sdurango41
11-14-2016, 05:22 PM
I did not get to post a 2015 story as I only managed to drop a little meat buck on the island. Was not really worthy of the post. Fast forward to 2016 and there is more to talk about. May be a long one but heh it has a happy ending!!
So we were lucky enough to draw an LEH bull in 7-24. So after many hours of searching through Google earth and old hunting threads on HBC and some sage advice from a few members on the site we head off from the Island to the Davie Muskeg Road just before Bear Lake. We used to hunt along the Salmon River in 7-15 with some success but decided to try out 7-24 this year.
As mentioned we spent a lot of time on Google earth so we had a few possible campsites in mind but would not know where to stay until we got there. After a night in a campsite near Quesnel and a fuel stop North of PG we head in on the Davie Muskeg. We get to where we can turn off the mainline and hopefully get away from the numerous logging trucks we encountered heading in. We check out campsite option one and we figure it will be a good starting point as we can always pack up and move. It was an older road that went into a small slash and dead ended. We could camp about 300 yards before the slash so we figured perfect. Just as we are about to drive the rigs in an old timer is heading out in his truck from the little slash. We have a great chat with him and he lets us know that they are camped about 2 km away and we might want to move to their spot as it is really good and they are leaving the following morning. We say thanks but decide to camp as planned. He also mentioned that there was some fresh moose sign at the end of the little slash that was just beyond camp. He also mentioned that his group had only seen one cow and a small spike fork (they were open) but no shot presented itself. He also mentioned that there was a pack of wolves running around. About a dozen of them.
So we set up camp and head out to scout out a bit of the area for the afternoon knowing we can only shoot a spike fork as the LEH does not open until the following morning. Basically get the lay of the land and see what sign we see. We drive around and get out and put the boots to the ground and make a few calls to see if we can get any answers. No answers, very little fresh sign but at least there is some sign. We decide to head back to camp late in the afternoon and head down to the little slash beyond camp. We get set up and make a few calls and hear nothing back. We do this for the final couple of hours until it is starting to get dim. We decide to pull out and get back to camp and get a fire going and get prepped for opening morning of the LEH draw. I decide to wander over to look over a small knob that leads down towards a marshy area for a quick look on my way out. I get to where I can see down to the tree line edge and almost immediately I see movement. Up goes the binos. I see bone... not very big bone either. It is moving away from me at about 75 yards. I give him a little grunt to stop him. He stops and is looking right at me. I am counting points on one side. Damn 3 points I am then trying to decipher in the fading light whether the other side is 2 or 3. By now my buddy is beside me and he is on it as well. I keep asking what he counts and saying that I have three on the left but I cant see if there is 2 or 3 on the right. My hunting partner is blind on the best of days but with fading light and lots of twigs behind head and ears his sight is about as good as tits on a bull in giving me a definitive YES he has a two on the right...... well I was not holding my breath put it that way. I try to move to my left and right all the while giving little grunts to keep the bull from moving. I was 95% sure it was a two point but not 100% so I do not shoot. I decide to try and get closer but as I move he moves. Not quickly but I know it is only a matter of time. I just can't 100% confirm so I let him walk. Great start to the trip though!! First day, first bull and had it been the following day it would have been shot at first sight as the LEH was open.
The next morning we wake up with a spring in our step expecting there to be moose on every trail. Boy were we wrong. We hunted all over the place for the next few days only to see one set of fresh bull tracks and a cow and calf track with wolves right on them. At the beginning of the trip we had decided that if we did not get a moose we were going to head south mid trip to go after muleys as we did not want to go home empty handed. So it was decided that we would hunt the following day and then the following morning and pack up and head south. So we get up and decide to go back to where we saw the bull on the first evening and make a few calls. So just as first light is breaking the first call is sent out. Almost right away we get an answer and it is just on the other side of the small lake that we can see. We continue to play the love game with this bull for the next 45 minutes or so. He is getting closer and closer and closer to the point that he has to step out into the bottom of the little slash that we have covered at any second. We hear cracks and twigs breaking and water being crossed and then........nothing. He shuts up and just disappears. We try for the next hour or two to rekindle the relationship but he will have nothing to do with us. I don't know if he saw us move or scented us but he just disappeared. So we pull out and decide to come back later in the day and make some calls for the evening hunt. We put some more miles on the boots the rest of the day but I continuously replay our encounter and try and figure out what we could have done differently. To be honest the wind was good, we knew he was close so no movement. he just decided that something was not right.
