Went out yesterday and found two more recent scrapes. The biggest issue i'm dealing with in this area is very little elevation change. Most draws are only 15-30ft below the ridgelines,pretty much flat. I think i'll be sticking to mostly travel routes to begin the year. I will be watching it saturday night from about 300 yards, this should tell me more. Sunday night i'm hiking in five miles to watch over a clearing. Has great deer sign and a lot of elk. Saw a bull a few weeks ago that looks like he will probably grow in the 300+ range.
Well I didn't make it up to the elk spot, but I did get out to a deer spot. The bucks hardly have any growth here right now, it's discouraging lol. Saw a couple 1.5yr olds and one decent looking buck came out at dark. He was about 4'' past his ear and starting to form a main beam. I thought they would have more headgear by now, did find another active scrape on an AWESOME trail though! Troy, any more word on this possible drop tine buck? I can't put Ryan's book down, it's amazing how many of these bucks were killed by your average guy. It can happen at any time
BC, back home from taking my boys to football camp in Boise.. I am itching to check trail cams but know I can't not yet..gotta let em cook a little longer.. lots of rain today gonna get out tonight for glassing here in a couple hours...then tomorrow and hang a couple more stands based on last years travel patterns in one particular area. Love my summers off! As of right now I have 7 trail cams running in 4 different counties! LOL Nothing like long distance scouting.. nice thing is with the far off cams, I know I won't frequent them too often. It will be like finding burried treasure when a buck I dont even know exists in one of these new areas shows up on TC, it just gets my blood pumping thinking about what is out there.. I've hit some far off places this spring, that I have always wanted to whitetail hunt..great habitat, and known monster buck kills in the immediate areas.. etc.. As a matter of fact the one area I am T/Cing right now is were the #2 typical ever was killed in shoshone county... real close to that buck kill.. I got some inside info and where that buck was spreading his seed.. check him out in your book.. he's a huge massive 6x6 that netted 186 and change and grossed near 200... just a few 8ths behind that monster (current state record typical) from up near your area.. I am gonna be hunting Kootenai, Benewah, Shoshone and Latah counties this fall for whitetail. 8a opens up August 30th so I will be down there a week before I can come home to hunt my closer counties.. My 8a, 11a and 11 I think it is.. spots are all that farm country down near Kendrick out to Lapwai. Someday I am gonna find me a good area up north.. I've always loved that country where you hunt up to Bonners... some huge bucks come out of there annually. Good luck man, good luck.
B/C one other thing.. i think if you run into a hawg.. you will see a lot more growth than what you are seeing with your younger bucks, the older bucks here are working on their g-4s already! and finalizing their mains..
saw a great looking buck this evening, real close to where I missed that big one last year.. already growing his g-4s, hvy mass, wide .. looked great.. bout 200 yards from my one of my best scrapes..
Glad to see your enjoying your summer, your a teacher right? Got a few days of work now, heading up to a lake tomorrow. Mostly to see what melt out is looking like. Will be heading to the backcountry soon to look for mulies. I have another area, weather permitting I will be heading, same area that I saw the bigger bull in a few weeks ago. I'm thinking it should hold a buck.. 4 miles in, overgrown clearcut, perfect little bowl, and thick surrounding timber. Pretty excited about this spot. Unless the motorcycles tear it up Looking through that book made me want to puke, lol. It's ludacris to see how many big bucks have been taken year after year, ecspecially in Bonner/Kootenai. You just never know when it could happen, some of the sucess guys are getting year after year is impressive also. Nik Galloway in particular. Oh to live in Idaho in the 80's!
Awesome Troy, that is a really good area down in there, the deer & elk love it! Listening (reading) you & BC talk about northern Idaho really makes me wish I lived out there. 1 week a year is not long enough.
It wont be long Ryan, gonna be here before we know it..time to hit the glassing trail for the evening.. gonna go look over Hoss's domain tonight.. man would I love to see him in the velvet, headed up to one of my observation stands.
