nwalter
10-05-2018, 10:12 AM
Not the best story teller but hear goes October 4, 2018 hunt:
Due to weather I had a 5 day gap where I wasn’t working, and being up in the North peace region, I called a couple of buddies that live around there to see if they were interested in hunting. One tells me that they just bought a river boat so we can all go out to see what we can find.
chapter 1: The hunt for Elk
with a quick stop at Tim Horton and go fuel up the boat, we get to the river about 6:30 in the morning just to have the steering column and throttle frozen in the boa. With a few choice words and daylight creeping on us quickly it was looking like everything was finally moving. First light had now passed as we set up the river to find a place to try and call some elk, while a cow moose and calf wade on the side of the river for a cool drink, my buddies discuss where we should try our luck. A suggestion of one spot has one of them vehemently saying he is tired of wasting his time there. So as they argued about how good the spot is potentially, we come around the corner and a beige mass was standing on the rocks just out of the willows. The elk turns and trots back int the little stand of willow and buddy beaches the boat at the far end. Like a video re-enacting storming the beaches of Normandy, my other buddy jumps off with myself right behind him. Knee deep in water we get to ground and run up the back channel hoping to catch the elk coming out of the willow on that side. We spot the elk about 700yds and moving up the channel so buddy let’s out a cow chirp and I keep walking up the side and there the beast stops looking back. I stop and wait til he catches up to me and he watches while I get out of sight so I can move up undetected. Get up a ways closer and hit the rangefinder at clock him somewhere between 492 and 587yds. Get down in prone position on the rocks and line it up thinking this will be a nice cow elk for the freezers. Look through the scope and see bone, so a quick count to make sure there is at least 3 points before letting the 6.5 creedmoor do its job. The elk does not even flinch walks a little to the side and stops, so I load another around and the crack of the rifle echoes through the river valley, and with a little stutter step the 5 point bull drops on the spot. Wait a minutes before heading to the animal, buddy asks if i am sure I hit it as he feels we have walked way further than it looked. Walked half way up the short brush and now am doubting myself because it seems too far so I turn around and start peaking into the stands of poplar looking for blood. Discouraged with no sign of anything I head back to the edge and convince myself to just walk the entire edge of the short stuff. Half way through I hear one last gurgled gasp up ahead of me an 6 feet from a massive pool of blood lay this beautiful animal with 2 holes in him both through the chest. I see both buddies coming up the back channel from the river and I let out a loud, very elated cry. This was my first ever elk and having friends to do it with is fantastic. After a bit of discussion we decided it was coming out whole, which took about 3 hours to get. Ack to where he parked the boat. Got it hung up in another buddy’s shop and as we were finished caping it, buddy comes home. Washing it down he says, hurry up and let’s get the side by side and quad loaded we are going to go look for a moose.
Chapter 2: Late afternoon Moose
we bomb up the highway to a mu that has moose still open and unload. We head it and ptarmigan and getting the spooked up all around us. We find a spot where 2 buddies stop and the other 2 of us head to another little sweet spot and get sat down with about 3 hours of light left. Call after call were not getting us anywhere as the wind picked up, but we decided to stay put anyways. Hearing that first grunt we look at each other and point simultaneously in the same direction. Buddy calls again and nothing until later a couple more grunts but from the other side of the right of way. An hour goes by and not a peep with only 20 minutes of shooting light left we decide to head out. Buddy stands up and let’s out 2 cow calls and a grunt as a last ditch effort and down the hill 200yds in front of us a black mass shoots into the right of way. Having packed my binoculars into my bag and just folding up the bi pod I quickly put my rifle back down to look through the scope and say “ it’s just a cow, no wait it looks like little spikes in front of the ears.” Buddy enthusiastically says ”shoot it.” With one crack the 6.5 let’s that 143gr hornady fly. The moose kicks his back legs up and bolts across the right of way into the trees. After waiting a minute we head down to track the moose but not a drop of blood. Walk along the tree line right stressed, worrying I just wounded an animal or worse gut shot and have it run forever. In the trees I see what looks like a big black rock about 15 feet in. Thinking my mind is playing tricks similar to all the stump bucks we have all seen, I venture in just to prove myself it is a rock, and there payed the massive body with these littl 7 inch spikes. This was not only my first elk day, my first double dip day, but also my first moose as well.
