Hunting and Fishing News & Blog Articles

As a resident of northwestern Wyoming I hear it all the time, “Man, I saw bears everywhere I hunted!” “There was more grizzly sign than elk sign in that unit.” “There is NO way there’s only 700 bears in the GYE!” 

It’s the same old song every year. Residents of the GYE (Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem) in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming have sworn for years that the estimated grizzly population is much too conservative and that there are up to as many as twice the estimated number of g-bears on the landscape. Well, it turns out that all those folks claiming a disparity were darn close to being spot on. 

A current population estimate now puts grizzly numbers around 1100 bears in the GYE. What changed? The counting method used by the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team in years past was purposely conservative to err on the side of caution when counting the recovering grizzly population. Past protocols granted sows and cubs a 30 kilometer distance between other sows and cubs. Current practice decreases that distance to 16 kilometers in order to gather a better estimate of bear numbers. The new protocols also take into account mortality rates, thus providing a much more accurate assessment of grizzly bear numbers. 

I’m sure that I’ll continue to hear tales of woe about bear ridden hunt units with nary an elk or deer to be found but at least now we have wildlife officials implementing an admittedly more accurate population estimate system. Perhaps this will lead to state management and a limited hunting season for the big bruins as we can prove that numbers have fully recovered and it’s time to implement the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation. 

I think it’s time to hunt these bears, how about you? 

Facing down one misdemeanor charge for each year of his life, Brayden Reed of Shepherd, MT is in up to his neck. 

“Brayden Reed has been charged with three counts of hunting without a license, three counts of hunting during a closed season, three counts of unlawful use of artificial light, three counts of waste of game, three counts of unlawful possession of game, two counts of killing over a bag limit and one count of hunting on private property without landowner permission.”

It seems that young Mr. Reed has a taste for backstraps and antlers but an aversion to lawful hunting methods and apparently the rest of the mule deer he left to rot at the Ahi-Nei Recreation area where he also illegally felled a tree and burned it while littering the ground with “beverage” cans, I will leave it to you to guess what kind of beverage cans. 

It does not appear that need was the motivation for this poaching spree. So what then? Boredom? Teenage angst? Lack of guidance? Ego? Whatever it was, this young man’s blatant disregard for lawful hunting and methods of take is, unfortunately, all too common. We see the proof of this in the number of poaching cases streaming across our news feeds on a weekly basis. 

What’s the answer? 

This bow review features the Mathews V3X. This bow has 3 new features that set it apart from the V3.The Bridge-Lock Sight system and a sleek new Lower quiver design provides better balance than ever. You can even make easy adjusts at home or in the field without a bow press! The new Stay Afield System allows you to quickly and easily remove or repair strings and cables no matter where you are. Dan Pickar also speed tests this bow with a chronograph.

The post Mathews V3X Review 29 & 33 – 2022 Bows appeared first on Eastmans' Official Blog | Mule Deer, Antelope, Elk Hunting and Bowhunting Magazine | Eastmans' Hunting Journals.

Recently, the director of Montana FWP informed wildlife managers that the state is moving away from shoulder seasons and will begin calling them early and late antlerless elk seasons. Shoulder seasons began in 2016 as an experimental season with the intent of curbing rising elk populations in areas that are over objective. The consensus is that shoulder seasons don’t work. This has been proven the case in over half the areas with shoulder seasons as elk populations have stayed the same, if not grown, because of the lack of antlerless harvest. This is largely due to hunting units that have a lot of private land and landowners not allowing access. 

Shoulder seasons were supposed to be a three-year trial which turned into a permanent situation even though the criteria were not met. The obvious consensus is that shoulder seasons can be effective if the majority of hunters have access to a majority of the district. For shoulder seasons to work, hunters must harvest at least half of the cow elk during the regular season to equal half the female offspring born that year in the district. Districts that have very difficult access because of private land end up being sanctuaries for elk herds if they are not being hunted and do not leave these private safety grounds, in which it is impossible to meet harvest objectives.

