Your best game animal recovery story?

[longhairmtnman]

From grouse to bison... sometimes you gotta do some extra work to retrieve your game after it's expired. There's got to be some great stories out there. Any pictures as well?
I'll post later.

[model88]

Probably my best happened last fall. I had taken my kids, aged 4 and 5, for a ride and weanie roast. The gun was along for the ride. Turned off the FSR onto an old road and there is a nice buck chasing a doe. Kids tell me I better shoot him, so I get out find a stump for a rest. He is slightly quartering towards me, squeeze the trigger, see he is hit and off he goes.

Watching him run across the cut block waiting for him to fall over, not happening. Get the kids ready, start towards where he was standing......the kids are cold, tired, can we go home. Take them to my mother-inlaw who was only 10 minutes away, come back and start my search.

I can't find any blood at all! Back and forth, back to where I shot him from. Zig-zagging all over that cutblock looking for any kind of sign. 3 hours later still no sign, no blood nothing. I knew he was hit and hit hard. I knew he headed through the cutblock towards the timber. I headed that way and started my grid search, on my second pass I found him piled up under a little jack-pine. Was very satisfying to find him, thought of givingup a couple of times, but new in my heart he was down.:D

[quadrakid]

i was on the trail of blacktail i arrowed, pretty decent bloodtrail. i,m about fifty yards into the tracking when i reach down to pick up a leaf thats covered in blood. i,m looking at this blood soaked leaf when i realize i,ve just picked it up off the side of my downed buck,which i,m just about standing on,gave me quite a start.sure glad he was dead.coastal bush is thick.

[bruin]

Had a guy shoot a yukon moose close to dark. Saw the bull drop, watched for a minute and when down, we got to the site there was a crater in the snow with some blood at the top of the hump. We followed the trail with marginal blood for about 20 minutes and it was starting to get pretty dark but I didn't want to leave the trail in case it snowed during the night, and I really didn't want to walk into a kill site if I didn't know its exact location in dense grizz country. We decided to continue for another 5 minutes, it was now really dark. I rounded a tree and the bull was standing infront of me facing away head down at less than 5 yards. He was increadibly big standing there and it was instant adrenaline. THe hunter came up beside me and shot him once in the lungs. The bull took a couple of steps and collapsed.
It was a really cool experience to see him so close, and it really gave me an appreciation for how truly big a moose is.


http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/Image0099.jpg (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=8249&size=big&cat=500&ppuser=3044)

[bsa30-06]

i cant wait for elkhound to see this one......he has some good bear over the cliff recovery stories.

[islandboy]

First bear. No, not over a cliff. Day started out fishing - fishing was nada. Talked my fishing partner (non-hunter) into a hike up a side hill series of old washed out switchbacks. Nearing the top spot a bear. Easy shot, maybe 50 yards of the road. Clean single shot kill. Happiness is a kill with little packing! :razz: Half way to the downed bear is a 10' wide ravine with a scrawny log over it. :shock: Shinny across, dress the bear and what was supposed to be an easy 50 yard drag becomes a 1/2 km the other way through new growth, slash and crap down to the lower switchback.

[Elkhound]

i cant wait for elkhound to see this one......he has some good bear over the cliff recovery stories.

LMAO....I was thinking this when I saw the thread title.

Simple.....Bears and cliffs do not mix

[tikkat3]

I only ever was in on one successful big game hunt so far, but I've only been at it for 2 years now, so I know I will have better stories...

We got a muley buck, 5x4 on the top of a mountain in region 8, about 6300 feet up in an alpine meadow. I was 150lb at the time, and my partner was 125lb soaking wet, with destroyed shoulders. This muley was big, probably 250lb. We gutted him, then tried dragging him out of the meadow.

Extremely difficult, it took us 3 hours to get across the undulating meadow we still hunted across in 20 mins. So we cut the deer in half, I got the heavy end. We still had to descend 1500ft to the road, with about 600 yards of brutal slash at the very end. It almost killed us. It took about 6 hours, it was probably about 3.5k in total distance. Then I had to sprint 2k to my truck which was at our campsite another 600ft down in elevation, and drive back up to the clear cut to put the deer in the truck. Another hour to finish skinning the the deer on the tailgate of the truck and breaking camp.

