In my last article on record book mule deer research, I really focused on Colorado, which is head and shoulders above the other Rocky Mountain States in terms of recent and historical mule deer entries. This time, I’d like to go into a little more depth on New Mexico, Wyoming, and Idaho, which are the next three highest entry states (but even combined wouldn’t reach Colorado’s total). That’ll leave Arizona, Utah, Montana and Nevada for the next entry. I’ll leave the three Pacific states out of this series, and maybe save them for a blacktail article down the road. There’s so few mule deer entries from California, Oregon, Washington and Great Plains states like Kansas, Nebraska, the Dakotas, Texas and Oklahoma that you really can’t learn anything or find much for patterns that you didn’t already expect based on the species distribution.
A Canada Lynx was found in a legal trap for bobcats in Salmon-Challis National Forest, Idaho. A man walking his dog came upon the trapped lynx. He called the Idaho wildlife officials, who were able to release the lynx unharmed.
Idaho's last wolf season was in 2009, and 181 wolves were harvested. So far with no quota in the current season, 197 wolves have been killed.
Jackie Smith was hunting near Mullan, Idaho and was waiting patiently to fill her elk tag. When a turn of events brought her a shot at a lone wolf, she took it. A lone wolf had walked into the clearing where Smith had a clear shot. She pulled back on her bow, released it, and downed the wolf.
Over the last 25 years Betty Capaul has harvested 3 trophy bucks, and last year she got a cow elk. One thing she had not harvested that was on her list, was a bull elk. Despite having a bad knee, and needing replacement surgery Betty was determined to be out hunting this season.
For a little bit of a change of pace, let’s talk about moose hunting as a nonresident. Because I’m trying to focus on DIY hunts, I’m going to ignore Canada’s opportunities and resident-only hunts in the US. By limiting our scope to states that offer nonresident moose hunting we have just a handful of places to consider: Alaska, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Vermont, Maine and New Hampshire.
The Idaho Department of Fish and Game has seen a decrease of 3 million dollars since 2008. The marked decrease in revenue also shows a large decrease in non-resident hunters. The downturn of the economy has definitely sparked that loss, with less hunters traveling for their elk or deer harvests.
I could just title this article, “why Colorado is the best overall state for mule deer hunting," but since that won’t apply to trophy research for elk in future articles, let’s just go with Record Book Research. It had been a while since I last picked up a Boone and Crockett Record book, as my last edition was dated 1996 (Records of North American Elk and Mule Deer, 2nd edition). I was obviously way overdue, and looking at 50 year old records from the heyday of mule deer hunting just doesn’t really apply any more. Anyway, I did finally pick up the soon to be outdated 27th Big Game Awards book (2007-2009), which has the latest deer and elk entries, and wanted to share some of my findings and assumptions with you.
An elk that frequented the area near Townsend Gulch southwest of Bellevue, Idaho was shot the weekend of October 15th-16th. The elk had 7 points on each side. Poachers didn't even finish off the elk, they had left him injured after shooting him. Fish and game officers had to kill the injured animal. The meat will be donated to needy families, and the antlers have been taken by fish and game. Fish and game say this was a known trophy elk that lived in the area, and are asking for help with their investigation.
