Idaho's biggest bulls here

[Ithaca 37]

"According to a recent Trout Unlimited report, Idaho's hunters take the largest elk and mule deer from roadless lands. Seventy four percent of Idaho's remaining chinook and steelhead, 68 percent of Idaho's bull trout, and 58 percent of our cutthroat trout habitat is found in roadless lands. Check out Backcountry Hunters and Anglers at www.backcountryhunters.org. This excellent organization based in Oregon is fighting to protect the roadless areas......."

http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040922/NEWS0503/409220310/1052/NEWS05

 

[Moosie]

Soooooo... What are you saying ? That if we hunt roadless areas and get more into the natural habitat of the local species we might find better quality game then if we jsut drive the roads ??!? Get the Fugg out !!! I never knew that !!! I need o change my hunting structure now... THANX ALOT !!!

 

[Ithaca 37]

You're very welcome! Maybe that's been your problem!

 

[smalls]

Spikes hate roads

 

[Elk Turd]

The wolves ate them.

 

[A-con]

All the more reason to take your ATV or 4X4 cross country ! Forget about thoses trails, blaze your own !!!!!

 

[Idaho Ron]

Tell that to the guys that are hunting the selway and frank church. They are seeing less elk every year and the size of the bulls is not much to brag about. Most guys have this type of idea that way off roads equals big bulls and bucks. this ends up with more and more people heading into the "back country" Actually the opposite is true. The largest bucks are in areas where there are LOTS of roads. Check the areas that have the worst draw odds. Ron

 

[MarvB]

Naah Oakster....ol' Ron would have to stand in line to have that badge of honor!

 

[OAKSTER]

Ron, I take it you are the official irritator on this site?

 

[Wally Dog]

Right on Ron.
How bout unit 45?????
How bout Owyhee County?
It's all in how you spin it.
If TU had their way, there wouldn't be ANY harvest of anything.
WD

 

[Idaho Ron]

Lets look at one of the most roaded units in the state, Unit 53. In the last few years it has produced 3 mega bulls over 380. It has also produced two bucks I know of over 260. The bull hunt is a OPEN hunt! The buck hunt is a OPEN archery hunt. In our state the herds that are growing the fastest are the ones south of the Salmon river. Some of our units here have 50 to 1 odds for deer and almost that for elk. The unit Kasi got her bull in is 40 to 1 odds and there is a motorcycle trail on every ridge and draw. It is my opinion that a lot of guys are passing great bucks, and bulls on the roads as they are heading for the roadless areas. Just so they can compeat with the large crowds of horsemen that hunt these areas.
Ron

 

[Deerslayer]

Every study I have ever seen has shown that deer and elk shy away from roads that are well traveled. and even have trouble reproducing there.

.........sure there are exceptions.......but in general, well, it doesn't take a rocket scientist, or even a very smart person for that matter,......to understand that wild game prefer wilder areas over more roaded ones. But as long as folks can drive down roads and see game, they will argue there is no effect to the wildlife.

That is like saying smoking doesn't kill people because you know a ton of folks that are alive and smoke daily .......the damage is most assuredly being done.....

Hey, I'll end with this. Yes, a deer can live in a suburban neighborhood or even in the middle of
a town......but anyone with the brain power equal to a moron can deduce they fare a whole lot better in that very same environment before the roads and houses began to displace them from that very spot. They do the best they can with what they have to work with......just as each of us could survive in a 8x10 cell if required to do so...but we thrive in the great wide open.....

It cracks me up that folks actually try to put a spin on roads as actually "helping wildlife".
I have to wonder how wildlife ever made it all those hundreds of years before we invaded their homerange with gravel and asphalt?!?!?!??!

 

[JoseCuervo]

Originally posted by MarvB:
Naah Oakster....ol' Ron would have to stand in line to have that badge of honor!

Marv,

There is a line????

I do have to agree with Ron though, in Idaho, all the big deer and elk are right next to roads. There is absolutely no reason to get more than a 100 yards from a road, if you want to kill big deer and Elk.

Yeppers, if you even waste your time coming to Idaho to hunt, don't do yourself the extra dis-service and get off the roads.

And if you can find the late '70s Chevy pick-ups, the side-view mirrors work great for shooting rests, as they had that rubber ring around the glass....

 

[MarvB]

EGunner

And if you can find the late '70s Chevy pick-ups, the side-view mirrors work great for shooting rests, as they had that rubber ring around the glass

I gotta admit every once in a while when your bustin' somebody's chops you flat-ass crack me up

 

[leftylock]

Not trying to be a smart ass here, just wanting to be enlightened. I've heard from several people, "hunting experts" included, that the greater populations of animals are found near good food sources such as ranches and farms with crops that they can feed on. I've heard that on most wilderness hunts the only elk that you see may be the one you put your tag on. It seems to me that the areas around good food sources are likely to have more roads. granted I don't think you would find many elk standing in the road, but wouldn't they have to be somewhere not too many miles distant?
Anybody got a late 70s chevy pickup for sale?

