I Got Lucky!

Well, the results for the 2009 Wyoming Non-resident Elk license drawing were posted online today, and I was drawn for a general tag for the second year in a row!!

Since I drew last year I wasn't able to buy a preference point, and based on last years drawing my odds of getting drawn were around 15% so I'm pretty excited. I'm not sure if fewer people applied this year due to the economy, or if I just got lucky, or a little bit of both, but I'm not complaining!

More than likely we'll go ahead and hunt the early season in September like we did last year. Since I was lucky enough to shoot a decent bull last year on my first day out, I'll probably get skunked this year, but it should be fun anyway.

Maybe I'll get REALLY lucky and connect on a big bull like the one that an outfitter took out of the same area we were hunting just the day after we spent the entire day camped out in the bottom of the canyon. We were less than a mile away the morning they got this bull, and heard him bugle and then heard the shot. We were hoping it wasn't the big one, but it was. The area where we were hunting is so thick that we had this bull at only a couple hundred yards twice the day before but never did see him. They are using this picture for their main photo on their outfitting website now.




Okay, I doubt I'll get that lucky but who knows! We saw the bull in person after they packed it out, and it looked to be about a 360" bull. It made my 245" 5X5 bull that I shot on the first morning look pretty dinky, but I was still proud of it for my first real attempt at elk hunting. If I shot a bull like that I would probably quit hunting!

Nothing else too exciting. Really busy at work. Hopefully I'll get to go hog hunting next weekend but nothing for sure yet.

Update - They already have this years drawing odds posted. There were 2,381 applicants who put down the general license as their first choice with no preference points, and there were 551 licenses available for an overall drawing odds of 23%. A little better than the 15% odds from 2008, but I was still pretty lucky to get drawn!

Title.

I was having problems coming up with a title for this post so I decided to just punt and skip that part!

Things have been pretty busy at work, I've been out of town the last 3 weeks, but I'll be home for a few weeks in a row now so that's good.

Our friends from Wyoming were down here the first week of February and we had a good time visiting them and Eli got spoiled quite a bit. I took Mike and Zeke down to the land last Friday, but I held true to form and didn't get them lined out on anything. If I charged for my guiding service I would probably have a few upset customers, but feral hogs just aren't very predictable and it seems that everyone only has 1 night to spend hunting them and it always turns out to be the wrong night.

Thinking back on my guiding services, I've had my brother-in-law out twice and although we saw deer both times, we didn't see a deer that I wanted them to shoot and we saw some pigs once, but not within shooting range. I've had my friend Mike down 3 times now and we've seen plenty of deer, but he is never here during deer season and we've struck out every time on pigs. My niece came down once and we also saw deer but no pigs. The only time I've had someone down to pig hunt that we actually got one was my friend Greg and his son Garrett and his friend Nathan. We had a whole slew of pigs come in that time. So when I've been guiding other hunters they've only connected 1 time out of 7 attempts. Not a very good track record. I do think that if folks were willing to spend 2 or 3 days down there their odds for success would increase dramatically though.

Speaking of which, I may have a deal lined up where I'll be trading a hog hunt for a mule deer hunt in Eastern New Mexico. I have some friends there that seem to have a pretty good track record of connecting on some nice mule deer each year and their son really wants to shoot some hogs. It's all tenative right now but it looks like they might come down in May or June to hog hunt and I may get to go mule deer hunting next fall.

Oh well, nothing too exciting on the trail cameras. I did get a couple more pictures of a bobcat though. I'm amazed at all the bobcat pictures I've been getting. Not the best picture, but you can tell this cat has some pretty good spots.

Even though I trapped 19 raccoons in 2008 I still am getting pictures of raccoons. I got 3 in one picture at the protein feeder.

This boar hog looks like he has some pretty good tusks.

Here's what we would have liked to see on the 6th but it looks like they were there a few days early. They seem to be roaming quite far right now, sometimes I'm going almost a week between pictures of this big sounder.

I think this guy will be at the top of my hit list for next year. He looks good on the left side, but his right side was all broken up this year. I'm pretty sure he is 3 1/2 this year so if he is around next year he should be big enough that he'll be the one breaking the antlers on the other deer instead of the other way around this year. He's not as predictable as the tall 8 point right now, hopefully he'll get into a good routine and stick around until hunting season.

It looks like I'll be back down there in a couple weeks to check on things and might get a chance to try to line another guy up on some pigs then. We'll see how that works out.

I think that's about it for now. Nathan

Taunting!

Well, I was really hoping to catch a bobcat over the holidays this past year but it didn't work out.

I pulled the cards on my game cameras last weekend and got some pictures of a bobcat taunting me. You can see some of the traps that I had set out for raccoons in the forefront of the first picture. I had a bobcat set about 10 yards to the right of the camera in the this picture that he was walking toward but I guess he didn't like it enough to stick his foot in the trap!


Not sure if this is the same cat or not. I had pulled the traps by the time this picture was taken, but I had a trap about 30 yards to the right of this location too. That is the trap that kept getting clogged up catching 2 possums and a porcupine.

Here's a cropped close up picture of the bobcat in that second picture. Not the best picture but it looks like it has some spots anyway.

I guess that just means there will be more of them out there next year to catch!

