2019 Buck & Season

[TyTy]

What a busy year 2019 was! I figured i should post up a bit of the season.

I have been hunting this one area for 6 years now or so and have started to really get to know it, now having taken 4 deer (within a kilometer) out of this drainage. It is not a very large area and I believe most deer in this area to summer up high and winter mid to lower elevation

June:





A good portion of the deer in this area migrate into the sub-alpine for the summer/fall and again back down for the rut, so I am trying to find the main route they are using twice a year. The area showed a lot sign for May into June, so I hung a couple cameras and put out some salt. I had some does, a spiker and a four point i figured I recognized from a trail cam picture from last year. Come Canada day, no more photos so had a handful of deer hang out at this elevation before finally headed up for the summer. Both cams in this pic, one set on video worked, the other set for photo's did not. Not sure how to post video.

[TyTy]

Got out for a bit of spring black bear 'hunting' which for me is generally more catch and release and just being out in the woods on my own time. Working in the southern interior one week, we had 2 days of snow/blizzard...... in June.... this happens some springs. At 3pm the one day the snow stopped and the clouds started to part, blue sky and sun was showing up. This means one thing - the bears will be out and about. Got back to camp, had a bite, took a shower then head up an FSR. The first place I would expect to start seeing bears and there is one right there. A small sow. So I keep on driving a couple hundred meters down the road, park, load up and double back through a cut to go have a look.

Hiking through the cut-block block, i see no bear. Then I spot it across a creek much further away than I would have expected it to travel that fast (1/2 km), so I keep hiking up the hill to a large Ponderosa on a ridge left standing for a better vantage point. As i am approaching the tree, i do not see the bear over where it was. I look up again and it is jogging straight at me along the ridge so I step against the tree, chamber a round and try to figure what is going on. The bear passed by me within 20m and kept going, kind of sniffing the air, head up. I suspect the wind was swirling.

So I follow this bear a bit, and watch meander out of sight. 20-30 min later I see it again 500m+ away, in this same large cut-block. But it looks different this time....

I am directly downwind and this meandering back and forth, slowly approaching. It is a different bear. As it gets closer I start to realize that this is large bear. I am sitting on/behind this large rock and this animal is headed directly to me. I had him dead to rights at 60m (open sighted 30-06) but for a number or reasons i decided not to take this bear despite it likely being around 6.5+, live weight hmmmm..... big! So I slowly moved away so not to enforce and encounter.







I wish I had grabbed my actual camera as I would have had some amazing pics, but all i had was the cell. That is NOT a small head on that animal if that says anything about body size. As I backed out of there, I noticed the little sow is now back and had been feeding around 50m just below me. Obviously the boar is attempting to locate the sow. It can be difficult to judge bears but to see the both of them, the boar is easily x3 the sow. After moving off, I watch that boar walk within 20ft of where I had been hiding out. Glad I backed out. Fun experience.

Continuing down the FSR I spotted another 5.5 chocolate boar a couple hundred meters off the road, another small black one, then a large sow with two small cubs across the valley. Again, right after some poor weather clears up and all the bears were out in the afternoon, it is almost too easy.

[TyTy]

September 10'th


Took this day off work and got into some region 2 alpine. Steep country, lots of fog. Seen one doe, one bear, and lots of little blue berries every where. New area, while promising we were likely on the wrong side of the drainage based on the lack of heavy sign on this side and the heavy sign I noticed across the valley the previous year.










Later in September a buddy invited me out to tag along for his Sheep draw. Unfortunately he only had weekends were available between work and family obligations and I could only make it for the one weekend. It was a neat trip, new kind of country to me and I was real, real tired getting up the hill on the hike in, ready to just go to sleep on the trail at night so thanks to AK for putting up with me





Likely some fellows will recognize the area, it is no secret. Buddy had done his homework and scouting as knowing where the water sources were was key to access, again.


