Warnniklz hunting 2015

[warnniklz]

No goat tag this year I do have a Spatsizi sheep draw... but my dad doesn't want to give up his 2 weeks of coho fishing, so he's out. Then my brother just finished his milwright course and is busy looking for an apprenticeship... so that's not looking too promising.

Woe is me, so I figured I could start looking for goats locally. Was scanning the Eureka area... but most of that is LEH. I figured McBride isn't a long haul at all. They also have some promising looking mountains. Also heard of the odd elk kicking around. I've never hunted elk before.

[warnniklz]

So August long weekend, I boogied over to McBride. I had some spots picked out via google earth. So I arrived well after dark, to a spot that I would park. Slept in my truck and was awake before sunrise.

The mountains looked good when the sun rised... but not as goaty looking as I hoped. The vegetation wash lush... would probably only take half hour to the top if there was a half decent trail.

So I spent the morning glassing and glassing and glassing and glassing. I had some "lunch" and buggered around with the gophers a bit. I decided I would explore the area some.

[warnniklz]

It was scorching hot out... the creeks were murky and the horse flies were out. I tried some other roads and glassed some other spots. Even drove through a bunch of alders that had taken over a road. Barely missed some wash-outs in the same stroke.

However I did lose my binos at some point. So if anyone finds(or hears of someone finding) some vortex talon 10x42 binos with a vanguard harness... let them know that if they want to give them back.. right here. Lost up Goat River West Pit Road and Goat River FSR. I don't expect to see them ever again... but stranger things have happened.

Definitely found some promising spots, but without binos, it was really hard spending the next two days trying to spot white dots across valleys.

[HarryToolips]

wicked pics man, good luck on your spatsizi sheep draw....

[barry1974w]

WTF? Your "little" brothers bailing on you? I'll give him a bit of s##t for you. I managed to get a decent billy on LEH out the goat river. But we only saw two goats on that trip......

[Salty]

Nice pics niklz too bad about your goggles. Drove through McBride a week and a bit ago for the first time in about 15 years. Used to go through there a lot growing in PG and I can say that those mountains still do not suck- GL with your season speshly the sheep draw

[warnniklz]

Well my hunting season was waaaaay too short.

My plan wasto head into an area me and father love to chase mulies. Got in Thursday afternoon with no problems. Pulled into where I'd camp and met a couple of guys. Their posse had three four points down and a doe. I chatged with them a bit then went out for an evening hike. Seen a dozen or so does and fawns. I had My doe draw in the pocket, but all the ones I seen were on a far side of a ravine. I wasn't going to work that hard for a girl.

Darkness came as I wandered back to camp. I set up camp as seen in post 320 of the camp thread http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/showth...t=Camp+set-ups

[warnniklz]

I climbed into the back of my truck and was in for the night. During the night another couple of crews rolled in. Throughout the night was rather chilly. Froze my toes pretty good. Up before daylight and drove to where my insertion point was going to be. There was some guys camped there and already headed out. So I spun a nut and went to insertion point two. It was a forced march up the mountain. I ended up coming up behind another guy who was working his way to my left. That was ok because I wanted to head to my right anyways. I got to the plateau just at daylight. I was working my way to a lone big fir tree where I'd catch my breath and have a chocolate bar. I was looking at a bunch of cows and horses while watching the sun starting to crest the mountain on the far valley. Then off to my right I seen something bounding through the snow roughly 200 yards out. It was a deer. Hold the phone it has antlers. All of a sudden it stopped half way across the opening and looked right at me. I grabbed my rifle and lined up across my pack. "Turn your head you butch" I said to myself. Then it turned and took off again. "1... 2... 3... 3... where's 4? There's gotta be a fourth"

The deer made it's way to the cows and over the ridge. "He had to be four... running like that"

I gathered my gear and started my way across the plateau.

[warnniklz]

On top the snow was drifted in spots that were knee deep. Where it wasn't deep, it was hard and squeaked like styrofoam.

Finally made my way over to the ridge that the buck had disappeared over. I spent the morning working the ridge. The ridge is timbered and drops 20 or so feet to some more timber. The deer usually herd up like a school of salmon below it. But this year the snow looked deep and there was no sign of movement through there.

[warnniklz]

After I finished along the ridge, I started my way to another tree where I'd take a break.

I worked through a sraw and up the otherside. As I got out of the draw, it was one of the guys I talked to the night before. He was hanging out up top just for the sake of being there. Two of his hunting byddies were working their way around the backside and he was waiting on standby if they needed an extra hand to pack out.

Anyways I continued down the backside of the mountain to a spot where you could glass down on a big area of land with lots of coulies. I sat down and started glassing. Doe, doe, doe and fawn. Kept looking over deer and had a little impromptu nap. I woke up to a doe and fawn staring at me just the next ridge over. I glassed from that spot a little longer and decided to carry on.

I spent the rest of the dat jumping does and fawns with the odd two point peppered in.

Got back to the truck just at dark and made my way pack to camp.