BC Bucket List

[264mag]

It’s been almost a year now since we lost my father (Kevan, long time HBC member), and almost 8 years since we lost his brother, my uncle Charlie. Sadly both men fought long painful battles with cancer. My dad was the ultimate gun nut and my uncle was a gunsmith who lived the last 25 years of his life in the Yukon. Kevan left many things still in his bucket and Charlie left a few as well.

During the past three months I have been thinking about the importance of living life to its fullest and doing everything to empty your bucket. The globe as we know it has been cracked, not broken, and it will change the way we live our lives. I will turn 53 this September and have decided to empty my bucket and refill it with a unique set of goals. My Dad and Uncle had me hunting at a very young age. The first big game rifle I fired was a Browning safari in 375 H and H at the ripe old age of 8. Since that day I was hooked and have always hunted. We eat everything we kill and make our own sausage and process our own meat.

Over the past decade I have become obsessed with backpack hunting and have killed elk, moose, and plenty of deer in the back country.

So here is my bucket list and the personal challenges that go with it. I am going to kill every available species of big game animal in BC while backpack hunting. The exception being bison, which will likely be on snowmobile.
Now just to make it interesting I am going to try and do this with as many different rifles and calibers as I can.
Lucky for me I have guns from both estates and my own collection. Everything from 22-250 all the way to 404 Jeffrey and the 375 that I shot when I was 8.

Now in case you thought this was going to be easy, I decided that I am going to do my best to self film as much of this as possible. Along the way I plan on reviewing the gear, the guns, the process, the journey and the adventure.

I have 3 wonderful kids all in their twenties who all hunt as well, they have significant others and the group of them will take turns whenever possible to join me. I am not sure how many years this will take but it will be an adventure.

First on the list for 2020:
12 day August stone sheep and maybe a goat along the way, followed up by a 10 day elk hunt , (maybe a bull moose) mid Sept on the Tuchodi. November will dedicated to back pack hunting for a mule deer buck. I have 2 bucks over 175 and hoping to beat that number.

I would also like to thank the members of HBC as there are many of you that have helped me, inspired me and entertained me over the years.

Good Luck to all and be safe!
Chuck

[DannyO]

I hope you keep a log and share it with us. Good luck out there!

[KodiakHntr]

That is awesome. Good luck to you on your journey.

[BgBlkDg]

I, for one, still miss Kevan, very much and enjoyed his wealth of gun knowledge which he shared here in his salty manner. You were and are blessed and I offer my best wishes for this project.

[cameron0518]

Thanks for sharing. Nice read.

[BimmerBob]

Awesome bucketful, all the best on emptying it! Looking forward to reading about and seeing the vids of your journey, take care.

[Downwindtracker2]

It certainly a worthwhile ambition. Cherish the moment with your boys, because from experience life will soon get in the way.

[jimzuk]

This is so true. Live life to the fullest while you can. Best of luck emptying your bucket

[REMINGTON JIM]

Good Luck Chuck with that Bucket list ! I HOPE you do it :D I knew your Dad a BIT but unfornately never meet your Uncle even thou i was up to Faro ! Your Dad and me Had a Cartridge we both thought was Great ! as did your Uncle who built the rifle - the 416 Taylor !

Cheers RJ

[264mag]

I, for one, still miss Kevan, very much and enjoyed his wealth of gun knowledge which he shared here in his salty manner. You were and are blessed and I offer my best wishes for this project.

Dewey,
Thanks for the kind words, you and my Dad are icons on this site!

[264mag]

Good Luck Chuck with that Bucket list ! I HOPE you do it :D I knew your Dad a BIT but unfornately never meet your Uncle even thou i was up to Faro ! Your Dad and me Had a Cartridge we both thought was Great ! as did your Uncle who built the rifle - the 416 Taylor !

Cheers RJ


Thanks RJ,
There are 2 of those handmade 416 Taylor’s in the family!
Chuck

[wideopenthrottle]

First off, thanks to all the incredible contributors here. From what I have read, Kevan was one of the most respected.
Mr 264 mag, I had those exact thoughts yesterday as I was walking the dog...as I was encountering others on the walk, I couldn't help but notice some of the older people and a younger fellow struggling to walk with poles (recovering from injury I would guess) and my thoughts drifted to packing heavy loads out of the bush and how I might only have another dozen years of being able to push that hard. I resolved to make these next few years really count and really move hunting way up the priority list...your post was a good little reminder for me to keep that resolve...

