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Thread: The story of Big Hank, the alpine mulie!

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
    Posts
    187

    The story of Big Hank, the alpine mulie!

    This is the story of Big Hank, aka Hank the Tank, a whopper of a mule deer.

    Here's a bit of back story before we get to Big Hank:
    I've been having fun in the mountains (skiing, biking, hiking, general mountaineering) for 13 years since moving to BC.
    I'll never forget the time I came across a hunter way up in the alpine.
    All he had was his rifle, binos and a backpack.
    I inevitably asked the newbie questions:
    -What are you hunting for?
    -Deer.
    -How the hell are you gonna get it out?
    -On my back.

    That answer always stuck with me.
    It's like what I was doing in the mountains was playing and what he was doing up there was on a whole other level.
    And then a friend of mine started hunting and hearing his stories gave me the itch even more.

    A couple of years ago, my brother in law gave my girlfriend an AR-7 Henry Survival rifle for her birthday.
    He's in the military and loves collecting/trading guns. The deal was to get us to obtain our PALs.
    His plan worked, because I'm a bit of a gear head and here I am and I can't keep or touch this James Bond rifle.

    This also coincided with friends moving and needing to store their chest freezer at our place.
    So now I have a PAL and a freezer. Well 2 + 2 = I should get my hunting license and fill the thing with meat.
    My girlfriend knew this was going to be a whole new adventure and boy was she right.
    And so it began.

    My first step in accumulating so much knowledge in a short amount of time was to login to this forum and read what you guys are up to.
    First, I want to say a huge thank you to all you guys sharing so much knowledge on this site. I never would have had the success without reading so many valuable threads on every possible topic.
    A special shout out goes to PG66. His app and meeting him in person gave me the initial tips to getting my first 2 deer.

    Fall 2017: I spend a lot of time in my local mountains in region 2 just getting practice with everything, gear, skills, knowledge, etc and quickly figure out blacktail hunting is challenging to say the least. I get glimpses of a few does but no bucks. I eventually do the pilgrimage to region 3 during any buck month and try my luck.
    Quickly find out what it's like to be overrun by ATVs, pick-ups and hunters everywhere. Still was a great experience and had very cool moments where I saw deer (does) that didn't see me. I'm slowly figuring things out.

    Come November I plan a day hunt with my buddy who's been mentoring me. I've been been putting the boots to the ground pretty consistently hoping it will pay off.
    Towards the end of that day not seeing anything, I decide to use the terrain to my advantage and climb/peak over the edge of a ridge down the other side. My buddy meanwhile sits on a stump and has a smoke while waiting for me. Well as soon as I look over, I see two does booking it towards me and not far behind them I see antlers for the first time! Holy shit antlers! And they're coming up the ridge right towards me.
    I quickly back off a few feet, sit my ass down on the slope, yank the neoprene cover off the scope, click the safety off, and within a few seconds, the does stop right in front of me, literally 10-15 yards. I'll never forget the smaller one looking straight back where she came front, her ears focused and her body shaking frantically. The second doe did the same but then spotted me with a look of "what the hell is this?". A fraction of a second later the the buck pops up right next to them and by the time he looks around, I have the crosshairs magnifying his fur, right in the spot I'd always visualized where they should be. BOOM!!! goes the Howa 7mm-08. The buck leaps and races off down the slope he came up. I follow him with my eyes as he starts stumbling, then cartwheeling and is eventually down for the count. My buddy meanwhile jumps up from the stump and races up the hill.
    -I got a buck!
    -Is he down?!
    -Yep!
    -Thank god!

    Approaching down slope


    As he lays


    This little forky is my first deer, something I'm sure every hunter remembers.


    After debating my options, I decided to go all in and learn how to do the butchering myself. So worth it.
    The girlfriend was a great help and and we even made bratwurst sausages!


    Haha the propane torch was used a lot. Needless to say my first gutless method was a little sloppy and there was plenty of hair to remove!

    More to come...
    Last edited by Mark-R; 09-14-2019 at 05:08 PM.

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  3. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2018
    Posts
    696

    Re: The story of Big Hank, the alpine mulie!

    Awesome man congrats

  4. #3
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
    Posts
    187

    Re: The story of Big Hank, the alpine mulie!

