Hunting: A sport for the ages

At this time of year, the most frequent question we get at the Idaho Department of Fish and Game office is, "How is the hunting season going?"

Providing a well-supported answer during the season isn't really possible. Tallying hunter success and harvest numbers will not be completed for several months.

The best any of us can do when we talk to hunters or operate check stations now is provide some generalities and anecdotal comments about what we have heard from other hunters - or what we have seen for ourselves.

Hunters coming through a check station one day may bring numerous animals in and say they saw lots of deer and elk. The next day at the same check station we may see few animals and hear that deer and elk hunting was awful, but there was seemingly a moose behind every tree and a grouse on every limb.

For about 30 years, hunters were required to present every elk harvested in the Idaho Panhandle to a check station or IDFG office.

The mandatory check provided an ongoing "feel" for how the seasons were progressing. However, but because hunters could take several days before they reported harvests, even that information was not particularly current.

The mandatory check was eliminated several years ago and replaced by a mandatory harvest report for deer, elk and antelope hunters all over the state. The new process provides better data and applies over the entire state, but the information takes even longer to accumulate.

Despite the delay, the information received is more accurate and essential to the season setting process that begins in the late winter.

The check station summaries that are in so far show that in the Panhandle, hunters are reporting seeing a lot of moose, grouse and an explosion of turkey populations. The majority of hunters also said they saw more elk and deer sign than the past few years. The number that actually end up as meat on the table won't be known for several months.

The number of calves hunters have reported seeing has varied widely. Some hunters reported a lot of calves with groups of cows, while others reported few or no calves. One observation that has been consistent is that hunters saw a lot of spike elk.

Good spike numbers typically mean good overwinter calf survival through the previous winter.

Most deer taken in October in the Panhandle are incidental to elk hunting. Because most Panhandle hunters are focusing on elk in October, deer hunting success is gauged by what happens during the Nov. 1 to Dec. 1 part of the deer season. In other words, a low number of deer through the October check stations does not reflect the number of deer in the fields and forests and available to hunters.

One aspect of the season that every hunter has agreed upon is that the weather has been fantastic. I can't recall an elk season in the last 20 years where the weather has been more comfortable for hunting than this season.

A friend of mine from New Hampshire, Bruce Plummer, is here on his first elk hunt. Before he left home, I warned him that he needed to bring good raingear and waterproof boots. I told him that it typically starts raining the first week of October and doesn't stop for two or more weeks.

"Plan on miserable, wet weather," I said. I am happy to say I could not have been more wrong.

Bruce's hunting trip, and having all three of my sons back home to hunt, provided me the incentive to spend more time in the field hunting this fall than I have in the last several. While the accumulative harvest total is only one deer between us so far, it has been a blast and the experience memorable.

We have hunted the Coeur d'Alene area, spent some time in the steep St. Joe country, and have hit the thick brush and forests of the Coeur d'Alenes. We have seen lots of sign and had close encounters with elk in all three locations, but have yet to put an elk in the freezer.

The experience has reminded us of just how lucky a hunter needs to be to harvest an elk. Everything has to go right to even get the chance to take a shot when hunting in places where the longest view is rarely more than 50 yards.

In the Coeur d'Alene mountains, we were hunting in brush so thick that seeing 25 yards was uncommon. Yet, there was fresh elk sign every few steps on the forest game trails. At one point, Bruce and I both heard a bull elk grunting and walking just above us in some thick alders. We could see branches moving just 15 yards away but somehow the elk slipped out without actually being seen.

The last week has given me a reminder of just how special a place Idaho is.

At every turn in the road as we traveled to a new location, Bruce was commenting about how beautiful and special the state is. One mountain range after another, abundant wildlife and a wide range of recreational opportunities are all here to be enjoyed.

I can't count how many times I heard, "Stop ... I need a picture of this."

I think I am going to buy him an Idaho calendar and movie so we can get back to elk hunting.

Phil Cooper is the wildlife conservation educator at the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.