[Redthies]

We all need to re-prioritize. The whole “global economy” thing has become a bit of a liability. I’m going to get bashed for saying this, but I think the Kung-Flu has done the world some good along with the bad. It is forcing people to rethink what is really necessary and important in their lives. Things can change in an instant, and apparently they do.

Good luck on your quest 264!

[Knute]

264mag...all the best in your journey to empty your bucket.

Kevan must be smiling, your intent to include his grandkids is wonderful.

[Stone Sheep Steve]

Ambitious goals like this are great to have.... but as most of us know, it’s all about the journey getting there!

Best of luck and enjoy the ride!!

SSS

[264mag]

It’s all about the journey, I should add that I really don’t care if I do the shooting either. I get more satisfaction watching my kids cut tags, especially if they use a family heirloom gun.

[IronNoggin]

Hell of a fine tribute to a very fine fellow!
I am indeed certain he is smiling down at you now, and will be with you on each and every foray you and your family take!

Enjoy The Ride! https://www.tnof.ca/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/Pozitive.gif

Cheers,
Nog

[RobTurbo]

What a terrific post! Thank you for time and contribution. Once the season is over and you're done editing all your videos, make sure you share your YouTube page or whatever platform you choose. I would love to follow this journey along with you.

[fuzzybiscuit]

Good luck in all your endeavors 264!

You have about 5 years on me but lately I too have been looking at the old tape measure and the good years left are slowly disappearing. my son will be in university next year and my daughter a few years after. I have a few more years working to help them get a good start then I'll need to focus on my bucket list too...

[264mag]

Happy to report this project has taken a life of its own. As mentioned my 3 kids and there significant others are all committed to helping me get this list knocked out. My Daughters boyfriend hunted with one of my boys and myself last year on a fly in and had already committed to coming on another sheep hunt with me this year. We have 12 days booked starting August 10.
My two boys , 25 and 27 have rearranged work and life schedules and are both committing two weeks to hunt elk and moose on the Tuchodi with me in Sept.

My 23 yr old daughter starts her last year of RMOT and will be pursuing a career as a conservation officer next year. She wants to get her hat in the ring and has committed to an early season hunt in 2021 with her Dad. I am starting the research on a fly in Caribou hunt. If you have any intel or suggestions you would like to share please pm me.

In an effort to keep the positive Karma credits going I am going to be periodically donating gear to new or young hunters. As a self admitted gear and gun junkie I constantly find myself upgrading, buying , and selling. It wasn’t that long ago that I was struggling to pay bills and feed mouths and can appreciate how buying gear stays low on the priority list.

Thanks again to all, be safe!

Chuck

[Gun Dog]

If you're serious about documenting and sharing you should set up a blog somewhere. In the past I've recommended free sites like blogger but it's turned into a big steaming pile of *** since Google bought it.

[264mag]

One of my boys is a digital marketing manager and has set up domains on youtube, Instagram, Facebook, and a website. We have some content from the past couple years and will be trying to get some of it up shortly.

[Blockcaver]

Good luck on the quest! I find it really fun to go new places and hunt new species...sometimes takes me years to figure out and arrow a new species but as mentioned it's the journey!

[264mag]

I agree, the research and planning are half the fun.

[LBM]

Happy to report this project has taken a life of its own. As mentioned my 3 kids and there significant others are all committed to helping me get this list knocked out. My Daughters boyfriend hunted with one of my boys and myself last year on a fly in and had already committed to coming on another sheep hunt with me this year. We have 12 days booked starting August 10.
My two boys , 25 and 27 have rearranged work and life schedules and are both committing two weeks to hunt elk and moose on the Tuchodi with me in Sept.

My 23 yr old daughter starts her last year of RMOT and will be pursuing a career as a conservation officer next year. She wants to get her hat in the ring and has committed to an early season hunt in 2021 with her Dad. I am starting the research on a fly in Caribou hunt. If you have any intel or suggestions you would like to share please pm me.

In an effort to keep the positive Karma credits going I am going to be periodically donating gear to new or young hunters. As a self admitted gear and gun junkie I constantly find myself upgrading, buying , and selling. It wasn’t that long ago that I was struggling to pay bills and feed mouths and can appreciate how buying gear stays low on the priority list.