I got a few pictures of some deer as well, but nothing too exciting. Still getting a lot of pictures of the tall young 8 pointer. He seems to spend most of his time on my property. It is going to be a tough call next year if I see him whether I will shoot him or not. He should be pushing Pope & Young minimum next year as a 3 1/2 year old but if he makes it to 4 1/2 he could be a REALLY nice buck. Of course if I don't shoot him next year someone else might so it is going to be a tough call for sure. And that is a big "IF" I see him next year during the season. Lots of time to pass before that happens.
I did get some pictures of a 3 1/2 year old this year after the season was over but he seems pretty sporadic. I got a few pictures of him during the season but it seems like he is only around every 2 or 3 weeks. He had a couple tines broken off this year by the end of the season, but maybe next year he will be the dominant buck and not get so broken up.
I think that's about it for now. Nathan

TRAPPED my first coyote!!!

Well I went back to my last post and edited the title from "Trapped" my first coyote, to "Caught" my first coyote, because for some reason catching one in a snare just didn't seem the same as if I had caught it in a foot hold trap.

And, because now I caught one in a trap!!

I have a few traps set about 400 yards away from the house where I've seen coyotes in the past. You can see our house in the background of this picture. I was able to look out through the upstairs window with my binoculars this morning and see that I had a coyote in the trap! I was pretty excited.

The coyote wasn't a giant by any means but it was an average sized coyote and it was really pretty and since it was my first coyote caught in a trap I decided that I was going to have it tanned. I took it to the taxidermist to skin it and he is going to send it off to be garment tanned and although it will take up to 7 months, it should come back very soft and it should last a lifetime that way. Here is a picture of me holding it in the backyard. I'm 6'2" and 225lbs for reference to size.

I'm actually out of town right now, but I'll be back home tomorrow evening. Things are starting to get busy at work so I'll probably be a little slow again on posting for awhile.

That's about it for now. Nathan

Caught my first coyote!

Well, I went down to pull my traps today and was pretty discouraged. I pulled all the traps and didn't catch anything for the 3rd check in a row. I was getting ready to go home and remembered that I had a couple of snares set that I had forgot to pull up so I went to get them and what do you know! I had caught a coyote!

Here is a picture of the snare from when I set it.

It really doesn't look like a coyote would try to go through there, but they do. Not sure if they just don't see the snare or if they think they can go through it without it closing or what but I guess it works.

Not sure when I'll get back down to the land, I might still go quail hunting sometime before the season ends the first part of February but no plans anytime soon.

That's about it for now.

Nathan

They call it trapping for a reason....

Wait, that doesn't make as much sense as "They call it hunting for a reason..." or "They call it fishing for a reason..."

Maybe it should be called "Setting" rather than trapping because I sure have set a lot of traps compared to the number of animals that I've caught in them.

I was really hoping to catch a bobcat over the christmas holidays but it is not looking very promising so far. I set 3 traps out specifically for bobcats and 3 traps out specifically for coyotes and they've been out for 9 nights now and I haven't caught a bobcat or a coyote yet. I did catch 2 possums, a porcupine and a piglet in the traps I set for bobcats, but I haven't caught anything in the traps I set for coyotes. I set 12 traps out for raccoons and I have caught 3 raccoons and 1 skunk in those traps but that is still a pretty poor success rate. I have made a serious dent in the raccoon population on my land though, those 3 bring my total to 19 raccoons trapped on 160 acres within a 12 month period! Trapping the possums should be really good for the ground nesting birds as well, I really have noticed an increase in the quail population from last year, I'm thinking that trapping all those raccoons last spring really did some good.

Here's a picture of the possum that I trapped playing possum. I'd always heard that expression but it really is true. I thought that it had somehow died in the trap until I got right up next to it and it opened it's eyes and looked at me! I'm glad I hadn't reached down and tried to get it out of the trap because they have some pretty sharp looking teeth!

One of the traps that I set for coyotes is right in front of one of my trail cameras where I had gotten videos of coyotes and bobcats in the past. Here's a picture of the trap set. It is called a dirt hole set where you dig a hole and set the trap in front of the hole and the animal is supposed to go look or dig in the hole to get the bait or lure that you place in it and step in the trap.

Here's a vidoe clip of me adding some lure to the hole behind the trap to give you a good idea of the trap location.

And then here is the video that made me sick to my stomach. A bobcat came within about a foot of stepping in the trap but then changed it's mind and walked away!

I had a clip of a coyote checking it out as well but that didn't bother me as much as missing the bobcat. I've been reading on a trapping bulletin board but I guess I still have some learning to do on getting them to commit that one extra step!

That's about it for now. I still have the traps out and plan on pulling them over the new years holiday. The last couple times I've checked them they have all been empty so I'm not too optimistic about the next few days but who knows?

That's about it for now.

Nathan

Merry Christmas!!

Ho! Ho! Ho!

Well, Eli still isn't sure about Santa.

The other day we went to go to a free Santa that they had gone to last year but there was a mix up and Santa wasn't there. So on Tuesday we headed to the Mall and stood in line to get a picture taken with Santa. Everything seemed fine until the kid in front of us cried really hard and Eli just wasn't sure about the whole thing. Cathy ended up sitting beside Santa and held Eli and we were able to crop Cathy out of the picture and it almost looks like Eli was enjoying himself!

But if you look at the true sequence of pictures you get the true story of Christmas!


Eli got a John Deere pedal tractor for his big present and he seems to like it quite a bit although it is a little too big for him to actually make it go with the pedals right now.


I've been out and checked on my traps twice and caught 2 possums, a skunk, a raccoon and about a 15lb piglet but no bobcats or coyotes. Maybe Santa left me a bobcat in a trap for Christmas last night!