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http://www.challismessenger.com/story.php?accnum=story-37-20120913

Local hunter kills wolf with bow and arrow

BY TODD ADAMS

Archery hunter Rick Pearce poses with his bow and the large black male wolf he shot last Friday while hunting elk. Photo courtesy of Rick Pearce
When Clayton archery hunter Rick Pearce found himself surrounded by six wolves last Friday, September 7, he was glad he had a couple of wolf tags. The wolf pack was aggressive enough that he wishes he'd been packing a larger pistol for added protection.

Pearce was hunting elk with his bow in the upper Squaw Creek and Bayhorse drainages last week. He'd been bugling and using a cow call for over an hour. About dusk, wolves started howling. Pearce kept calling elk.

Five wolves heard the dinner bell and came to within 70 yards of his position. The alpha female had two pups that started circling, one to the left and one to the right. "I knew they were flanking me and didn't want it to go farther," Pearce told The Challis Messenger.

Then, a sixth wolf Pearce hadn't seen before sneaked in behind him, coming within 40 yards. Pearce could hear the large animal, probably the alpha male of the pack, panting behind him.

"It made the hair on the back of my neck stand up," Pearce said.

Pearce made a 70-yard shot with an arrow, which hit the wolf in the right front leg and passed through the rib cage. The wolf went down, then made its way into some timber. Pearce followed the blood trail. The wolf got up, growled and lunged at him. Pearce finished him off with his .22 caliber pistol.

As Pearce got his ATV to retrieve the carcass, the other wolves kept circling, staying within 60-70 yards.

"I thought it was kind of strange they hung around," Pearce said. "People assume they will take off and run." These wolves, however, were pretty aggressive, he said.

Pearce wants to give other hunters a heads-up that wolves may be more aggressive than expected. This pack didn't back down when he stopped calling elk and showed himself. "They still thought dinner was in the area. It wasn't me, though."

Pearce said he hasn't heard of any other archery wolf kills in this area. A Google search online reveals several wolf kills by Idaho archers, with at least one confirmed by the Idaho Department of Fish and Game.

"It is possible to do with a bow," Pearce said of wolf hunting. "I hear a lot of people say it's not possible, but I got one. People need to know it's possible to hunt them and they can be aggressive."

Pearce doesn't have anything against wolves. "I respect them for what they are, magnificent animals," he said.

He doesn't plan on giving up archery hunting. "I'm not going to stop just because wolves get in the way," Pearce said. "I really get into it." But, "These fellas here got my adrenaline going. The next time he's out, "I think I'll take a bigger handgun."

In his 38 years of archery hunting, Pearce has killed 17 bull elk with his bow. This is his first wolf kill, although he has done taxidermy mounts for other hunters who have shot wolves with rifles. Pearce owns Riverside Taxidermy in Clayton.

Ironically, he bought a rifle for hunting wolves this year and planned to use it later.

A Custer County native, Pearce's ancestors came to the Stanley area in 1896.

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DD, Ret.

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