The response from hunters to a postcard reminder to file mandatory reports on deer, elk and pronghorn hunt results overloaded the Idaho Fish and Game Web site and telephone lines on the evening of November 10.

Some hunters were unable to file their reports, and Fish and Game regrets the inconvenience. The problem has been resolved.

It’s important that Fish and Game receives the hunter reports. Hunters may file them online at www.idaho-hunt.com or by telephone at 1 877-268-9365, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. These are the only ways to receive confirmation that the report has been received.

Hunters are required to file a report, even if they didn’t harvest an animal, within 10 days of the kill or the end of the hunting season.

To reduce paper, mailing and postage costs, Fish and Game will send out only one reminder postcard per household. Fish and Game also has eliminated the 80,000 reminder letters that would have gone out in December and January.

Instead Fish and Game will conduct a random telephone survey of some hunters whose reports have not been received after their hunts have ended.

Fish and Game needs the hunter reports in a timely manner to help make decisions for the coming 2009 hunting season. Biologists rely on the reports to estimate the number of animals harvested and the hunter’s success rate.

All reports need to be analyzed by the end of January in time for Fish and Game to make recommendations on season changes by March 2009.

I hate to post things like this, but if this accident can help save lives, it needs to get out.

An upstate toddler was killed by a stray bullet when a New York City deer hunter fired his rifle too close to her grandparents’ Hudson Valley home.

Edward Taibi, 45, of Queens was being held without bail Monday after arraignment on a second-degree manslaughter charge in the town of Bethel court. Taibi was hunting from a tree stand Sunday afternoon in rural Sullivan County when he shot a deer. He came down from the stand and fired the .30-caliber rifle again about 400 feet away from a trailer home in Swan Lake, a small community just south of the Catskill Mountains.

The bullet hit 16-month-old Charly Skala in the upper body. She was flown to Westchester Medical Center, where she died. Police said the child’s parents live in nearby Woodburne.

Taibi is friends with the owner of the neighboring property and had hunted there before, said State Police Lt. Pierce Gallagher.

His case was assigned to the Sullivan Legal Aid Bureau, where attorney Jeff Bradley said Monday it was too soon to comment on the case.

Several neighbors declined comment Monday afternoon when reached by The Associated Press.

The rifle season for deer opened Saturday in the region that includes Sullivan County. Under state law, it’s illegal to discharge a firearm or bow within 500 feet of any occupied residence or business unless the hunter owns or leases the property, or has the owner’s consent, according to Maureen Wren of the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

Swan Lake is about 85 miles northwest of New York City.

Remember everyone, be ABSOLUTELY POSITIVE what is beyond your target before you squeeze that trigger.  This was an accident, but one that may have been preventable.  Mr. Taibi did not try to kill little Charly, but he should have looked beyond to see the trailer home.

Safety first!

The North Dakota deer rifle season started last Friday, November 7th, but a fall blizzard dumped 9-15 inches of snow across most of the western part of the state, paralyzing much of the deer hunting.

I personally didn’t leave my home in Mandan until late Friday for Dickinson, and didn’t get any hunting in that day.

What I saw on Saturday was nothing short of amazing.  With the cutting of much of the CRP, and many of the draws and tree rows snowed over, herds of whitetail deer were sprinkled across the landscape, sometimes gathering 30-50 at a time.  Of course they were miles away from the main roads, and the section lines were blow in and impassible (see image above).

Even the pheasants were forced out of the cover in an attempt to get warm and find food.  After seeing literally thousands of pheasants in the fields I had to take a photo out the window. You’ll have to click on it to enlarge, but this is a small sampling of the number of birds forced from habitat due to the weather.

Now, back to the deer hunting.

We knew that to get to the deer we would have to take some chances and walk in to the back side of some hills.  But since the roads were in such tough shape, that meant walking in, and back out, all through wind-blown hard-packed snow that was waist deep at times.

But then we saw the muley.  He was standing on posted land, proud as hell, at the end of a tree row.  He was watching some does, and seemed oblivious to the traffic on the road to his west.

After debating for nearly an hour, I finally decided to call the landowner and get permission.  He generously granted us access, and less than 1/2 hour later, he was down.

At 39 years old I finally got my first mule deer, and the biggest deer I’ve ever shot.  He’s not a monster by any means, but a respectable buck for my area and North Dakota in general.

Take a look.

Remember that monster whitetail that was videoed in Wisconsin a couple of weeks back?

Well, if you don’t here’s the video.

And now to the real star of this post… the GUY WHO SHOT THAT DEER!

Yep, that’s right kids, that deer on the video was harvested in Wisconsin, with a bow, by Mr. Bob Decker.  Congrats Bob on a massive whitetail!

Image from www.leadertelegram.com

Well after a week of scouting and two weekends of hunting, I finally harvested my first pronghorn antelope.

I was drawn this year after five years of being rejected in the North Dakota license lottery, and it looked pretty bleak.  Last weekend was 80 degrees with 30-40mph winds.  All of the pronghorns were stationed on the sides of hills in the middle of sections, and hunting pressure was heavy.

This weekend blew in a fall storm, complete with 30 degree temps, rain and then snow.  The antelope went into hiding and we didn’t even see a herd in the “normal”areas until about mid-day, when we saw a really small buck running with about 15 does.

Out of desperation we went to a new area, where we thought we would at least fill our limit on pheasants since we only had two to go.  I missed that chance with a horrible couple of shots on semi-tough shots and we proceeded to drive around a while looking for the last herd of the day.

Out of jest I turned to my hunting partners, Tucker (a five year-old Britanny) and my father and asked where did all of the goats go?  Less than a minute later, I answered my own question with “Right there!” pointing out the windshield to 20 pronghorns running across the section line.

