gearjunkierob
10-10-2007, 02:36 PM
Wow - do I ever have a lot to be thankful for! First off my wife let me head off to the interior deer hunting on Thanksgiving weekend, even though it was our first Thanksgiving with our new daughter (I'm looking forward to many thanksgiving hunts with her when she gets older). I am fortunate enough to have a co-worker who transferred out to an office up at Williams Lake. He knows the country in the area like the back of his hand as he grew up there as well and worked as a cowboy before he began his current career. He offered to take me out on a hunt. Here is what happened:
The wife and daughter left Friday morning giving me the evening to pack and prep for my trip. Some last minute modifications to the Tahoe - I had to install a basket rack up top to hold my "stinky" deer so the wife didn't get pissed off - and I hit the sack. Woke up saturday morning and headed out to 100 mile to meet up with some friends for coffee at Timmy's before heading into the bush. Drove for two hours on logging roads at a ridiculously high rate of speed (apparently when you know the roads like the back of your hand, you drive 'em REAL fast up there). Drove through a neat little community in the middle of nowhere, about an hour up one of the logging roads. I was surprised to see it so far away from pavement! Got to the area we were planning to hunt around 4:30, set up camp and headed out for an evening hunt....what a beautiful piece of country. I'd never seen rolling grasslands like this before! I was surprised a bit when my hunting partner Tom, pulled out his iron sighted 45-70 saddle gun. Not what I expected to see, but on hindsight anything less from Tom would have been disappointing. When I asked about the rifle, Tom said something like "he had to get pretty close to an animal to make a shot, but whatever he hit with it was going to die - and quick." No doubt! The rifle fired 300 grain hollow pointed "mini slugs!" We headed out on the grasslands behind our camp and saw a huge amount of tracks that offered promise...no animals though. Back to camp at dark, cooked up some supper and hit the sack for an early morning.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/Still0003.jpg
Sunday morning dawned calm. The previous night had been windy and cold so we were both pleasantly surprised to wake up to decent weather. We brewed up some coffee and headed out with no delay. We spent the better part of the morning hunting the same area we looked at the previous night. I found it hard to believe that there could be so many tracks in such wide open country but we couldn't find a damn thing. We heard a shot off in the distance and assumed somebody had connected with an animal. Good for them! The rest of the morning was spent picking apart every drainage, gulley and watering hole in the vicinity of camp. We reached a stand of poplars and heard some crashing in the bushes. I knelt down, rifle at the ready and waited for my buck to emerge on the far side of the brush. I was in the perfect position to take my first buck...the only problem was that the creature that emerged from the bushes was a huge free range bull, and not the buck I desired...damn!
Back to our campsite for lunch and to plan out our afternoon hunt. We got into one of the trucks and took a drive through one of the biggest working cattle ranches in Canada. It is huge, and I think that the local deer are well aware that there is no hunting on the ranch. We watched around thirty deer bounce off of an alfalfa field right in front of the truck...so many deer, yet we couldn't harvest one!
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/Still0004.jpg
Oh well, we continued on our journey through the ranch, stopped and parked just past the boundary and went for a walk up a "hill" into the "woods" - sure isn't the terrain I'm used to, rolling hills and widely spaced trees made for great visibility and easy walking. The grass we were walking on was nice and quiet. If only the wind would quit shifting directions.....Tom was in front leading the way when I saw a flash of white - and a doe sprung away from us up the hill. Try as I might, it just wouldn't grow antlers. If a doe was here, a buck might be in the vicinity so we skirted around the base of the hill and tried to find him...nothing. We cut the sign of the doe that ran from us as she headed up and over the hill and then down into a gulley leading into a grassland pasture a good distance off. We headed back to camp a little disappointed, but at least we had seen something.
Back at camp we ate dinner at chatted about the next day. Tom had to leave around lunchtime but he was taking me to an area he felt offered real promise. It was behind a locked gate, and not many people headed out that way...it had also been burned the previous spring and had greened up quite nicely. I couldn't wait. Not folks prone to sitting around, we went out onto the hills below camp for another evening hunt. I sat over a waterhole until I got bored and wandered up onto a ridge. I thought I spotted something white on the ground in a gulley and walked over to investigate. I found a nice shed. It had been there for some time and had been chewed up a bit, but the bases were really thick....looks like they grow some big bucks in these parts!