A couple weekends later it snowed so I figured I would make the effort and hike up to the trail camera and continue on up into the sub-alpine. I took a different route in an attempt to make for a ridge in which i was hoping for a better vantage point and be into the deer within rifle or stalking range..... well i failed in this attempt. It was one of those days you wonder why you do these things. Steep, brushy, snowy and foggy. Eventually i wasn't exactly sure where i was, i was close by my estimate and likely, eventually, was going to break into clearer skies but wasn't sure which direction to continue, my tracks were becoming snowed in and I was out of flagging tape..... so safety was the call i made and headed out.

[Getbent]

Great start....kep it coming!

[TyTy]

I didn't have much time to hunt in October, but had the first week of November book off for some rest and hunting, which I ended up having to fore go to work, so back to weekends only.

One Sunday evening in November I headed out to my second choice spot. It was raining and snowing, just awful, but great deer hunting weather. I walked up an old road, spotted this buck almost immediately (i bet he watched me for a full minute!) standing in the cut-block, found a tree for a rest, settled best I could and fired as he was starting to get skittish. He took off running, and I am thinking OH NO, not again......

Rewind a few weeks, I had shot at a buck at last light through windows of fog in heavy rain, a couple hundred meters further up the hill from where i stood now. I fired on this deer and then white out, but thought i saw a white butt in white fog slip away headed uphill. Not a good shot, poor rest and rushed, my error. Searching in the dark, fog and rain wasn't a great idea, so I was back out there the next day through some awful ground trying to find a dead or wounded deer. No tracks of trama, no hair..... Found the bullet impact in a stump. Spent half the day searching all over that hill side to complete my due diligence on that shot. I continued through the area and figured this buck was habituating this area with the small rubs and fresh sign.....

Back to the shot. This buck took off running through the large christmas trees. Another round in but could not get him back in the scope so I ran down the road hoping to keep a shooting lane open as he was about to round a small knoll and into some bits of openings before reaching the timber. I stopped and listened, nothing. Continued up the road, stop, listen, nothing. I think to myself that he ran like he was hit hard through the cut-block, now into the cut I am circling around and above to where he stood at the shot. I am looking for a dead or wounded deer as i go, but it is in thick regen. Plan is to find where he stood, likely going to find blood and hair then trail from there. I am a bit panicked I have missed the mark again but the shot felt good, the rest was good and the reaction was good but the distance he ran and then dissappeared made me doubt myself. As I am side-hilling above the path he ran, looking down between the regen and I see four feet sticking up in the air. Relief. He was dead on his feet, making it about 70m before piling up (which is why i heard nothing).








So I am pretty confident this is the same buck I had missed at a few weeks earlier and feel very fortunate to have gotten another chance at him. His faced was scratched up a bit and had some bruising around his neck so was likely fighting a bit and likely a bigger buck around, considering he was solo mid-november.





Recovered the bullet on the rear flank. Shot was uphill, between head on/quartering to, entered behind left shoulder, missing the heart, somehow took out both lungs, clipped the liver and touched a tenderloin.

[TyTy]

Last Day of November I took the family out with me up the canyon to region 3 for last chance at fulfilling a doe LEH I had. The plan was to do that early November but timing didn't work out. Pretty much no snow right to the end of the highest roads. We had a fire my daughter and I took a walk with her in the kid carry pack for last light. She got the drift of it, whispering about spotting deer and bear and where they live etc... In the end no deer but we did find a suitable christmas tree.





I had the whole weekend last two days of the season to myself to hunt. With fresh snowfall both days it was perfect. Second last day I did a bit of rattling and ended up jumping two deer near last light (because i got cold and wanted to move around to warm up), one being a decent buck but zero chance there as they disappeared with a ruckus along the timber edge. Last day yielded one fresh track, likely most of the deer holed up through out the steep stuff in the timber. Fog can be a really challenging factor.






Hope everyone had a good season and holidays. I'll catch up on posting some other hunts from the last few years when i get a chance.

[RICKADY]

Hey great to see this, nice buck,
I hope you get a chance soon,
Thanks

[Arctic Lake]

Good write up !
Arctic Lake

[Leaseman]

Thanks for sharing!

[LuckyIfYouGetOne]

Great write up, sweet photos, and beautiful buck