First BC Elk Hunt

[Rugersingle]

Well I moved here to Fort Nelson 2 years ago from CA and this year my son and I figured we would go elk hunting. All those years in AB and I never had the urge but this year it was bad.... so we caught a ride with a friend up river, four hours in the jet boat, about 65 miles back in. The country was incredible as was the number and variety of critters, elk, moose, wt deer, mule deer, wolves, bald eagles, ospreys and grizzly bears. We went for 10 days and I managed to get my fat a-- up to the 4000ft level, a personal best.
To top it all off we managed to harvest a bull and a cow. Thought I'd post a few pics because trophies arent always measured in inches of antler.
http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/Big_View.jpg
http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/Valley_3.jpg
http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/Mountain_View.jpg
http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/Dave_s_2008_elk.jpg
http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/Dave_s_pack_elk.jpg
http://www.hunt101.com/data/500/medium/D_d.jpg

[Gateholio]

Great pics, well done!! Now go enter the HBC Big Game contest!:smile:

[BCRiverBoater]

That is the kind I like. 20 yards to the River. Nicely done.

[T bone]

awesome,lots of good eating there,i hope my luck is as good on my hunt up to the kootney country next month.

[RBH]

HOW GOOD DOES IT GET! Good for you for getting out, getting out early and getting out together!

[BCrams]

Great hunt!! Can't get much better than that with great weather and good eats in the end.

[kloosterboer]

Damn!! Lokks like an awesome trip. Congrats!!!!

[skyliner 270]

congratz!!!!!!! asome pics

[BigBanger]

Wow , welcome to the site . Great start .

[boonerbuck]

Thought I'd post a few pics because trophies arent always measured in inches of antler.


Hey, that's awesome. Congrats...Great hunt.

Welcome to HBC.

Did you guys happen to hear any bulls bugling on the hunt?

[Mtnhunter]

Congrats!
Looks like the Tuchodi River? I was in there last year with equal success!

[TIKA 300]

Great pics and Elk,thanks for sharing.

Will be up there this time next year,so those pics get the juices flowing..... :smile:

[hunter1947]

Fine looking animals you shot there ,congrats.

[Rugersingle]

Thanks for all the great comments people, it really was an excellant father/son trip. Even got some grayling fishing in:biggrin:



Hey, that's awesome. Congrats...Great hunt.

Welcome to HBC.

Did you guys happen to hear any bulls bugling on the hunt?

Not a one. Maybe a bit early yet. About mid Sept I'm told. And that is up the Tochodi, down river from the first lake. We saw some "Big Boys" but they were up around the +5000 ft level. Packing that little bull down from 3800 was enough of an experience for me on a first trip :wink: My cow was only about 1/4 mile down river from camp. I walked down after supper one night, didnt even have enough time to knock all the "stubbies" off my log bench when she showed up.

[Deaddog]

Fantastic Job and welcome to the site, the tuchodi is truly a place to behold, great to see you with your family, stop in for a beer as I will be at deaddog from the 12th to the 28th, DD

[jml11]

Not a one. Maybe a bit early yet. About mid Sept I'm told. And that is up the Tochodi, down river from the first lake. We saw some "Big Boys" but they were up around the +5000 ft level. Packing that little bull down from 3800 was enough of an experience for me on a first trip :wink: My cow was only about 1/4 mile down river from camp. I walked down after supper one night, didnt even have enough time to knock all the "stubbies" off my log bench when she showed up.


Nice work, love hunting those north country elk. I've hunted 7-50 the past three years for elk and found they started buggling in the first week of september and have been able to call in bulls quite easily around the 7th,8th,9th. It's exciting action when 4 bulls answer your buggle!

And yes the big boys are typically up high in that country, above tree line. My only six point came up on top of a mountain, lucky for me it rolled all the way down towards camp, unlucky for me he broke off one main beam and of all of his brow tines in the process....http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/images/icons/icon13.gif

[Bushman Brown]

Congratulations on getting out elk hunting and being successful!

[steepNdeep]

Right on - sounds like a great trip! Nice pics!! I hope to get the boat up there one day...

[Rugersingle]

Pretty straight forward stuff. We arrived and setup camp on Friday afternoon, the season had opened that morning, three point bulls on the 15th, cows on the 20th. . There was already someone hunting the drainage I had picked out so we camped on the next creek over. Things were a little slow on Sat am, that first night in camp thing ya know....
Anyway, we climbed up to about 3200 ft in the aft and started glassing. We spotted a few small bulls in the opposite drainage, about a mile over but we also saw the other fellas working the btm of it. We concentrated on our side and saw three cows but no bulls. Sunday am we hiked up to 3800ft and spotted about a dozen cows at the 4500 level. Watched them most of the day but no bulls. We could see the other drainage and the bulls were still out there. The fellas next to us pulled out on Sunday night so we were up early Monday, hiked back to that drainage and climbed the back spine of the hill to that 3800 level. Spent a beautiful day glassing the valley, spotted my bull moose but he was over a mile away ...and on the wrong side of the river. David and the dog both got in naps. As the shadows were getting long, I walked around the hill to see further up the valley, two cows but no bulls. As I was walking back I spotted the bull, but David couldnt see him because of the curve of the hill. We waited him out until he dropped down further and then David "skulked" across the meadow with his rag camo and archers head net. I was watching and with the naked eye he was pretty hard to pick out. Anyway after he got over to the next roll he was able to get a good look at the bull. There were actually two, this one and a spiker. He got in a good shot, 30-06 165 SST, at 100 yds, but forgot about the angles and hit him high in the back, breaking the spine. He turns to me and yells" He's rolling down the hill" I yelled back " Good...thats the direction back to camp..... make sure he doesnt get up again." I packed up the gear and walked down to give the big congrats. We did the dirty deed but did not have enough time to 1/4 and pack him out so we had to leave him to cool that night. Back up first thing in the am to finish the job. First time I had to cut and watch for grizzly bears at the same the time..http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/images/smilies/scared0005.gif David got both back 1/4's and the backstraps in his pac, I got both fronts,tenderloins and the rifle, Hoochie got the water bottles, the knives, the bino's and the camera. It was a sloooww walk back, the big guy was questioning if he was still "having fun" but he made er' http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/images/smilies/wink.gif
Mine was a lot easier, We had seen a bull try to cross the river below camp the night before, right at dusk. So I figured, what the heck, he might try again. I walked about a 1/4 mile down, looked for a good strech where I could see both ways and sat down in a drift wood pile. Just got the dog sat down and pullled out my range finder when three cows came out at 300 yds and started walking my way......At 92 yards I picked one out and the ole 338 210 NP did its thing. Walked back to camp, ran back down in the jet boat, did the deed and was back in camp in 45 minutes. So...we got to experience both ways, a "pac em out" model and a "drive up" model. I prefered the pac model...but I only had the front 1/4's http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/images/smilies/biggrin.gif
More to it than I thought.....didnt fit in the cow/calf moose that strolled through camp while we were having morning coffee, or getting "busted" by a cow on our way up the hill, or the grizzly bear that went from +1000 yards to 352 yards...like magic, or the two brothers that hiked up from down river that had a bear trash their camp their first day out.
It really was a heck of a trip http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

[Swamp Donkey]

Great pics, thanks for posting them ,,,,, and CONGRATS on the critters!

[Avalanche123]

Congrats on a very successful hunt in many ways and welcome to HBC! You are off to a "roaring" start. :)