So after a fireside discussion over a couple of luckys we decide that if it does not happen the following morning we are packing up and heading south towards Williams Lake for deer. So up we get and we head down to the slash in the dark and set up to make some calls in hopes that the big boy that was there the previous morning has changed his mind and he wants a piece of what we are offering!! So out goes the first call........ nothing........we wait about 15 or 20 min. out goes the second call........ we wait...out goes the third call then the fourth and the fifth. nothing!!!! I can't believe that we did not get one answer. I have to say I was pretty discouraged after the previous morning.
Then I look down at the tree edge about 150 yards from where we were hunkered down and there is a big bloody bull standing there looking up in our general direction. I don't know how he just...appeared without a sound. It was thick and ugly and he just materialized. I whisper to my buddy...MOOSE. I don't have a shot as he is head on. But I know he has to turn to head back into the trees one way or the other. Finally after what seems forever he turns and starts to head along the tree line but definitely like he is going to head back into the thick stuff. I line up behind the shoulder and wham I let him have it. I see it hit him and he wavers for a second. then he turns and I know that if he gets 15 yards farther he is into some really ugly stuff and it will not be fun getting him out of there. So I let him have it again and his back end starts to go down and I am ready for the high fives. Then he gets up and starts to go again so I let him have it one more time and this time he is down for good. Wow what a morning. From packing the truck and trailer in short order to quartering out a moose and heading out for deer. So the whole crew arrives and we make reasonably short work of him and get him out to the truck. It was a great trip and we ended up with a couple of muley bucks to top it off. I will spare you the long drawn out story on those!! LOL
Pictures to follow once I figure out how to download. Some pictures of the bull as well as one with my dad and a nice backstrap. Also one of his nice 3 X4 muley buck!!
So we were lucky enough to draw an LEH bull in 7-24. So after many hours of searching through Google earth and old hunting threads on HBC and some sage advice from a few members on the site we head off from the Island to the Davie Muskeg Road just before Bear Lake. We used to hunt along the Salmon River in 7-15 with some success but decided to try out 7-24 this year.
As mentioned we spent a lot of time on Google earth so we had a few possible campsites in mind but would not know where to stay until we got there. After a night in a campsite near Quesnel and a fuel stop North of PG we head in on the Davie Muskeg. We get to where we can turn off the mainline and hopefully get away from the numerous logging trucks we encountered heading in. We check out campsite option one and we figure it will be a good starting point as we can always pack up and move. It was an older road that went into a small slash and dead ended. We could camp about 300 yards before the slash so we figured perfect. Just as we are about to drive the rigs in an old timer is heading out in his truck from the little slash. We have a great chat with him and he lets us know that they are camped about 2 km away and we might want to move to their spot as it is really good and they are leaving the following morning. We say thanks but decide to camp as planned. He also mentioned that there was some fresh moose sign at the end of the little slash that was just beyond camp. He also mentioned that his group had only seen one cow and a small spike fork (they were open) but no shot presented itself. He also mentioned that there was a pack of wolves running around. About a dozen of them.
