JohnSWA
Senior Thread Mover
Howdy, Folks!
I just got back from my trip to the Idaho Panhandle and it was a successful hunting trip. I took my stepson with me to hunt deer and elk in the Potlatch area of Idaho which is about an hours drive south of Couer D' Alene. The elk aren't near as large as our home town critters which kind of surprizes me since they are both of the "Rocky Mountain" species, but heck, you won't find me complaining. Another bonus is that the area we hunted was a combination of high mountains and open farm fields. All of the wild game are grain fed, which makes for AWESOME table fare!
Tyler(my 16 year old stepson) and I hiked in an area the locals call "Hangman's Creek" and found a nice meadow to set up camp and our blind the night before opening day. We had a great night with the cows mewing all around us and an added bonus with the bulls bugling in the far off distance.
In the morning the area was silent, so just before first light I made a few cow calls and the meadow lit up with sweet mews answering back with a bugle not more than 30 yards away from us! Tyler was amazed at all of the wildlife chatter and had a big chestshire grin while waiting in anticipation of his first elk harvest.
Well, when safe shooting light apeared, the critters were nowhere to be found... of course! We had a lot of fun finding fresh beds and sign everywhere! At lunchtime we decided to go back to the house for a hot meal and to warm up a bit before we ventured out for the afternoon hunt. While hunting in the afternoon, I showed Tyler all of the spots where I had found deer and elk, but was just out of range for the earlier bow season. We quietly hiked for miles looking for our elusive quarry, but could not find any animals that would cooperate with our plans.
I mentioned to Tyler that we could camp out again and listen for the critters, or we could hike back up to the truck and drive the short ten minute trip to his grandparents house for a hot meal and a warm soft bed to sleep in for the night. Yep, he choose the latter... durn tenderfoot! LOL! Yeah right, like I'm going to complain about a soft warm bed ten minutes from awesome deer and elk country!
As we were reaching the top of the hill on our hike back to the truck, I was telling Tyler how I always found elk bedding on the side of the trail as I was hiking up this same trail almost every night! Of course I got busted everytime well out of bow range every time. Anyway, as I was telling him how strange it was that we hadn't seen anything when sure enough a huge (for Potlatch standards) 5x5 bull jumped right infront of us at about 20 yards! He saw us and made a quick "U" turn right back into the brush where we couldn't get a shot.
After we made it back to the house we got a call from Tyler's Grandpa asking us to help him gut out this amazing 5x5 bull that just walked down the center of an old logging road 75 yards from his cross hairs! This was the same bull that we startled on our way out to my truck! Way to go, Don!
After a couple days of getting busted and not being able to take a shot, we focused on deer instead. We were very lucky for the fact Don, Tyler's Grandpa, was good friends with a lot of the locals in town. Most of the hunting in the Potlatch area is on private land, but the people are just the nicest people you'd ever meet and I doubt they would turn anyone down to hunt on thier property if you were to ask politely.
Well, how should I say the whitetail hunting in Northern Idaho is... I'd have to say that it is just awesome! One disclaimer I have to add to the story is that this was mainly a meat hunt and not a trophy searching hunt by any means. Tyler had yet to harvest his first big game animal and he was going to get his first kill today.
Ok, here's Tyler's first harvest. It's a little doe, but he's very proud of it and so are we. I hope nobody's offended by this pic, but again, we're very proud of him for his first successful hunt and his future hunting success can only improve from here on. P.S. dig the urban camoflage!
The next morning I found a nice lil 3x4 Buck.
Now it was time to focus on elk. We went back to our favorite spot in hopes of finding a nice bull for the freezer. One more day and it's either === season and wouldn't you know it? The only elk we saw was the lead cow of a herd and she busted us immediately! Well, we didn't see anymore elk that day and Tyler was really missing his girlfriend... you know how 16 year old boys can be... ah the good old days. So we sent my lonely stepson home by plane and my Father in law and I focused on elk.
Luckily for me two days later that same lead cow appeared in the same exact area and with one simpe 25 yard shot with my trusty .300 mag, she was down.
It's been another year without getting drawn for an Arizona tag, but I'm very happy to have wonderful inlaws that love to hunt and I'm happy as well to introduce the fine sport and tradition of hunting and harvesting to my stepson.
