The Road to Success. (Photo Within) (Long)

My entire life had been spent wanting to hunt but it always felt like tremendous undertaking to go at alone. Then I had a reason.

You see, I grew up on the West coast just outside Vancouver whereas my family are all on the East. My family here consist of my Mother and Father both who grew up in hunting families but never hunted themselves. My mother, who grew up on a farm loved the idea of me bringing home some fresh Venison for the freezer as it was a staple in their house. She's a farmer's daughter through and through and remembers butchering deer her dad brought home. Then there's my father, he's a cranky fella who always wants the last words... and those words during my entire childhood were "No Hunting", period.

As I aged... I settled, gave up, conceded, surrendered, or one of many verbs you could use to describe my defeat of being a hunter.

Then things changed, I had a son which at the age of 5 or 6 started to express an interest in hunting. Each year his interest to hunt, and shoot, grew more intense and with each year so did mine.

At 35 I took my firearms training and started shooting again. Target shooting was another interest I have always had and a skill I had already acquired as I often went shooting while growing up. Immediately after that both my son, then 10, and I took C.O.R.E. training, he passed with flying colors and I was extremely proud of him.

We started practicing shooting with a .22LR, I purchased a nice CZ455 Canadian for myself, a fantastic gun that displays my Country's emblem on it's stock. For my son, a small single shot Chiappa Little Badger as I wanted him to appreciate each shot. We purchased a Mossberg .243 for my son to start practicing with a larger caliber and later my "dream" caliber, a 30-06, went with a Tikka T3 Lite.

I was now 37, we spent the summer building a small off-road camper as we love to explore. The end of October was our first hunting excursion with the little camper in tow and we decided to hunt regions 3-18 & 3-19 again.

Upon arriving late the first night we saw at least 20 deer on Tunkwa Lake Road, mostly females with a few Spikers. We were pumped. The second day we saw no deer, third day we saw one doe, it happened so fast and our being so new I could not tell what species it was, so no shot. Every day was spent hiking or glassing. On the last day we saw one more doe in the middle of a logging road that bolted when it saw us. My son demanded we go track it so we gave our best shot. No dice. This trip did not even present a grouse to us. Skunned.

Skip forward another year, more research under our belts, more experience gained over the off season. Again we headed out to regions 3-18 & 3-19 at the end of October. We spent 7 days there and hiked about 4-6 hours per day for the first four days. I was so proud of my son for keeping up. During our hikes we saw no grouse or deer but did find a lot of sign. My son is now able to tell me what animal produced most tracks, if not exactly then at least down to the species. The only deer we saw these days were while driving.

For the last 3 days we decided to road hunt, something I looked at as being lackadaisical way of hunting. It seems like some hunter’s look poorly at those who road hunt, as though it’s not really hunting if you do it from a vehicle. If you’re not 10+ kilometers with boots on the ground you’re not worthy. I tried to stay away from this method for that reason, I wanted to be a “true” hunter.

Finally, on this day we got our first chance at a grouse and my son connected on two and let me take the third. We were thrilled. We had a renewed spirit to continue and just enjoyed the rest of the day. That afternoon we saw a group of deer heading across a logging road near camp. We parked, jumped out and followed them up the hill into a wooded area. We saw about 6 deer but no sign of an antler anywhere and I could not tell what the species was, so no shot.

In this small wooded area with the sun setting fast we saw what can only be described as a black deer. It was darker than any I had ever seen. It stood perfectly broadside to us, looking at right us for about 10 seconds. It was an amazing site. The other deer were all much lighter in color. We had to look up Black deer when we arrived home to see if it was even possible, and it is. Maybe one is out there, maybe it was shadows, who knows.

Over the next days we got a few more grouse, we were happy. Once more we were skunked on deer.

