COEUR d'ALENE - Tom Yager is ready for elk season.

The young man from Blanchard plans to hunt near Fourth of July Pass this fall, in the rugged, mountainous terrain between Coeur d'Alene and the Silver Valley. No ATVs for Yager, though - he'll hike into the woods, trusty Springfield rifle at his side, searching the high country for signs of his quarry.

He doesn't know if he'll find an elk, preferably a bull. Actually, the odds are stacked against him.

But hunting would be no fun if success were guaranteed.

"With the wolves and all, you never know. There's been a lot of pressure up there as well," Yager said. "Everybody's on quads, everybody's road hunting. There's too much pressure, and not enough animals. It's just hard. It's not an easy hunt."

Sounds pretty tough. Is he still looking forward to it?

"Can't wait."

It's a big weekend for North Idaho hunters. Rifle season opens for bull elk on Sunday. Deer hunters can stalk whitetails and mule deer that same day. Pheasant season gets rolling on Saturday, and waterfowl hunters are already harvesting geese, ducks and coots in local wetlands.

The gear is oiled, the camo is purchased, the scopes are sighted-in - time to hit the woods.

"We think we should have a reasonably good (big game) season for folks," said Phil Cooper, a wildlife educator for Idaho Fish and Game.

Dave Ball is the hunting manager at Wholesale Sports on Government Way. His season has gone pretty well so far: He drew an antelope tag and killed a pronghorn down in southeastern Idaho - not an easy task, even for the most experienced of hunters.

"Those antelope are pretty sharp," he recalled. "They don't miss much with their eyes."

At Wholesale Sports, Ball said, folks are buying scope covers, game calls and firearms, but the most popular item by far is ammunition.

"Well there's always a big buzz about hunting season, that's for sure," he said. "Everybody's always looking for an edge. This time of year ammo is always the biggest thing."

Hunters are taking home a wide range of cartridges, Ball noted, anything from the traditional .30-06 on up to a .300 ultra mag.

"Guys either like a short-range, heavy-bullet brush gun, or they like a long-range gun," he added.

Choice of firearm is usually dictated by terrain, Ball said. Sportsmen who hunt in close-packed, brushy country prefer a hefty bullet, a round that's going to fly straight even in dense cover. But some hunters look for game in wide valleys, more open country - the logging clear-cuts near Lookout Pass, for instance - where a good rifleman can find his mark from several hundred yards out. In that scenario, a long-shooting weapon is ideal.

But the bullet is always the final piece of the puzzle. The biggest challenge, hunters say, is finding game to shoot at.

"I have high hopes for getting one this season," said Coeur d'Alene hunter Brianna Nelson, who has been practicing with her .280. "It seems like you have to drive farther and farther to hunt. The closer you go, the more people you're going to see."

After a few weeks of good hunting weather, archery season wrapped up on Sept. 30. While some bowhunters were successful, others reported game was scarce, Cooper said - especially elk.

"The big thing this year has been the wolves," said Mike Abrams, a firearms salesman at Black Sheep Sporting Goods in Coeur d'Alene. "The one thing I've seen this year are people looking for more powerful handguns to tote with them hunting because of the bears and the wolves."

Ah yes, the wolves. Any conversation about hunting inevitably turns to Canis lupus, the gray wolf, reintroduced to the Idaho mountains 15 years ago. Abrams said wolf sign is prevalent in Panhandle forests, and hunters almost unanimously agree that the predators are thinning elk herds.

IDFG concurs.

"Wolves are definitely having an impact," Cooper said. "Wolves are definitely taking elk that hunters do want to see out in the field. We have wolves all over the region, but it seems like (Unit 9) is where we're having the greatest impacts."

Unit 9 is near the eastern border of the Panhandle, along the St. Joe and Clearwater divide.

Last year sportsmen could legally hunt wolves, and many chose to do so. This season, though, after a ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy, the gray wolf is once again protected by the federal Endangered Species Act.

Wolf season is canceled until further notice.

Jim Barton is another hunter from Coeur d'Alene. He'll be hunting elk at some point this season, carrying his tried-and-true .30-06.

"I think the elk are gonna be tough," Barton said. "Deer will be fine; you're always gonna get a deer. I think elk are going to be sparse. The elk population is not what it used to be."

If big game doesn't pan out, there's always pheasants. Barton is headed to Miller's Ranch this weekend, near Cheney, Wash. His weapon of choice is a quick-pointing Browning side-by-side, a classic American scattergun.

"It's gonna be kind of a bird weekend this weekend," he said. "(The ranch) is always productive."

Washington's pheasants might be doing well, but unfortunately for Idaho wingshots, the upland population isn't exploding this season, Cooper said. A cold, late spring killed off many of the insects young birds need to bulk up.

"Nesting success for upland birds is not all that good this year," Cooper said.

But shotgun hunters can still find plenty of waterfowl. Cooper said the chain lakes area off the Coeur d'Alene River, the Coeur d'Alene Wildlife Management Area near Harrison, and the Pend Oreille River are all good hunting grounds this fall. The birds nested successfully in Alberta, he added, which bodes well for the population here.

"I think we should have a really good waterfowl season," Cooper said.

Whether they're targeting elk, deer, ducks or pheasants, Idaho's sportsmen and women will be out in force this weekend.

"People are really revved up, ready to go," said Abrams. "It's been a busy week."