FishandSticks
11-10-2023, 11:39 AM
Part 1 of 2 - The Pre Hunt
Well, the story starts a few months back I guess, maybe even years.
I have always enjoyed the outdoors from early on in my life thru camping, fishing, hiking and outdoor photography and Golf, although fishing would end consuming most of my free time. My family never hunted and didn’t want guns in the house, I had always thought about doing it. So, I decided this year I would commit to it. What made us decide you ask? Well, we are getting closer to retirement and having bought property up North to retire to, thought it would be great if we can supplement some of our food costs with hunting, I had no idea at the time I would enjoy it as much as fishing!!
With the wife in tow, we signed up and took our PAL in February, thru BC Academy. I have handled guns before, but the wife has not. We both ran thru their online courses, so it was somewhat easy to pass the course and the wife scored great just a few points below me with a 95%.
Now the wait begins the wife got her pal in less than 6 weeks mine however would take longer….and my wife would remind me weekly that she got her PAL first …... This unfortunately did nothing for me but made her very happy. In the meantime, I was scoring the stores, forums and online for what gun I should get for hunting, and power binging all the hunting shows, online I could find. The gun I decided on was a 30-06, hoping this would serve me for multiple species. This gun’s kick was quite surprising for me, I had shot smaller guns and some bigger pistols but nothing with this kick except maybe the shotguns I have but that’s another story. The 6.5, .270 win and 308 was a close second being considered, but with the apparent ammo shortage that I had discovered on my travels through various stores, that ruled out the 6.5. I ended up going with the 30-06, a very nice Browning Maple that I put on hold in late April. Still no PAL.
Having checked in to the RCMP website, all I got was processing check back later, so I did, every day for what seemed like a month, I was getting impatient! All I could do now was wait scour the internet and watch shows about gear, hunting and cleaning you kills which looked more daunting than cleaning a fish.
It was now July, they did process my payment by evidence of the bank statement, I was told that this a good indication, but yet still no PAL, I have stopped checking the RCMP website daily now, just in case it might set off a red flag and I will be awoken from a afternoon nap by thumping on the door and two of our finest standing there. Asking around and checking on forums I was told or read that I could be in for a very long wait, apparently, it’s a long process for whatever they do, obviously they have never worked for a F1 pit crew, 2.7 seconds to change 4 tires and adjust the car settings, could you imagine taking your car into a dealer and before the Service manger finishes one finger typing your name down, your car service is done, oh well one can dream.
So, what to do, well I figured I would challenge the CORE hunter test, why not it can’t be to hard right? I have lots of time apparently….. Getting a little worried as deer hunting season is drawing near.
To be continued in Part 2 - The Hunt
Well, the story starts a few months back I guess, maybe even years.
I have always enjoyed the outdoors from early on in my life thru camping, fishing, hiking and outdoor photography and Golf, although fishing would end consuming most of my free time. My family never hunted and didn’t want guns in the house, I had always thought about doing it. So, I decided this year I would commit to it. What made us decide you ask? Well, we are getting closer to retirement and having bought property up North to retire to, thought it would be great if we can supplement some of our food costs with hunting, I had no idea at the time I would enjoy it as much as fishing!!
With the wife in tow, we signed up and took our PAL in February, thru BC Academy. I have handled guns before, but the wife has not. We both ran thru their online courses, so it was somewhat easy to pass the course and the wife scored great just a few points below me with a 95%.
Now the wait begins the wife got her pal in less than 6 weeks mine however would take longer….and my wife would remind me weekly that she got her PAL first …... This unfortunately did nothing for me but made her very happy. In the meantime, I was scoring the stores, forums and online for what gun I should get for hunting, and power binging all the hunting shows, online I could find. The gun I decided on was a 30-06, hoping this would serve me for multiple species. This gun’s kick was quite surprising for me, I had shot smaller guns and some bigger pistols but nothing with this kick except maybe the shotguns I have but that’s another story. The 6.5, .270 win and 308 was a close second being considered, but with the apparent ammo shortage that I had discovered on my travels through various stores, that ruled out the 6.5. I ended up going with the 30-06, a very nice Browning Maple that I put on hold in late April. Still no PAL.
Having checked in to the RCMP website, all I got was processing check back later, so I did, every day for what seemed like a month, I was getting impatient! All I could do now was wait scour the internet and watch shows about gear, hunting and cleaning you kills which looked more daunting than cleaning a fish.
It was now July, they did process my payment by evidence of the bank statement, I was told that this a good indication, but yet still no PAL, I have stopped checking the RCMP website daily now, just in case it might set off a red flag and I will be awoken from a afternoon nap by thumping on the door and two of our finest standing there. Asking around and checking on forums I was told or read that I could be in for a very long wait, apparently, it’s a long process for whatever they do, obviously they have never worked for a F1 pit crew, 2.7 seconds to change 4 tires and adjust the car settings, could you imagine taking your car into a dealer and before the Service manger finishes one finger typing your name down, your car service is done, oh well one can dream.
So, what to do, well I figured I would challenge the CORE hunter test, why not it can’t be to hard right? I have lots of time apparently….. Getting a little worried as deer hunting season is drawing near.
To be continued in Part 2 - The Hunt