West

weststicky

Joe_Cermele — Thu, 14 Oct 2010 15:09:31 -0400

Whitetails grow big in the riverbottoms below the peaks and in the northwest woods. West region Rut Reporter Rich Landers, a native Montanan and life-long hunter, is the outdoors editor for The Spokesman-Review in Spokane. He has written several books about the western outdoors and has hunted whitetails all his life. States covered: WA, OR, ID, MT, WY, CO

Landers: The End of the Season

Sarah Smith — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 13:56:16 -0500

Rut Reporter Rich Landers, a native Montanan and life-long hunter, is the outdoors editor for The Spokesman-Review in Spokane. He has written several books about the western outdoors and has hunted whitetails all his life. States covered: WA, OR, ID, MT, WY, CO.

With only a few scattered late seasons still open across the West after this week, most hunters are closing the book on the 2011 whitetail opportunities.

I'm getting reports that whitetail bucks continue to have their noses alert, at least occasionally, for any unfinished business. But I'm seeing a lot of doe-fawn pairs working overtime to feed and rest unmolested by bucks or hunters.

It's time for many of us to contemplate another great season, look for an opening on the wall for a trophy and dig out the big-game recipe books for a new way to savor the game in the freezer.

The rest of us will have to deal with the image in our memory--like the shot above captured by Montana wildlife photographer Jaime Johnson--of the big one that got away.

Landers: Rutting Activity Lingering

Dave_Maccar — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 11:16:16 -0500

Idaho archers have about two weeks to shop for a whitetail buck before Christmas.

Rutting activity lingers in the West as Idaho Panhandle bowhunters take their last shot in a season that opens Saturday in selected units and runs through Dec. 24.

They're too late for a chance at the bruiser pictured above, taken by Dan Hoke at the edge of a clearcut near Lake Pend Oreille while the rut was still hot and heavy just before the rifle seasons ended. But Rut Reporters are seeing more of the same across several Western states. In fact, bucks in some areas appear to be in a peak phase of covering ground.

In Eastern Washington, where most of the archery buck hunting opportunity will end Dec. 15, Brandon Enevold says bucks are still defending areas in pursuit of late-estrus does.

"I passed up two bucks on the Saturday," said Enevold, who's pickiness this season has enabled him to observe a wealth of whitetail activity. "The 5x5 was obviously looking for does and when he noticed the 4x4, he got very aggressive and chased the smaller buck until he jumped over an adjacent fence.

"Sunday evening, I had a beautiful 140 class 5x5 approach my stand. His nose was glued to the ground searching for hot does. Unfortunately, he managed to sneak away up the ridge chasing a yearling doe before I could manage a shot.

"New bucks are showing up at most of my stand locations, which leads me to believe that mature bucks are really covering some ground right now in search of the few remaining does that are still receptive as well as yearling does that are coming into heat late in the season."

The frantic "trail and defend" stage is gone for the year, said Hal Meenach, a farmer and wildlife habitat consultant who has a fine whitetail laboratory across his acreage.

Now, he says, whitetails bucks are in the "dog those does stage."

"Monday evening in south Spokane County, a nice whitetail was making the rounds with a dozen or so does. No response to the small pair of bucks with the group."

He points out that unsettled mature does and just maturing fawns still will cycle, and he comforts hunters with his observation that there are still "plenty of bucks around to extend the fawning season next spring."

In Western Montana, where deer hunting has closed for the year, Jerry Shively of Flatiron Outfitters has plenty of time to kick back and watch the rut tail off.

"As of (Monday), bucks were still chasing does," he said. "I did not see any of the bigger bucks today so it may be that they were already taking care of a doe and letting the younger bucks do the chasing. I saw at least four different smaller bucks today that seemed to have a terminal case of the stupids, besides the ones that were doing the chasing."

Landers: Rattling Brings in a Wallhanger

Sarah Smith — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 10:36:35 -0500

The fat lady has sung in Montana and Idaho, but late seasons are still giving hunters a few shots at whitetails in designated areas from eastern Colorado to eastern Washington.
And the rut's still on to some degree throughout the region.