 

[Wapiti Slayer]

Originally posted by ElkGunner:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by MarvB:
Naah Oakster....ol' Ron would have to stand in line to have that badge of honor!

Marv,

There is a line????

I do have to agree with Ron though, in Idaho, all the big deer and elk are right next to roads. There is absolutely no reason to get more than a 100 yards from a road, if you want to kill big deer and Elk.

Yeppers, if you even waste your time coming to Idaho to hunt, don't do yourself the extra dis-service and get off the roads.

And if you can find the late '70s Chevy pick-ups, the side-view mirrors work great for shooting rests, as they had that rubber ring around the glass.... </font>[/QUOTE]That's no shit! if you want to come down to the shop and see the biggest God*#$^ Idaho Whitail I've ever seen taken,less than 20 yards off a main road PM me! After about 6 Days of hard ass hunting his Wife hit's a Hog next to his trailer along the road! Never happens? I've shot 3 Bulls within a 1/8 mile off highway (??) Cause an old timer told me they hang out above his house there and nobody messes with them! Maybe them Elk are smarter than yer dumbass! I'd never of thought it, nor never hunted it until this guy told me.

 

[1_pointer]

Ron- Just curious, but how much of those units are private? I know an area in UT that averages 350 bulls and it has roads all over it. But, it's a private ranch and unless you draw it'll cost $15K to hunt elk there.

 

[Deerslayer]

Leftylock,......here's my take on it, for what it's worth. True, what you said about the wilderness and folks having trouble at times finding elk. But put it into perspective that the wilderness areas are usually huge ass places, and the number of hunters by percentage is a very small one, thus allowing the animals to easily avoid human contact most of the time. Just two weeks ago in the Gila.....Acon and I had trouble finding elk initially and we were 12 miles in and pretty much all alone. We soon discovered that the elk were no where near the established horse trails and in fact never saw one track in a trail the whole week. But if you were willing to scale straight up for close to an hour and reach one of the mesa's only accessible by foot, you found yourself in the mist of herds of elk acting like wild elk, rather than running for their lives and becoming mostly nocturnal as many near roads have learned to do.

There is much to be said by the saying that 90% of the elk are found in 10% of the habitat. It may all look the same,.....but it doesn't take long out there to figure out the elk do prefer certain areas in every habitat. Don't ever think that elk and deer don't have what they need to prosper in the backcountry just because of those that, by circumstance, find themselves taking advantage of an easy meal in a farmer's alfalfa field. There are no alfalfa fields in the wilderness, yet the bulls grow to over 400 inches and are consistently an impressive herd. Though finding them can sometimes resemble looking for a needle in a haystack, ......it is because the larger wilderness areas are so vast, but one of the key ingredients to both animal numbers and also their size is their survival. Animals in the backcountry have a great opportunity to age and reach their full potential. Comparatively, animals near roads could be said to run the gauntlet each year. I think it is a safe bet that the average age of bucks and bulls 10 miles or more in the wilderness would be greater than that of bucks and bulls within a couple of miles from a roadway. Add in the hunting pressure being considerably higher near roadways than in the backcountry, even factoring in other horsemen and guides, and that equates to hunting animals less pressured and more huntable.........the choice becomes a clear one for me. With the rare exception of an overlooked "honeyhole" near a road, you will always find me planning a hunt away from the hunter numbers and back in the natural settings of the backcountry. Time and resources are too valuable to waste them on less for me. True, there are some great bucks and bulls harvested near roads every year, but I attribute that to the fact that the number of hunters per area is so much greater and there are just a vast majority of animals harvested in such ares because of it that you will inevitable get some reall good ones. But factor in all the dinks and raghorns that fall there as well and I would imagine the odds of finding your trophy standing near the road would drop dramatically.....Just my .02....
DS

 

[JoseCuervo]

DS,

I think you area also hunting for a higher level of satisfaction than just filling tags within an 1/8 mile of the road, or being happy about roadkill whitetails next to the trailer. That is why you have a passion for it.

I have never heard a roadhunter who actually has a passion for the activity. Do you think Roadhunters spend June-August driving around their trucks, getting in shape for sitting???

S'pose the smell of the defroster in the Pick-up gets them fired up for hunting???

 

[Deerslayer]

ElkGunner....I like the last line in your signature!