Photo courtesy of xoospot.com

Gray wolves in the greater Yellowstone area of the northern Rocky Mountains, which would have been fair game for hunters in three states as a result of a federal government decision in March, were again put under the protections of the Endangered Species Act by a judge in Montana on Friday.

The action by the judge, Donald W. Molloy of Federal District Court, took the form of a preliminary injunction and could be reversed. But Judge Molloy’s language showed serious reservations about the Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to remove endangered species protections for the wolves.

Environmental groups, including Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club, which sued the Interior Department and the Fish and Wildlife Service on behalf of the wolves, persuaded Judge Molloy that there was a possibility of irreparable harm to the species if hunts had been allowed.

The states of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming; the National Rifle Association; and a variety of hunting and cattlemen’s associations intervened on the federal government’s behalf.

The judge said the decision by the Fish and Wildlife Service last year to approve Wyoming’s plans for maintaining just eight breeding pairs instead of the 15 the federal government once required was “problematic.” He added that the decision, which ran counter to the federal government’s earlier rejection of the Wyoming plan, “represents an agency change of course unsupported by adequate reasoning.”

Doug Honnold, the lawyer for Earthjustice, said in an e-mail message: “This is great news for wolves. All three states had plans to allow hunts this fall, 500 wolves were scheduled to be killed.” Spokesmen for the Interior Department could not be immediately reached for comment.

Eric Keszler, spokesman for the Wyoming Game and Fish Department said, “Obviously we are disappointed in the decision,” which he said had not yet been fully reviewed. “We’re confident that Wyoming’s wolf management plan is adequate to maintaining a recovered wolf population in the state.”

The fate of wolves has been the subject of bitter litigation since they were reintroduced to Yellowstone National Park in 1995.

Authored by Felicity Barringer of the NY Times, news broke this morning that Judge Molloy reversed the recent declassification of gray wolves by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  This not only means that hunters will not be able to harvest a sustainable number of wolves this upcoming fall, but more importantly, gray wolves will continue to increase population levels and pose an even greater threat to cut deeper into pockets of western big game herds, especially elk and moose, that live in close proximity to established wolf packs.

I do not post this article as an innocent bystander who is viewing a situation 2,000 miles across the country…  In 2003, I hiked the Bitteroot Mountain Range in western Montana during a 6 day archery elk hunt.  Unbelievably, we saw nearly as many elk killed and left to rot as we did living during the first few days of our hunt.  A pack of wolves had come through the area and on several occasions we could even see where wolf and prey tracks gouged deeply into the high-country roads just hours before we came through. 

Now, I do not think that the situation is as dire and widespread as some radical ‘wolves are worse than Satan’ groups would lead us to believe, but I also think that at 2,000 animals - the species has reached an acceptable level in the West that would now allow hunters to keep wolf numbers at a sustainable level…in turn allowing hammered pockets of elk and moose to rebound. 

It will be interesting to see how Judge Molloy makes his final ruling, but one thing is certain…you better not show up in elk camp this fall with a wolf hide stretched out across your saddlebags. 

By personal experience, I used BLM maps for my 2007 DIY mulie/antelope hunt in Wyoming. Knowing that we would be showing up well after the opening 10 days of the season had passed, the largest most accessible public land areas were sure to be hunted out. They sure were, we talked to numerous hunters who couldn’t find so much as a slickhead on many of the public land parcels, some of which were 20-30 square miles in size.

We didn’t have that problem though. I hesitate to share this tip because it worked so good for us, but you guys are my friends so…listen up. The smallest public land tracts produced the most deer sightings and buck sightings of anywhere we hunted. I’m not talking about 10 square mile tracts either. I’m talking 1 single unit - a square mile. 640 acres. Peanuts for Western hunting. The key was reading topo maps though. One particular honeyhole stood out to me. It was only half a section, meaning it was just 320 acres…but a ridge ran directly along the road parallel and screened the backside of the public tract from road hunters.

We parked the truck and made the STEEP 25 minute hike up the mountainous ridge and peeked over the edge. 3 pronghorn bucks within 500 yards and 4 mulie bucks were scaling the opposite ridge about 800 yards away, oh wait…there’s 6 does just 200 yards away. We dropped back off the ridge, scooted around and put the spotting scope on the bucks. Two yearlings, a 3×3, and a 4×3 about 19″ wide or so. He got the free pass, but only because it was our first day of hunting, but it shows how valuable such a small tract can be if the terrain is just right. Use the lay of the land to get away from the vast majority of other hunters in the West who will NOT leave their 4WD unless an animal is spotted out the window.

