CSG
01-03-2014, 02:16 AM
Before I tell you the story of my first real Blacktail hunt I would like to send a thanks out to ProGuide for his great thread about Trophy Blacktail hunting and also my friend rbest for being a big part of this hunt.
This is going to sound a little sappy to some but I need to give you the context of how I feel about Blacktails.
Although my heart now lives in Kamloops I am a Vancouver boy through and through. All through my formative years I played in the forests of the West Coast and the Gulf Islands. I didnt see alot of deer growing up and still to this day when I am out in the bush around Vancouver I dont see a ton of deer. To be honest, except for the many that browse on the property at my cabin on Gabriola I have only seen 1 buck in a hunt-able area before 2013 and due to our lack of knowledge of private property boundaries, Rbest and I had to pass on him.
Because of how few I have seen in my life and because of the stories I read from people like ProGuide, in my mind I had elevated the Coastal Blacktail to near mythical status. As far as elusiveness and rarity, the Coastal Blacktail buck was second only to the Unicorn.
So a month and some ago when Rbest and I decided to go for a local Blacktail hunt I had resigned myself to a cold and very wet hike in the bush with my gun slung over my shoulder. In the month or so leading up to this hunt, since I had taken my mule deer, I had been motivated by Proguides thread to start looking in my backyard for deer as opposed to my usual Kamloops areas. The amount of knowledge he was willing to share boosted my confidence to think that I was almost a sure thing I would find a blacktail buck despite the complete lack of scouting I had done haha.
After spending hours reading Proguides thread and scouting late night by Google Earth, Rbest and I set out on a very wet, cold and dark morning. After a quick sausage Mcmuffin we were on our way into the bush. I had scouted out an area that seemed close to a driveable road that also seem to have all the characteristics I had read would harbour Blacktails. After a couple hour drive Rbest and I were hiking up a ridiculous ankle breaking river over snow covered rocks. We bushwacked and sweated our way up the side of a mountain all the while finding minute traces of deer but not seeing a thing. Rbest kept suggesting we should check out another spot he knew close by were he had seen sign but I was determined that the spot we were in was better country. After sloggin through the salal for way too long and soaking every thing we were wearing we headed back to the truck and went to the spot my buddy suggested.
The 20 minute drive had us into a spot I felt had had a ton of pressure already. I resigned myself to walking through an area I thought would be fruitless. We walked down an overgrown logging road for 150 yards until we walked to the edge of a small draw that was cleared years ago. We surveyed the draw for 10 seconds and my buddy announced in a not so quiet voice that we had taken the wrong logging road and we werent in the spot he thought we were in. He gave a quick doe bleat on his call and a second later I see a deer saunter up the other side of the draw and stand on the hill looking at us. I raise my rifle and find the deer in the scope...doe.
I only started hunting a couple years ago but one of the first things I was taught is that bucks are usually at the back of the pack following the does. Being that we were in the middle of the rut i moved my scope down the trail through the 12 foot trees and into my scope comes another deer. A buck. 80 yards out. At no point did I ever look directly at the antlers, I caught the dark mahogany of them out of my peripheral through the scope and I new right away there was bone and that was good enough for me.
I placed the cross hairs onto his vitals but the top of a tree was covering them. I havent really had buck fever until I had this elusive near mythical buck in my sights. I was shaking like a leaf and I knew i had to move a couple steps to the left. Without taking my eye out of the scope I took two steps to the left all the while thinking I would watch this guy jump away while I could do nothing about it. My buddy was frozen and couldnt see what I was aiming at, he was frozen just watching me.
Despite my shaking I was able to keep the crosshairs in the vitals and I slowly squeezed the trigger on my new 270 Win Tikka T3. The gun shot like a dream and i was able to watch the buck jump up the other side of the draw with no sign of me hitting him.... WTF? We watch another doe behind him run up the hill and they are gone. Did I really just miss on the very first Blacktail buck I have lined up on?