https://imgur.com/gallery/bqr1tPJ. Hopefully this works
Due to weather I had a 5 day gap where I wasn’t working, and being up in the North peace region, I called a couple of buddies that live around there to see if they were interested in hunting. One tells me that they just bought a river boat so we can all go out to see what we can find.
chapter 1: The hunt for Elk
with a quick stop at Tim Horton and go fuel up the boat, we get to the river about 6:30 in the morning just to have the steering column and throttle frozen in the boa. With a few choice words and daylight creeping on us quickly it was looking like everything was finally moving. First light had now passed as we set up the river to find a place to try and call some elk, while a cow moose and calf wade on the side of the river for a cool drink, my buddies discuss where we should try our luck. A suggestion of one spot has one of them vehemently saying he is tired of wasting his time there. So as they argued about how good the spot is potentially, we come around the corner and a beige mass was standing on the rocks just out of the willows. The elk turns and trots back int the little stand of willow and buddy beaches the boat at the far end. Like a video re-enacting storming the beaches of Normandy, my other buddy jumps off with myself right behind him. Knee deep in water we get to ground and run up the back channel hoping to catch the elk coming out of the willow on that side. We spot the elk about 700yds and moving up the channel so buddy let’s out a cow chirp and I keep walking up the side and there the beast stops looking back. I stop and wait til he catches up to me and he watches while I get out of sight so I can move up undetected. Get up a ways closer and hit the rangefinder at clock him somewhere between 492 and 587yds. Get down in prone position on the rocks and line it up thinking this will be a nice cow elk for the freezers. Look through the scope and see bone, so a quick count to make sure there is at least 3 points before letting the 6.5 creedmoor do its job. The elk does not even flinch walks a little to the side and stops, so I load another around and the crack of the rifle echoes through the river valley, and with a little stutter step the 5 point bull drops on the spot. Wait a minutes before heading to the animal, buddy asks if i am sure I hit it as he feels we have walked way further than it looked. Walked half way up the short brush and now am doubting myself because it seems too far so I turn around and start peaking into the stands of poplar looking for blood. Discouraged with no sign of anything I head back to the edge and convince myself to just walk the entire edge of the short stuff. Half way through I hear one last gurgled gasp up ahead of me an 6 feet from a massive pool of blood lay this beautiful animal with 2 holes in him both through the chest. I see both buddies coming up the back channel from the river and I let out a loud, very elated cry. This was my first ever elk and having friends to do it with is fantastic. After a bit of discussion we decided it was coming out whole, which took about 3 hours to get. Ack to where he parked the boat. Got it hung up in another buddy’s shop and as we were finished caping it, buddy comes home. Washing it down he says, hurry up and let’s get the side by side and quad loaded we are going to go look for a moose.
Chapter 2: Late afternoon Moose
we bomb up the highway to a mu that has moose still open and unload. We head it and ptarmigan and getting the spooked up all around us. We find a spot where 2 buddies stop and the other 2 of us head to another little sweet spot and get sat down with about 3 hours of light left. Call after call were not getting us anywhere as the wind picked up, but we decided to stay put anyways. Hearing that first grunt we look at each other and point simultaneously in the same direction. Buddy calls again and nothing until later a couple more grunts but from the other side of the right of way. An hour goes by and not a peep with only 20 minutes of shooting light left we decide to head out. Buddy stands up and let’s out 2 cow calls and a grunt as a last ditch effort and down the hill 200yds in front of us a black mass shoots into the right of way. Having packed my binoculars into my bag and just folding up the bi pod I quickly put my rifle back down to look through the scope and say “ it’s just a cow, no wait it looks like little spikes in front of the ears.” Buddy enthusiastically says ”shoot it.” With one crack the 6.5 let’s that 143gr hornady fly. The moose kicks his back legs up and bolts across the right of way into the trees. After waiting a minute we head down to track the moose but not a drop of blood. Walk along the tree line right stressed, worrying I just wounded an animal or worse gut shot and have it run forever. In the trees I see what looks like a big black rock about 15 feet in. Thinking my mind is playing tricks similar to all the stump bucks we have all seen, I venture in just to prove myself it is a rock, and there payed the massive body with these littl 7 inch spikes. This was not only my first elk day, my first double dip day, but also my first moose as well.
https://imgur.com/gallery/bqr1tPJ. Hopefully this works