The new proposal will suggest that both public and private land can be used during early and late seasons and instead of extending the season until Feb. 15 like the past few years, the late season would be shortened to just three weeks after the general season closes. The current FWP director, Greg Lemon thinks that with these early and late seasons on public and private land, we will see increased harvest in areas that are over objective. 

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Hunt elk in the rut with Eastmans’ Hunting Journals’ hunt winner Dann Miller and Guy Eastman. This episode of Eastmans’ Hunting TV is packed with elk bugling action! With two big 350-class bulls working in close, which one will Dann close the deal on?

The post Hunting the Elk Rut – BIG Colorado Bulls appeared first on Eastmans' Official Blog | Mule Deer, Antelope, Elk Hunting and Bowhunting Magazine | Eastmans' Hunting Journals.

Man! I hope this happens this time. This 20-year dance of proving the recovery of grizzlies in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem (GYE) needs to see these critters delisted from the overreaching Endangered Species Act (ESA).

“It was on Sept. 16 that Gov. Mark Gordon and Wyoming Game and Fish Department Director Brian Nesvik gathered in the Governor’s Ceremonial Room in the State Capitol to announce the planned petition. They noted that the state has invested 46 years and more than $52 million in conserving the species.”

The region’s grizzly bears have been listed as a threatened species since 1975, when as few as 136 bears roamed the area. The population has since rebounded to more than 1,000 animals.

“Grizzlies are moving well beyond areas where the bears can exist, causing loss of human life, damage to livestock, and eroding public support for the recovery of this iconic and important species,” the Republican senators wrote in their letter. “Clearly, this is not good for either public safety or the welfare of the animal.”

The protections and measures put in place over the years have more than recovered this species and it is just plain wrong not to delist them. Put the political posturing aside and get this done!

This knife review features Outdoor Edge’s RazorSafe series of replaceable blade hunting knives. These knives were purpose built for hunters by a hunter. The Eastmans’ Hunting Journals crew has relied on these knives for over a decade and haven’t been disappointed. From elk, deer, moose, antelope and beyond the sharp, quality knives produced by Outdoor Edge have gotten the job done in the field and at home.

The post Outdoor Edge Knife Review – Replaceable Blade Hunting Knives appeared first on Eastmans' Official Blog | Mule Deer, Antelope, Elk Hunting and Bowhunting Magazine | Eastmans' Hunting Journals.

When I use the word “rockstar” I don’t think of grizzly bears. In fact, that is the last thing I think of. But if we step back to yesteryear when hair bands ruled the airwaves and their wild partying was the stuff of legends maybe “rockstar” is the appropriate title to give to a grizzly bear that feeds its four offspring from the trash of high end Jackson Hole neighborhoods. Or teaching it’s Cubs that beehives are an appropriate delicacy for their entitled, endangered lives. Much like the rock stars who trashed hotel rooms these bears are certainly crashing the party in Jackson Hole. Even better is that 399 has her own twitter feed and instagram accounts documenting her life. How she manages to run those accounts without opposable thumbs is rather curious. Maybe she employs social media strategists?

Even though the sarcasm is strong in this article, the humanization of animals has done far more to harm animals than help. I mean what is the difference between a rockstar bear and Axl Rose misbehaving? The difference is, the bears are just being themselves and will do what is necessary for survival. She is an aged bear who at this juncture has one goal and that is to live a little longer and make sure her cubs survive after they leave her. Rockstars on the other hand knew better but did it anyway because you know, their reputations and ego needed it. Bear 399 is doing her best to ensure the survival of her cubs but is in turn putting them in future jeopardy. Bears will be bears and just being herself, 399 may end up putting her entire Motley Crue in the crosshairs. 

How is she putting them in danger you ask? She is teaching them not to fear humans and in turn that a trash dumpster filled with all kinds of goodies with a side of beehive honey fresh off the comb is a good choice. In reality this is a very bad choice for the famous bear. The end result, in late October those behaviors turned into multiple agencies having to “harass” her to leave Jackson and push her away from potential areas of conflict. The bigger problem is that she is teaching four more bears to do the same and at some point this will result in conflict, at a minimum, injury and at worst, death for someone living or visiting Jackson and the bears being euthanized for their behavior. 