I turned the truck around and drove to a different corner of the section, but the antelope ran back behind again.  You know, turning a ’94 Suburban on a country road is no easy thing.

I saw where the pronghorns were running, and I exited the vehicle, .270 ready to fire and ran up the field to cut them off before they got too far behind a rise.  Too late, I ran back down to the road and got a good look at them about 150 yards out.  They were running full bore and I picked out the buck, always last.  I led him about 4′ and squeezed off a shot.  I didn’t hear anything, the pronghorn didn’t jump or stumble, and he definately didn’t just fall down.

After about 50 yards he reached the road, heading off into posted land.  He seemed to stumble a bit, but I wrote it off as just mis-stepping at the road.   But about 100 yards into the posted field, the pronghorn reared up on its hind legs and fell over backwards.

Huh.   Guess I DID hit him.  At full speed running right to left.  Ta-da!

I put the gun in the vehicle and walked out into the field to retrieve the animal.  Perfect shot through the lungs.  Didn’t hit any guts, didn’t ruin any of the head or shoulders… just a lung-er that blew all the way through and he just took a while to know it.

Well, I’m hooked.  That was the most fun I’ve had hunting in years.  Only one thing went wrong the whole weekend.  When it came time to snap a photo, my camera malfunctioned and we had to rely on a screenshot from a video camera.

Oh well, a nice 12″ pronghorn (updated measurements – 13 1/2″ horns and 6 3/4″ base.  Much bigger once I got a tape on him!) for my first time out.  Not a huge trophy by any means, but I’m mounting him anyway.  Who knows how easy it will be to draw another license.  Here’s to pronghorn hunting!  Now, I can concentrate on ring-necks and my muley tag.  God I love the fall!

The image below was submitted to a popular ND hunting and fishing website, FishingBuddy.com, and the question was asked, Mountain Lion or Deer?

The trailcam was mounted at about 4″.

Send this to you friends and let’s see if we can solve this mystery for him!

Click for larger image.

North Dakota doesn’t have many hunting fatalities but Saturday afternoon a 15-year old Dickinson, ND youth was accidentally shot and killed by his 10-year old brother while pheasant hunting.

Dunn County Deputy Glen Gietzen says the family was hunting during the state’s youth pheasant season when the shooting happened about 5:30 yesterday afternoon, north of Gladstone.

Authorities say Dillen Bloomgren was pronounced dead at Saint Joseph’s hospital in Dickinson, of a gunshot wound to the head.

Please extend your thoughts and prayers to Dillen’s family and friends. And please be careful out there eveyone.

October is traditionally the opener for pheasant hunting around the country, and I can’t wait!

But to get a jump on things, Pheasants Forever published an article on what you should be doing in preperation for the 2008 pheasant hunting season.

They include:

• Getting in shape.
• Prepare with regulations and hunting info.
• Checking the dog after the hunt.
• Using steel loads
• Fish along with hunting.
• Check out new areas.
• Vote in federal and local elections
• Take a kid hunting.
• Join Pheasants Forever.
• Sign up for the National Pheasant Fest.

Check out more details HERE.

I saw two things today out pronghorn hunting that made me wonder how it is we have any land left to hunt.

First, I saw a skinned animal, minus a head, lying in a non-posted field. Some idiot had shot what I was guessing was a buck pronghorn, caped it out on the spot, and left the body to rot less than 200 yards from the road. This took place Friday night or early Saturday morning, as I was in the area around 5pm Friday night, and around 10am Saturday morning.

Less than an hour later, I saw a white pickup driving through a field with two hunters, I mean criminals, in it. They were too far away to get a license, and when they saw me stopped, they high-tailed it off the land and out of the area.

Both of these took place NW of Scranton, ND.  Click HERE for a map location of the crimes.

I know that whoever did either of these indiscretions won’t be affected by me posting them here because they can’t read (at least a proclamation) and probably don’t think they did anything wrong, but if I can ask the rest of you to take a few moments and think of the hunting community as a whole before you do something stupid.

The anti-hunters and some landowners are just looking for this type of behavior to give them a reason to reduce your sporting opportunities. The skinned pronghorn was lying on some property that is traditionally posted for deer season, but the landowner has always allowed my hunting party and others access. Things like this could significantly jeapordize access to this great piece of land.

Play by the rules, bag your game in a safe, sporting manner, and support the heritage and opportunity provided by the state of North Dakota and the generous landowners who allow us access, and all of us will be better off.

As for the guys who did this? I’m taking my video camera with from now on, and if I see it happen again, video evidence will be used in a court of law.

Sorry for the long rant, but I had to get this out. If anyone has more details on who may have committed these crimes, please report them to the proper authorities.

In North Dakota contact R.A.P. (Report All Poachers) at 1-800-472-2121.

I usually don’t get too riled up by advertising.  I am a businessman, and know that stretching the truth a little is common.

But this new XBox 360 ad for Cabela’s Grand Slam Hunting is just horrible.

What the hell is Cabela’s thinking?  Their whole business model is to keep outdoorsmen happy.  Why would you depict deer hunters as some broken-grilled hillbilly who stalks a goat, and gets shot while mimicking deer antlers with sticks?

Anti-hunters just LOVE stuff like this.  They point to the tv and say, “See?  Those damn rednecks are just crazy?  And just look how dangerous hunting is!”

Cabela’s, you really sold out to the XBox people on this one, and it’s tainting your brand.  I currently don’t own a 360, and if I did, this commercial would make me NOT want to buy this product, and now even think twice about shopping in your stores.

Here’s the commercial.  What are your thoughts?

UPDATE : Cabela’s management is claiming that the commercial is a fake!  I can only hope it’s true.