jon_norstog
01-01-2022, 12:16
After that kind of ridiculous Oregon Coast Range hunt, I went up to Idaho to help my younger brother with his December 4-day muzzle-loader hunt. No milsurps used here, though you could. Paul likes the ?New Traditions? rifle and has a doctor?s permission to use a 1-power scope. I tried to buy a tag ? I have a lifeltime license but I live in OR now and have to buy out of state. They cut the number of non-resident tags across the board and jacked the price ? those tags go on sale Dec. 1 the preceding year and by Dec. 15 when I tried to buy one, they were sold out. So it was grouse hunting for me.
Where we were hunting is in the breaks above the North Fork of the Clearwater. It is very steep, typically 100% or greater, with old, closed-off logging roads that more or less follow contour lines. Once you get on one of those it is pretty easy going except for washouts/slides and down timber. The elk and deer use them a lot, but take to the slopes if wolves show up. Elevations we hunted ranged from 1500 to 4,000 feet.
We were sleeping and cooking in a wall tent, set up with two other families in tents and another couple affiliated guys aqt a separate (and better) site. It was all people who knew each other from church. Steve and Gene used to drive log trucks in the area is how they learned about it and they sort of brought Paul and my Son-in-law, Wesley along, and they brought me in. Paul and I and Gene and his partner Mike hunt on foot. The other guys are road hunters.
Used to be December this country was all snowbound, but things have changed. This was my fifth year on this hunt and I?ve seen good snow three of them and rain two years. This was a rain year. Two days of light rain, then a day we got soaked to the skin. Wasn?t real good for tracking. Late afternoon of the third day it cleared up and the temperature dropped below zero. I got up to pee in the middle of the night and the cloud cover was back plus it had warmed way up to freezing. Snow coming, only question was ?how much??
We found out in the morning. It was good snow, not too deep but plenty for tracking.
50020
Looking for elk
50018 50019
Tracks: two cows with calves and a third single animal, cow or maybe a spike
50021 50022
What it looks like with snow
We did not get an elk this year. Gene got one in the evening in a place we had hunted that morning. Mike got one in the afternoon in a place we had hunted the morning before. Steve and his crew drove high and spotted a cow, they all jumped out and they all fired ? the cow did not move so they reloaded and three of them fired again. A lot of that meat got wasted.
What made me think: we were getting up and moving before first light and getting out where the animals should have been but weren?t. Gene and Mike were going the same places in the afternoon and scoring. Year before last, Paul got a cow and that was in the afternoon too. What I?m thinking is there is enough forage the animals don?t have to stay out all night so you are not likely to catch them on their way home. It might be the wolves have cut the numbers down, more forage for the ones left.
We are both in our 70s and both still hunting. On to next year!
jn
Where we were hunting is in the breaks above the North Fork of the Clearwater. It is very steep, typically 100% or greater, with old, closed-off logging roads that more or less follow contour lines. Once you get on one of those it is pretty easy going except for washouts/slides and down timber. The elk and deer use them a lot, but take to the slopes if wolves show up. Elevations we hunted ranged from 1500 to 4,000 feet.
We were sleeping and cooking in a wall tent, set up with two other families in tents and another couple affiliated guys aqt a separate (and better) site. It was all people who knew each other from church. Steve and Gene used to drive log trucks in the area is how they learned about it and they sort of brought Paul and my Son-in-law, Wesley along, and they brought me in. Paul and I and Gene and his partner Mike hunt on foot. The other guys are road hunters.
Used to be December this country was all snowbound, but things have changed. This was my fifth year on this hunt and I?ve seen good snow three of them and rain two years. This was a rain year. Two days of light rain, then a day we got soaked to the skin. Wasn?t real good for tracking. Late afternoon of the third day it cleared up and the temperature dropped below zero. I got up to pee in the middle of the night and the cloud cover was back plus it had warmed way up to freezing. Snow coming, only question was ?how much??
We found out in the morning. It was good snow, not too deep but plenty for tracking.
50020
Looking for elk
50018 50019
Tracks: two cows with calves and a third single animal, cow or maybe a spike
50021 50022
What it looks like with snow
We did not get an elk this year. Gene got one in the evening in a place we had hunted that morning. Mike got one in the afternoon in a place we had hunted the morning before. Steve and his crew drove high and spotted a cow, they all jumped out and they all fired ? the cow did not move so they reloaded and three of them fired again. A lot of that meat got wasted.
What made me think: we were getting up and moving before first light and getting out where the animals should have been but weren?t. Gene and Mike were going the same places in the afternoon and scoring. Year before last, Paul got a cow and that was in the afternoon too. What I?m thinking is there is enough forage the animals don?t have to stay out all night so you are not likely to catch them on their way home. It might be the wolves have cut the numbers down, more forage for the ones left.
We are both in our 70s and both still hunting. On to next year!
jn