This is where her status as a “rockstar” gets complicated. A bear doesn’t operate like a human, we can’t put her in bear jail or rehab. Once habits are formed it is nearly impossible to end them. The worst part is that someone likely fed her and taught her the behavior. This ends in 399 and the cubs meeting an early demise or being moved with another strike against her name for “bad” behavior.

Therein lies an even bigger issue, she has a rap sheet a mile long. This isn’t the first time that she has been escorted away from human dwellings and development, in fact it may be as many as 10 times. Is 399 getting a bit more grace than the usual three strike rule that most grizzly bears get? My gut says probably, would you want to be the person who takes the “rockstar” in for the death sentence? I know I wouldn’t and honestly I feel for the agencies that are having to deal with this mess, it isn’t pretty.

Bighorn sheep are such an iconic species out West and tens of thousands of hunters want to hunt them each year, yet few get to due to the bighorn’s limited range and population densities.

With the ever encroaching and expanding human population out West, especially after the craziness of the 2020 events in the country, further wildlife-human conflicts occur, even in places where you wouldn’t expect them.

Most high mountain wildlife species migrate down-country to lower elevations and milder weather when winter hits the higher elevations. A subpopulation of bighorn sheep in the Teton Range in western Wyoming is one of the exceptions to that rule. 

“The sheep eke out a living in the winter on nubs of dried grass and flowers near backcountry ski routes cherished by locals” according to Wyofile.com. “The Teton Range herd shuffles slightly up to the sides of peaks in the winter where wind scours away the snow, exposing nubs of vegetation.”

“Every time the wary sheep see something — or someone — approach, they retreat, burning precious calories and abandoning valuable winter range, researchers say.”

Arizona Game and Fish Department is offering a lifetime bonus point as a reward for completion of its Ethically Hunting Arizona course. The course is designed to teach the following…

The cost of the discretionary course is $150 for Arizona residents and $300 for nonresidents. All students have two chances to pass the course with a minimum score of 80%. 

For more information: 

https://www.azgfd.com/new-course-allows-hunters-to-earn-lifetime-bonus-point/

This review features the 2022  Mathews Archery V3X bow. Bow hunter Dan Pickar unboxes this new bow and shares his first impressions before setting it up for a late season whitetail bow hunt. Full detailed review on this bow coming soon!

The post NEW Mathews V3X Bow – Dan’s First Impressions appeared first on Eastmans' Official Blog | Mule Deer, Antelope, Elk Hunting and Bowhunting Magazine | Eastmans' Hunting Journals.

Hunting the mule deer rut is exciting! Shooting a big buck on a general season license is even better. Join Eastmans’ Hunting Journals staffer Adam Bender on an over-the-counter November mule deer hunt on this web episode of Eastman’s Hunting TV.

The post Hunting the Mule Deer Rut – OTC Trophy Buck! appeared first on Eastmans' Official Blog | Mule Deer, Antelope, Elk Hunting and Bowhunting Magazine | Eastmans' Hunting Journals.

“This disease has now been identified in most deer hunt areas across Wyoming and necessitates a shift in focus of the program from detection to monitoring.”

https://oilcity.news/wyoming/outdoors/2021/11/08/hunters-submit-over-4800-samples-valuable-to-wyoming-game-and-fish-chronic-wasting-disease-surveillance/

The fact that CWD has been identified in “most deer hunt areas across Wyoming”, is disturbing to say the least. It also tells me that it’s been there for a lot longer than we’d like to admit. I for one have my doubts about it being a new disease. I have a hunch that it’s been around for a very long time and is now being found thanks to increased searching. We all know that if you go looking for trouble, you’re probably going to find it and I’m leaning on that being the case with CWD. 

I will go out even further on a limb and posit the theory that CWD is a slippery slope. One where we can slide from detection to monitoring to eradication programs all too quickly and if the past couple of years has shown us anything at all, it’s that nothing can be ruled out or taken for granted. 

I am exceedingly grateful that the Wyoming Game and Fish Department seems to be taking cautious steps with this as the draft of the CWD management plan that I read last year was incredibly alarming and other states have already thrown the fawn out with the bathwater. I would also encourage you to do your part in submitting CWD samples as the more knowledge we have in this fight the better armed we can be to stem this seemingly dismal tide. 

