Whitetail Pursuit 2014

[Sitkaspruce]

Some of this years targets. All are from the same spot where I killed my buck last year.

Click on the pictures to see video.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/2014%20game%20camera/th_PICT0004_zpstqx2ejzd.mp4 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/2014%20game%20camera/PICT0004_zpstqx2ejzd.mp4)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/2014%20game%20camera/th_PICT0598_zpswgreh3j4.mp4 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/2014%20game%20camera/PICT0598_zpswgreh3j4.mp4)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/2014%20game%20camera/th_PICT0551_zpsti6fnweu.mp4 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/2014%20game%20camera/PICT0551_zpsti6fnweu.mp4)

The view

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/Hunt%20fish%202014/IMG_0091_zpsf1297b59.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Sitkaspruce/media/Hunt%20fish%202014/IMG_0091_zpsf1297b59.jpg.html)

to be continued.....

Cheers

SS

[zippermouth]

looking forward to this thread. looks like a nice spot to spend some time in the blind!!!

[Ourea]

This should be good.
Looking forward to your thread Sitka Ken!!!

[Sitkaspruce]

Click on the first picture

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/2014%20game%20camera/th_PICT0422_zpstr9q7kjd.mp4 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/2014%20game%20camera/PICT0422_zpstr9q7kjd.mp4)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/Hunt%20fish%202014/IMGP1104_zps7252efd8.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Sitkaspruce/media/Hunt%20fish%202014/IMGP1104_zps7252efd8.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/Hunt%20fish%202014/IMGP1105_zps863dabc3.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Sitkaspruce/media/Hunt%20fish%202014/IMGP1105_zps863dabc3.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/Hunt%20fish%202014/IMGP1106_zpsf6ff0dfd.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Sitkaspruce/media/Hunt%20fish%202014/IMGP1106_zpsf6ff0dfd.jpg.html)

To be continued.....

Cheers

SS

[.300WSMImpact!]

perfect shoot! cant wait for more

[fuzzybiscuit]

Dead deer running!

[Sitkaspruce]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/Hunt%20fish%202014/ashelays_zps6b63c4f1.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Sitkaspruce/media/Hunt%20fish%202014/ashelays_zps6b63c4f1.jpg.html)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/Hunt%20fish%202014/meandthedeer_zpsfd1a5bbe.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Sitkaspruce/media/Hunt%20fish%202014/meandthedeer_zpsfd1a5bbe.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/Hunt%20fish%202014/IMGP1122_zps9e013efb.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Sitkaspruce/media/Hunt%20fish%202014/IMGP1122_zps9e013efb.jpg.html)

Story to follow, off to hockey.

Tag cut. Deer season finished.

Cheers

SS

[boilerroom]

amazing! thanks for such great footage (so far :) )

Cheers,
BR

[coach]

Great stuff, Ken! Thanks for sharing your story (I know it's coming), pics and t-cam videos! It's guys like you sharing your knowledge and experiences that make sites like this worth visiting. Kudos!

[Salty]

damn straight SS you're gonna be a Peace country pro in no time :mrgreen: WTG bud I miss the real winter hunting thanks for the great pics and bringing us along

[srupp]

Well done, agsin Ken...exellent adventure...
Cheers
Steven


Some snow..any elk starting to move..?

[Rattler]

Great thread Ken. Nice work capturing the shot. Congrats on a nice buck and thanks for sharing.

[guest]

Congrats SS. Beauty !

[Ourea]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/Hunt%20fish%202014/ashelays_zps6b63c4f1.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Sitkaspruce/media/Hunt%20fish%202014/ashelays_zps6b63c4f1.jpg.html)
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/Hunt%20fish%202014/meandthedeer_zpsfd1a5bbe.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Sitkaspruce/media/Hunt%20fish%202014/meandthedeer_zpsfd1a5bbe.jpg.html)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/Hunt%20fish%202014/IMGP1122_zps9e013efb.jpg (http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Sitkaspruce/media/Hunt%20fish%202014/IMGP1122_zps9e013efb.jpg.html)

Story to follow, off to hockey.

Tag cut. Deer season finished.

Cheers

SS

Love the "coffin toboggan" !!!!
Every WT hunter needs one.