We walked across the draw as I told my buddy my version of the details. I was sure I had hit him but he didnt react like he was hit at all. I had to hold myself back from a small high five with my buddy until we could find the deer. Walked up the spot where he was standing and there was nothing on the ground, not a drop of blood. My heart was pretty heavy until I looked up the hill and saw a big blood trail in the snow. We ran up the hill and fond the buck pilled up at the base of some trees not 25 yards from where I shot him. The relief of finding him was soon replaced by excitement when I realized I had taken a 3X2! The excitement was even more intense when I realized upon grabbing the antlers that the moss was hiding the fact that he was a 3X3!
Anyways, this story is getting long and you all know how the rest goes.
With one of my best friends I had taken my first Coastal Blacktail and I couldnt have been more excited. Below are a couple pics of him. Although I will get some laughs at my expense I even posted up the pic of me celebrating that Rbest took without my knowledge. I think you can see how excited I was haha
Proguide, as I said in your Trophy Blacktail thread, I owe you a beer next time I drive through Pemberton for the knowledge and inspiration I got from your Trophy Blacktail thread!
Rbest, I wouldnt have wanted anyone else with me when I got my first Blacktail. Thank you for convincing me to walk through an area I thought would be barren of deer haha
http://i1283.photobucket.com/albums/a547/CSG83/IMG_1082_zps6de91069.jpg (http://s1283.photobucket.com/user/CSG83/media/IMG_1082_zps6de91069.jpg.html)
http://i1283.photobucket.com/albums/a547/CSG83/IMG_1070_zpse828852e.jpg (http://s1283.photobucket.com/user/CSG83/media/IMG_1070_zpse828852e.jpg.html)
http://i1283.photobucket.com/albums/a547/CSG83/IMG_1066_zpsae40ee15.jpg (http://s1283.photobucket.com/user/CSG83/media/IMG_1066_zpsae40ee15.jpg.html)
Also the first time I have put a deer in my Defender 90...Its a little tight haha
http://i1283.photobucket.com/albums/a547/CSG83/IMG_1086_zps8604d869.jpg (http://s1283.photobucket.com/user/CSG83/media/IMG_1086_zps8604d869.jpg.html)
I just mounted the antlers over the holidays, my first mount
http://i1283.photobucket.com/albums/a547/CSG83/IMG_1506_zps749402c6.jpg (http://s1283.photobucket.com/user/CSG83/media/IMG_1506_zps749402c6.jpg.html)
This is going to sound a little sappy to some but I need to give you the context of how I feel about Blacktails.
Although my heart now lives in Kamloops I am a Vancouver boy through and through. All through my formative years I played in the forests of the West Coast and the Gulf Islands. I didnt see alot of deer growing up and still to this day when I am out in the bush around Vancouver I dont see a ton of deer. To be honest, except for the many that browse on the property at my cabin on Gabriola I have only seen 1 buck in a hunt-able area before 2013 and due to our lack of knowledge of private property boundaries, Rbest and I had to pass on him.
Because of how few I have seen in my life and because of the stories I read from people like ProGuide, in my mind I had elevated the Coastal Blacktail to near mythical status. As far as elusiveness and rarity, the Coastal Blacktail buck was second only to the Unicorn.
So a month and some ago when Rbest and I decided to go for a local Blacktail hunt I had resigned myself to a cold and very wet hike in the bush with my gun slung over my shoulder. In the month or so leading up to this hunt, since I had taken my mule deer, I had been motivated by Proguides thread to start looking in my backyard for deer as opposed to my usual Kamloops areas. The amount of knowledge he was willing to share boosted my confidence to think that I was almost a sure thing I would find a blacktail buck despite the complete lack of scouting I had done haha.
After spending hours reading Proguides thread and scouting late night by Google Earth, Rbest and I set out on a very wet, cold and dark morning. After a quick sausage Mcmuffin we were on our way into the bush. I had scouted out an area that seemed close to a driveable road that also seem to have all the characteristics I had read would harbour Blacktails. After a couple hour drive Rbest and I were hiking up a ridiculous ankle breaking river over snow covered rocks. We bushwacked and sweated our way up the side of a mountain all the while finding minute traces of deer but not seeing a thing. Rbest kept suggesting we should check out another spot he knew close by were he had seen sign but I was determined that the spot we were in was better country. After sloggin through the salal for way too long and soaking every thing we were wearing we headed back to the truck and went to the spot my buddy suggested.