Both of the past two seasons Utah’s OTC elk permits have sold out in a matter of hours. This has caused a panic and much grumbling among the citizenry, who heretofore could easily obtain an OTC tag for weeks after they were released. It has also prompted Utah wildlife officials to move the formerly “first come, first serve” elk permits to a drawing format. Uh oh? 

The reason I post that last phrase as a question is I honestly have no idea how the residents of Utah will feel about this “one year trial period” draw system. 

Within that one year, 2022, the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources will assess the pros and cons of each system before coming to a conclusion that will hopefully fix the woes of customers in the past two seasons. It appears that massive change is on the horizon for Utah elk hunters.

I would love to hear my southwestern neighbor’s opinions on this matter! Don’t hold back. 

For more information:

GUEST AUTHOR: Scott Salmon

“Sarcocystosis is a disease caused by a parasite called Sarcocystis. There are numerous species of Sarcocystis. This disease usually affects animals but also can also cause disease in humans.” https://www.cdc.gov/parasites/sarcocystosis/faqs.html

2021 was the year I had planned to use my Wyoming elk points. I had 6 points and planned to put in as partners with my hunting buddy Brian. With a 3 point average we were pretty confident we would draw. Once results came out we saw we were given a general elk tag in Wyoming. Now with tags in our pockets we began to look at units to hunt. We looked at seasons, hunt success, and dates.  Once we compiled the data we determined we would do a rifle hunt in October in a unit that had a success in the 30% range. Brian and I began looking at maps, contacting biologists, and researching anyway we could. 

As time became close, our excitement grew. We planned on driving into the unit three days before the season opened and scout the areas we had picked out on our maps. With bags packed and gear ready we met up for the 17 hour drive and headed out. We split the drive into two days and hoped to get there early afternoon on day two to set up camp. The next morning we drove to a trailhead and hiked in to scout. Once into the drainage a few miles we started seeing elk and by afternoon we knew this was definitely a good area to be on the opener. That morning we had seen multiple bulls and heard other bulls bulging in the timber. 

This review features onX hunt’s crop layer and how to use it to expand your hunting opportunities. Brandon Mason breaks down how he uses the crop layer to take advantage of public land that borders agricultural areas. It’s a powerful tool for big game and bird hunters alike.

The post onX hunt Review – Using the Crop Layer for Hunting appeared first on Eastmans' Official Blog | Mule Deer, Antelope, Elk Hunting and Bowhunting Magazine | Eastmans' Hunting Journals.

Four black bear kills packed into one hunting video on this web exclusive hunt from Eastmans’ Hunting Journals. Bear hunting is an important tool for conservation of deer, elk and other wildlife. Elk calves and deer fawns are easy targets for hungry bears in the spring. One bear can eat as many as twenty elk calves in 30 days!

The post CRAZY Bear Hunt! 3 bears in one night! appeared first on Eastmans' Official Blog | Mule Deer, Antelope, Elk Hunting and Bowhunting Magazine | Eastmans' Hunting Journals.

“Talk of your cold! through the parka’s fold it stabbed like a driven nail.

If our eyes we’d close, then the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn’t see;

It wasn’t much fun…” The Cremation of Sam McGee – Robert W. Service

Snow, ice, sub-freezing temperatures, bleak landscapes seemingly void of life… what’s not to love about late-season big game hunts. Now before all you snowbirds who fly South to chase Coues’ deer or rutting mulies in the deserts of the southwest begin to gloat please understand what I’m talking about here are the November, December and even January  hunts for deer, elk, goats and sheep  in the northern reaches of the West where venturing out to pursue big game this time of year demands a stoic determination bonded with an iron will because there are no other hunts that will test a big game hunter’s mettle more than these, where conditions can be downright life threatening. 

