I have been a member of Hunting BC for two years now and have enjoyed reading other members hunting stories or countless tips. This is all much appreciated. As it is priceless for new BC hunters like me I would like to thank HBC community by sharing a story about my first mule deer ever; During my first hunting trip of the 2019 season, on September 14th.

A few details about me first. I was blessed to grow up in the mountainous regions of Southeast Europe very similar to BC with mountains, lakes, canyons, alpine, and mountaineering and hunting since I was a kid. Most of my school breaks I spent at my grandfather’s farm in the mountains and listened to hunting stories, participating in wild boar and roe deer hunts. But, unfortunate events and civil unrest in the early nineties forced me to leave my old country and move to Canada. Since then, besides skiing and occasional fishing I had never found enough time for the outdoors and hunting.

That all changed though with the birth of my son in Canada, he started showing the same love for the outdoors, hunting, and firearms in his early teen years. I tried to stall his desire and promised him when he turned 18 he may start hunting. As time flies fast, 2018 came around and we took our PAL and CORE courses together and started hunting as of 2018 hunting season.

Our hunting trips took us to Hope, Boston Bar, Logan Lake, Merritt, Princeton and Rock Creek. All of the trips were great and a lot of bear and deer sightings, but not a single shooting chance. Ones I saw were mostly on private land and at the end of the season I was kind of worried, and maybe a little bit disappointed. At least I got a feeling of what to expect next year. We continued with preparations for the next season, kept visiting the gun range to gain confidence in our rifles and I kept reading this site for tips and other help. We hoped that 2019 season would be a better one and indeed we got lucky, we drew in the LEH for the Mule Doe draw in region 3 area. So, I was relieved that if I could not get a 4 point this season, we will probably have a good chance to fill at least one tag (And that doe is now in our freezer).

Finally once the 2019 season rolled around, I decided to visit one of my previous locations from 2018 as I had some experience there. I decided to go to a spot in region 3, about a three and a half hour drive from my home. My son could not join me this time, as he was busy with school and work on the weekends, so I decided to do a day trip alone from Langley. This location was chosen because it was where I saw a huge buck previous season during the rut and the picture attached is from December 01 of 2018 describing this area where I spend 1.5 hours on that day.



I could not believe that this deer was within a 150 yard area for that entire time and I did not see him! But, I could hear the sounds, like scrapes for a long time from spot 1 (Spent ~30 minutes); And during my two walks, 1 and 2. Then I stayed in spot 3 for another 45 minutes. Finally when I started hearing the crows I thought it may be just them and no deer at all, so I started moving more and less carefully as the temperature began to drop. At one moment I heard a loud noise nearby and turned to see what it was, I saw a male and female running on the ridge towards the top of the hill. I tried to shoulder my gun, but I hit a rock behind me with the barrel, giving the deer enough time to get beyond the tree line. Obviously my inexperience played a role, though I was sad to miss the opportunity, but also very excited to see a big buck.