My fiance was 8.5 months pregnant at the time and expecting me home around 5pm that day, it was a 4 day trip. I got home around 1 am and was covered in blood, so I was in some shit. She always thinks I'm gonna get eaten by bears every time I hit the bush.

Anyway, sorry about the long post...the most important part of this story is...now I have a quad!:biggrin:

[hunter1947]

I have had one year that comes in mind ,3 of us shot three ,6 point bull elk all in one late evening. We worked all night long getting the 3 of them back to our camp.

[TimberPig]

6.5 hr drag up hill then back down a steep (60-70% sliding and hanging on) for a total of ~ 3.5 km to get my first 2 pt buck out. I was hunting alone and refused to leave the buck there and go back to town for a pack board or some extra hands, because I was worried something would try to claim it. I'd been home by noon most days I'd been hunting that area,so my family was panicked, having already called the RCMP to report me overdue.

The buck was very tasty, but I won't go through that hell again. I was so hungry, thirsty and tired by the time I got that buck to my vehicle, I could have fallen over (ran out of food and water).

I got a nice scar on my shin to remember it by, from smacking a rock sliding downhill though :P.

[johnes50]

This didn't happen to me, but I've heard the story so many times it feels like it did.

A couple of friends shot a Blackie in early spring one year. It ran to it's den and holed up. They waited a while and one friend tried to have a look see with a flashlight to see if he was finnished. The bear was weak, but still alive. They waited until they couldn't hear breathing or movement anymore. One friend slowly crept into the den came flying out backwards cause when he poked the bear with a stick, the bear using his last strength, took a half-hearted swat at him.

They decided to have lunch and wait before they tried again. After lunch they checked again the bear was finished.

[MichelD]

Bearecovery


I camped for the night at this old logging road on the edge of a river valley and in the morning walked up a steep switchback that veered off of the road I had camped on. The switchback kind of paralleled the main road below, but climbed steeply up above it and slightly away as well, crossing a rockslide, then through some side alder and a boulder field.

I had shot a bear up at the end of it several years before and had been able to drive up to the bear, but it was now too overgrown, and the previous track across the slide was piled high with new boulders. If I got one this time at the clear cut in the bowl at the end of the road up on the hill, I’d have to drag it downhill.

I got up to the top where it opened up and I could see all around and went for a long quiet walk to the end, stopping, scanning and waiting for much of the morning, then was on my way back when I noticed one slightly downhill at the edge of the clear cut towards the river in the direction of he main road, now way below us.

I crept along the bank trying to find something to rest my rifle on and the bear must have seen me because he headed into the trees, stopping momentarily to glace back over his shoulder. I aimed for the back of his head and shot. He scooted away in a flash.

I wasn’t sure if I hit him or not, so I climbed down into the bowl, between stumps, across deadfalls and brush, branches and berry bushes and made it up to where the bear had entered the trees.

There was a huge smear of bright red blood painting the whole side of the tree. I’d hit him alright, somewhere vital. There was a visible blood trail heading into the big trees, spurts of it on other trees, sometimes big drops on the light green soft mossy forest floor.

The hill sloped down now, getting steeper and steeper, with some of the brush pretty thick, but still there was always a blood trail to follow. But now I was out of breath, even though I was going downhill, my heart hammering in my chest. Where was he?

I took another step and there was something big black and glossy laying there beside an old windfall. My bear. I poked him with my rifle barrel and he didn’t move. He was finished.

Gutting him I noticed that the bullet from my 7.62x54R Russian had penetrated his back leg, severing the femoral artery before exiting again. He had just run downhill until he ran out of blood.

After gutting him I looked at my surroundings and realized that I was in a bit of a pickle.

This animal weighed at least 200 pounds gutted.

