Krag hunt 2013

Well, it was two solid weeks in the Lolo Zone, up above the Lochsa River in Idaho. Beautiful weather, sunny, dry and warm in the days, and it never got below zero at night. Two weeks and we never once got soaked to the skin. Great weather for hunters, lousy for hunting. All 5 of the elk in the 30 square miles we hunted were able to duck us .. on the other hand we had it all to ourselves.

Last year ID F&G killed 175 wolves in the Lolo Zone, our former hunting grounds. We had hoped it meant the elk would come back. Well, the whitetails are back, and lots of coyotes. Elk, aah, not yet. Here are some pictures, though.Attachment 24189That's my brother Paul with his .35 Whelan at Windy Saddle.
Attachment 24190And my brother Eric from Oregon, he bought a non-resident license and a wolf tag.
Attachment 24191This is our camp at the top of the Fish Creek trail. No water, it was a dry camp.
Attachment 24192That's me with the Krag and the snazzy vest my wife bought me.
Attachment 24193 This is a view from one of the USFS roads heading toward the dropoff into the Lochsa Canyon. Check out the controlled burn.

I passed on shots at deer. It was an elk hunt, after all, and I never saw a really, temptingly big and fat whitetail. ID F&G is going to close these units for elk hunting, I guess we will have to find new hunting grounds. Family fortunes have picked up a bit and we may go with an outfitter's drop camp next year.

This year I kicked the hunting loads up a bit to 43.5 gr AA4350 behind a 220 Sierra RN. I never fired the Krag once, though.

jn

Attachment 24194And here's a picture of what's left of the trail Lewis and Clark followed in 1805. This is is in the bottom of Hungery Creek. They were following a trail used by the Nez Perce and Shoshone among others. Sacajawea was leading them, maybe 'cause she could talk a little French that the expedition members could understand. Hungery Creek has a real strong flow and the grass is better than Fish Creek, next creek over. It also has a lot of good places for Blackfoot war parties to set up ambushes.

They did some work on the trail maybe for the bicentennial. Cut away the deadfalls. But nothing since then. I think I'll drop a letter on the USFS reminding them that this trail has some real historic value. Plus with a little maintenance it could be a really great way to get in and hunt.

jn

Nice pictures, envious of the country. As far as that trail, given USFS budgets this creates an opportunity to plan and volunteer citizen maintenance projects. If you plan them right and get enough folks on board it's amazing what can get done. I work with the state and federal agencies all the time on trail improvement and maintaining openings. The USFS districts get a bump based on the volunteer hours turned in. The NEPA aspect is usually excluded for small projects so the red tape is not a problem. USFS trail projects are easy to get done. PD

Looks like an awesome hunting trip Jon... If I could go on a trip like that, I might just start hunting again!

A great hunt!

Is that yellow tape?

Bud,

I always tape up the muzzle 'cause I do a lot of crawling over/under deadfalls and sometimes slide down steep hillsides. Keeps crud out of the barrel. Also rain and snow. This year I was packing up and looked for black tape in my electric drawer but all I found was yellow.

Nice to hear from you. I think I'll post a little bit about the hunt over on Gun Talk, now that the political rants hAVe started to die down a bit.

jn

Pete,

That was some gorgeous stone work you put up. Looks like the picture has disappeared, though. I don't think I can volunteer on that trail, but I will at least give them a buzz on it.

Idaho is kind of a hardscrabble state, but the hunting more than makes up for it. Paul, if you get a nonrez license and tags, I can set you up with a place. Don't do it unless you can take at least 10 days.

jn