Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Flat Lander moving to Elk Country......Damn excited!! (Panhandle Idaho)

Congrats and good luck!
Funny how I travel to NoDak for roosters, waterfowl, occasional deer. A sportsman's paradise is where you find it.

Thanks....very excited for the adventure!!

I guess the grass is always a bit greener on the other side.

The biggest selling feature of northern Idaho is the weather. Milder winters mainly. The winters in Nodak can be brutal at times.

Definitely going to miss the Roosters......

Glad to here there are some locals, because I do not know [bleep] about hunting Elk.

I have killed quote of few deer with a bow, but I am not a fan of stand hunting. Much rather be on the move. Sold my bow years ago, so I will have to make an investment.

My trust 7mm will serve me good out west. Pretty much the whitetail weapon of choice around here.

You may be sorry.. One shot deer season is done.. But those roosters, go on forever!!!

Get yourself a post office box, so that you can beat that six month residency chitt.

jimy, a post office box doesn't cut it in this part of the country.. A quick way for a fine..

How do you get mail?

Getting mail is far different than living some where.. Not being a smart ass but I have seen these pricks pull this crap.. A post office box, and they live in West V. 11 months of the year.. No No they pay. Life is tough here.. If you want to live in the east fine, but there is a price to pay fo r living in the west..

Ok, I see what you are saying , but he is moving there and needs to establish an address, and a Post office box is the best way I know how. Especially if you are moving around and renting till you get established.

Some of these posts seem to bypass a couple early ones that explain what's required for residency. You have to LIVE here, not just play house. Your physical, warm carcass has to be inside the borders of Idaho.

Coach - In case you weren't aware, north ID has whitetails and I've seen some dandies. The majority of the mulies live in the south half of the state. The ranges do overlap considerably so you can't make a blanket statement on which species is where.

Luckily I have family in ND, SD and MN to get my rooster fix annually!!

I'm about an hour south of CDA. There is pheasant hunting, but it is an "ask first" situation. The locals get ticked at all the Kooteneers invading every season like they own the place. I know I do.

What Idahoans call bird hunting and a Dakotan calls bird hunting may differ. Idahoans do not blink to ground sluice a grouse with pistol, rock, bow, shotgun, deer rifle or stick. If I am out hunting grouse with my shotgun, I'm pretty civilized, but if they show up while hunting other game, they are dinner.

Your 7mm will do you OK for elk. I know lot's of guys who carry one. I've killed them with a 264 Win Mag and an 30-06. Shots range from 6 yards to 600 yards. The 300 Win Mag and 338 are popular here, too. If you hang out in the pawn shops (Marty's Shooter's Supply just north of Black Sheep is my fave in CDA) and gun shows, you will hear about elk killed with everything from .243 to .458. You can do ok with glassing newer clearcuts with a lighter rifle like the 7mm. I prefer to go in the thick after them. 30's or bigger work well up close, but you always need to be ready to keep shooting until the stay down. I've had them go down with one shot, and had them take all I had. They are often dead but they don't know it. I've put three shots in three inches over the heart and had the bull standing until he slowing tipped over, dead.
The Whitetail hunting is phenomenal anywhere north of Riggins. Take the time to learn the season in each area and work the rut and you will see nice bucks. North Idaho bucks are famous for forked eye guards. Some deduct for it. I think it's awesome. You can go to the IDFG site and download the management zone, regions, controlled hunt boundaries, etc as KMZ files for Google Earth. I've loaded them all and saved them to My Places. I then check or uncheck them on the left to turn them on or off as desired.

I brought my three sons here nearly 30 years ago and now our roots are deep. Good luck on the adventure!

I'm convinced that game animals often go into shock. That happens when the blood pressure drops very fast. They get very weak, and sometimes pass out. When they're in shock, often they'll just stand there looking dumb.
I once put 4 270 rounds in the chest of an elk. One broke the far shoulder and the inside of his chest was total mush. He just stood there then slowly collapsed. Every shot was a kill shot but he went into shock and couldn't react.

Coach

Congrats on the move! I know what you mean by now or never.. Just pulled a now or never to Lewiston 4 months ago. I'll be hunting spring bear OTC as a res.. I've been hunting quail, chucker, dove locally and the number are waaaaaaay good. Been seeing some Roosters to.

2 hours south of ya.

Best to you and the family!

What are the rules regarding posting of private land in Idaho?

In North Dakota if it is not posted it is open to hunting.

In Idaho, it's a bit more restricted than that. If it's not cultivated or irrigated, IE rangeland, it must be posted or it's open to hunting without permission. The rules on what constitutes proper posting are in the game regs and they're pretty simple to follow.

North ID has a lot of dry farming, unlike so. ID that's almost all irrigated. If it's not cultivated, you can hunt it. Pastureland counts as cultivated. Fences don't count as delineating private land. The forest svc and BLM have lots of fenced grazing allotments on public land so only posting can keep you off.

Where I am, outside Sandpoint, there is no mistaking private land.

In so. Idaho, BLM land, in particular, can be easily mixed up with private land. I use an onXmap on my gps that clearly shows which is which but without that, it's hopeless to sort them out. Even the BLM people didn't always know where the borders are. Out in the deserts and hills, many times you'll have 200 square miles of BLM land with a handful of 1/4 to 1/2 section parcels of totally undeveloped private land scattered around. I have no idea why those parcels were originally claimed. They're much of the reason this trespass law was created.