The 20 minute drive had us into a spot I felt had had a ton of pressure already. I resigned myself to walking through an area I thought would be fruitless. We walked down an overgrown logging road for 150 yards until we walked to the edge of a small draw that was cleared years ago. We surveyed the draw for 10 seconds and my buddy announced in a not so quiet voice that we had taken the wrong logging road and we werent in the spot he thought we were in. He gave a quick doe bleat on his call and a second later I see a deer saunter up the other side of the draw and stand on the hill looking at us. I raise my rifle and find the deer in the scope...doe.
I only started hunting a couple years ago but one of the first things I was taught is that bucks are usually at the back of the pack following the does. Being that we were in the middle of the rut i moved my scope down the trail through the 12 foot trees and into my scope comes another deer. A buck. 80 yards out. At no point did I ever look directly at the antlers, I caught the dark mahogany of them out of my peripheral through the scope and I new right away there was bone and that was good enough for me.
I placed the cross hairs onto his vitals but the top of a tree was covering them. I havent really had buck fever until I had this elusive near mythical buck in my sights. I was shaking like a leaf and I knew i had to move a couple steps to the left. Without taking my eye out of the scope I took two steps to the left all the while thinking I would watch this guy jump away while I could do nothing about it. My buddy was frozen and couldnt see what I was aiming at, he was frozen just watching me.
Despite my shaking I was able to keep the crosshairs in the vitals and I slowly squeezed the trigger on my new 270 Win Tikka T3. The gun shot like a dream and i was able to watch the buck jump up the other side of the draw with no sign of me hitting him.... WTF? We watch another doe behind him run up the hill and they are gone. Did I really just miss on the very first Blacktail buck I have lined up on?
We walked across the draw as I told my buddy my version of the details. I was sure I had hit him but he didnt react like he was hit at all. I had to hold myself back from a small high five with my buddy until we could find the deer. Walked up the spot where he was standing and there was nothing on the ground, not a drop of blood. My heart was pretty heavy until I looked up the hill and saw a big blood trail in the snow. We ran up the hill and fond the buck pilled up at the base of some trees not 25 yards from where I shot him. The relief of finding him was soon replaced by excitement when I realized I had taken a 3X2! The excitement was even more intense when I realized upon grabbing the antlers that the moss was hiding the fact that he was a 3X3!
Anyways, this story is getting long and you all know how the rest goes.
With one of my best friends I had taken my first Coastal Blacktail and I couldnt have been more excited. Below are a couple pics of him. Although I will get some laughs at my expense I even posted up the pic of me celebrating that Rbest took without my knowledge. I think you can see how excited I was haha
Proguide, as I said in your Trophy Blacktail thread, I owe you a beer next time I drive through Pemberton for the knowledge and inspiration I got from your Trophy Blacktail thread!
Rbest, I wouldnt have wanted anyone else with me when I got my first Blacktail. Thank you for convincing me to walk through an area I thought would be barren of deer haha
http://i1283.photobucket.com/albums/a547/CSG83/IMG_1082_zps6de91069.jpg (http://s1283.photobucket.com/user/CSG83/media/IMG_1082_zps6de91069.jpg.html)
http://i1283.photobucket.com/albums/a547/CSG83/IMG_1070_zpse828852e.jpg (http://s1283.photobucket.com/user/CSG83/media/IMG_1070_zpse828852e.jpg.html)
http://i1283.photobucket.com/albums/a547/CSG83/IMG_1066_zpsae40ee15.jpg (http://s1283.photobucket.com/user/CSG83/media/IMG_1066_zpsae40ee15.jpg.html)
Also the first time I have put a deer in my Defender 90...Its a little tight haha
http://i1283.photobucket.com/albums/a547/CSG83/IMG_1086_zps8604d869.jpg (http://s1283.photobucket.com/user/CSG83/media/IMG_1086_zps8604d869.jpg.html)
I just mounted the antlers over the holidays, my first mount
http://i1283.photobucket.com/albums/a547/CSG83/IMG_1506_zps749402c6.jpg (http://s1283.photobucket.com/user/CSG83/media/IMG_1506_zps749402c6.jpg.html)