I’d followed him at least 80 yards down this steep hill into the trees and to get him out I’d have to drag him up hill to the edge of the timber, down into that tangly bowl and up again, then down the overgrown road to where it met the logging road.

Or….

Leaving him laying there I walked a little bit more downhill and realized I was on the very top of a steep cliff almost directly above my truck on the road below. In fact I could just see the canopy from there I stood, about 300 yards to my left. But the cliff was at least 200 feet above the road and all I could see when I looked down was the distant treetops of the trees in the flats below, then another tangle of brush and stumps between the cliff bottom and the road.

I didn’t have any choice. I went back up hill, rolled the bear down to the cliff edge, positioned him just right and rolled him over. It seemed like forever before it hit something, with a big bump, then a crash as it rolled some more then the noise stopped.

Now what? I happened to be wearing a bright red T-shirt, so I took that off and tied it to a small tree as close to the edge of the cliff as I dared. I didn’t want to follow the bear down there. I dug my jacket out of the day pack and hiked out the way I had come.

Back at my truck I turned it around and drove to where I thought I was adjacent to the bear and parked. Scanning the top of the cliff with my binoculars, I found my T-shirt hanging on the tree, took a compass bearing on it and putting on my frame pack full of cotton bags, thrashed my way through the holes hidden under the bracken fern piled up between the big stumps left behind by the first loggers in the area., stopping periodically to scan for my T-shirt or check my compass.

When I got to the trees at the base of the cliff there was no bear. Damn! Did it hang up on a tree or a bench of the cliff higher up?

I poked around some more until I found it, sure enough, piled up against a tree, so I rolled it down to a flat clean spot and started skinning it out. I soon had the hide off and the meat in quarters in clean cotton sacks and had to pack them out one at a time, thrashing back through the stumps, blackberries, bracken and holes four times for the meat and one final trip for the head and hide.

I saw that T-shirt hanging from that tree for years afterwards, turning from red to pink and pale and ragged until it finally wasn’t there any more.

[grumpy]

Years Ago I Was Hunting In Old Growth Timber In Really Steep Ground. I Was Following A Spike Buck Around And He Led Me To A Nice Four Point Blacktail. At The Shot The Four Point Slid Into A Ravine With A Creek In The Bottom.i Walked Over To The Edge And Looked Down No Buck!! Walking The Edge Of The Ravine Until I Found A Flat Place To Cross The Ravine, Checking For Sign The Whole Way And Finding None . I Crossed And Started Up The Other Side Of The Ravine Checking For Sign The Whole Way Until I Got Back To My Starting Point No Sign !!! No Deer In The Creek No Sign Leaving The Creek!!!!back To The Bottom Walk Up The Creek Half In The Water Half Out Up To Where There Is A Big Skid Mark And Blood Trail Ending At The Creek. Down The Creek Looking For Sign ,no Sign !!!!! Back Up The Creek To A Snow Bridge Where I Find One Back Hoof Sticking Out From Under The Snow Bridge. The Creek Is To Fast To Pull The Deer Up Stream, So It`s Into The Creek And Pull It Out Down Stream. Ever Done Any Wading In Snow Melt It Was Cold. After Drainning The Water Out Of My Boots I Got To Warm Up Dragging The Buck Down To The Truck.

[Osprey]

One definitly comes to mind for me. We were hunting the late bow season for Whitetail does. We pulled onto the FSR and around the first corner stood a doe, and with her a small two point whitetail. My brother got out first and saw the doe just inside the tree line, by then the buck had dissapeared into the bush (at least for my brother). He flung an arrow and the doe took off in a flash. All we heard was the arrow hit a tree. The deer took off so fast we weren't sure if was even hit. When we went to where the deer was standing, we found the arrow stuck in the tree that was behind the deer. There it was, covered in blood, and a solid blood trail head. My brother had to spin the arrow and leave the broadhead inside the tree.

