Idaho Elk.....long... (PICS ADDED)

SureShot_77

SureShot_77

New member
General Hunt/Public Land
I went elk hunting near Challis, ID. Central Idaho has the greatest wolf population at over 300. Elk season opened on October 15th. I shot my bull October 16th. We (my father and I) spotted him with 5 cows grazing across the top of a very large sage brush hillside with patches of tall, thick timber. It had began snowing Sunday night and was still snowing that morning. I hiked for about 3/4 of a mile straight up a ridge to try and cut them off. As I neared the top I cut their tracks. I tracked them for at least 2 miles in and out of sage brush ridges and big patches of timber. I finally caught up with them. I heard some movement at the edge of the timber and then saw a brute of an elk appear. I pulled my rifle up and confirmed he was a nice bull elk. I layed down prone, flipped my bipod legs out and adjusted them too far. He had spotted my movement and looked at me. I fumbled around for what seemed like forever to shorten the legs on my bipod. During this time he took a few more steps and I thought for sure I was gonna blow my chance. I finally got my bipod legs right and held on him, released the safety, breath and fired. He dropped like a ton of bricks. (Shooting that new Stevens 300 win mag) It was about a 325 yard shot. When I got up to him he had slid straight down for about 60 yards and got wedged under a huge deadfall. I shot him at 10am and had him back in camp at 4pm. Not bad and I was so excited. All that hard hiking and tracking paid off with an excellent 6x6 bull elk. My pictures will be added tomorrow or the next day. Anyhow, I wished I could have stayed up there longer to get my mule deer buck and get my dad an elk but he had to be back to work Thursday morning. We hunted hard, saw lots of deer and a few more elk, just couldn't get him in close enough.

Where he slid to:
10-19-2006-03.jpg


Front View:
10-19-2006-04.jpg


Down the hill 200 yards:
10-19-2006-06.jpg


Sunset on the way home:
10-19-2006-16.jpg


Two boys with the elk at home:
10-19-2006-18.jpg



For those that are wondering. I came across one fresh wolf track in 4 days of hard hunting. Never saw one wolf, did see some old wolf sign in some areas I had seen elk before..but both had been displaced. I saw a handful of elk being pulled off the mts. And it's the same place that 3 years ago I called in a 6x6 and let my friend shoot it. There were wolves there then too. I posted a picture of his elk in the photo's section.

http://www.predatormastersforums.com/ubb...age=21#52351565
 
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Congradulation on the elk. however, the wolves effect on the population of elk will and is negative. You may not see it now, but give it a few years. Our last visit to Yellowstone, I did an unofficial count. I found and average of only 11 yearling calf elk per 100 of cows(not good). Then that same trip we did a similar count with moose and found an average of about 3 calves per 100 moose. You may have got one this time, but give the wolves sometime.
 
Thank you elks and I am not going to take the time to write a response about wolves. Do some research...balance is all I have to say.
 
Simply put, I eat elk, wolves eat elk. The more elk the wolves eat the less elk are left for me to eat. I am not anti wolf, but we need to get the darn things regulated and in check soon. The more elk that are eaten by wolves the fewer tags we get. Balance is this great idea, pushed by enviromentalist and anti-hunters. Everyone seems to think that we can restore natural balance and order, but we can not. We have messed up things too much to ever make it a truely natural balnce. Wolves do have a serious effect on animal numbers. If you do not believe so then give it time. Areas in WY have seen significant deduction in elk tags due to wolves. Somplace I saw a study that showed a decrease in trophy animals in areas with wolve populations. The reason being is they are more vunerable than the herds. It would be nice if I can find that study again.
 
Balance will never truly be the same. But in time a balance will occur, just like with anything. Nature will take it's course, I pray that Fish and Game can convince the fed's to allow a limited tag season on the wolves, to keep their numbers in check. I just think their hands are tied. I am obviously neither a anti-hunter or tree hugger. But I am a hunter and an environmentalist. As should you be. Most hunters are a combination of both. The elk co-incided with wolves for hundreds of years, I am sure they will be fine again. It will take them time to adjust to the new predator, it's been 11 years now since they were introduced to Idaho. We alone have over 600. Anyhow, I may have opened a can of worms by posting information about wolves in my original post. The fact still remains that there are hundreds of hunters our there who filled their tags, just like every other year. Most of the complaining hunters are people who don't spend a lot of time away from the 4 wheeler, roads or truck. I hiked nearly 3.5 miles to get mine. I hiked 7 the day before that. I work for my elk, always have. Because I don't have horses.
 
i still want the feds to trap shoot poisen or what ever it takes get them wolves out.they are a sore subject in my book. don't try to convince me otherwise i have been agenced them from the start and will be tell the end of time.
i have been in to many fights on other sites to reply any farther on this my favotite site.
 
Pictures added.
In the picture above with the rifle. I am 6'3, 240 lbs. Just to give you an idea of his size.

Here's another.

10-19-2006-05-1.jpg
 
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Great Pics, we are very fortunate to have the abundance of game and habitat to provide the opportunities to hunt these fine animals. The boys, future packers?
 
Yea, my oldest 4, the next day had his toy rifle in the backyard with his friend saying he was elk hunting. I told him at 3 that I'd get him his first rifle at 5. So hes counting down the days till next year. My youngest, 1, thinks he's 4 and can do what the older one can. I get a kick out of those two. But for certain, they love going with me already...even if I can generally just drive around with them. My 4 year old can keep up, just not quietly yet. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
I did a guided hunt in the Frank Church in '93, didn't get an elk but it was the experience of a lifetime getting to spend 8 days in those mountains. That has got to be the most rugged and beautiful terrain on earth.

Congratulations
 
sureshot 77

nice bull. I trust you had a great time.
Growing up in Salmon 60 miles from challis
and a person spending 150+ days hunting/trapping/scouting/etc. I get to see some of the effects on local elk populations/movements/behavior from the wolves.
Trust me there is a definite consequences of the wolves. Especially when you are in a area that is a bit thicker with wolves than were you were. All I want to say is people that don't live directly in the affected area and spend time to see the results hear less than .01 percent (my guess) of the real number of incidents between people and wolves and the true results of their presence. The untrue information presented to the public is a major problem. Many people make a judgement of the wolves based on inicorrect information. heck even the University of Montana did a study that was the biggest waste ever. they did a study of the age of calves (beef cattle) on the range and when they died. after thousands of dollars were spent they concluded that ranchers should calve earlier because during late august and september the fatality rate dropped dramatically (figuring now they are older and can fend for themselves). Well that sounds great, but what they leave out is that is when all the ranches pull the calves off of the range around mid august. of course the killing of cattle on the range is going to drop dramatically if there are none there to kill. that is just one of the midleading things that are given to the public that sound great, but truley the underlying basis is far too often ignoring the truth. liongetter.

also the notion of only killing old and weak. I have a fiend that spent 3 months in 2000 in yellowstone monitioring the wolves and then for the next 2 half years went to michigan and completed his masters with research on wolves and he tracked and monitored wolves in michigan for two years. Most people would be surprised at the amount of healthy mature bulls/buck/ etc. that are taken. and also how many times multiple animals are killed and wolves only eat the choice area of the animal and not even eat some of their kills at all, even later.
 
GREAT BULL!When you hunt an area that is completly void of elk due to the wolf numbers you will change your tune about "balance",elk are smart enough to clear out and relocate when the wolves show up.They dont kill all the elk they force them out and they can ruin a gret elk area in 1 year.
 
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