[Canuck2]

Great effort (not that you didn't enjoy it) results in nice buck. Well done.

[HarryToolips]

Way to go nice buck how long you wait til he showed up?

[HuntNmemories]

well done, SS good lookin' buck and meat for the freezer!!

[Stone Sheep Steve]

Wow! I just had a deja-vous!;)

Congrats SS! Way to capitalize on the time that you invested! It only takes a moment but you need to always be ready.

SSS

[Blainer]

Great share!
tfs

[luckofthedraw]

Nice work. Thanks for sharing.

[.264winmag]

Beauty buck, thanks for sharing and keep the details coming!

[kennyj]

Nice buck. Thanks for sharing your hunting season.
kenny

[Sitkaspruce]

Here is the story.....

It has been a strange year. We had record drought this summer and the bucks were pretty well non-existent during the summer, although lot and lots of does and fawns were pretty regular. Most of the does had twins and even one had triplets.

Jump to the end of Oct and bam, the bucks started to show up....not lots, but the odd one was starting hang around. No "shooter" bucks had shown up at this or my other site. But I knew they were there, the does were around so the bucks would soon show up....right???? November rolls around and still nothing, other than a couple smaller bucks. The does were there and were showing up at all hours, so the bait was around.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/2014%20game%20camera/th_PICT0900_zps6jadbhbu.mp4 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/2014%20game%20camera/PICT0900_zps6jadbhbu.mp4)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/2014%20game%20camera/th_PICT0035_zpslg5qoa1w.mp4 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/2014%20game%20camera/PICT0035_zpslg5qoa1w.mp4)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/2014%20game%20camera/th_PICT0805_zpstgaucsga.mp4 (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v489/Sitkaspruce/2014%20game%20camera/PICT0805_zpstgaucsga.mp4)

Started sitting in the blind Nov 09. Nothing, same as the 10th. Back at it Nov 15th, 16th, 17th, 3 does seen, Nov 23rd nothing.

Nov 24th found me heading back in wondering if I was going to the right spot....again. There was fresh tracks on the trail into the blind, but they were going the wrong way, and one had blood in it....

Settled in and waited the 30 min to let things settle down. Picked up the rattling horns and gave a sequence over a few minutes, grabbed the grunt tube and can call and repeated another sequence, then settled in. At around 9, I grunted and can called a few times and sat back down. I was just getting back into my book and happen to look up and caught movement coming form the east.....buck!! I slowly put down the book, grabbed the binos and took a look. Yup it was the 4x5 buck that had been on camera a few times....and he was focus right on me and the blind. I know I was hidden pretty good, but obviously he was focus on the area, looking for the grunting buck and doe in heat. As he continued to circle the area trying to pick up my wind, he stopped as I brought the gun up....the rest is history.

After the shot, he disappeared quick. It is very thick where I hunt, 50m is a long way to see, so I did not see which way he went. I gave him 15 min and then went to where I thought he was. I walked all the trails and did not find anything. After 20 min of searching and nothing, I was thinking of heading home to get the dog.....and the possibility that I missed..... As I was walking back, I noticed a small red mark in the snow, picked it up and discovered blood!!! I soon put together a trail by getting down on hands and knees and finding small drops here and there. After about 40m, the trail was more obvious and soon the buck was mine.

Gun was a Winchester Extreme Weather in 270 wsm w/140 gr NAB in front of 69 gr of Retumbo. Shot took out both lungs and exited....never to be found.

The buck is a 4x5, not the shooter I was looking for, but with it being the last day I could get out, the boss wanting sausage and pepperoni and the freezer being almost empty, I was happy to take him. He had over 1.5' of fat on his a$$ that carried all the way to his front shoulders and gobs of it inside. His glands were white and closed, his neck was normal and he had very little bark on his antlers.