We then picked up the trail and followed the blood trail adjacent to the FSR and then came to the main road which the FSR comes out of. We followed the blood trail across the main road and then along a ridge and down it. By this point we are easily 1 km from where we had shot the deer. As we got near the bottom of the hill we spot the doe get up and bound off into more thick bush. We go down to where she was bedded and sure enough a big pile of blood. We pick up chase again criss crossing back and forth for another 2km through the bush. Meanwhile spooking the doe 2 more times along the way.

The blood trail came to an end when it met up with the river, a mere 4 km away from where we had shot the deer. When we got to the shore of the river, we thought we had lost the deer. We then look just down stream and along the rivers shore in the water was the deer laying down in the stream with only its head above the water. My brother pulls out another arrow and lets it go hitting the deer perfectly behind the shoulder. The thing was is that the arrow stopped because it didn't have a broadhead on it. The deer took a few steps back and my brother let a second arrow go piercing both lungs. The deer drops right there. Meanwhile it took a heck of a time getting the deer back to the truck. My brother decided to be the hero and carry the 110lb doe on his shoulders the whole hike back.

The deer was actually barely hit from the first arrow. It hit a stick just infront of the deer and deflected and barely went through the left butt cheek on the deer.

[silvicon]

running shot at a LEH doe.
went in the bush; waited for some time.
went home to get my dogs, they found her about 100 yards in the forest.

[SUAFOYT]

For most of us it's doldrum time. What's your best gettin' it out story. Here's mine. I'd slept in as I was lucky enough to have filled my LEH moose. It was last day, and one of our group had a LEH cow tag. About 8 I heard them coming back to camp. You just know by the speed and time that something's up. They had seen a bull and two cows down in the river and as last day figured go for it. It was a good shot and he dropped the cow in the river. Water level was real low so didn't float away. Only problem was the slope was as steep as a cow's face and at least 2-300 feet. The shooter stayed, and went down the slope to gut the now floating moose. We hatched a plan to go downriver to where the road was close to the river. We took our canoe and dragged it up river to where our partner was. Along the way various moose bits were floating by. When we got to the now gutted and very wet and clean moose, we took out our secret weapon. All these years we had dragged this raft with us and had never used it. We slipped the deflated raft under the moose, pumped her up, and floated down the river to where we had put in. We were quite proud of ourselves! Even have the pic to prove it. The river was the Bowron in 7-06.

The picture's gone but it really did happen

[dana]

I shot a big ol' nontypical muley through the front of the chest and taking out the opposite shoulder. Good blood to begin with but it wasn't long before it dwindled to just a speck every 100m or so. Tracked him for over 3 hours until I lost his tracks in with a bunch of other deer. I was running out of light anyways. The next morning I relocated his track over a km from where I lost it the evening before. Still the odd speck of blood, but wasn't able to follow it as the area was ripped apart from rutting activity that night. I hunted hard for that buck for 3 1/2 weeks. Many Doubting Thomas' thought he was coyote bait. Finally, we relocated the buck on the last day of the season and after an insane stalk, I was able to finally kill the buck, with only a couple of hours left to spare in the season.

[rocksteady]

Late October in the East Koots...Me and a buddy drive up to an area where its deactivated roads and not quad friendly so hike in, follow another trail down to the flats by the river...I go downstream he goes up...We are about a km apart and I sneek to the edge of the river, as I hear a noise, sit and watch about 20 cow/calf elk drink and finally swim the river....Awesome sight at first light....

Stand up to continue stalking downstream, look across the river...BIG BUck....Rifle up, quick shot deer stumbles, and then goes MACH III into the wiloows and pine flats.....Call my buddy on teh radio, tell him what happened...He comes runnnig down and then reality sets in......

River is 50 metres wide, 10+ feet deep and fast flowing.....Buddy says "Screw it, I will strip down, swim the river, light a fire, go find the deer"....Common sense prevailed...It was -6 C....

Plan B - 2 km hike back to truck, now in cell coverage, call for backup - buddy's father...Bring the truck, quad and pontoon boat....Oh yeah and a spool of rope....

