Region 3 buck

[ohno]

Well I wasn’t sure if I was going to post a story or not this year, but I figure I can share my experiences in Region 3 in October. Prepare for a long read.

Day1
I hooked up with Blackwater in Kamloops and we headed at 6am. We decided to check out the NE quadrant of Kamloops. On the first road we drove up we stopped at a fork in the road and looked up the hill and saw 2 does and a spike buck. Then taking the right fork we drove up 200m to a log landing. The landing was surrounded by large piles of woody debris. I walked back down the road to glass the slash. I saw 3 bucks down near the tree line. They did not seem to be bothered by my presence. They meandered up the hill away from me toward the end of the landing. I signaled to Blackwater that I saw 3 deer. He could not see them from his vantage point on top of the debris pile, so he walked to the end of the landing for a look. Low and behold there they were 30yrds away. As this was day one of our hunt we passed on these bucks.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a233/Sadie955/3amigos.jpg

Later that morning we saw a nice bull moose and a cow and calf right beside the road. No LEH so he walked. It was amazing to see an animal the size of a moose literally disappear into the fireweed.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a233/Sadie955/moose.jpg

Later that day after traveling many miles we ended up behind Vinsula. We had stopped to observe a whitetail doe with a fawn bedded in a field. As we were watching her, she perked up her ears and started looking back into the brush. Not long after a mule deer doe walked out and sauntered over to the WT as if to say “You had better stay away from my man!”. The WT doe did not appreciate being spoken to in that manner so she started walking away. (I’m sure hybrids are not far away) About 40yrds from the Mule doe she stopped and stamped her feet to get her fawn to follow her. Seeing the Mule and WT side by side like that allowed a great comparison.

[ohno]

Day 2
We decided to check out the SE quadrant this day. After getting turned around on a tiny ranchers trail we managed to come out on a main logging road and figure out where we were. We saw no game, so we headed to Monte Lake FSR. This proved to be much more productive country. 10min down the rd and we saw a nice mule doe standing beside the road. Later we took a side road up the side of a MT and turned around in the landing. Then stopped to get out and stretch. Road hunting can be hard work some times J. I looked over the bank and spotted a pair of bucks right below me. They were looking up the hill at me then down the hill at the lower road where a couple of hunters on quads were sitting. After glassing them for a bit I decided to let those forks walk.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a233/Sadie955/2twobys.jpg

Just before dark we were heading West toward Nicola Lk. And saw a nice big tall 2pt on the tree line of the slash we were driving through. It was about 150yrds to the tree line and well I’ll cut to the chase….he walked away unscathed (We walked over and checked) On the drive out we saw a cow and calf moose in a swamp beside the road.

[ohno]

Day 3
This day was for the NW quadrant of Kamloops. Does anyone seeing a pattern developing here? We saw some sheep first thing and a few more at the end of the day.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a233/Sadie955/sheep.jpg

After stopping to let 5 does cross the road in front of us we decided it would be best to get our guns out ;) Then Blackwater shouts “there’s a deer!” He grabs his gun and tries to get set up for a shot, but the deer walks into the timber. We both grab our guns and follow. In the timber which is open Douglas Fir, with minimal underbrush we split up and sneak through looking for this deer. I saw this beauty 4pt take 3 bounds and he was over the ridge and out of sight. I grunted at him to try and stop him, but no luck. He was too cagy of an old buck to fall for that. I spent the next 2 hrs hiking around the hillside looking for him or any of his buddies. I found some sign and some well worn trails, but no deer. Not far up the road we spot a grouse so instead of taking out the s/g we had been using for grouse up to this point Blackwater decided he needed to redeem himself for his poor shooting the day before. So not wanting this grouse to get away he decides to “anchor” him with a double shoulder shot. Well the 180gr Nosler partition singing out of the 300WM at 3000 fps did it’s job. Needless to say we did not recover the bullet. The breast was remarkably intact, and the grouse was easy to clean. Leaving a wing attached as per the regs was more of a challenge J There are no pictures as I was threatened with bodily harm if they showed up on the forum. Blackwater was pretty sick this day and all the cold and flu meds were taking their toll. I let him sleep while I went walk about. All I saw was a pair of does that were trucking across a large slash. I’m not sure what had them spooked, so I hung out watching the slash for anything moving. Basically we saw no more bucks this day, but did see many does.

[Will]

Sure seems to be tons of little bucks running around this year ????

Some Nice shots ! 8)

[ohno]

Day 4
It was time to get serious here. Blackwater was too sick to head out this day, so I was going solo. I thought about going back to the spot were we saw the big 4pt the day before, but I was not confident that I could connect with him so I went back to the spot we saw the bucks on day 1. I parked at the fork in the road where we saw the does and spike and hiked up the road to the landing were we saw the three amigos.

It had snowed slightly over night and then froze. It was crunchy walking. After setting up overlooking the slash and hill side I saw nothing moving in the hour I watched. I decided it would be better to walk around and see if I could connect that way. I hiked up the mountain to a bench just below the crest. This area had a stand of burnt timber and I walked through the middle of it. Suddenly I got this weird feeling of being watched. I looked up the hill and just below the top of the ridge was a deer standing there looking at me. I dug out the binos and checked him out, indeed he was a buck.

I tried using one of the dead burnt trees as a rest, but the howling wind made that a non starter. I had to lay down and use a fallen log as a rest. The angle was pretty steep with me prone on the ground and the rifle rested on the log, but it was solid. I lined up on the buck and put the crosshairs right behind the shoulder. He was broadside with a slight angle towards me. I shot….the 180gr Federal Fusion connected. He ran down hill at an angling away from me I quickly jacked another round into the chamber, but it proved unnecessary. As I brought the scope online for another shot I saw him tumble head over heels. I hiked up the hill to where I though I saw him go down, but he was not there. After 15min of gridding the hillside I found him as you see in the pictures. While hiking up the hill to the deer I felt something wet running down my nose. It turned out to be blood as I scoped myself pretty good with the first shot :oops:. The damn thing bled for a good 1/2hr. It’s a good thing it was a Leupold with long eye relief!.

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a233/Sadie955/Buck071.jpg

In his tumble down the hill it looks like he broke off part of his antler. I wonder if it will hurt his score?LOL

http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a233/Sadie955/antler.jpg

I started to drag him out and got to the bench just above the landing and stopped to gut him there. The bullet took off the top of the heart, jellied the lungs and blew the rumen all through the stomach cavity. Later after skinning him out the near side shoulder was a complete right-off. It was all blood shot. I’m thinking the 300WM is probably too much gun for little deer.

All in all it was a great trip. We saw between 15-20 deer each day and managed to bag 8 grouse as well.

[Gateholio]

Sounds liek you guys had a good time, and looks like you got a nice deer. Nice weather, too!!

[Will]

Shoulda waited for the ending.......
Congrats on the Buck ! 8-)

[hunter1947]

Very nice wright up as for the buck you got ,pic are great ,thanks for sharing them.

Congrats on getting your deer http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/images/icons/icon14.gif.

[bad arrow]

That was a pretty good story, sounds like a hoot.