    After seeing how much meat I had from the first deer and wanting to fill the freezer more, I decided I'll keep hunting and see what happens.
    It's just too much fun being out in the mountains.
    I start pounding the ground again the next few weeks.

    On a sunny December morning I hit this one spot I've seen a doe hang out and I'm scouting all 4 corners of this area.
    I had a feeling there might be a good buck here...



    I decide to go up some steep cliffy terrain to check out a ridge line that seems to have a stand of old growth trees. As soon as I get to the treeline of old growth, I look up from my climb and there's a doe right in front of me 10-15 yards.
    And then as if materializing out of thin air, I see movement behind her. It's a buck!... with a big rack!! Holy shit! I scramble to get the poles off, gloves off, the gun out, scope cover off, safety off (after I pulled trigger once, damn!). Meanwhile his body is hiding behind a few bushes and he starts waking away. All I see is his butt but his head is swiveled around looking at me, the only target in my mind. Good enough at that distance. BOOM!!! The doe takes off and after the smoke clears I approach and look around and there he is laying on the ground.



    I can't believe what just happened again within spitting distance of my barrel. I soak in the moment for a bit with the sun shining and the view of the snow capped mountains.
    Then I get to work and haul a couple of loads back to the truck.


    I got to relive that season every time we served venison to friends and family.

    Hang in there, more to come...
    Last edited by Mark-R; 09-14-2019 at 05:09 PM.

  5. #4
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Central Kootenays, Creston BC
    Posts
    616

    Re: The story of Big Hank, the alpine mulie!

    Congratulations, sounds like you're doing well, very well for a new hunter. High country mule deer hunting is highly addictive and by far and away my favourite hunts of the year. Especially my extended weekend backpack hunts for mule deer, throw in an alpine lake with cutthroat trout to while the afternoons glassing the bowl and surrounding meadows and I'm at peace. I'm heading up high tomorrow for a big walk with my rifle to see what I see, was planning on today but the rain and the fog put a damper on that idea.

  6. #5
    Join Date
    Jul 2017
    Posts
    187

    Re: The story of Big Hank, the alpine mulie!

    Enter Big Hank.

    It's now 2018 and all winter I've been re-reading Mike Eastman's Hunting High Country Mule Deer.
    That book is amazing. So much great info and the more time I spend in the field, the more I can relate and glean info from it.

    So I say to the girlfriend, how about we go camping up high and bring the rifle for opening day and see what happens?
    Sure she says! So off we go. We head up for the long weekend of September into an area my e-scouting showed to be promising.
    We set up camp at about 2000m. Not exactly "coyoting" as Mike would say but we're high enough that we have good access to all the ridges nearby.

    First morning we wake up and as I crawl out of the tent in my undies, I can't believe what I'm seeing.
    3 deer, 2 of which are velvet bucks, are staring at us 200 yards away on a steep slope. Holy! This is what seeing deer in the alpine is like.
    I scramble to get the binos and confirm they are 2 and 3 points. This is promising!
    Just like Mike explains, their red coats were easy to see in the morning sun.

    So we grab our stuff for the day and head off for some glassing. Breakfast and dinner while glassing seems to be our routine.
    Right off the bat, we are seeing deer.






    And some goats for good measure.





    It's dipping below freezing at night so I'm guessing they're liking that morning light to warm up.
    We glass and glass and observe the deer being deer. Some of the young ones are frolicking around antagonizing the older ones.
    I start to notice patterns of hierarchy in those little groups, does with attitude, deer that lead, deer that follow.
    Soon they start heading to bed so we watch how they behave, where they go. Some disappear into the clumps of trees, some stay out in the open.
    The morning passes and there is no sign of a 4-point. So we decide to move to another vantage point and glass another part of the valley that is more north facing.