Remember, the Nov. 20-21 peak of whitetail conceptions pegged by research in the northwestern states is only the top of the bell curve. As we move into the holidays, the season's breedings are on the downhill slope, but there's still action out there for bucks--and hunters.

In western Montana, Chuck Williams bagged his whitetail with a handgun before the season ended Nov. 27, but he's still observing rutting behavior. "I had a nice white-racked 5x5 tending a doe in my yard last week," he said.

With just days remaining in most of the eastern Washington late bowhunting seasons, Chris van Kempen tagged the nice wall-hanger above by taking advantage of the buck's lingering desire to make sure every doe is bred and every competitor is challenged.

"I went out this afternoon got into my stand and did a few rattling sets," he reported Friday. "On the third set, I was able to rattle this buck in to 30 yards! It was awesome I was only in the stand for about a hour and 20 minutes."

Landers: Rut Waning, But Not Over

Sarah Smith — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 11:26:57 -0500

It ain't over 'til it's over, as the saying goes. The whitetail rut might be winding down in some areas of the West, but it's still a positive factor as proved by hunters who have tagged big bucks in the past couple of days.

Bowhunters in eastern Washington's late archery season are effectively using calls and scents for bucks on the prowl. Before climbing into his stand for the afternoon, Joel Enevold said he freshened nearby scrapes with Tink's 69 doe-in-rut buck lure.

He barely got settled in his stand at 1:00 p.m. before he spotted the split-tine buck he'd been seeing in the trail cam photos. The bruiser was working a scrape. The buck slowly but surely kept coming in, sniffed the air below Enevold's stand and posed for a storybook archery shot that dropped him five yards from where he was hit.

"This buck is the largest I have taken since the age of 15 and I feel very fortunate to have had the chance to harvest such a great animal," he said.

Meantime, his brother passed up two 4x4 bucks that afternoon. "Both bucks were grunting up a storm, and one buck decided to stop 20 yards away and shred a tree for a few minutes," Brandon Enevold said. "Bucks seem to be actively searching for does and traveling with their noses close to the ground."

North Idaho rifle hunters are still reporting bucks reacting to grunt tubes and estrous can calls, but the rifle season is winding down fast.

"In eastern Colorado, whitetails and mule deer are still rutting, but it's been light-hearted and off and on all season for some reason," said Robert Amidon of Atkinson Expeditions. "Monday I saw two small whitetail bucks fighting over a single doe," he said. "But no big bucks."

Archery hunting will give way to eastern Colorado's Dec. 1-14 rifle season, which will offer more opportunities to fill a tag in the region's open country, he said.

"The plan is to get out, spend a lot of time covering ground and glassing as much as possible, finding bucks bedded up or with does, and going in after them," he said. "Simple as that."

In Western Montana, it's all over but the braggin' and cryin' and some continued rutting activity.

"Hunters are gone; snow is gone and the three biggest bucks I saw last summer and fall are still chasing does," said Jerry Shively of Flatiron Outfitters. "I saw all three of them (Saturday) afternoon, each had a hot doe in front of him. Most of the 'orphan' fawns are back with their mothers now, but the rut is still on here.

"I had no deer hunters the last two weeks of the season, so some great bucks just have to make it through the winter to be around for next season. The does I saw being chased Saturday were all smaller does, most likely coming in heat for the first time. The bigger and obviously older does were showing no signs of being interested in anything but eating."

Landers: Rut Behavior Not Over

Sarah Smith — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 15:35:30 -0500

Montana's deer season ended a half-hour after sunset Sunday with a gleam still in the eyes of a few big whitetail bucks. But mostly they seem to be ready for a break. The photograph of the buck (above), snapped in Western Montana by wildlife photographer Jaime Johnson, seems to tell the story.

In northern Idaho, rifle hunters have a few more days in the season and bucks are still on the prowl. Tom Anderson, in Sandpoint sent a photo, shown below, of a Big R Store customer who bagged a nice buck on Saturday as it was making a scrape.