Dawn of our last morning. We wake up and look at the stars, and our breath. It was cold. Tom was excited as he felt the cold would get the deer moving early. I also noted that the moon was just a tiny sliver. I was hopeful that the deer would be taking advantage of first light to feed as it had been a pretty dark night. Tom drives me to his spot, and we walk in nice and quiet. I have to admit that I was disappointed to see cattle grazing in "the spot." I somehow didn't anticipate we would be hunting a cattle pasture (crown land)! Tom tells me to glass the tree line for bucks....nothing. We walk a little further along the edge of the pasture and I think I see some brown lumps over near the trees. I get the glasses out and spot a couple does. Damn, no antlers on these ones either! This was prime grassland, and we figured there would be more deer feeding in the meadow so we kept walking. I glassed up three more deer quite a distance off. So far away that even with my 10x Bushnell’s, I couldn't make out antlers. We tried to stalk up a little closer. Still couldn't make anything out. Closer yet, and one of the does must have heard something or caught our scent. She had her head up in alert posture. We let her settle down and tried to get a little closer. She still wasn't happy and trotted off. The other two deer were oblivious, and we tried to keep a tree (yes, one tree) between us and the sparse stand of fir they were under. I took out the glasses again and lo to my eyes, one of them was a buck! Wahoo! If things went well from here on out I might not be going home empty-handed after all! I put the glasses down and shortly thereafter Tom whispers "they are fighting." Sure enough, I look and what I had thought was a buck and a doe were sparring. I guess that one of the bucks must have been a small spiker and I was still so far away I couldn't make out his antlers. We had approached as close as we felt comfortable - all that was between us and them was one lone fir tree. Tom looked over at me and asked "how's that rig for long shots?" I said it wasn't bad so we talked about trying for the bigger buck from where we were. I asked Tom how far he figured we were away. He guessed at 300 yrds minimum. Wow. That's a long way for my first buck. I was pretty confident in my shooting ability, though, so I decided to give it a try. I set my pack up on an old stump and set my scope to maximum power. Then we waited for the buck to walk into a spot where I would have a clear shot....here goes. I hold over the appropriate distance for the yardage and BAM! My rifle leaped in my hands. I finally get it back on target and fully expect to see my buck lying on the ground....nope - he's just standing there trying to sort out where the shot came from. Damn! One more try - BAM! Another clean miss! I can't believe it! I'm always on target at the range! Grrrr....Tom says he thinks my bullets are landing in front of the buck. I chamber the last shell in my rifle, and this time aim for the top of the base of the neck. BAM! The buck hunched up, turned around and walked off 15 or 20 yards. A hit! We watched it go back into the area he came from and bed down....my first buck! He didn't die right away, which would have been nice, but he didn't suffer for too long. We gave him 10 or 15 mins and walked up. I put one in his neck just to make sure, and it was time for pictures. What a great feeling!
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/20071008_081422.JPG
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/20071008_081449.JPG
I soon discovered that after the kill, the real work begins. While Tom headed back for the truck, I got to work gutting my deer. I'd seen it done once before, and had read some books on the subject, but I'd never done it myself. In the end, as long as it's clean, it's done, I guess but I'm sure there are folks with a lot better technique out there!
Got him home and skinned out yesterday then off to the butcher. I can't wait to taste that yummy tender meat! To top it all off, my wife came home with some left over thanksgiving dinner last night so we could celebrate Thanksgiving together after all.
The wife and daughter left Friday morning giving me the evening to pack and prep for my trip. Some last minute modifications to the Tahoe - I had to install a basket rack up top to hold my "stinky" deer so the wife didn't get pissed off - and I hit the sack. Woke up saturday morning and headed out to 100 mile to meet up with some friends for coffee at Timmy's before heading into the bush. Drove for two hours on logging roads at a ridiculously high rate of speed (apparently when you know the roads like the back of your hand, you drive 'em REAL fast up there). Drove through a neat little community in the middle of nowhere, about an hour up one of the logging roads. I was surprised to see it so far away from pavement! Got to the area we were planning to hunt around 4:30, set up camp and headed out for an evening hunt....what a beautiful piece of country. I'd never seen rolling grasslands like this before! I was surprised a bit when my hunting partner Tom, pulled out his iron sighted 45-70 saddle gun. Not what I expected to see, but on hindsight anything less from Tom would have been disappointing. When I asked about the rifle, Tom said something like "he had to get pretty close to an animal to make a shot, but whatever he hit with it was going to die - and quick." No doubt! The rifle fired 300 grain hollow pointed "mini slugs!" We headed out on the grasslands behind our camp and saw a huge amount of tracks that offered promise...no animals though. Back to camp at dark, cooked up some supper and hit the sack for an early morning.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/Still0003.jpg
Sunday morning dawned calm. The previous night had been windy and cold so we were both pleasantly surprised to wake up to decent weather. We brewed up some coffee and headed out with no delay. We spent the better part of the morning hunting the same area we looked at the previous night. I found it hard to believe that there could be so many tracks in such wide open country but we couldn't find a damn thing. We heard a shot off in the distance and assumed somebody had connected with an animal. Good for them! The rest of the morning was spent picking apart every drainage, gulley and watering hole in the vicinity of camp. We reached a stand of poplars and heard some crashing in the bushes. I knelt down, rifle at the ready and waited for my buck to emerge on the far side of the brush. I was in the perfect position to take my first buck...the only problem was that the creature that emerged from the bushes was a huge free range bull, and not the buck I desired...damn!