Hey Oscar... did you notice the old "Hunttalk" hat? Gotta love the Kharma! LOL
I just got back from my trip to the Idaho Panhandle and it was a successful hunting trip. I took my stepson with me to hunt deer and elk in the Potlatch area of Idaho which is about an hours drive south of Couer D' Alene. The elk aren't near as large as our home town critters which kind of surprizes me since they are both of the "Rocky Mountain" species, but heck, you won't find me complaining. Another bonus is that the area we hunted was a combination of high mountains and open farm fields. All of the wild game are grain fed, which makes for AWESOME table fare!
Tyler(my 16 year old stepson) and I hiked in an area the locals call "Hangman's Creek" and found a nice meadow to set up camp and our blind the night before opening day. We had a great night with the cows mewing all around us and an added bonus with the bulls bugling in the far off distance.
In the morning the area was silent, so just before first light I made a few cow calls and the meadow lit up with sweet mews answering back with a bugle not more than 30 yards away from us! Tyler was amazed at all of the wildlife chatter and had a big chestshire grin while waiting in anticipation of his first elk harvest.
Well, when safe shooting light apeared, the critters were nowhere to be found... of course! We had a lot of fun finding fresh beds and sign everywhere! At lunchtime we decided to go back to the house for a hot meal and to warm up a bit before we ventured out for the afternoon hunt. While hunting in the afternoon, I showed Tyler all of the spots where I had found deer and elk, but was just out of range for the earlier bow season. We quietly hiked for miles looking for our elusive quarry, but could not find any animals that would cooperate with our plans.
I mentioned to Tyler that we could camp out again and listen for the critters, or we could hike back up to the truck and drive the short ten minute trip to his grandparents house for a hot meal and a warm soft bed to sleep in for the night. Yep, he choose the latter... durn tenderfoot! LOL! Yeah right, like I'm going to complain about a soft warm bed ten minutes from awesome deer and elk country!
As we were reaching the top of the hill on our hike back to the truck, I was telling Tyler how I always found elk bedding on the side of the trail as I was hiking up this same trail almost every night! Of course I got busted everytime well out of bow range every time. Anyway, as I was telling him how strange it was that we hadn't seen anything when sure enough a huge (for Potlatch standards) 5x5 bull jumped right infront of us at about 20 yards! He saw us and made a quick "U" turn right back into the brush where we couldn't get a shot.
After we made it back to the house we got a call from Tyler's Grandpa asking us to help him gut out this amazing 5x5 bull that just walked down the center of an old logging road 75 yards from his cross hairs! This was the same bull that we startled on our way out to my truck! Way to go, Don!
After a couple days of getting busted and not being able to take a shot, we focused on deer instead. We were very lucky for the fact Don, Tyler's Grandpa, was good friends with a lot of the locals in town. Most of the hunting in the Potlatch area is on private land, but the people are just the nicest people you'd ever meet and I doubt they would turn anyone down to hunt on thier property if you were to ask politely.
Well, how should I say the whitetail hunting in Northern Idaho is... I'd have to say that it is just awesome! One disclaimer I have to add to the story is that this was mainly a meat hunt and not a trophy searching hunt by any means. Tyler had yet to harvest his first big game animal and he was going to get his first kill today.
Ok, here's Tyler's first harvest. It's a little doe, but he's very proud of it and so are we. I hope nobody's offended by this pic, but again, we're very proud of him for his first successful hunt and his future hunting success can only improve from here on. P.S. dig the urban camoflage!
The next morning I found a nice lil 3x4 Buck.
Now it was time to focus on elk. We went back to our favorite spot in hopes of finding a nice bull for the freezer. One more day and it's either === season and wouldn't you know it? The only elk we saw was the lead cow of a herd and she busted us immediately! Well, we didn't see anymore elk that day and Tyler was really missing his girlfriend... you know how 16 year old boys can be... ah the good old days. So we sent my lonely stepson home by plane and my Father in law and I focused on elk.
Luckily for me two days later that same lead cow appeared in the same exact area and with one simpe 25 yard shot with my trusty .300 mag, she was down.
It's been another year without getting drawn for an Arizona tag, but I'm very happy to have wonderful inlaws that love to hunt and I'm happy as well to introduce the fine sport and tradition of hunting and harvesting to my stepson.
Hey Oscar... did you notice the old "Hunttalk" hat? Gotta love the Kharma! LOL