In eastern Washington, the rifle seasons are closed, but late archery hunters are out in force and some muzzleloader seasons are open. I have several reports of hunters arrowing nice bucks that were scraping and acting more like they were in the earlier stages of the rut.

But in Montana, where no post-season hunts will be offered this year, hunters tend to be thinking about what will be around for the 2012 hunts.

"Most game check stations are reporting harvest down as much as 30 percent from last season," said Ron Nail, a bowhunter from Kalispell. Winter, disease and predators have been a triple whammy on deer in wide areas of Montana the past few years.

"The age class of deer taken was generally much younger, with mostly 1-1/2 to 2-1/2 year old bucks," Nail said, adding what's on the mind of many Montana deer and elk hunters: "The wolf season will continue through the end of the year, many areas haven't met the quota as yet."

Landers: Get Ready for Round Two

Sarah Smith — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 13:17:56 -0500

The whitetail rut in much of the West has been in a crescendo that resulted in a lot of happy hunters during the past week. But lately I've heard considerable frustration from hunters afield. Rattling and calling are not so effective as big bucks lock-on to does. In some areas, the bucks went into a clear cool-off period, but don't be surprised if some sort of reproductive cymbals rev up the orchestra one more time.

Here's the latest word from a couple of hunting guides who have been in the field non-stop during the peak of the rut.

Southwestern Montana, where the deer seasons end Sunday:

"The rut seems to be in that hot/cold phase where we have the bigger bucks in lockdown mode," said Keith Miller of Montana Whitetails. "We'll have a few really hot days and then a few slow days. However, the weather has been warm and windy which is a really bad recipe for hunting the rut here in Montana. We did have a hunter score on a nice whitetail Monday (shown here) as it followed a hot doe past his river-bottom stand with two smaller bucks in tow.

“Another hunter shot a nice buck Sunday morning over a decoy. He was hunting from the hay bale blind and had the buck come posturing into the decoy."

Eastern Washington, where the late whitetail rifle hunt has ended but archery and muzzleloader seasons are opening this week in designated units:

"Well today was not what I expected," said Nate Krohn, who was scouting Monday after a big snowstorm for primitive weapons hunts in northcentral Washington. "Saw lots of solo does and a few smaller solo bucks. Rattling didn't work, which I was expecting. Lots of snow, about a foot. Saw lots of nice country, and only got stuck once. Trail cam also showed no bucks during daylight and lots of solo does. My uneducated guess is it is the slow before the second rut where we were at. It snowed like crazy until noon, so they may have been hunkered down a little too."

In other words, be ready for the post-intermission movement.

Landers: Wild in the West

Online Editors — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 12:50:18 -0500

Nov. 21: Big bucks have given whitetail hunters a lot to talk about across the West the past few days, as the rut kicked into high gear.

"If you have the late rifle tag, go now," Hal Meenach emailed Saturday, the last day of northeastern Washington's late whitetail buck season. "Things are about as active as it gets. I saw a buck with a doe this morning with his head on the ground, tuckered out.”

Archers and muzzleloaders who have seasons starting Thanksgiving day should expect just-past-peak conditions, said the Eastern Washington farmer and wildlife habitat consultant.

In northwestern Montana, "The rut is full-steam ahead, but numbers at all check stations are way down, both for number of hunters and game taken," said bowhunter Ron Nail in Kalispell. Indeed, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks is reporting a below-par harvest in several areas, confirming earlier reports about the toll winters and disease have taken on deer. Predators are an issue in some areas, too.

"I still haven't seen a really big buck in this area," Nail said.

Heavy snowfall and cold temperatures leading into the weekend could have changed things for a lot of hunters as Montana heads toward the end of the rifle season this week. But hunters with Montana Whitetails in southwestern Montana river bottomlands didn't have to wait.

"The bucks have cut loose big time," outfitter Keith Miller said last week. "Our hunters are having bucks chasing does, charging into rattling and grunt calls and just plain cruising through the midday hours.

"Some of the biggest bucks are getting really aggressive and showing themselves during daylight. Actually, midday seems to be when the biggest bucks are being seen."

