We hunted this area for some time moving animals every day but to no avail only seeing 1 bull and a cow in 8 days of hunting(heard lots). We use canoes and push the bush as it is thick cottonwood flats.They are always much closer than one would believe though. Cut across one set of tracks in the fresh snow and followed them for 15 or so minutes at midday.Jumped him out of his spot(10 yards away) and thought sh!#t will they ever make a mistake.He didn't run too far as I pushed him one more time. This time he took off big time(crash, bang, still no sighting).I had a trail through some thick stuff back to a slough about 300 yards away.He used the same trail heading for the slough and then veered off,lots of skid marks and I wasn't even sure which way he went as I didn't notice the tracks were gone until there wasn't any.Ran like hell back to slough and sat with my back to the beaver dam which is where they were crossing. It dawned on me that I was in a good spot with animals close by. No sooner than thinking that and major crack to my right,maybe 75 yards then nothing for 5 minutes.Slight rustling to my left,spun around to my left and low and behold there he was walking fast not running across the beaver dam right on the peak 20 yards away.He must have crossed right in front of me with not so much as twig snap.He was not aware of me as he stopped and looked down the slough.I lined up and aimed behing the shoulder and had to tell myself to slow down as I almost pulled the trigger too quickly for no good reason as he was standing still, took a breath and and let fly with a 30-06 180 grain Hornaday.Hit higher than I aimed,should of aimed low(sighed in for 200) but hard to do in the heat of it and took out his lungs. He stood perfectly still for about a minute, I could hear the air hissing out his opposite side until he reared up on his hind legs and went ass over tea kettle into the water. My partner saw the whole thing about 350 yards away 60 feet up a spruce tree.He wasn't sure where I was and not going to chance a hail mary but just about fell out of the tree when he heard the shot but then had to sit there and wait as he wasn't sure I had hit it.Honest to god it didn't move a muscle until he went over backwards.Used a turfer onto the beach,rolled into a couple of canoes and home.May never happen like that again but I don't really care anymore. Well maybe just a bit. Ignore the attached file in this post. The good ones are down a bit.
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