Things I learned this year;

- the big bucks don't get that way by being stupid. Of all the shooter bucks I have video/pictures of, only one showed up in the daylight and that was early Nov. The buck I took was the first time he showed up during daylight. The little bucks were busy all day and non-existent at night.
- I used a grunt tube and can call with a set of antlers a lot more this year. The new grunt tube from Jerry Wilson that was recommended from a fellow hunter has a different grunt sound that the mass produced ones don't and all the changes you can do with it allowed me the change pitch and tone. The buck I killed came to the grunt tube and can call.
- set up in the transition zone. This summer the fields a klick away were oats, last year they were canola. Deer love both. I scouted the area and found their bedding area, a thick coniferous stand with a swamp off two side. I then found an opening about 500m from their bedding and a klick from the fields and set up a salt lick this summer. Deer were there all summer, does and fawns.
- hunt the thick stuff. This particular spot was an area with lots of old blowdown, so it was fairly open (50m) surrounded by thick stands of aspen and brush. The site was 400m from an access rd that has hunters have been hunting since Sept. The deer would parallel the road, 50-60m away and travel from their bedding area to the fields and back again, only crossing the road to hit the fields.
- don't be surprised if things really change when Nov roles around. One spot, that produced a 150 class wt buck from my buddy last year, had wt does and fawns all summer long that suddenly stopped producing anything.....then a week later, about 15 muley does and a med 4x4 buck showed up and never left up until last week. One small wt 4x4 buck showed up for one night and was never seen again. And I had only seen one MD show up all summer.
-I hunted 42 hours in that one blind and saw 8 deer, including the buck I shot. He was the only buck I saw, but knowing there was at least one shooter there kept me coming back.

Thanks for reading.

Cheers

SS

[BCrams]

Fantastic persistence!! Way to go on a dandy buck and sharing the hunt.

[Ourea]

Good job SS!
Most have no idea the effort and persistence that some put in to a WT season.
Your a shining example. Hope everyone understands and respects what u do to kill a WT.
Respect to u and thanks for sharing.

You obviously had endless days of freshening up ur sites with a heavy pack.
The excitement of pulling cards with finger crossed hoping for the "shooter" buck to be there.
Then the endless hrs in the blind(s).....waiting...waiting...waiting...waiting ...waiting...waiting...waiting....hoping.

Its one thing sitting in a tiny blind staring at the same small window of view for days.
Do it in minus 20 to minus 30 temperatures...that takes serious conviction and mental fortitude.

You did what it took...and that was a lot.

[Salty]

Thanks for taking the time to put so many of your findings down SS. Great buck, awesome season long hunt.

[boilerroom]

Hey SS, kudos for a great hunt - and even more for telling us about it. Lots of jewels in the story to help eager, new hunters like me learn what it takes.

Cheers,
BR

[markomoose]

Beautiful buck SS.Love late season hunts.Looks cold.I used the tobaggin trick last weekend as well on a small 4 point muley.It was -40 below when we jumped out of the truck at Meldrum Creek last Sunday.

[jeff341]

Great read. Thanks for sharing so many details. Great information to use in any area in order to begin the search for bucks.....it's appreciated.

well done.

[Sitkaspruce]

Thanks Everyone!!!

Yes temperatures varied between -10 and -24, one day the wind made it -35.......a north wind right in to the blind....thanks to the little buddy heater!!!

Snow depth was 20+ inches, which had the deer starting to yard up a little.

Couple more things if you use a blind;

- set it up early, really early in the season, let the deer get used t it....learn that the hard way last year. This year the deer were walking 1m away from it (not while I was in it though)
- Get to know you two prominent wind directions for the fall/winter. Down here it is N/NE when the snow and cold moves it and S/SW when the sun is shining. I set the blind up SE of the location, which worked most days, but we had a couple strange SE wind days, which had me moved to another site. Really pay attention to the wind. I have a second site that is set up with a blind NE so if the wind is cold, it is the place to go.
- Get a heater, I have the little buddy heater and it works great, keeps the temp bearable when it was really cold. Find things to keep you occupied, it can be very boring and detrimental to keep doing it when looking out the same window and seeing nothing. I like to read a lot and play games on the tablet, which really helps pass the time. I also have a fleece blanket that I lay over top of my legs to keep warm. Also get one of those cheap foam seats and put it on the ground for your boots, helps with keeping boots warm and off the cold ground.

Oh and one more thing.....the story is not completely finished......

Cheers

SS

[Salty]

C'mon dude you can't leave us hangin here.. :)