Back to our campsite for lunch and to plan out our afternoon hunt. We got into one of the trucks and took a drive through one of the biggest working cattle ranches in Canada. It is huge, and I think that the local deer are well aware that there is no hunting on the ranch. We watched around thirty deer bounce off of an alfalfa field right in front of the truck...so many deer, yet we couldn't harvest one!
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/Still0004.jpg
Oh well, we continued on our journey through the ranch, stopped and parked just past the boundary and went for a walk up a "hill" into the "woods" - sure isn't the terrain I'm used to, rolling hills and widely spaced trees made for great visibility and easy walking. The grass we were walking on was nice and quiet. If only the wind would quit shifting directions.....Tom was in front leading the way when I saw a flash of white - and a doe sprung away from us up the hill. Try as I might, it just wouldn't grow antlers. If a doe was here, a buck might be in the vicinity so we skirted around the base of the hill and tried to find him...nothing. We cut the sign of the doe that ran from us as she headed up and over the hill and then down into a gulley leading into a grassland pasture a good distance off. We headed back to camp a little disappointed, but at least we had seen something.
Back at camp we ate dinner at chatted about the next day. Tom had to leave around lunchtime but he was taking me to an area he felt offered real promise. It was behind a locked gate, and not many people headed out that way...it had also been burned the previous spring and had greened up quite nicely. I couldn't wait. Not folks prone to sitting around, we went out onto the hills below camp for another evening hunt. I sat over a waterhole until I got bored and wandered up onto a ridge. I thought I spotted something white on the ground in a gulley and walked over to investigate. I found a nice shed. It had been there for some time and had been chewed up a bit, but the bases were really thick....looks like they grow some big bucks in these parts!
Dawn of our last morning. We wake up and look at the stars, and our breath. It was cold. Tom was excited as he felt the cold would get the deer moving early. I also noted that the moon was just a tiny sliver. I was hopeful that the deer would be taking advantage of first light to feed as it had been a pretty dark night. Tom drives me to his spot, and we walk in nice and quiet. I have to admit that I was disappointed to see cattle grazing in "the spot." I somehow didn't anticipate we would be hunting a cattle pasture (crown land)! Tom tells me to glass the tree line for bucks....nothing. We walk a little further along the edge of the pasture and I think I see some brown lumps over near the trees. I get the glasses out and spot a couple does. Damn, no antlers on these ones either! This was prime grassland, and we figured there would be more deer feeding in the meadow so we kept walking. I glassed up three more deer quite a distance off. So far away that even with my 10x Bushnell’s, I couldn't make out antlers. We tried to stalk up a little closer. Still couldn't make anything out. Closer yet, and one of the does must have heard something or caught our scent. She had her head up in alert posture. We let her settle down and tried to get a little closer. She still wasn't happy and trotted off. The other two deer were oblivious, and we tried to keep a tree (yes, one tree) between us and the sparse stand of fir they were under. I took out the glasses again and lo to my eyes, one of them was a buck! Wahoo! If things went well from here on out I might not be going home empty-handed after all! I put the glasses down and shortly thereafter Tom whispers "they are fighting." Sure enough, I look and what I had thought was a buck and a doe were sparring. I guess that one of the bucks must have been a small spiker and I was still so far away I couldn't make out his antlers. We had approached as close as we felt comfortable - all that was between us and them was one lone fir tree. Tom looked over at me and asked "how's that rig for long shots?" I said it wasn't bad so we talked about trying for the bigger buck from where we were. I asked Tom how far he figured we were away. He guessed at 300 yrds minimum. Wow. That's a long way for my first buck. I was pretty confident in my shooting ability, though, so I decided to give it a try. I set my pack up on an old stump and set my scope to maximum power. Then we waited for the buck to walk into a spot where I would have a clear shot....here goes. I hold over the appropriate distance for the yardage and BAM! My rifle leaped in my hands. I finally get it back on target and fully expect to see my buck lying on the ground....nope - he's just standing there trying to sort out where the shot came from. Damn! One more try - BAM! Another clean miss! I can't believe it! I'm always on target at the range! Grrrr....Tom says he thinks my bullets are landing in front of the buck. I chamber the last shell in my rifle, and this time aim for the top of the base of the neck. BAM! The buck hunched up, turned around and walked off 15 or 20 yards. A hit! We watched it go back into the area he came from and bed down....my first buck! He didn't die right away, which would have been nice, but he didn't suffer for too long. We gave him 10 or 15 mins and walked up. I put one in his neck just to make sure, and it was time for pictures. What a great feeling!
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/20071008_081422.JPG
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/20071008_081449.JPG
I soon discovered that after the kill, the real work begins. While Tom headed back for the truck, I got to work gutting my deer. I'd seen it done once before, and had read some books on the subject, but I'd never done it myself. In the end, as long as it's clean, it's done, I guess but I'm sure there are folks with a lot better technique out there!
Got him home and skinned out yesterday then off to the butcher. I can't wait to taste that yummy tender meat! To top it all off, my wife came home with some left over thanksgiving dinner last night so we could celebrate Thanksgiving together after all.