Miller sent the photo of one of his hunters, above, who rattled a fine buck in to a decoy. "He shot it posturing at the decoy around 20 yards from the hay bale blind--his biggest buck ever," Miller said.

"The stupid factor is now officially starting to come to a head," said Jerry Shively of Flatiron Outfitters in Western Montana. "I witnessed my first doe getting her frustrations removed Thursday. I must have seen 40 does, but only one of them was receptive. Bucks are moving all day now, so if you can find any sort of concentration of does and can stick with them, an opportunity will present itself. Almost all the fawns I've seen recently were either alone or with other fawns, another sign that mama is out making their replacements.

"This is not a good time for a hunting guide to not have hunters out! There is always something either happening or about to happen this time of year."

Landers: It’s Buck Time in Washington

Sarah Smith — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 11:27:52 -0500

Nov. 16: The silence has been broken. Some of my Rut Reporters in northeastern Washington have been virtually mum this season as they searched for big bucks. Even rutting activity has been spotty with big bucks moving mostly after dark.

Until now. Hunters are buzzing, and the excitement is palpable.

The rut appears to be on in a big way almost across the board in Eastern Washington, North Idaho and throughout Montana.

Colville, Wash., hunter Kevin Scheib has been patiently monitoring his trail cams since July, when he documented a few big bucks that disappeared as soon as the September archery seasons started.

Just this weekend, the big ones began to show again. Scheib caught a photo of the hot buck above out in the open, well before the end of legal shooting time. Read what Scheib reported, and then tell me where you think he'll be in these last few days before northeastern Washington's late whitetail buck hunt ends on Saturday:

"Now it's on like donkey kong. This guy is swollen and hot for teacher. He came in chasing three does; the first mountain buck I've seen coming out in the lowlands."

Landers: Bucks Moving Everywhere

Sarah Smith — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 17:17:06 -0500

Full disclosure: I didn't even SEE a buck during legal hunting hours over the weekend around my hunting niches in Northeastern Washington, but rut reporters elsewhere in the West were filling their tags, as though the world was about to end.

As usual, the whitetail rut in much of the West is a tad bit behind the breeding season in states farther east and south. I saw does with fawns and no bucks following. But it's just as clear that bucks are turning on virtually everywhere. Rattling and calling were getting results. "Even though the deer numbers are down, the bucks that are out there are beginning to cruise around," said Ron Nail, the fulfilled northwestern Montana bowhunter pictured above. He rattled in the buck Sunday at 4:15 p.m.

"It took him a good half hour to work his way in. He came in a zigzag pattern; neat to watch. It would be easier hunting with a rifle, but I love the challenge of hunting with a bow. I would expect the next several days to be as good as it gets. My favorite time for rattling in a good buck, has always been between Nov. seventh and Nov. 14th in our area."

Also pictured with Nail is Sadee, his border collie-blue healer cross. "She is great at finding wounded bucks, and has been out a few times already this season helping find deer," he said, noting that it's legal to use tracking dogs in Montana, while it's prohibited in some other states.

Nail's report inspired his Kailspell-area friend, Chuck Williams, that the rut was on and it was time to get serious. Williams went out the next morning--Monday--and bagged a buck at close range with his .44 magnum handgun.

In Eastern Washington, 12-year-old Karsen Enevold and his grandpa devoted a well-chosen weekend to filling his buck tag from a tree stand. It was time well spent, as evidenced in the other photo here. He smoked a nice buck and then filled his doe tag with a second shot--all within 10 seconds. Mission accomplished.

In southeastern Montana, Keith Miller of Montana Whitetails is putting his bets on this week. His daily scouting sessions picked up a clear trend of increased buck activity going into the weekend. The does didn't appear to be ready, but he saw good numbers of bucks checking out every doe in the fields. A lot of smaller bucks were trolling. He expected the bigger bucks to make their daylight appearances any day.

In the Idaho Panhandle, Joe Cabral of Russell Pond Outfitters near St. Maries was still relaxed with plenty of time left in his season.

"The Tuesday before Thanksgiving is prime time here," he said. "I ALWAYS see bucks cavorting around that day."