He arrives, load uninflated pontoon boat onto back of quad, 2 km hike back in.....Inflate boat, buddy rows across first, rope attached to boat..He gets there, hooks up some fancy rope knots, instant clothes line system...Shuttles it back to me, got both of our guns, they clothesline me over.....

Temporary docking on the beach....Me and partner do teh super stalk blood trail thing through the thick crap.....Finally find the buck....Gut it out....Drag it to the river...Tie it on the pontoon boat, clothes line to other side, return boat, me next, partner last, drag all of the gear and deer up the steep bank to the quad......Boat first trip out 2 km to the truck, partner, deer and his dad on the 2nd trip....I walked...

One of the most unique trips I have ever been on......Pics are in the Hunters and their fancy quad thread....

[sawmill]

My buddy and I were hunting moose up in hazelton in mid Nov. and we dropped one about four hundred yards across a logged out lease and maybe 50 yards up a bare slope,a good steady rest shot.we headed across the lease and about 150 yards in encountered a 40 foot deep gully.Oh crap we said but figured we could handle it.Another 75 yards found us looking at another,deeper and steeper gully.When we got up the other side and made it to the bottom of the hill.....Yep,a third one.It crossed our minds to run away,but of course we didn`t and besides,we really needed the meat so we climbed the hill and gutted and quartered it up.We left the hide on and skidded it down the hill to the first mini-canyon and kicked it over the edge,climbed down and dragged it foot by inch up the other side,clawing at frozen stumps for purchase.Dragged it through the snow and did it again and yet again.We got the quarter to the truck and had a little cry,knowing we had to do it three more times.We were some cold wet sick tired *******s when we finally got home.:lol:

[MOWITCH SLAYER]

Walked 2 miles in on a road closure on the albert river and shot a Elk packed it out the next day , said i would never do it agian. did it agian two years later

[BCrams]

One of the best animal recoveries occured last fall. We drove around the corner and up jumped this bull moose out of the ditch. While I brought up the binos and started counting points, my partner jumped out and held the gun as I counted 1, 2 and 1, 2, 3 SHOOT.... 30 yard shot and the bull drops beside the road. 20 minutes later he was all loaded up and we continued on. In my opinion, that was the best!!

[BCJunior]

One of the best animal recoveries occured last fall. We drove around the corner and up jumped this bull moose out of the ditch. While I brought up the binos and started counting points, my partner jumped out and held the gun as I counted 1, 2 and 1, 2, 3 SHOOT.... 30 yard shot and the bull drops beside the road. 20 minutes later he was all loaded up and we continued on. In my opinion, that was the best!!

Those are the best! Gotta love the quick action.

[stixnstones]

i was at pink mountain for any bull 8 years ago. we met an oldtimer who was up there hunting by himself. he took us into a spot with our quads once the quad restriction was over. I sat in this old spindly tree which had an old lawn chair tied to it. i shot a little bull at 4 yds. the 4 of us dressed it as fast as we could knowing that grizzlies come to gun shots like dinner bells. turns out the old timer forgot how to get out. we decided to spend the night with a small fire. turns out the oldtimer was a diabetic and had nothin with him. we managed to survive the night even with a pack of wolves around us til day break. not knowing when this guy was goin to pack it in we got back to camp. on our way out we were yelled at using our quads before we were allowed to by a few hunters until we told them the story. the old guy lived barley. moose tasted great. had a good trip.

[Rock Doctor]

Long story short:
Budy climbs over a hill, and shoots a nice 6x6 elk. Elk runs down the back side of the hill, into an old burn area. I finally find him and his elk, we bone it out and decide to pack it out by following a creek, that runs around the hill, and back to the boat. The entire creek runs through the burn area. Worst trip of my life, I would not do it again without a pack on. It was only about 3 kms to the boat, but all of it was bushwackin' through new growth and climbing through, around, and over half burnt, fallen over, trees. The best part of the trip out was when we were crawling on our hands and knees down the middle of the creek.
Once we got to the boat, we just dropped the packs in, had a good rest, then drove the boat back to the launch. Didn't even stop at camp on the way. Weighed the packs when we got to my place...mine was 176lbs, and buddies was 160lbs. (The easy way is not always the easiest way, we would have been better off packing the elk back over the hill:roll:)

