Whitetail Hunting photo
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Overall Activity Status:
Troy Pottenger of Coeur d’ Alene, Idaho, is a Nextbuk pro-staffer and is hands down the most accomplished fair-chase whitetail hunter in the inland Northwest. When he talks, I listen – hard.

The walls of his home look like an exhibition of monster whitetails, some taken from the Midwest, Saskatchewan, and points in between, but most arrowed on public land in Eastern Washington or North Idaho. Pottenger spends a tremendous amount of time in the field, and his excited text message to me late last night brought the picture and news this inland Northwest whitetail hunter has been waiting to see and hear. This blown up scrape on a traditional scrapeline makes my teeth chatter thinking about being out there.

“I used the two-day-old snow to get in some great in-season scouting. I put in six miles after a morning hunt and checked on several doe groups and traditional breeding areas. I made five new scrapes and hung or reset 5 trail cameras, all of which showed bucks targeting doe groups much more as of November 1.”

His game cameras suggest he has some new friends on the hunting grounds.

“Two mature bucks I haven’t had on camera in more than a month just resurfaced. Between the two-day-old snow and tracks telling the story like a book, the results from the camera added more confirmation. Bucks are just starting to open up scrapes. It’s beginning brother! Zero sign of any dogging or chasing yet, though.”

Fighting/sparring
No reports this week so far. Reports over the last week and a half show bucks becoming intolerant of each other, decreasing the tickling of the antlers that precedes the rut.

Rubs and Scrapes
Scrapes are on the ground throughout the region, and reports show activity is beginning to increase in Northeastern Oregon, North Idaho and Eastern Washington.

Chasing
Some reports of bucks dogging does have come in from Wyoming and Colorado, but no serious evidence has come in from anywhere in the West. We’re days or at most two weeks away from all-out chasing commencing across most of the region.

Daytime movement
Continues to uptick as the weather gets colder and we get closer to breeding. Daytime movement has been sparse in eastern Colorado due to unseasonable temperatures, but a recent cooling trend may be changing that now. Activity in the inland Northwest has definitely increased according to sources.

X-factor
Locating doe groups and patterning their behavior as well as that of visiting bucks is a tested strategy. As bucks make more frequent visits to check does, and as the month pushes along, more and more big western whitetails are going to make mistakes.