So we set up camp and head out to scout out a bit of the area for the afternoon knowing we can only shoot a spike fork as the LEH does not open until the following morning. Basically get the lay of the land and see what sign we see. We drive around and get out and put the boots to the ground and make a few calls to see if we can get any answers. No answers, very little fresh sign but at least there is some sign. We decide to head back to camp late in the afternoon and head down to the little slash beyond camp. We get set up and make a few calls and hear nothing back. We do this for the final couple of hours until it is starting to get dim. We decide to pull out and get back to camp and get a fire going and get prepped for opening morning of the LEH draw. I decide to wander over to look over a small knob that leads down towards a marshy area for a quick look on my way out. I get to where I can see down to the tree line edge and almost immediately I see movement. Up goes the binos. I see bone... not very big bone either. It is moving away from me at about 75 yards. I give him a little grunt to stop him. He stops and is looking right at me. I am counting points on one side. Damn 3 points I am then trying to decipher in the fading light whether the other side is 2 or 3. By now my buddy is beside me and he is on it as well. I keep asking what he counts and saying that I have three on the left but I cant see if there is 2 or 3 on the right. My hunting partner is blind on the best of days but with fading light and lots of twigs behind head and ears his sight is about as good as tits on a bull in giving me a definitive YES he has a two on the right...... well I was not holding my breath put it that way. I try to move to my left and right all the while giving little grunts to keep the bull from moving. I was 95% sure it was a two point but not 100% so I do not shoot. I decide to try and get closer but as I move he moves. Not quickly but I know it is only a matter of time. I just can't 100% confirm so I let him walk. Great start to the trip though!! First day, first bull and had it been the following day it would have been shot at first sight as the LEH was open.
The next morning we wake up with a spring in our step expecting there to be moose on every trail. Boy were we wrong. We hunted all over the place for the next few days only to see one set of fresh bull tracks and a cow and calf track with wolves right on them. At the beginning of the trip we had decided that if we did not get a moose we were going to head south mid trip to go after muleys as we did not want to go home empty handed. So it was decided that we would hunt the following day and then the following morning and pack up and head south. So we get up and decide to go back to where we saw the bull on the first evening and make a few calls. So just as first light is breaking the first call is sent out. Almost right away we get an answer and it is just on the other side of the small lake that we can see. We continue to play the love game with this bull for the next 45 minutes or so. He is getting closer and closer and closer to the point that he has to step out into the bottom of the little slash that we have covered at any second. We hear cracks and twigs breaking and water being crossed and then........nothing. He shuts up and just disappears. We try for the next hour or two to rekindle the relationship but he will have nothing to do with us. I don't know if he saw us move or scented us but he just disappeared. So we pull out and decide to come back later in the day and make some calls for the evening hunt. We put some more miles on the boots the rest of the day but I continuously replay our encounter and try and figure out what we could have done differently. To be honest the wind was good, we knew he was close so no movement. he just decided that something was not right.
So after a fireside discussion over a couple of luckys we decide that if it does not happen the following morning we are packing up and heading south towards Williams Lake for deer. So up we get and we head down to the slash in the dark and set up to make some calls in hopes that the big boy that was there the previous morning has changed his mind and he wants a piece of what we are offering!! So out goes the first call........ nothing........we wait about 15 or 20 min. out goes the second call........ we wait...out goes the third call then the fourth and the fifth. nothing!!!! I can't believe that we did not get one answer. I have to say I was pretty discouraged after the previous morning.
Then I look down at the tree edge about 150 yards from where we were hunkered down and there is a big bloody bull standing there looking up in our general direction. I don't know how he just...appeared without a sound. It was thick and ugly and he just materialized. I whisper to my buddy...MOOSE. I don't have a shot as he is head on. But I know he has to turn to head back into the trees one way or the other. Finally after what seems forever he turns and starts to head along the tree line but definitely like he is going to head back into the thick stuff. I line up behind the shoulder and wham I let him have it. I see it hit him and he wavers for a second. then he turns and I know that if he gets 15 yards farther he is into some really ugly stuff and it will not be fun getting him out of there. So I let him have it again and his back end starts to go down and I am ready for the high fives. Then he gets up and starts to go again so I let him have it one more time and this time he is down for good. Wow what a morning. From packing the truck and trailer in short order to quartering out a moose and heading out for deer. So the whole crew arrives and we make reasonably short work of him and get him out to the truck. It was a great trip and we ended up with a couple of muley bucks to top it off. I will spare you the long drawn out story on those!! LOL
Pictures to follow once I figure out how to download. Some pictures of the bull as well as one with my dad and a nice backstrap. Also one of his nice 3 X4 muley buck!!