Howdy,

Hope you're wintering well.  We recently wound up a pretty decent lion season and now I'm just doing a little dog training and equipment repair and refinement.  This is the first time things have slowed down much since deer season and it's given me a chance to take a look at my calendar...which I've discovered is alarmingly vacant for the 2009 bear and deer seasons!  I guess the current economic situation has folks hunkered up, watching and waiting. 

I want to do my part to save our country so it's my pleasure to unveil the new Buckshot Outfitting Economic Stimulus Package.  I feel that in conjunction with President Obama's $787 billion package, this is just what the country needs to get back on its feet.  President Obama himself was recently quoted as saying, "I want to sincerely thank the patriots at Buckshot Outfitting for their tireless efforts to improve our country's situation.  I sleep well at night knowing that Clint, Cherry and their loyal clients will be out there hunting hard and killing big bears and bucks." 

Thanks for the kind words, Barack.

The core of the B.O.E.S.P. is a 20% discount on all 2009 deer and bear hunts sold by May 1, 2009.  Just mention this e-mail when booking your hunt and we'll apply the discount.  You can also feel free to pass this along to any friends you think might be interested.

I currently have plenty of openings for spring bear in May and deer in November.  I also have some openings for lion next winter although the discount does not apply to the lion hunts.  Tags are also still available over the counter.  The Idaho Fish and Game is trying to get approval for a fee increase so if you know you'll be hunting in Idaho this year you may want to purchase licenses and tags asap to avoid the price hike.

Thanks for reading and if you have any questions just let me know.

Sincerely,

Clint Gray
Buckshot Outfitting
208-267-3885
www.buckshotoutfitting.com

Hello,

Today is the beginning of the application period for an Idaho moose tag.  You have until April 30th to complete the application.

Fish and Game has made some big changes to the moose seasons again.  For the past 2 years they had the tags divided up between 6 different 2-week long seasons.  This year they've changed that and have the majority of the tags in a long season from 9/15-12/1, with additional tags in an early season (10/1-10/14) and a late season (11/1-11/14).  The total number of tags remains very similar to past years.

 My outfitting territory includes parts of Units 1-1, 1-2, 1-4 and 2.  I would avoid the Unit 2 hunt simply because the hunting and odds of drawing a tag are better in the other areas.  All 3 areas in Unit 1 are excellent moose areas.  We live in Area 1-2 and 1-4 begins just 100 yards from here so they are the simplest to hunt logistically.  They give the most tags for 1-1 and it's only about a 45 minute drive.  Although 1-1 has the most tags the odds of drawing are generally a little lower there because it has received some positive press and there are more applicants.  If I were applying for a tag myself I would be equally happy with a tag in any of these areas. 

Trying to come up with a strategy for which hunt to apply for is tricky.  I'm pretty sure that drawing odds will be lowest for the long season because most local hunters would apply for that.  So you may want to avoid that unless you need all that flexibility on when you come.  I think there will be the fewest applicants in the early hunt because the hunting can be tough then if the weather is warm and all the leaves are still on the brush.  The moose would be rutting at that time which would help but we generally see more moose when we hunt later in the season.  The October hunt may be a good choice for archery though.  The short, late hunt is probably what I'd suggest.  I think it's the best time of the season to hunt and hopefully drawing odds won't be too bad.

If you want to apply for a cow tag your choices are much simpler: Area 1-1, hunt #3104 would be by far my first choice.  Area 2, hunt #3105 would be my second choice. 

As far as the mechanics of applying for a tag go, you must first purchase an Idaho hunting license and then you can apply for the tag.  The following link will take you to a page with the application worksheet as well as links to purchase the hunting license:  http://fishandgame.idaho.gov/apps/ch/apply.cfm The application deadline is April 30th.  Results of the draw will be out by at least June 10th, and usually it's considerably earlier than that.

Let me know if you have any questions and Good Luck!

Clint Gray
Buckshot Outfitting
208-267-3885
www.buckshotoutfitting.com

Howdy,

I just finished up the first week of lion hunting and now have a break over the holidays before the next one so figured I'd try to get everyone caught up.

A while back I mentioned that I was applying for an opportunity to be the outfitter on a mule deer trophy management area in southern Idaho and I've been anxiously awaiting the results of the Licensing Board's decision.  Yesterday I received a letter of rejection from them informing me that I was not selected.  That was disappointing but I have a hunch that it was one of those deals where they already knew who they were going to select before they announced the opportunity....but it was still worth a shot.

Since the last newsletter I sent out in early October we had another moose hunter and he killed a heckuva nice bull on the first day.  It's 40" wide which is good but doesn't tell the whole story.  He also had great palms, points and fronts, as well as long extra points growing straight out from the burr, which I've never seen before.  You'll be able to see them on the pictures I posted on my website.  The moose hunter also had an opportunity at a huge mule deer but we came up empty there.

Whitetail season was pretty disappointing.  There was little or no snow even in the high country which always makes for tough hunting here.  We did manage to take a few decent bucks and I've got those pictures on the website as well. 

The lion hunt we just finished went very well.  We had two hunters and they each got nice big toms.  One of them also took a good male bobcat that was one of the oldest I've ever seen based on the condition of his teeth.  The bobcat was fairly uncooperative in death forcing me to climb 35-40 feet up a huge cedar to dislodge him from the crotch of the tree he died in.  This winter I'm experimenting with using an atv with tracks in lieu of a snowmobile and so far I've been pretty happy with its performance.

I've recently had a couple cancellations on lion hunts for this winter and bear hunts next spring.  I'm going to hold off on filling the lion slots for a couple weeks until I've done some more hunting and have a feel for how many lions are around this year.  If I'm not having too much difficulty finding tracks then I'll go ahead and take one or two more hunters, otherwise I'll just leave them empty.  But if you talked with me about a lion hunt when I was booked full earlier, that situation may have changed so drop me a line if you're still interested.  I still have good availability for the spring bear hunts as well as deer next fall.

I finally got around to getting the photo gallery on the website caught up.  It now has the results of our hunts from last spring's bear hunts up through this most recent lion hunt.  The new pictures are the last couple on page 14 and all of page 15 of the photo gallery.

Thanks for reading and I wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Clint Gray
Buckshot Outfitting
208-267-3885
www.buckshotoutfitting.com

Howdy,
 
We're well into the fall now and I hope you've already had some good hunts.  I've had a last-minute cancellation on a whitetail deer hunt for the 3rd week of November.  Arrival would be 11/15 and departure 11/22.  This should be a very good week of whitetail hunting if you're interested and available.  There are still some nonresident whitetail deer tags left but they're going quickly so we'd need to get the ball rolling quickly if it's something you'd like to do.
 
We had a pretty decent bear season, killing 6 bears for 9 hunters with a few more missed opportunities.  It's been a busy summer and I still haven't gotten around to posting the most recent bear pictures on the website but I will eventually!  I'm about half booked for next spring now.
 
So far this fall we've just had a couple bear hunters and a moose hunter.  The bear hunters got to see quite a few bears, and they each did some shooting but still came up empty.  After a slow start on the moose hunt we really started getting into the bulls with a lot of calling and brush thrashing!  After passing on some small to mediocre bulls, missing a big one, and missing an opportunity at another big one we ended up settling for a meat bull on the morning of the last day.  Lots of good memories and a freezer full of meat.
 
Thanks for reading and if you have any questions just let me know.
 
Sincerely,
 
Clint Gray
Buckshot Outfitting
www.buckshotoutfitting.com
208-267-3885