Thanks again to all, be safe!

Chuck
Good deal sounds like you are going to have many great adventures, and with people you care about. You may want to get after the bighorns sooner then later for some of the herds are declining and may get a little
harder to pursue them in the future.
Wishing you the best of luck and good luck to your daughter in her career choice.

[264mag]

I agree, bighorns and caribou are right up there.

[264mag]

Does anyone happen to have a list of lakes that B.C. Yukon won’t fly into? When I called them they basically said name the lakes you are interested in and they can tell you if they fly there. I know with their ownership there a few spots they won’t take you into.We used them last year, had a lake all picked out and as we were loading the plane the pilot told us that an outfitter had just set up camp on our lake. It wasn’t a deal breaker as we worked around it. I am just starting to research areas for a 2021 Caribou hunt and ideally would like to pick a lake that isn’t occupied by an outfitter and hopefully is in a area that holds caribou.

[264mag]

Our family pulled a couple of leh tags, my son got a cow elk for the Tuchodi ( should work nicely for our backpack hunt) and my daughter drew cow elk in 6-08 A for Jan 16 ( her birthday).

[barongan]

awesome, thanks for sharinghttps://babang.xyz/assets/10/o.png

[264mag]

Just returned from our 12 day sheep hunt. One of my partners connected on a heavy old double broomer on day 6. He is not a member and I don’t want to post any pics without his blessing. I will be writing a full story once the dust settles between hunts.

I passed on 3 broomed rams, including the one we killed. I won’t shoot a sheep on age. I did find 3 full curls over the 12 days but just couldn’t put a stalk together without risking a kill shot with a 400 ft fall onto a rock field, or was hampered by wind and or dozens of eyeballs.
At 53 I had to train twice as hard as my 29 year old partners. Lost 8 lbs the month before the hunt and 14 lbs on the hunt itself. I have not been in this prime shape since I was 30. Went in with 63 lbs total gear weight before water and came out heavy.
My goal to hunt, harvest (participate) and pack out a stone sheep has been accomplished. Already planning next years sheep hunt.
Next on the bucket list challenge is a 10 day backpack hunt for elk with my 2 boys Sept 19th.
Be safe everyone!,,
Chuck

[Downtown]

Its all in ones Live Journey not in the Destination. Only a very few see the Light and act upon it before it is to late.

Cheers

[264mag]

I couldn’t agree more, this one was of my all time favourite trips for many reasons. Life changing.

[264mag]

So year one of this quest was amazing.

Hunt 1-I took two 30 yr old buddies ( I’m 53) into an area I had researched and found for stone sheep. Tough pack in and actually tore a ligament in my foot on day two of the pack in. This made for a tough few days but we got it done. I passed on 3 broomed rams, just wasn’t comfortable shooting on age. We got my partners to within 15 yards of the biggest double broomed ram and 11 of his friends, the boys sat on them for 5 hours and were able to age him at 8 visible rings, and my buddy was able to shoot his first ram. 37 rams counted in 13 days.

Hunt 2 was a week long backpack elk hunt on the Tuchodi with my 2 sons. We were not able to connect on an elk but did have some encounters with sub legal bulls and had an amazing adventure.

Hunt 3-My daughter and one of my boys came up to hunt mule deer. We have a place on Green Lake and this gives us the ability to hunt region 3 and 5. October 30 my daughter connected on a nice young 4 point in region 3. One of my boys was able to come up for a few days and we actually connected him on a nice 4x3 on Halloween day.

Hunt 4- I took advantage of COVID and went on a meat hunt for Alberta moose with an outfitter buddy and shot a nice young bull.

Hunt 5- I hunted region 5 solo near the Fraser for the last week of the season and connected on a nice heavy 4 point. Packed out the entire deer, bone in quarters, meat, cape, head all in one shot. Note to self, “ make two trips next time”!

Hunt 6- My daughter had the cow elk draw near Smithers in January. She ended up killing a very nice dry cow. Thanks to all the local help we had finding elk and a special thanks to the ranchers for the generous permission to access their land.

I couldn’t have asked for a more successful and rewarding season. My goal was to try and hunt, harvest and pack out one or two animals this year. With the exception of the moose ( used a quad to retrieve), and my daughters elk ( used two skimmers) we packed everything out. We got try out all kinds of new gear and of course a few different rifles.