November 12th 2017, on a very wet Sunday we got up at 3am and drove to a new spot in a new region (Region 2 where any buck was legal). We still don’t have the best clothing for this weather so we decided to road hunt in an area that we saw three female deer ("does", as in female deer plural, reads weird when I type it.) in a short amount of time, they were finishing feeding for the morning and heading back to their bedding locations for the day.

For the rest of morning and afternoon we saw no deer. Spoke to a few other hunters who confirmed we were in a good spot. With rain drops the size of marbles and the sun started to set, our time was running out. My son was giving up hope but still had a touch of it left.

Driving slowly down a lightly used road we had driven up and down numerous times already we approached the end where would turn around. I looked out and saw a deer that looked big given my low level of experience. It had antlers! I stopped fast and told my son “Deer! Antlers!” he grabbed my magazine as I got out of the Jeep then handed it to me when I was ready… this was his plan. He did not want to get out until he heard me shoot. He did not want to scare it off. His face was priceless.

I loaded the rifle faster than I ever had, the magazine slammed into place with a satisfying knock. I raised the rifle to my shoulder and sighted in on the Buck who was standing as perfect as I could ask for. My rifle is sighted in at 100 yards and I had guessed the Buck was about 80 yards off.

BANG!

The Buck jumped then ran. The entire time I was thinking to myself “Please fall, please fall, please fall… I don’t want to track you in the dark.” He made it maybe 20 feet before falling out of site into a puddle.

Buck down.

The sound of the rifle firing echoed over and over but I don’t remember hearing the initial blast, I did not feel the rifle kick. This is when my hands started to shake, my son ran around the Jeep directly towards the Buck, I had to call him back. He was so excited he did not know what to do, his smile was ear to ear, he ran over and hugged me tight for about 20 seconds. “We did it dad! We did it!” he gave me a high five. He wanted to run to the Buck and I told him to slow down, we were both still shaking from the excited, we were laughing now, a nervous laugh, a happy laugh. Congratulating each other. It was an amazing experience we’ll remember forever.

I asked him to get the skinning knife, gloves, and the gallon of water we brought to wash out the carcass. I grabbed the camera and our deer drag harness.

Gutting was a bit awkward but we learned a lot, I think it took about 30 minutes, he says 20, let’s call it 25. Dragging the carcass back to the Jeep has left me sore, lifting the carcass into the Jeep was a learning experience but only took about 3 minutes to figure out.

My father ended up sending me a text “Even though I’m not fond of hunting myself, I just want you to know I’m pretty proud of you. You’re a great dad as well.”

What a trip it has been.

If the photo does not show up let me know.

3x3 with a brow tine.


https://image.ibb.co/bUQ8tG/IMG_20171112_154943_1.jpg

Well done!

And great work on getting out there with your son. You are doing a great job.

Thanks KodiakHntr.

And thanks to everyone who has helped me over the years, some of you have sent me some great PM's, talked to me on the phone, etc. Much appreciated.

Oh, and would people call this a three point? 3x3? 4x3? 6 Point? I don't think brow tine counts, correct?

People keep asking me "How many points!" I just keep saying "3x3".

Thanks,

Congratulations! A VERY Fine tale of persistence, and best of all bringing your Young Gun into it properly!
KUDOS all round!
Going to be a fine Eating Buck methinks!
And it certainly sounds like you have a great up & coming Partner for life!

Cheers!
Nog

Oh, and here's the camper for those interested in such things.



https://image.ibb.co/i2Axnb/Camper_outside_001.jpg

Wow, great story and congrats to you and the kid! A moment you'll never forget. And to hear those words from your dad must have felt pretty good too. Congrats again!

Great story and buck and camper. my dad started hunting around the same age as you and he had me out on all his adventures since I was five...best memories we have together are when we were hunting

Made my day! Great story and good job bringing the young one in. I would buy you a beer right now if I could. High five dude!

wow...epic adventures leading to so many good memories..thanks for the inspiring share

Congrats Lugg and son, that story made my day, you are one hell of a role model! Beautiful Buck you got yourselves, well done! K