Trust me, this works. Spend the hours pouring over your topography maps months in advance and it can pay huge dividends when the game is on the line. Hope you enjoyed this mini-series on topographical maps… There is much more information you can glean from them, but I’ll stop here for now. Til tomorrow…

Now that you have some topographical maps spread out on your table, here are some of the basic things to look for…

First, each line represents a specific elevation.  Say a line is labeled 3200, this means that as you follow the line, you are really following the elevation 3200 around the lay of the land.  The tighter that contour lines are to each other, the steeper the terrain…and vice versa - well-spaced contour lines indicate flatter terrain.  You also need to pay attention to the ’scale’ of the contour lines.  Some maps are based on 20 ft. elevation changes, some 100 ft. or maybe some different unit of differentiation.  Usually every 5th or 10th line will be shaded darker to indicate a larger difference in elevation. 

Alright now to using the topo maps to your advantage…

#1 - If scouting for an early season mule deer, elk, or pronghorn hunt out West, you can find isolated water holes and creek drainages by looking in low spots for just a smidge of H2O.  The smaller they are, the more likely no one else knows about them, so pay attention to the finest details on the map.  You can verify these water features sometimes with aerial photos of the same area.

#2 - Ridges show up as fingers of tightly spaced contour lines, the more contour lines the higher the contour.  Certain ridges are great places to glass the surrounding landscape and early morning or evening ambushes can be made as deer round the points of ridges instead of going vertical to get where they are going.

#3 - Saddles.  I think this graphic can best describe a saddle. 

Saddles are low spots in the midst of a series of hills and ridges that offer the least path of resistance.  Ungulates are lazy animals when moving about undisturbed, and older bucks are the biggest couch potatoes of all.  A distinct saddle in an otherwise steep ridged terrain is certain to produce some traveling action. 

I’ll list one or two more uses for topo maps and a personal experience in tomorrow’s post, so tuned back in…But, I hope you begin to see the value that a $8 map purchased from our federal government can serve in your upcoming fall hunt.  They can give you that step up on the competition even if you are a couple thousand miles from where you will be hunting. 

Hopefully, you have drawn your coveted mule deer, elk, or trophy white-tailed deer permit and you are  about planning the finer details of your fall hunting trip.  One of the main questions you should be asking is “where in this HUGE unit am I going to hunt?”  That isn’t something you need to be deciding when you arrive the day before the shooting starts, but should be carefully thought out and planned months in advance.  For many of us, making a pre-scouting trip is not an option - too time consuming and too expensive.  But you can pre-scout your hunting unit and it doesn’t take anything more than a few colored pens, highlighter, and a sheet of paper on it with a bunch of lines.  That is where some people stumble?  How do I interpret all these lines?  Yes, topographical maps can be a little dull to pour over compared to aerial photos, but topo maps hold the key to a great hunt if you know how to use them.

The first step though is getting your hands on some maps…here is a list of links that should help you in your search…

BLM and Forest Service Topo Maps         This is the website I used for my Wyoming hunting trip and will not hesitate to use it again…up-to-date and detailed topos showing public hunting areas for all Western states

TopoZone    This website is a subscription service which provides topo maps for the entire United States.  If you instinctively shy away from this because of “subscription”, buy 3 or 4 BLM topos and you’ve already covered the fee for unlimited topos.

TerraServer         The interface is similar to Google Earth in that you can zoom in to whatever region of the United States you want and print the maps that you generate in the interface.  A great service that I’m sure many of our more serious hunters are familiar with.

USGS Topo Maps       This website has not only topographic maps that you can order, but also has some good articles about topographical symbols and reading the maps accurately. 

If you have a site that you think is noteworthy and has provided good services for yourself, send me a comment and I’ll post the link for the topographical map service. 

Well, I queued up the Eastman’s Western Antelope Safari DVD on my Netflix subscription and watched that yesterday.  The DVD has been around for several years, but I had never seen an exclusively pronghorn antelope hunting movie.  I would say it was worth the time to watch!  A good bit of the action was filmed on public land, with a few more hunts coming on outfitted land and landowner permit land in New Mexico.  One of the New Mexico bucks is a 15″ MASSIVE lope with 6-7″ cutters, once in a lifetime trophy and the biggest antelope I’ve ever seen harvested on DVD or TV shows alike.  In one segment, they show techniques for calling to rutting pronghorns, something I had heard about but never seen demonstrated.  All the kills were made with a rifle, although they do stalk some pronghorns with archery equipment but decide not to try a shot.  For anyone looking into a DIY antelope hunt, I would recommend getting your hands on this DVD, much of the action is filmed in Wyoming…where I went for my 2007 DIY mulie/pronghorn hunt and found their advice to be spot-on.  Good stalking tips too.  You can link to the Eastman’s shopping website and purchase a copy or Netflix also carries the DVD…enjoy!

Have you ever been belly crawling through sagebrush towards that classic western 4 by 4 mule deer only to be waken by your wife turning over in the bed? If you think a hunting trip out West is out of your price range or too complicated to plan by yourself, think again? I promise you can afford it with a few small sacrifices spread out over the year. Trust me, if I can afford to hunt out West, anybody can. I’m a graduate student who makes well below poverty level wages.

