Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Northern Minnesota hunter has encounter with pack of wolves

I killed a lot of schitt with those old Muzzy 4 blade broadheads! They were killing machines!

but did you kill a bare?

Yup. Aint tha onliest one with a bow, neither, hunt, an none with a guide, dogs er gun.

PS. Please note that no where did i say i killed a bear while elk hunting.

I would never ever shoot a wolf illegally. Only in states that have seasons and I was appropriately licensed.
Unless I felt endangered, then I would protect my Self, Sons, and Stuff.

SD is in the enviable position that we do not fall under the Rocky Mountain, nor Minnesota/ Great Lakes wolf management plans.

I have no doubt in my mind that there are wolf bones laying in western SD. Ranchers here will not tolerate them and they know how to SSS.
There was a pair spotted just north of our property right along the SD/WY line by a couple of archery elk hunters. There is no doubt in my mind that if they stick around, and show themselves too much, they will not be around very long. They are classified as predators in that part of WY, not big game animals like the wolves around Yellowstone.

If they show up on our property, I would Seriously obServe and enjoy the Scenario.

Last buck i shot with one was 13 points and made it 18 steps, Neal.

Trust me GC......in most cases it doesn't.

One problem though is how frikin smart they are. Guys were doing a pretty good job calling and trapping them when the feds first delisted them and ID set seasons but that lasted about two years. If you think Coyotes are smart you ain't seen chit.
Another problem and probably the biggest is the Wolves are preying on heards that are miles and miles deep in wilderness areas so they don't see people very often and vise versa.
It's to the point the IDF&G will almost pay for your gas if a guy will trap these areas but with 3-4 feet of snow on the ground during trapping season they don't get a lot of takers.
When I took the 8hr course required to trap Wolves they told us that regardless of what you hear they really have no idea how many Wolves are in ID's wilderness's but they know the Elk populations are almost nonexistent......down 80-85% in some areas.

The elephant in the room here is the governor of Minnesota.

Hello? Hello? Anyone here?

Check out how Gov Butch Otter of Idaho dealt with the Obama Admin.

Hello? Hello.....Governor Dayton.....U ever heard of Donald Trump?

The new President of the United States?

Check it out.

Dayom, FG. Its sickening to hear of that.

I stand corrected looks like 25 per cent probably close to 30 or more all Wildlife agencies are run by anti hunting tree huggers

https://www.google.com/amp/www.twin...pulation-appears-to-rise-25-percent/amp/

Yea....and it's even worse in some of the other states. (Jelly Stone is a perfect example).
At least ID immediatlly opened trapping and hunting seasons after the delisting and they've been lifting restrictions, raising quotas, and basically attacking the problem every way possible but we're just treading water.
And I'm not ripping on WY either because they were 100% right in standing their ground.

When Idaho began issuing wolf tags, I always carried one when elk and deer hunting although never got a shot at one. All the hunters I know carry wolf tags. Several have killed a wolf while big game hunting but wolves are smart and hard to run onto out in the mountains.

Good luck to all wolf hunters.

L.W.

All states that have wolf populations could have year round unregulated sport hunting seasons in place and the wolves will never be gone.

SD does not have an established wolf population, and does not want one in talking with the Game and Fish. I can only hope the ranchers and sportsmen do the proper thing when encountering any wolf, I mean big coyote in SD. So far I believe they have.

I dont know about western states , but the wolf population was 0 or close to it for 50 yrs. There is no doubt hunters could kill off the wolf population, at least in Wisconsins. We did it once and no reason we can't do it again. With all the deer hunters out there we could get rid of them. Then track them in the snow? Not that I want to see every wolf dead, I just dont want their numbers exploding . Mother nature will take care of them too. In WIs. the wolf numbers dropped a whole bunch. In 2004 I noticed a lot of wolf sign for about 5 yrs. Then, almost none . The reason, hunters shot a lot of does , a hard winter, then a harder winter, then, the winter of 2013 to 2014 came. I never saw anything like it . I found dead deer that could not get out of the Hemlocks where they winter cause the snow is not as deep. I saw logging areas that were logged and regenerated by 3' popple saplings that were not even touched. No way for the deer to get to them in winter. This put the hurt on the wolf numbers . I imagine wolf numbers were down 75%. They are still down from 10 yrs ago, but so are the deer, but they are coming back strong form 3 easy winters. The wolf numbers will follow, sadly. There is some good things about wolves. The only thing I hate about them is they can kill your dog, damn near run your 3 yr old boy over , have them circle you and we have no legal right to shoot them when we are clearly in danger , or potential danger. One thing, they kill coyotes, Coyotes kill everything . Wolves will clean up on beavers. Yes, wolves kill deer, and I dont like it . There is one thing I noticed when the wolves and hunters came in to shoot all the does. The woods in Price / Sawyer , co. Wisconsin / Flambeau River State Forest was some of the worst looking forest I ever saw. That woods did not grow a single cedar tree in 75 years. There are no young cedars , Hemlocks, White Pine, Single needle Balsom, White or Red Oak, All these trees left are old growth , mature trees that are dying of old age. There is no regeneration of these trees for at least 75 yrs. Now, since the wolves reduced the deer numbers I am seeing thousands of young White Oak trees, literally a thousand. I see WHite Pines growing all over with them not getting eaten by deer, Hemlocks are popping up but still no cedars at all. In the long run I think if these trees can get above the browse line we will have thousands of oak trees producing acorns and winter cover should be much better than it is now. The maple trees look like they are in a Charlie Brown movie. Stragliest browsed up trees I ever saw and then they die from over browse. This leaves very little for deer to eat and little winter thermal cover to survive winters. Sadly, the DNR does nothing to plant oaks ,Hemlock ETC. on the state forests. Where I hunt , it is not good deer habitat at all cause there were too many deer for a long time . Still dont like wolves though.

Remember I said sport hunting, not flying, trapping or poison. Hunters may well be able to eradicate the wolves in WI, never been to that state. But I do not see it happening in N. Minnesota, WY, MT, ID or any other state that still has lots of wilderness.

The forest regeneration is positive habitat restoration, the same type of recovery is happening in Yellowstone with the reduction in elk numbers.

I do not want the wolves gone either, I just think they should be more aggressively managed than the current programs.

Chit...

The last 150 years has proven in The US, Europe, Asia, Russia the only way wolf populations can be controlled is through trapping and poisoning

End of debate. Thinking you can control their populations via sport hunting is foolish and/or stupid

The wolves wiped out the elk and moose around Yellowstone ran out out of good because of their very high reproduction rates and spread throughout Montana down into Wyoming and over to Idaho

At least Idaho and Montana allowing trapping

I think Idaho still allows poison thank God

What he said. Probably the case.

Still hellacous good elk hunting in Wyoming. Some of the best in the country and hardest tags to get. How does that happen?

SSS in action ??