So, just the way life unfolds...
I hunted pheasant and fowl as a young man growing up in Delta. Lots of fond memories of sitting in the fields surrounding our hobby farm near Westham Island.
Move to Fort Mac in late twenties, kids, commitments, you know the drill. Bought myself a rifle, went hunting a few times, more an excuse to get out of the house with buddies than actual effective hunting. All good.
Move back to Lower Mainland in the late 80's, still busy with kids and such. Early fifties I detached a retina which bothered me for a couple of years. Sold my rifle thinking it would never be put to good use. So in 2012 my then 34 year old son says he wants to start hunting. FAC not good anymore, get my PAL and CORE. Hunt most every year with my son since, we put a couple of deer in the freezer. I deferred to him on the first and he slammed the truck door on me for the second (25 yards off the road as we were driving to our spot), little bastid...
He made a new acquaintance (let's call him P) through their son's spring hockey. P has a cabin on a lake and hunts. When they first met P says to my kid "You're wearing a Sako hat! This is Burnaby man, that's out of place..." Long story short, lots of bullsh!t ensued and plans were made to go fishing. After seeing the state of the somewhat finished electrical in the cabin my son graciously offered my services to help P out.
We went up last Sunday to do some hunting and for me to determine what he required for materials. It was unseasonably warm with lots of water still standing and running even up high from the wet spring and summer. Absolutely no reason for the deer to move too far from their beds as food and water was plentiful. Made it hard to apply strategies P had devised from patterning over the last 5 years. With a bad knee and some inner ear infection causing me to lose balance easily I was on the quad enjoying the warm weather and fantastic views when up high. Not much sign where I was, my son and P saw more as they walked the timber, but no opportunities were presented. P had a buck hanging from the drive up a couple days earlier, naturally we thought this to be a good omen, however bucks were not yet motivated enough to be out and about.
I mentioned poor balance, first day slip on a snow covered branch, down I go. Of course my rifle smacks the one good sized boulder. Thank you Winchester and Leupold (both Nechako Outdoors purchases) , all good when checking for zero and now the new rifle has some bush character.
P had to be back in Lower Mainland for a meeting on Friday morning so we were prepared to leave Thursday. I set up Wednesday at a spot we saw with good sign, where they had pushed for me a couple days prior, to no avail. Near sunset it was to the point where I wasn't confident seeing bone at the distance I was glassing so I got back in the truck and was making my way back down the hill. Twenty minutes before last legal shooting light a 2x2 was standing just off the road. Binos up, yup there's bone! Out of truck, jack a cartridge in chamber, move over the berm, yes he's still there. He gave himself up for me, thank you. Find myself a suitable walking stick and found him piled up 40 yards from the road. Cut the tag, back to the cabin for the young guys to help with retrieval. High fives all around and this old guy had his first buck, yes you read that right. 68 years old and graced with my first buck.
With about 25 days of hunting put in over 7 trips, my son is busy, I finally connected.
No as they lay pic, sorry about that. Certainly no trophy but I will take it as my first.
Tail cut was not pretty, saved it though, haha.
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