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Phoneguy
10-02-2007, 10:20 AM
After much anticipation I am loading up the truck, at my buddies house for 11:30. Hopefully he is home from work. Loading his and his sons stuff up and we are gone. Anyone see a black Dodge 2500 with a matching high top canopy in the 8-08 area please say hi! We will be staying at Headwaters fish camp above Peachland and hope to fill our LEH tags.

Thanks for all the advice and help from people on this site. Hopefully us 3 newbies will do the right thing! First hunt for my buddy and his son. First hunt where I am not just along for the ride!

James

Derek_Erickson
10-02-2007, 10:26 AM
Good luck boys be safe

LoneWulf
10-02-2007, 10:59 AM
Best of luck

bsa30-06
10-02-2007, 06:38 PM
good luck, play safe......and take lots of pictures.

Phoneguy
10-06-2007, 02:25 PM
Got back last night after a very succesful trip. Brought home one grouse, no deer:-(. We saw lots of game, put many miles on the truck and on our boots.
My buddies son who came along with us (I am not going to shoot anything!) did a whole lot of growing without his mom to look after him. By the third day he was anxious to connect with his first grouse and thought he would even try and fill his deer tag if the opportunity presented itself.

We saw between 40 - 50 mulies, a few whitetail does, but we were to slow on the identification to get a shot off. When we left the coast we were working on the understanding that the whitetails were pretty stratified to down low. I can tell you for a fact that there are whitetails above Headwaters camp, much more mulies, but there are whitetails up there! We saw a moose, a ~5' bear that we were pretty sure was a grizzly (moving away from us pretty fast), snowshoe hares, grouse. We had two shooting opportunities (well about 6 actually) on spike bucks. The first one was in the late early morning. We were driving slowly into a cut block that we had seen a fair number of mulies the evening before. Came around a corner and noticed a truck with a fellow taking taking a rest with his rifle aiming uphill so I stopped well back so as not to disturb a shot. The three men were loading back up almost immediately and heading down. As we passed they told us that they had spotted a spike but couldn't get a shot before it disappeared. Thanked us for holding back. As we got to the bottom of the block young eagle eyes in the back spotted the buck. Out we bailed, loading and trying to get a shot but the deer went over the ridge. We hiked up and tracked it to see if we could see it down the other side. I found where the deer had bedded down in the fresh snow, lots of fresh track but it had disappeared. We glassed for about 45 minutes before moving on. Back to the truck and on up we went. At the end of the third cut block we did another walk and then headed back down hoping the buck would be back.

At the cut block just down from the previous excitement, where we had seen three does the night before I caught some movement in the deep scrub. Eagle eyes confirmed and glasses up. I told his dad to get out and get ready just in case. Then I followed. All does. Down another 20 feet of road and eagle eyes chimed in (again!) deer!. Out we bailed again after glassing from inside the truck. I thought they were the same does we had just seen, but they were to far away. My buddy couldn't see them but I had them and thought I saw a spike. I got out on the far side of the truck and told Nick to keep on glassing them. Nick confirmed what I hadn't said yet, I wanted to make sure they weren't sticks behind the head. Well those sticks moved with the head. I used the truck as a rest and got on the deer. It was going to be a long shot, way longer than my limited experience would let me think I could pull off but I had a solid rest, good visual, confirmed spike. My buddy still hadn't found them, I said I have a shot, he said I can't see them yet ....Oh there they are ... take it!

Well I missed......completely, and they went over the rise and were gone. No flinch, nothing. Nick and I hiked over, Fardis moved my truck down the block. We looked for blood for around half an hour. I was glad it was a clean miss, as opposed to an ugly hit. Then I started analyzing what I did wrong. I knew my rifle was shooting a little low, it was probably 250 yards, didn't allow for it ....(insert expeltive).... Should have stalked in, gotten closer, should have ... should have ....Shouldn't have ..... I let excitement take over, I shot past my ability. Like I said, thankfully the worst that happened is that I missed. What a rush of addrenalin though!

We had an incredable time. Good weather, good company and are already thinking about our next trip. For what we paid Headwaters was a good place to stay, right in the middle of good hunting grounds, rustic but comfortable!

James

Phoneguy
10-06-2007, 03:01 PM
http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a105/Phoneguy_Canuck/Okanagon%20Hunting%202007/HuntingTripOct2007055.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a105/Phoneguy_Canuck/Okanagon%20Hunting%202007/HuntingTripOct2007074.jpg

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a105/Phoneguy_Canuck/Okanagon%20Hunting%202007/HuntingTripOct2007007.jpg

Steeleco
10-06-2007, 03:27 PM
The freezer may be empty but the memory bank is that much fuller.
The memories will alway last longer than the meat. Sounds like a good trip just the same.

Schmaus
10-07-2007, 10:54 AM
oh yah your hooked now bigtime just like everybody else http://www.freewebby.com/happy-smilies/biggrin5.gif

BCLongshot
10-07-2007, 11:09 AM
Good for you guys !

I love those pics.....priceless your smiles.

Whose the guy on the left with that character rifle ?

Phoneguy
10-07-2007, 12:57 PM
Good for you guys !

I love those pics.....priceless your smiles.

Whose the guy on the left with that character rifle ?

Thats me with my hand me down Parker Hale (1949) Lee Enfield (1943, Pakistan Ordinance Factory) 303. That is the rifle that my father in law gave to me when he heard I was taking my courses last fall, along with a sxs 12 guage. He figures that he won't be using them any more. What can I say? Thanks! It is in excellent shape.

The other "mature" gentleman is Gasguy on this site. I am not sure if he has actually posted anything yet. He has a Remington 270 Pump. His son is 14 and this was first hunting trip.

I would say that yes, we are addicted.

James

scottgreen
10-24-2007, 05:51 PM
sounds like fun! 1 thing... taking a rest on your truck/quad etc is technically illegal. just mite not wanna bring it up ;)

Phoneguy
10-25-2007, 10:01 AM
sounds like fun! 1 thing... taking a rest on your truck/quad etc is technically illegal. just mite not wanna bring it up ;)


There was a discussion about this on this site:

http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=15383

416
10-25-2007, 08:02 PM
Sounds like a good time had by all! The game will come in time, you can bet on it!!