2015 Wolves

riverrat · Feb 5, 2015

Just got back to a computer after last weekends little wolf hunting adventure. Me and my buddy were very fortunate to score on 4 wolves, I got 3 and he got one. We have been trying to get some more of these killed for a long time and it finally all came together. All were killed in central Idaho with a rifle(300RUM) for both and all were just hard hunting no calling. By getting these 4 killers out of our elk hunting country I am hoping this will pay off with a little better elk/deer survival. Only one down thing, is now I only have two more tags to fill until I just become a spotter for my buddies. It's time for us all to get out and do some more of this.

We ended up with 3 big males and 1 big female. We seen a minimum of 10 dogs. A special thanks to my brother in law who was there that trip and to my 15 year daughter that was by my side for a very special day.

unclebuck · Feb 5, 2015

Nice job guys! Thanks for helping the herds.

dz · Feb 5, 2015

Down right Awesome!!!!! Congrats all the way around.

DZ

treedagain · Feb 6, 2015

It dont get much better than that....congrads

huntindad4 · Feb 6, 2015

Awesome!

I'm always a little shocked at how big those things are!

Bill

People who work for a living are quickly being
overwhelmed by people who vote for a living.

Deerlove · Feb 6, 2015

fantastic!

polarisracer212 · Feb 6, 2015

congrats!! for years i have been wanting to get out and spend some time looking just dont have an idea where to even start i have access to sleds rangers and not afraid to walk just dont have the money to go up blind with out some sort of idea where to go and the best ways to hunt them???

WAPITI39 · Feb 6, 2015

Congrats

Goldberg · Feb 6, 2015

WOW!!!!
I would be interested in hearing a llittle more how you pulled that off. Fine work there!!!!

live2farm · Feb 6, 2015

Awesome! How about the story!?

DW · Feb 6, 2015

That's awesome congrats!

Pre64 · Feb 8, 2015

Very good! All off the river?

Hunthigh · Feb 8, 2015

WOW! details! Would love to hear more about how you pulled that off.

smitty · Feb 8, 2015

congratulations.

In my opinion, Wolves are the hardest animal to successfully hunt and kill. I've hunted them quite a few times, got lucky once.

Looks like you're in the Frank Church? We did hunt bear in there a few years ago and I was blown away at the wolf sign all up and down the river. You couldn't go 50 yards without seeing scat, tracks or signs of kills they'd made. I've always wanted to go back, but sheer size of the place is daunting to say the least.

If you had access to a jet boat, well, that's the smartest thing I've seen so far.

Congrats again.

FemoralArchery · Feb 8, 2015

Awesome!!!

oneaway · Feb 8, 2015

WOW! Very impressive. Congrats

riverrat · Feb 8, 2015

Thanks everybody for the comments. I will start this by saying I am by no means any kind of writer so I apologize for any part of this that may be hard to follow. First off I hunt a lot, every chance I get I am out. Luckily I have a understanding wife that supports my habit. My tools for hunting start with a Polaris ranger, 2 snowmobiles and a jet boat. I use all of these for different locations that I hunt, I probably put 50-60 days a year in the field chasing some kind of animal. Me and my buddies track and locate all night long in some cases just to be ready at first daylight. We are probably a little over board on the predators but we are fairly successful. He has tagged two Wolves over the last couple years and I have tagged 4, along the way we have gotten a couple lions and several coyotes.

To summarize this particular trip I will try to keep it very simple. We used a jet boat, we hiked our butts off to get into a known wolf canyon. The wolves ran two herds of elk almost right over me and my daughter, didn't get a shot first chance. We were Bummed and thought we had blown it. Later it turned Into sneaking within 200 yards of a pack of 8 and that turned into 4 shots and 4 dogs with one wounded escaping from me. We looked for the wounded dog but could only locate blood and eventually we lost it. My buddy was in another canyon and his hunt consisted of spotting two wolves and being able to get a good shot on one. This was abnormal results for us but we have earned them with all the time and effort we put into them. I hope this helps answer a few questions. Thanks and hope too show some more harvest pictures soon.

BPKHunter · Feb 9, 2015

Looks like you have been about as successful as anyone I know of, that isn't a trapper. What is you take from what you saw the first year you started hunting these critters and now. What do you think they are learning in response to us hunters these past 4 years?

riverrat · Feb 9, 2015

This particular pack is in an area that more than likely has never been hunted much so they pretty much stay in a localized area close to the elk herds. But the packs back home that get hunted by me and others are way different than they used to be. These packs are smaller like 2-4 dogs, they come down out of the deep snow long enough to kill then race back up into timber and deep snow for cover. For the most part these dogs reaction to calling is hauling butt the opposite way. They are constantly on the go which is very difficult to pattern. Like Smitty said above they are a very hard to hunt.

Goldberg · Feb 10, 2015

Thanks for the info on how you managed that, riverrat. I was kind of hoping you were going to say you spotted them from the river and hiked up after them. Which would be no piece of cake, but at least not the amount of effort it takes to walk in blind to several canyons hoping to see some. You definetly earned those eating machines the hard way.
Hat's off to you and your pards!

rutnbuck · Feb 13, 2015

Congrats on great success! Best of luck.

Rutnbuck

DeerMadness · Feb 14, 2015

Awesome job!

riverrat · Feb 16, 2015

Just got back last night from a two day overnighter chasing wolves again. This time there was a group of 8 of us that went into 5-6 different canyons and the wolves just weren't there. We put a lot of miles on and no real fresh sign but there also was no elk. As many of you guys know these animals move so often that timing is a major part in ones success. On a side note the black bears are starting to stir out of there dens so come April we may have a bunch of bears out roaming the hills.