Wolf Activity where we were

royinidaho

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Joined
Jan 20, 2004
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Location
Blackfoot, Idaho
On the way to Buffalobob's campsite I stopped in Salmon at the tire store to get my hitch tightened. While there I asked a fellow how the elk hunting was going. He cussed and swore and bad mouthed the wolves. (I don't think this fellow ever stepped in the woods in his life.) He said they had the elk busted up into small herds and those were down in the depths of Horse Creek, over the mountain from where we were.

There were wolves all right. Jim was on location from Oct 1st and I showed up on the 7th or 8th. While Jim was there and I wasn't we are more than fairly sure that the wolf/s were there too.

We were able to observe several groups of elk and one of what I would call a herd, maybe. 1) 9 cows and a 5X5. 2) 4 Cows and a 5X5 (twice), 12 Cows, 7 Cows. A group of 4 were just over the ridge from our shooting point but never crossed to our side. Also, there were no spikes or rag horns seen. Odd, huh?

Note: the cartridges used for size comparison are 338 Rums/300 SMKS & COL of a bit over 3.9"

Here's some of the old boy's tracks.

Woof-Track-1.jpg


Woof-Track-2.jpg



Here's some stuff he left behind. Note he backed into a bunch grass in the center of the dozer road. Had to be a male. A lady wouldn't have backed into a bush.

Poop.jpg


Did a visual inspection to see what the fella had been eatin'. Nothing but hare hair in there.

Smelled pretty bad so I didn't do a taste test.:rolleyes:

Poop-Inspection.jpg
 
Even though I didn't get to make the trip over this year, two friends did, and they saw woof sign everywhere. They did comment on the size of the tracks after being used to coyote tracks all of their lives.
 
iF WE SEE FRESH WOLF SIGN WHILE ELK HUNTING HERE IN mt WE RELOCATE,IF THE ELK ARE STILL IN THE AREA THEY WILL BE SO **** SKITTISH YOUR ODDS OF GETTING A SHOT ARE low.
 
I went elk hunting in the Bob Marshal in MT during the rut this year. If you were lucky enough to get a beugle you would imediatly here the wolfs start howling and you would not here another peep from the elk. Wolf sign everywhere. We would hear them howling and barking every day. It sucked. There needs to be some serius wolf management in Montana in my opinion.
 
Yhe our backcountry early elk season has gone down the toilet in recent years,they will be outfitting for wolves soon.They have run off many of the large backcountry herds,they stay down low on private ground year round instead of migrating back after winter,the ones that do return either get eaten or very smart very quick.
 
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