    We set up and it doesn't take long to spot a red coated 3 point bedded in the middle of a scrubby avalanche path.
    I put the spotting scope on him and observe. Again as Mike E. says in his book, the old bucks often have a young buck as a sentinel, doing the dirty work.
    I'm looking at him and he's surrounded by bushes. And suddenly, for some reason, my eye picks up on a shape in the bushes.
    The shape is of a U. A big U. I blink to freshen my eyes and look again. Holy shit I can make out his face and see him chewing his cud!
    This is a massive deer, much bigger than anything I've seen. I keep staring at the U shape, see his ears flap every so often.
    And then he turns his head, and for the first time I see, through the scope at 40x, all 8 velvety points forking up to the sky.
    HOLY SHEET! He's big and he's legal, except... not until tomorrow because it's August 31st!
    We content ourselves with monitoring him and eventually watch him get up and feed down, into the valley and into the darkness as the light fades at the end of the day.
    Wow, we're going to sleep pretty excited about tomorrow.

    The next day we are up and at 'em before sunrise. Back to our glassing spot we look at the slope we last saw him on. Not there.
    We look across the valley and see the same deer from the day before. But where's Big Hank?
    Eventually I see a big bodied deer that stands out from all the rest, it's him! The rack is twice the size of any other deer on that slope.
    Plus his coat is grey while most other dear are still reddish. He's a brute. When he shakes his head, you sense the mass that's on top of it.
    Other deer move out of his way. What a boss.

    So we watch him feed, then bed in a shady clump of fir, mostly out of sight Then he gets up and feeds more, heading steadily upwards and eventually
    disappearing into a high thicket of trees that is larger and runs up and down the slope. That's where he's gonna bed for the day.

    So what's the plan? I'm still new at this and my biggest constraint is I have to be back at work tomorrow. I didn't really plan on seeing all these deer let alone a big 4-point.
    Well what the hell let's put a stalk on him and see what happens.

    We head down the valley floor and start heading up the other side, going well around and above him. We climb and climb and get to the top of the rocky bluffs above where we think he's bedded. There are little deer paths everywhere, this is where they live, chutes, cliffs, steep scree, challenging terrain but doable.
    We played the wind as best we can and are above him. My hope was to see his antlers before he sees or hears us.
    On the ground, in what seems the middle of nowhere on the side of a mountain, I pick up an old spent .30-06 casing. Ok, I'm obviously not the first to do this.
    We keep easing down, one cliffy bluff at a time getting closer to the clump of trees. I try to see antlers sticking out but nothing.
    Time is running out and putting Big Hank down at this time is starting to get unwise as I'll never make it home in time. Plus my girlfriend hardly has a pack to carry a deer out.
    So I force a move just to see. I enter the clump of trees. After a few steps, I hear an explosion of branches breaking and while hearing and feeling the heavy hoofs hitting the ground as Big Hank stomped out of there in a hurry. We break through another 10 yards of trees and there's his bed and his freshly dug tracks stotting down the mountain.

    My girlfriend is right next to me and we look at each other with huge eyes: "Well that was exciting!"
    Those are the last memories of Big Hank for 2018.
    The rest of the season I got a spiker in region 3 any buck season, my first mulie.
    But as far as region 2 blacktail, I got skunked. I passed on a very small forky and a spiker with literally an inch bone sticking out.
    I laid eyes briefly on a big rack in the steep region 2 bush. He was standing on top of cliffs way above me but he buggered off before I could do anything about it.

    Big Hank would haunt me for the rest of winter.
    More to come -> 2019 opening.

  7. #6
    Join Date
    Oct 2011
    Location
    Tent city Victoria
    Posts
    3,562

    Re: The story of Big Hank, the alpine mulie!

    This is an awesome thread, can’t wait to hear more!

  8. #7
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Region 1
    Posts
    566

    Re: The story of Big Hank, the alpine mulie!

    Fun!!! Sounds like me 20 years ago. It’s upsetting letting a year go by without chasing timber bucks and alpine mulies in sw bc. My priorities are all wrong right now!! Living vicariously through threads like this.

    TJ

  9. #8
    Join Date
    Jul 2009
    Location
    Lowermainland
    Posts
    6,444

    Re: The story of Big Hank, the alpine mulie!

    Good write up there Mark R !
    Arctic Lake

  10. #9
    Join Date
    May 2008
    Location
    Abbotsford
    Posts
    301

    Re: The story of Big Hank, the alpine mulie!

    Ok, you've got my attention

  11. #10
    guest Guest

    Re: The story of Big Hank, the alpine mulie!

    Congrats to you. Good post thanks for sharing.

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