Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire About Time, killing wolves

But in FL you're not climbing a 45 degree rockpile while you're doing it.

They are a precious bunch are they not. What Idiots

Good on you for giving it one helluva try Mike. Almost every wolf that I've heard of killed with a rifle was incidental to hunting something else and in many cases it was just dumb-azz luck. By listening to some people, you would swear there was one behind every tree, but the truth it's less than a 1 percent success rate.

The odds are probably higher of stumbling across a mtn lion and killing it. Not to stop anybody from going because you sure as heck won't get one from behind the monitor. And if you do score, a big congrats on killing, in my opinion, the best trophy animal Idaho has to offer.

I have a collection of un-filled Mt. Lion tags also. The good news is that I haven't had a tough pack out in 5 years.


mike r

Have you had any close wolf encounters on your hunts where it looked like it might happen?

Damn cool looking country. Also damn tough looking.

Elk taken by hunting, by unit, in Idaho 1989 thru 2013.
In units 10 and 12 in the Lolo zone, harvested elk went from 1975 elk in 1989, to only 100 taken in 2012.

Link to Idaho elk harvest numbers by unit and zone, 1989-2012
http://www.idahoforwildlife.com/index.php/research-data/idaho-elk-harvest-graphs-and-data

In that time span we have gone from over the counter state wide elk tags, to limits and draws, to no tags in some areas.

Not even close, I have had howls answered but from a distance and no sighting. I did see tracks of 2 wolves that were quite old above Stanley lake. The good news is that looking is good exercise in spectacular country.


mike r

2 years ago I took an early Oct scouting trip just north of Ketchum, ID. I was looking for deer sign but wolf and bear seasons were open so I took a rifle. I had 2 pack llamas. I was about 2 miles in when I went through a small valley just covered with wolf tracks. It had snowed that morning so they were no more than 4 hrs old. It was hard to tell how many there were with all the tracks. I slept lightly that night listening for my llamas' warning calls but I never saw any.

With all this arguing, it seems the smart thing to do is open wolf to no tags and no season, AND keep after em with aerial gunning.

Watch the numbers if you must, but I suspect its like pigs... do all you can and unless you poison em, all it will do is keep em somewhat in check.

Certainly holding off allowing anyone to kill one is nuts....

Coyotes here are not furbearers. No season and sort of technically no license required. Its much safer to hold a normal hunting license just in case, but beyond that you can't do the normal things like shoot on private property without permission, or shoot across public roads...

Thats about as limited as it needs to be too.

The feds put Idaho in charge of managing wolves but sent no money along to do it. The IDFG is funded almost solely by license and tag sales so any wolf management money had to come from those. They priced them cheap ($11 for a resident tag) in hopes that enough hunters would buy a tag 'just in case' to help keep them from having to reduce management of something else.

Actually now that I think of it, if the tag was 20, and helped pay for the helo... and everyone was smart enough that cared about the rest of the game, to buy one to support it, it would be a good deal.

Certainly the bunny huggers that won't have any bunnies to hug don't and won't ever get it.

In TX they finally offer a stamp of some sort for "bunny huggers" so we can say, if you don't contribute, you shouldn't have a say, here contribute.... I doubt the sales numbers are very high though...

It's not unlike the situation with large African game, like elephants. The huggers want it all stopped without considering that the huge fees paid by a hunter goes a long way toward preserving them.

how about this from the December 2015 Science Magazine

http://science.sciencemag.org/content/350/6267/1473

I suppose this would be like some dick head, present company excluded of course, telling me how we should manage alligators in Florida. I have never been there, nor even seen a wolf. Thought it was easier than that.
Y'all carry on with what works for you up the frozen north. laughing

Dang those pictures bring back some memories. My wife and I did timber inventory work on the Clearwater NF for 8 months back in '86. No wolves there then. Would routinely come across acre size elk wallows and trails that resemble cow paths. Damn steep country. Only easy place to walk was along the ridges. Stream valleys were almost always cris-crossed with downed timber or choked with alder or yew. Most side hills are 100% plus slope. Spent 6 years before that working the San Juan Mt area of SW Colorado and that country was much easier to navigate. Sad to hear the elk heard has been so devastated. Always had it in my mind to get back to the Clearwater someday to do some elk hunting.

I read an article by an outfitter who at various times had worked in all of the mountain states. He considered Idaho to be the roughest. He said that while places like CO were higher, they stayed high. Idaho is more convoluted so you have a lot more nasty up and nastier down.

Yup, clinging to ceanothus on 100%+ slopes saved my butt from a nasty falls several times. When doing timber inventory we had to run compass lines so couldn't avoid much of the steep. A lot more open country in Colorado. Much less undergrowth in most areas.

Well with that last word, you got abducted by stick didn't ya....

Bigstick? Hardly. Jesus Christ Jeff, you know me better than that.