Hey everyone. First post here on HBC. Big thank you to fuzzybiscuit for the thread on posting images to the site - much appreciated!
My family and I moved to the BC coast in Spring 2020. Due to not being a resident for sufficient time, I was not legal to hunt until the 2021 season. Having dropped into a completely new area, getting used to the different provincial hunting regulations, as well as having no experience hunting in wet rainforest, I was not expecting the result that I'll get to below!
I have been studying the Region 2 synopsis and the main BC regulations like crazy as there are lots of mapped areas that do not permit hunting. I kept on looking for that dream hunt: something close to home where nobody else was hunting! I decided I would be day-hunting from home, so packed only the essentials. On Nov 8th, I began hiking into the coastal rain forest shortly after sunrise as this was the first time I'd ever set off marked trails into the forest. Having grown up on bald ass prairie, the dark and wet forests are completely mesmerizing to me...and a bit eery at times.
Sometimes I would forget that I was hunting: I was just enjoying the peace and serenity of being alone in the forest. When hunting in prairie forests, I got in the habit of marking creeks or water sources on my GPS in case I needed to supplement. I started doing this same thing, but quickly realized that water was frickin everywhere (in the rainy season at least)!! It was really cool to be hunting in November and not freezing my butt off in negative temperatures. I had a couple laughs at how nice the winter temperatures were. I've also learned that the intermittent showers, humidity, and wind can quickly produce similar results!
After walking a couple of hours and glassing every 10-15 meters, I stopped for a snack. This was the point where I realized that I had forgotten my ear plugs in my excitement to get out of the house. But, based on reading many HBC threads on blacktail hunting, I figured it was pretty darn unlikely that I'd find a buck anyway.
I continued heading toward a chosen destination and happened upon an animal trail on roughly the same route. After following the trail and glassing constantly, the trail turned into a small creek. I was walking with one foot on either side of the creek when the path made a turn into an open valley of white barked trees. Quite sure it would hold my weight, I stepped up onto a 4" diameter branch laying across the trail at knee height. CRACK! It broke in half and echoed one of those noises through the forest that makes everything in earshot jump. As I laughed at my mistake, I raised my head to see a deer's hind legs executing a jump uphill! I swore I could see antlers on it too! (It was approx 50 meters away.)
I figured the deer was long gone, but lots of the HBC threads had mentioned that black tail deer might not actually run that far away after being surprised...or so I hoped. I dropped to one knee and ran the binos over every damn inch of the forest in that area, but couldn't see anything. Feeling a bit dejected, I was determined to follow and see how it would turn out. I took one step sideways and saw a beautiful, white haired face looking directly at me. I couldn't believe it. A million thoughts in a quarter second. I raised the binos and it was clearly an antlered black tail deer. I tried to move slowly in pulling my rifle off of my backpack harness, but struggled with the damn release. Something that should take no time at all now seemed like it was destroying my opportunity... Eventually, I got the rifle off and readied for a standing shot.
This was the first time I had hunted with my new CA Ridgeline 6.5 PRC rifle since purchasing in Dec 2019. It is nice and light, evenly balanced and handles quite nicely (although I don't have a ton of experience using many rifles.) I placed the crosshairs broadside and slowly squeezed. Wow was it loud - too much adrenaline to really notice, but definitely different than my previous rifle (7 Rem Mag). The deer moved uphill slowly and went down quite quickly. I couldn't believe it!
Upon walking up to the beautiful buck, I was just awe struck by the whole experience. What a beautiful place. What a lovely animal. What a gift to be able to hunt in such an awesome place!
Field dressing this deer was a challenge on the slope...but mainly because I was so rusty. I finally got everything into game bags. Loaded up half of the deer into my backpack, and carried the other half (in bags) about 100 m away to hang in a tree. I didn't do a great job of this as I was sore and tired from the processing. I managed to hang the bags about a meter off the ground near a running creek bed.
By the time I started hiking the first load to the truck, it was about 2 hours until dark. I planned to get both loads out that night, so made the wise decision to just head to the nearest road via...bushwhacking! Genius. It was really hard going at first as the ground was very uneven, which you could only tell by stepping as the heavy fern cover obscured where you placed your foot anyway! I eventually wound up in a swamp, completely surrounded by spiky vines snagging each step, waist, etc. Man it was tiring and I was frustrated as hell. After getting both feet wet and a crap ton of scratches on my hands and arms (no time to put the gloves on - gotta get going!), I finally emerged on a nearby right of way. Holy crap thank goodness. Hike to the truck was so much more pleasant, even with a heavy load and tired muscles.
Went home to recover and headed out the next morning to recover the four quarters. I used iHunter and google earth to find that a creek from the right of way pretty much would take me directly into the region I needed to be in. Luckily, the game bags were undisturbed and I loaded them up quickly while whistling and calling out to make sure anything at the nearby kill site was aware that I was in the area (I had bear spray and my rifle with me). Walked back out on the creek in, no word of a lie, a tenth the time it took the afternoon prior! All smiles.
Just finishing processing it all at home. This BT will be much appreciated by my family. Plus, the kids and their friends get to see and learn about black tailed deer up close. Thanks for reading.
Big thanks to Caddisguy for his informative posts on black tail hunting!!!
Reply With Quote