Forcast is looking up, found two bucks I have never seen before last night. The first one looked like a 3.5 year old. Nice 4x4 most likely.. (long ways off) The second was a hvy bodied buck, right at dark about 800 yards out, could see good mass on the headgear and fairly wide.. looked like a very nice buck but need a closer look.. Either of these bucks looked like bucks I have seen before....saw plenty of elk in the area too.. couple fresh calves and fawns as well! Headed out for the day to check a couple cams, prep a couple stands and prep a couple mock scrapes!
Glad your getting some good sightings. I hiked into about 4 miles yesterday, still snow up high. There were areas I was pushing 3ft of it! Did alot of glassing and found a couple muley bucks, but didn't have a spottig scope with me to tell any specifics. Gonna be a little while before I can get too high yet. On the way down. however, I rolled the holy hell out of my ankle! So now it's elevation and icing for me. Cool way to spend a perfectly good day off!
ice that ankle BC, dang. sorry to hear that.. I got out for about 9 hours in three different areas today (two different counties) prepping stands, ground blind building and just checking traffic.. found some great heavily pounded trails that produced excellent daylight movement last year.. I was gonna pull a couple cameras but decided to stay out and leave them alone.. big rain coming tonight...so tomorrow, I may slip in during hvy rain and check a couple cams and then get out quick.. as long as the wind isnt too crazy I will.
Man you Idaho boys are getting after it! BC hope that ankles heals up, it’s got to be real tough getting around that kind of country with a bum wheel. I do hope to take a ride thru my main hunting area this evening and see what I can see out in the fields, and see who planted what this year. Most of what little free time I have these days is spent getting/staying in shape and fishing. I suppose I should make an adventure to my Ohio spots one of these weekends, but I’ll probably push that off a little longer so that I will be able to assess the acorn crop while I’m out there. Troy, I’m channeling the positive vibes this year. You, me, J or Dan it doesn’t matter. One of us is putting a bull down for the count.
Ankle is doing alot better, been off it since. Have work tonight and tomorrow but weekend is freed up! It's going to a 20+ weekend I think. Finally heading up the clearcut I've been wanting to see. Rybo, I sure hope you guys get some bull on the ground! 10 weeks to go. First weeked for me will be spent in the high country looking for 180'' of fuzzy muledeer After that, it's nothing but bull
Brother, i've never seen so many elk and so much elk sign in all my areas, even the completely new areas I am scouting in Shoshone and Latah counties.. I know I have to and need to expand my hunting areas for you guy's sake for elk and for my sake if I am gonna up my odds on finding a true giant like my 03 buck. I am sick of just settling for whats in my comfort zone. I am having so much fun covering all of this new ground.. headed out right now for the rest of the day.. running down towards clarkia to do some serious hiking and glassing...shhhh just picked up two more t/cams to hang..dont tell DEE!.. get back to you.. see you soon, can't wait!
I don't know for sure yet. We have started work on a food plot in an awesome spot this year already and hopefully it will produce for me, my brother, or the land owner. In March I found a scrape that was still being used in an area that should be a high travel area according to the topography of the land. I think it will be a killer spot this fall, but I am not sure how the wind will act in this spot, so we will see I guess. This coming year will only be my second year taking bow hunting more seriously, so I am still learning a lot as I go. I am planning on moving some stands in the next week or so and I also still have to knock on some doors to try and gain some more land. My season could go anywhere it seems at this point.
1300 t/c pix off of two cameras so far.. I let 'em cook about a month, got 1 buck I really like, 2 bucks that I need to see more of, and several younger ones, elk, bear, and moose too. Several other cameras out cooking away.. Having fun, man I love summer time!
1300 pictures?! thats crazy. Any pictures of the good buck? My dad has been in Oregon the past week vacationing, when he gets here later this week were going out for some quality father/son time, i.e. hanging stands, lol.