Short story shorter:
Went for a drive out by one of my work locations, shot a nice moose just off the road rightofway. Drove to worksite, fired up the loader, put the stinger attachment on, and went back to get the moose. Picked up moose with loader, gutted/skinned moose. Lowered entire moose into back of truck, drove home.:biggrin:

[hillclimber]

I was road hunting. Shot a 4pt in the middle of the road. Gutted it and went home.:-D

[GoatGuy]

Watched an old guy get down into his underwear and cross the Lardeau at the end of November to retrieve a dandy wt. Anybody who's hunted that country knows it's a serious river to be wading across, even in November. It was -20 and there was a couple of feet of snow on the ground, ice around the edges of the river.

I guess they just don't build 'em like they used to.

At 11 years old I was frozen with 3 pair of lj's and wool pants on - I couldn't imagine bearing down and heading across that river - quite the experience to watch.

[Russell]

10 or 15 years back I was driving from camp to an area I was working for moose. Spotted what I thought was a moose back 100 to 150 yards in some 20 foot jackpines that had been spaced sometime that summer. Parked the truck and got to lookin with the bino's and sure as hell there's 2 of them in there but its too thick to tell if either has a rack on it. I tried to get in on them but everything was super dry and noisey as hell. Figured I had nothing to lose so I started walking right at them giving bull grunts as I went. When I was about 60 yards away from them could see one was a bull sideways looking right at me so I popped him.Made sure he was finished then went and got a couple buddies from camp and took them into the moose. I told them to stay with the moose and I'd walk back to the truck grab the rope and I'd use them as markers so the pull would be a relatively straight one. While I'm messing around in the truck getting the rope ready I hear the 2 of them right behind me . Ask what the hell their doing as they were supposed to be marking the spot for the rope pull they said they weren't hanging around no bears without a gun. Grabbed my gun and went back in with them and this was what they were talkin about and it was only about 8 - 10 ft from where the moose dropped. Man I still get a laugh went I remember the looks on their faces when they came out to the truck to get me.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v478/ARRJ/Denshotresized.jpg

[longhairmtnman]

two stories. First one is second hand from my dad. Back in the fifties him and a friend were driving outside edson alberta, when this huge moose crossed the road in front of their car. He stopped and his pal jumped out and shot this beast, only to have it run off the edge of the road and hang up in the v of a tree, about half way down a real steep enbankment, where it consequently died. His story involves him quartering the moose while it hung in the trees! Hilarious! They couldn't retreive the head due to the fact it was wedged so hard.

My largest effort of game retreival to date, was this year. After being warned of the hardships of shooting a moose too far from the road I did just that. I'd been persuing this moose for 5 hours, and I couldn't pass on him for fear of not getting another chance, and shot it at the top of a mountain, more than a km(some say at least 2) from the nearest quad access, and 6 k of quad trails from the road. After taking a front quarter I hiked out to the quad barely making dusk and getting back to camp well after dark. My companions although thrilled that I got a moose, were not so enthused about my description of the location. The entire next day was spent retreiving the rest of the meat.
Now my hunting partners always seem to be busy when I ask them to go out. Weird. I may reconsider my option to pull the trigger next time....maybe!:wink:

[Blktail]

I have had many 1-3 mile drags with little blacktails and while tiring I was always happy to do it. One year with a buddy I got my best deer to date about 1 mile from the truck by map. However, it was 45 degrees up 1/3 of the way and 60 degrees down the rest. Buddy carried the deer up a few yards at a time (it was too steep, icy and narrow a trail for both of us to drag it). I carried both day packs and rifles. We layed in the snow for 45 minutes for a nap at the top of the hill. I dragged the deer down to the road and to the truck trying not to get gored in the process. We got to the truck 6 hours after we started. That buck my buddy carried up hill for hours was 150 lbs. He is a good guy to have around! We both took a couple weeks to recover from that one.