Howdy Everyone,

We just wrapped up deer season and I've been busy running meat, capes and horns around, as well as trying to sort through pictures and get the website caught up.  I've just finished that so I figured it was time to let you all know what was happening before I got busy cat hunting.  Hope you've all had fun and productive falls. 

I guess the first item of interest would be the moose hunts.  We had 3 moose hunters this year, all in unit 1-1.  Mark from Wisconsin was the first and he's a dedicated bowhunter which obviously meant getting close.  We decided to hunt the last week in September to capitalize on the rut although for a rifle hunt I prefer to forego most of the rut and hunt later when we've got some cold weather and better visibility with the leaves off.  We hunted hard in some ridiculously hot weather and managed to turn up a fair number of moose.  We had some excitement and had 4 bulls in archery range but never the one Mark was looking to tie his tag to. 

Pat from Minnesota arrived for his moose hunt the last week of October and in the first hour of the first morning we saw 3 or 4 bulls, including one of the caliber we were looking for.  After an exciting stalk and some tough offhand shooting Pat had his trophy 42" Shiras bull.  That was definitely the end of the fun stuff...we spent the rest of that day and a good part of the next getting the bull out of the woods.  

Next Scott from Pennsylvania arrived for the first week of November.  We started off in great style, seeing 37 moose in the first day and a half, including a few bulls that were definite possibilities.  Then some weather moved in and sat on us for the remainder of the hunt.  I've never seen the likes of it, the fog was insanely thick and wouldn't clear out for even part of the day.  So we searched for moose with 20-30 yard visibility which obviously put a damper on the moose sightings.  We still managed to see a few moose each day but nothing like we should have been able to.  Finally on the 6th day (second to last day) first light found us parked in a good moose area futilely hoping that the fog would at last lift so we could continue up the road to some of our glassing areas.  As we sat there waiting we heard a cow call down in the brush and a few minutes after that we could hear antlers rubbing on brush.  We slipped down to the vicinity the noises were coming from and saw nothing due to the extremely thick blanket of fog.  With nothing to lose I tried some cow calls and bull grunts and soon we were talking with a bull.  As we focused on the direction he was coming from a young bull slipped up to within 20 yards of us.  I don't know how long he'd been standing there before I happened to look in his direction.  He stood and watched us for several minutes before deciding we weren't what he was looking for.  Meanwhile the other bull had finally worked up to where he was right at the fringe of our visibility through the fog.  We could tell he had good doubles on the front and at least decent paddles but we couldn't tell much else.  In the fog and brush there wasn't an opportunity to shoot and when he decided to leave he disappeared into the fog with one step.  We circled around and caught him again in a skid trail and Scott got a bullet into him.  Then ensued sort of a running battle through the fog as Scott's lever action rifle gave him a lesson on each of its 4 or 5 different independent safeties.  Finally that got all sorted out and Scott was able to anchor the bull with his last shot (he only fired the two times but did leave a trail of unfired shells along the way as he worked the action and tried to problem solve while chasing the bull through the fog and rain).  Anyway, it turned out to be a very decent bull, not the monster we were both hoping for but given the conditions he was happy and so was I.

The last 3 weeks of November were spent chasing whitetails and it was a very productive season.  The big bucks started falling on November 15th and just kept coming until our last hunter tagged out on the morning of the 29th.  We ended up killing 11 bucks for 14 hunters.  We took one 3x4 mule deer that wandered a little too close to a whitetail stand, one 16" wide 4x4, 2 4x4's that would score around 120, a 4x5 scoring 129, a 5x5 scoring 133, a 5x5 scoring 135, a 4x5 scoring 138, a 6x6 scoring 140, a 6x8 scoring 163 and a huge 5x7 that grossed exactly 170.  I ended the season by taking a local kid hunting and watching him shoot his first deer (a doe).  It was a fun season and I can hardly wait to do it again next year.  I still have good dates available for 2007 but I don't expect to for long so if you're interested I'd encourage you to talk with me soon.

 I've just finished adding a bunch of pictures to the website from the moose and whitetail hunts.  If you're interested in checking them out the new pictures begin on the bottom of page 10 of the photo gallery with the moose pictures, then the deer pictures start on page 11 and continue onto page 12....28 new pictures or so.

I'm ready to start lion and bobcat hunting but due to Montana's change in regulations I'm not hunting there this year and I didn't book any hunts here for December because I'd planned on being in Montana.  I have been running the dogs for fun and conditioning and I've located some lions so if you're interested in a last minute lion and/or bobcat hunt between now and Christmas give me a call.  I can also still take a couple bear hunters this spring so let me know if that would interest you as well.

Thanks for reading and if I can be of any assistance please don't hesitate to drop me a line.

Sincerely,

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