Late-season big game hunts are risky propositions. There are a wagon-load of variables stacked against the hunter; extreme cold, deep snow, migrating animals and limited tags all stack up a wall of difficulty for hunters to overcome. Some of these hunts are very limited, there just aren’t an awful lot of tags given out for them. As an example, in our neck of the mountains there are several late bull elk hunts that are meant to capitalize on the late migrating giant bulls of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. These hunts are no secret but drawing one of the highly coveted and very elusive tags is difficult at best. However, drawing the tag is only the first step down the difficult path of tagging one of these late-season bulls. 

I will say environmental extremists have tenacity and rarely give up even after being defeated time and time again. The same holds true for Footloose Montana, a radical anti-trapping and hunting organization based in Missoula, Montana that is funded by foreign money. They have been attempting to ban the trapping culture in Montana for more than 20 years and failing miserably. I remember when I was going to school at U of M in Missoula, they had a proposal on the ballot that thankfully failed miserably back in 2008 or so. Here we are over a decade later and they are still at it. 

Now they are petitioning the federal government for a 5 mile buffer zone around Yellowstone, Grand Teton, and all four national forests that are adjacent to the park as a wolf safe zone. This proposed ban was submitted just a couple weeks after three wolves were killed just outside the park on private land that were once part of an established pack in Yellowstone. “This insanity of allowing the slaughter of national park wolves and endangering the public was enabled by Governor Gianforte and our legislature must be stopped by the federal government,” said Stephen Capra, executive director of Footloose Montana. 

This is typical rhetoric from individuals that are completely ignorant of the North American Model of Wildlife Conservation and refuse to be educated. Instead, they base their decisions off of emotion and refusal of facts. These types of extremists cite that wolves are a huge economic resource to the region and shooting them puts the general public at risk. I would argue that I am interested in seeing elk in the Park and not wolves. Park officials introduced wolves into the Park as an experiment in 1995, and decided to completely bypass public opinion in doing so. As a result, there are very few deer and elk that live inside and migrate out of the Park any more. Footloose Montana and other special interest extremists that are proponents of this buffer zone only care about wolves and no other wildlife. That is pretty sad if you ask me. Why is that?

For this 5 mile buffer proposal to be considered it will need support from several federal officials. From the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Secretary of Interior, Director of the National Park Service, and Chief of the Forest Service among others. This will be another attempt to bypass science and go straight to politics in an attempt to get their way. I encourage everyone to go to the Footloose Montana website and leave them a comment of disapproval for this new proposal and that they should instead stick with the science and real management that we finally have on wolves in Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming. 

Over the past twenty years, Montana’s elk population has seen quite the shift from large declines in the western part of the state to large population increases in the central and eastern part of the state. Here lies the problem. The western part of the state is largely public land. The central and eastern parts of the state are mostly private land. This makes managing elk populations very difficult. Montana has yet to find a solution that works where everyone is happy. The revised elk management plan in 2017 greatly lowered elk population objectives for the state largely because of the shift of population centers of elk and landowner tolerance of them. Management objectives are down in the 90,000s state wide, a huge decrease from past objectives for the state of Montana. Herd counts for the state are estimated to be 136,000 which is down from highs of 176,000 in 2017.  

The political climate in Montana has shifted this past election cycle and there has been more and more talk and push for landowner tags and more landowner privilege for managing elk on private property. This is where some very debatable topics have come up, like protecting the public land hunter and preventing hunting in Montana from becoming a “rich man’s sport” while also keeping landowners happy with having elk on their property. A large portion of landowners won’t allow public access to shoot elk for free. There has been some horse trading going on in this state which is sending management down the direction of landowner tags like Colorado and Utah. A high-profile ranch owned by the Wilkes Brothers has been the spotlight of some of the first landowner tag allocations. The new statute will allow landowners to get free elk tags but will require them to also allow some public hunters to access their property and shoot elk. Talks on the specifics fizzled in prior months so we are yet to know exact details of what will happen. The Wilkes have let up to 300 cow hunters in the past access and harvest cow elk but there is no access for hunting bulls. 

Time will tell what develops but the debate will continue. Is Montana headed down the path of Utah and Colorado with re-salable landowner tags or should the Block Management Program be revamped or other deals be made with landowners? Should landowners be given a bigger incentive from the state to let public hunters on to harvest elk that they are complaining about? 

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