Idaho Elk

The Deadwood River Valley lay before us. This awesome sight in the Boise National Forest of Central Idaho is like no other place on earth. The area is known for its legends of elk, deer, bear, and lesser numbers of cougar, lynx, fox, martin, wolverine and grouse. They roam the misty valley and ridges of the Deadwood drainage. The ridges are several thousand feet above the valley floor. This area has not been grazed for years, other than the several dozen pack animals owned by Deadwood Outfitters (Website: huntinginfo.com/deadwood) The floor of the valley averages just under six thousand feet in elevation with some of the Sawtooth range to the East reaching 9000.

TJ Carter with a 336 B&C Rocky Mountain Elk. Taken with Deadwood outfiters

The Deadwood River is one of those high elevation meandering crystal streams that hold the true west slope cutthroat that grow to several pounds. There are also rainbows that have crossed bred with the cutthroat to produce even larger fish. The Deadwood reservoir is noted for it Kokanee and more recently Chinook salmon. Salmon to sixteen pounds have been caught during the summer of 1999. The fishing in the summer can only be rated as excellent.

This story is about those “legends of elk”. Since 1959, my friend, Gabe DePietro and I have been talking about getting together and going elk hunting. We both graduated from Penn State in Forest Management and decided to come west to start our careers. Gabe returned east the same time that I was induced into the Army. We never took that elk hunting trip until this year. The planning for this trip has taken on varying degrees of intensity during those 40 years, but became really serious in 1997.

Going to sport shows in the western United States I have talked to many outfitters that guide for elk. They fly by nights come and go, but the true professionals show up year after year. At several shows Deadwood Outfitters was either across the aisle, next door or around the corner. Dawn Carter’s’ father had operated the guide service for over 30 years. Seven years ago Tom took over the service and there hasn’t been a skip of a heartbeat. The elk are still hung from the meat pole every opening day. From the dozens of outfitters that I talked with it seemed that Deadwood Outfitters was the service to go with. They hunt the high ridges above the valley floor and pack every one up to the top on horses daily. When an animal is downed they take over and do all the butchering and pack the animal back to camp. This is strictly horse country. The only thing that moves from the bottom of the valley to the ridge tops has four very strong legs.

Alan Baird with a nice five point taken the opening day of the 1999 Season

The ridge tops gives the hunter a view that few ever see. This high country is not the type of country used by back packers. It is too rough. There are a few archery hunters that hunt the area in September, but again they either use the guide service or hunt the valley floor.

Our hunt started on a rather cool (9-degree) crisp, cloudless mid October morning. The runt was finished and most of the herd bull where once again single animals or running with a few late cows. We started for the ridge across the river in the dark, with the idea of being on the ridge top by shooting light. There is about a half-hour period of time when you could skyline a critter, but never see him on a hillside. We timed our arrival on top so anything that moved on the hillside was shootable.

As we hunted along the ridge top we could see many elk tracks in the trail. During the night the critters definitely used the ridge top trail. There were also well-beaten paths just over either side of the ridge that ranged from 50 to 150 yards below the ridge. Tom placed hunters about four to six hundred yards apart overlooking hillside meadows. Between the meadows where stands of Subalpine fir and Englemann Spruce. By the time the valley floor hunters opened up every one was in place and waited for the elk to either come along the hill side trail or come up one of the side draws to the top.

Alan with his five point where it ended after a 250 yard shot with his 270.

Al Baird of Redmond, Washington was the first to connect. He dropped his beautiful five point bull about 250 yards from his vantage point over looking a basin that was close to a quarter mile wide. Most bulls are shot at less than 100 yards. Al’s bull was coming straight up hill with about a half dozen cows. Talking with Al while the guides were dressing out his bull he thought some hunters that were hunting the valley floor probably spooked the small herd up the trail to his position. He said not only were their elk coming at him from the bottom, but several small herds also came around the hill. “All at once there were elk all over the place.”

Elk seem to have an untrue stigma about them that you need an elephant gun to bring these critters to earth. Not so, Mr. Baird used a 270 to drop his trophy with one shot. It is a great deal more important to hit that huge bull in the right place than to lug all that firepower. Weapons that work well are those that you are familiar with. One that you can put all three shots in the paper at a 100 yards and cover them with a quarter.

If you are an experienced elk hunter or would like to learn all the tricks of the trade without putting all the time and money into learning by mistakes, take a look at the Deadwood Outfitters web site. If you would like more information than the web site can give you call 1-541-523-6181. There is an answering machine that will take your call and one of the Carter’s will get back to you. If you would like to check out Deadwood Valley, take a summer trip and bring your fishing rod along. You won’t be disappointed. There are many places left in the world where you have a better than 50% chance of bagging a trophy bull. Deadwood Outfitters books many of their trips from year to year. Tom only takes 8 hunters at a time. The hunts are for six days. Usually the first season has the highest success, but that depends on the weather. There are four hunters booked for the first season in the year 2000. I’d suggest if you are serious about putting a real rack on the wall, that you contact the Carter’s for a hunt in 2000. See in on the ridge top.