It’s been almost a year now since we lost my father (Kevan, long time HBC member), and almost 8 years since we lost his brother, my uncle Charlie. Sadly both men fought long painful battles with cancer. My dad was the ultimate gun nut and my uncle was a gunsmith who lived the last 25 years of his life in the Yukon. Kevan left many things still in his bucket and Charlie left a few as well.
During the past three months I have been thinking about the importance of living life to its fullest and doing everything to empty your bucket. The globe as we know it has been cracked, not broken, and it will change the way we live our lives. I will turn 53 this September and have decided to empty my bucket and refill it with a unique set of goals. My Dad and Uncle had me hunting at a very young age. The first big game rifle I fired was a Browning safari in 375 H and H at the ripe old age of 8. Since that day I was hooked and have always hunted. We eat everything we kill and make our own sausage and process our own meat.
Over the past decade I have become obsessed with backpack hunting and have killed elk, moose, and plenty of deer in the back country.
So here is my bucket list and the personal challenges that go with it. I am going to kill every available species of big game animal in BC while backpack hunting. The exception being bison, which will likely be on snowmobile.
Now just to make it interesting I am going to try and do this with as many different rifles and calibers as I can.
Lucky for me I have guns from both estates and my own collection. Everything from 22-250 all the way to 404 Jeffrey and the 375 that I shot when I was 8.
Now in case you thought this was going to be easy, I decided that I am going to do my best to self film as much of this as possible. Along the way I plan on reviewing the gear, the guns, the process, the journey and the adventure.
I have 3 wonderful kids all in their twenties who all hunt as well, they have significant others and the group of them will take turns whenever possible to join me. I am not sure how many years this will take but it will be an adventure.
First on the list for 2020:
12 day August stone sheep and maybe a goat along the way, followed up by a 10 day elk hunt , (maybe a bull moose) mid Sept on the Tuchodi. November will dedicated to back pack hunting for a mule deer buck. I have 2 bucks over 175 and hoping to beat that number.
I would also like to thank the members of HBC as there are many of you that have helped me, inspired me and entertained me over the years.
Good Luck to all and be safe!
Chuck