We have a fly in hunt booked for sheep opener and a fly in caribou, goat, moose combo booked for mid Sept. Once we see if the leh gods are shining on us or not we can plan some more hunts.

I just want to shout out to the members on this site for all the help, ideas, and tips that they passed on. I spend a lot of time sharing information, sometimes too much, but I still believe that what it’s all about?

Be safe and let’s bid up the auction items at the WSS auction tonight!

thanks
Chuck

[swampthing]

Good stuff 264! As I enter the senior citizen years of my life cycle I think about my mortality a lot more. I have always based my life and world around hunting and will always do so. I dont have a bucket list and will continue to hunt as much as I can. As you said, the killing of an animal has become a small part of the hunt. Finding an animal and dropping the hammer on an empty chamber is a satisfying success to me! Helping others with their hunts is very rewarding to me as well. I have been thinking about trying to film my adventures so I can leave something behind for my son to have. Enjoy your family and your outdoor time. Looking forward to your future posts.

[wallz]

Wow awesome read, and a great bucket list.

I grew up hunting with dad, and then, well you know life happens. You get married, you have kids and you put all that hunting aside. Well I did anyways for a number of years, too many. With the kids growing up and being teens, we decided it was time to get back into it, and at the same time teach the teens some good old fashioned hunting. The last 6 years has been buying gear, a few of everything, to get set up, but has had its rewards. I have helped one son take a nice 4x3 mule on his first year, my daughter was able to connect on a young buck. Great adventure for even the younger ones as they got to participate and help.
Any how, enough of that on me. This is great to read and its nice to enjoy part of your adventures on your bucket list. Even greater to enjoy it alone with family and friends. Looking forward to reading along with your adventures for this next year, and keep us posted along the way.

Stay safe.

[Weatherby Fan]

I certainly miss my visits with Kevan & Linda, wonderful people, if I needed any advice Kevan was always there for me and I was honoured to call him my friend.

Good luck with your bucket list Chuck, I’m going to do my best to work on mine as well with a Stone Sheep and a Bighorn Ram.....then the mythical monster Mule Deer !

[REMINGTON JIM]

I certainly miss my visits with Kevan & Linda, wonderful people, if I needed any advice Kevan was always there for me and I was honoured to call him my friend.

Good luck with your bucket list Chuck, I’m going to do my best to work on mine as well with a Stone Sheep and a Bighorn Ram.....then the mythical monster Mule Deer !

And Maybe with a Bit of Luck and Hard Work a CALI too ! :smile: RJ

[Arctic Lake]

264 mag . It seems you have cherished memories of your father that is indeed great thing to have !
Good luck with your bucket list !
Arctic Lake

[264mag]

If you knew Kevan you know that he was the ultimate gun nut. Part of this little mission is to use as many different rifles as possible. I like to quote one of his favourite lines. "Guns are like foster kids, I adopt them, raise them for awhile then release them to another parent".

For the 2020 season we used the following:
Stone sheep, buddy used a browning x bolt 300wsm, 180 gr nosler accubond 230 yards
My kids mule deer, my son shot his with his kimber hunter in 6.5 cm 75 yards, and my daughter shot her mule deer 125 yards and elk 100 yards with her semi custom t3 in 6.5 cm, both guns shoot 143 gr eldx factory ammo into one hole groups.
My moose. 340 yards and mule deer 210 yards were both killed with my hs precision 2000 in 325 wsm, 200 gr Nosler Accubond.
Just to note all of these animals were killed with one shot.

For 2021 my kids will use their 6.5 CM's and I have 3 new guns on the roster:
Christensen Arms Ridgeline 300 wsm rebarreled with a 20 inch IBI carbon tube. Zeiss v4-4-16x44, 8 lbs scoped
Tikka t3 custom in 6.5 prc, wildcat stock, 20 inch IBI lightweight hunter fluted tube. Swaro z5 3.5-18 Just waiting on the stock and GEF is going to finish it for me.
Pre 64 model 70, 404 Jefferey, Bevan King tube, Gary Flach combined two of my uncles guns and a handmade GEF stock and built this gun for me. This is the nicest rifle I have had in my hands. Gary is a master craftsman.