Plan ahead, plan everything - Hunting out west requires that you plan far in advance simply by virtue of having to draw your tag by applying in winter or early spring lotteries. I elected to hunt Wyoming for my first big DIY undertaking. I also chose Wyoming because it is a great place to tag a pronghorn and a mule deer. Secondly, plan EVERYTHING ahead. Hotels fill up in small western towns quick prior to hunting season, know where several deer processors are in the area (they fill their freezers to capacity quick and having several back-ups is necessary), decide if you want to fly and rent a car or drive from your hometown and back. The list goes on.

Give yourself enough time. Once you’ve made the investment to take the trip, don’t cheat yourself and only plan a 5 day round trip. Andrew (my roommate who had never been out West) and I took 10 days to make the trip. We drove from Raleigh, NC all the way to Sheridan, WY. 6 days of hunting were just enough to fill our tags without feeling that we were rushed. Granted we hunted the second week of hunting season and critters were obviously on red-hot alert, but you need the time cushion especially if you are looking for quality animals or hunting public land.

The deadline for Wyoming tag application deer/antelope is March 15. A mule deer and pronghorn tag will cost you about $500 combined. Make sure you apply for zones that are either overlapping for the species or within a short distance. Know what your draw odds are and call the Sheridan or Gillette game biologist to get an idea of how much public land is in the area. You can also obtain a list of landowner phone numbers from county chamber’s of commerce. These are people who allow you access to their land for a nominal (in comparison to a guided hunt fee) price. For mule deer, call landowners as soon in advance as possible because slots fill up fast. You can expect to spend from $100-$1000 for a mule deer. Don’t waste your money here. If you can get out hunting during the first week, you stand a great chance to tag a decent mulie buck on public land. Our strategy was to hike small parcels of public land having land features that blocked locals from road hunting. In other words, you had to get out of the truck to see what only a square mile of land had to offer. This paid off big, as we were on multiple bucks every day while locals were complaining all the bucks had already been pushed onto private land well into the second week. Now, Andrew had the lone mule deer tag (I didn’t draw mine) and he did kill his on private land. But we could’ve punched 6 or 8 tags on public land if we had them. Pick up detailed topo maps of your hunt areas at this website.

For pronghorn, I recommend (especially if you can’t make the trip until second week) lining up some private land from the landowner’s list. It might have just been our experience, but antelope were mighty scarce on public land in between Gillette and Sheridan. We heard that from other hunters in the area too. Fortunately, we had made arrangements with a 40,000 acre landowner 45 miles south of Gillette, and he had antelope….1000’s of them. There is two approaches to private land antelope. #1 - pay $275-$400 to hunt on a ranch with little pressure and bigger speed goats or #2 - pay as little as $75 and kill a 10-11″ goat. We took the first approach and it paid off handsomely. Even though the majority of his hunters had already came and hunted, he still had 3 remaining pastures that hadn’t seen a rifle that season. Hunting was fantastic. Easily saw 600 antelope in 2 days. Probably more.

Fly and rent a car OR drive? I would have to recommend driving all the way. 2 of us took turns driving for 33 hours and made it out in 2.5 days and back in the same. That didn’t affect us being tired during hunt either. Benefits: your gear will 100% be there when you’re ready to start hunting, familiar with the vehicle, no hassle getting meat and trophies and guns through the airport. Cons: if you break down it’s your problem, takes additional time to drive. Financially, we put $1000 of gasoline through the truck in 10 days, but we still came out $500 ahead of buying plane tickets and renting a 4WD vehicle.

Book your hotels for the road trip out and back before you go. Having an itinerary will help motivate you to push your driving to the limit and keep you on schedule. We never spent over $50/night for a hotel and stayed in Days Inn, Red Roof, or Super 8’s the whole time - no roach motels. Take the time to find the lowest rates.

Tips: pack a shotgun - small game hunting is phenomenal - 19 rabbits in 2 hours

Take a top quality pack frame backpack. They are way easier to carry long distances (8-10 mile hikes) and provide an awesome shooting rest.

GPS - necessity, 30 draws into a hike and everything starts to look the same

Don’t be afraid to make some noise in seemingly gameless public land. Partner up and send one guy through some buckbrush in the bottom of ravines, keep one guy high and on the lookout. Produced multiple buck sightings for us where we couldn’t glass up anything at all.

Have an up-to-date hunter’s safety card. You will get checked….at least once!

Be confident at long ranges. We killed our critters at 307 yards, 296, and 276 yards. Not easy pokes for eastern US hunters.

I could go on and on, but I’ll leave it at that. If you think this hunt may be for you, drop me an email at outdoorsmorgasbord@yahoo.com or leave me a comment and I can get you specific hunt information. Hope you enjoyed the pictures as well, I can’t wait to go back myself!