another cat before their hunt ended so I recommended passing all the cats that first day so we could look for that tom.

On the second day it was much colder again and the only cat I found had crossed on private land. I searched all over for that big tom and he simply had vanished, probably made a kill, and none of the other cats had moved either. On the way back to my truck I hit fresh tracks again of the same cat that had been on private land. As soon as I had left earlier in the darkness that cat walked right back out over my tracks and onto the road and followed my snowmobile tracks out of the private land to where we could chase him. It appeared to be a decent young tom, the stride was about 41", not the big tom, but we probably should try to catch him, so I called the other guys, they had nothing, this cat was our only chance for the day and the weather was looking even colder the next few days.

We turned the dogs loose right after daylight, the track was pretty fresh and the dogs covered ground fast, they went up near the top of the mountain and then back around the side of the mountain, it wasn't too long and they were barking treed by some rock cliffs. They weren't really locked in very good so I knew they weren't looking at the cat, it was more a situation as if they ran out of tracks and this is where he must be. I figured the cat probably kept going past the rocks and the dogs were unable to get past the cliffs, I figured we would need to help the dogs find the tracks where the cat left the other side of the rock cliffs.

Suddenly one of the dogs starts opening going on the backtrack towards where we had started the track, pretty quick the other two dogs are doing the same thing. I let the dogs get about halfway back towards where we had started the track and I told the guys I thought the dogs were backtracking, we all thought the same thing. I told them I would go back to the other side of the mountain and pick the dogs up where we started the cat, and I'll bring them back to here so we can find where the cat left the rocks and start the dogs again.

I get back to the other side of the mountain and I could hear the dogs treed near the top of the mountain, probably not far from where they were when I was listening with the other guys on the other side of the mountain. I waited a while to make sure they were going to stay treed and then I headed back around the mountain to the other guys.

The other guys had also heard the dogs treed from that side of the mountain so we all rode up a short spur road that got us a lot higher and closer. The hike in was pretty easy, we went over the top of the mountain and they were treed less than a hundred yards down the backside, as soon as we hit the top of the mountain we heard them load and clear and I could tell they really thought they had the cat. But, I told the guys I wasn't sure if there would be a cat in the tree or if maybe they found a bed at the base of a tree and thought the cat was there. I was really still thinking the cat had gone the other way from the rocks and we would probably have to get the dogs and go back to the rocks.

We approached carefully from the side so if there was a cat we didn't encourage him to jump. We got closer and closer, suddenly there he was in a big juniper. He seemed comfortable so we got the dogs tied back, took some photos, and Colton took a careful aim, boom, the cat was dead on impact, he slowly rolled out of the tree and only twitched a few times on the ground. Awesome, I told Colton that's the best shot this season. We took plenty of photos and then struggled climbing the steep hillside back up to the top with that cat. Then an easy downhill and we were back to the sleds, I love it when a  plan comes together.

Looking back, it appears the cat had jumped out of the rocks and had backtracked back and forth across his old tracks several times before the dogs got caught up and pressured him up a tree. He was treed only about 60 yards away from the old tracks where we had first chased him. It's pretty normal for cats to back track I see them do it often in an attempt to confuse the dogs. I actually think they do it far more often in today's world than they did 30 years ago before there were so many hound hunters and wolves hunting them as we have today. One thing for sure, Mt Lions are very intelligent animals, they learn from everything they encounter.
Americans are systematically advocating, legislating, and voting away each others rights. Support all user groups & quit losing opportunity!

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Offline bearpaw

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Re: Bearpaw Season 2024
« Reply #289 on: January 22, 2025, 03:27:08 PM »
.
Americans are systematically advocating, legislating, and voting away each others rights. Support all user groups & quit losing opportunity!

http://bearpawoutfitters.com Guided Hunts, Unguided, & Drop Camps in Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wash. Hunts with tags available (no draw needed) for spring bear, fall bear, bison, cougar, elk, mule deer, turkey, whitetail, & wolf! http://trophymaps.com DIY Hunting Maps are also offered

Offline bearpaw

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Re: Bearpaw Season 2024
« Reply #290 on: January 22, 2025, 03:28:13 PM »
Great write ups Dale, Nice cats!!
thanks Fred
Americans are systematically advocating, legislating, and voting away each others rights. Support all user groups & quit losing opportunity!

http://bearpawoutfitters.com Guided Hunts, Unguided, & Drop Camps in Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wash. Hunts with tags available (no draw needed) for spring bear, fall bear, bison, cougar, elk, mule deer, turkey, whitetail, & wolf! http://trophymaps.com DIY Hunting Maps are also offered

Offline Rainier10

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Re: Bearpaw Season 2024
« Reply #291 on: January 22, 2025, 03:36:02 PM »
I love this time of year. Thanks for the detailed write ups. Makes me feel like I’m back in camp.
Pain is temporary, achieving the goal is worth it.

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Offline bearpaw

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Re: Bearpaw Season 2024
« Reply #292 on: January 22, 2025, 03:47:29 PM »
I love this time of year. Thanks for the detailed write ups. Makes me feel like I’m back in camp.
right on Rick  :tup:
Americans are systematically advocating, legislating, and voting away each others rights. Support all user groups & quit losing opportunity!

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Offline wadu1

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Re: Bearpaw Season 2024
« Reply #293 on: January 22, 2025, 04:02:06 PM »
Great write up Dale, I could even feel the cold.
"a fronte praecipitium a tergo lupi"

Offline bearpaw

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Re: Bearpaw Season 2024
« Reply #294 on: January 22, 2025, 04:08:40 PM »
Great write up Dale, I could even feel the cold.

BBBrrrrrr, I didn't even take my snowmobile suit off to hike in, I almost always do that to keep from overheating. Right now we are waiting for another warmup, its been in the negative territory lately. At least a skiff of snow to cover old tracks would be nice, but nothing in the immediate forecast, it would be a pain trying to sort through all the deer and elk tracks on winter range. Half the time the cats walk in the elk and deer trails or the elk and deer walk over the cat tracks.
Americans are systematically advocating, legislating, and voting away each others rights. Support all user groups & quit losing opportunity!

http://bearpawoutfitters.com Guided Hunts, Unguided, & Drop Camps in Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wash. Hunts with tags available (no draw needed) for spring bear, fall bear, bison, cougar, elk, mule deer, turkey, whitetail, & wolf! http://trophymaps.com DIY Hunting Maps are also offered

Offline actionshooter

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Re: Bearpaw Season 2024
« Reply #295 on: January 22, 2025, 07:36:42 PM »
Very cool!!

 


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