jrjonesy
02-13-2009, 04:45 PM
Offseason reading.....
I was up in Hinton Alberta last September 6th to the 13th to try and chase down an Elk or deer. Generally the primary purpose of this hunt is a bowhunt for Elk but this year my brother was having to have rotator cuff surgery at the end of September, so deer (aka a supply of meat in the freezer), was pretty high on the list of priorities. We weren't successful on the Elk front but we did have some cool times.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/rocky21.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=12854&size=big&cat=500)
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/rocky1.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=12853&size=big&cat=500)
Above are a couple pictures from the ridge we did a fair amount of hunting from. I never get tired of the view.
Our first night was fairly exciting as I arrived in the afternoon after an 8 hour drive, got my tags and we headed off for the above ridge. By 7:40 we had 3 different bulls bugling but not moving any closer. As it was getting closer to dark, we opted to stay in our stands and not go after them. At about 8:00, my brother turned in his stand to see a Grizzly bear about 15 yards from the bottom of his tree. He had lost his bear spray and I was about 110 yards up the ridge from him. He dug out his camera from his pack, firstly, hoping the bear would see him and spook and secondly, thinking he may get a picture. Turned out his camera wouldn't work and all that happened was the Grizzly saw him and got pissed!
The Grizzly bluff charged the tree he was in 3 or 4 times while it worked around trying to get his scent. Each time it would back off and stand on his hind legs and huff and sniff. He finally got around onto Aaron's scent and took off at full speed about 50 yards, only to stop, wander around a bit and then slowly walk off.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/grizztree.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=12846&size=big&cat=500&ppuser=5706)
This is a picture of my brother in his treestand as taken from my tree stand (zoomed). Little did I know when I took this picture that he was dealing with a Grizzly.
I was a little suprised when I walked up on my brother at our meeting place just before dark and he had his knife in his hand....after hearing his story I got my bear spray out immediately.
The Grizzly mishap was something I had hoped we wouldn't be dealing with. Over the years, my brother has run into them several times on this ridge, including one that came to the bottom of his tree and pushed it. 3 weeks prior to my arriving, a guy was mauled by a Griz across the road from the bottom of this ridge (he made it out OK).
Anyways...the next morning we were hiking up the same ridge in the dark....this time I had my bearspray in my hand. About 3 quarters of the way up, in the pitch black by the light of our head lamps, there was a sudden huge crashing coming down at us! My brother (in front) and I both looked up to see the glow of eyes thundering down at us. The immediate thought was "Grizzly" and my brother went "hey, hey,hey" and jumped out of the way (I guess sacrificing me:shock:) just as the cow elk came into the beam of our headlamps, missed my brother by a foot and cut about 2 yards in front of me! In the next split second, a second elk bounced out from above us heading directly at us. Aaron had moved just off the trail but I had moved to the left and was a sitting duck. I went "hey, hey, hey!!" (figuring it worked for my brother). The elks bounce brought it to a stop broadside 12 inches in front of me on the uphill side. We both looked at each other in states of panic and she dug in and bolted to my left. There we were left, standing in the glow of our headlights, wishing we'd remembered fresh underewear.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/elkchrg.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=12845&size=big&cat=500&ppuser=5706)
Above is the spot (in daylight hours) we had the elk encounter. They'd obviously winded us, or winded something, panicked and just about run us over.
The rest of the day wasn't nearly as exciting as the Elk had appeared to have shut right up. This was the theme of the balance of our Elk attempts. Talking to my brothers friends and hunters in town, everyone was finding the Elk unusually quiet and were having very little success.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/mead.JPG
This is a nice meadow and ridge in another area we were exploring.
The next few days brought exploring and some sitting in stands on mineral licks. These wet licks were being hit by moose, elk and deer so we had some hopes. Most of the trail cam pics of moose and elk however were during the night.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/lick1.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=12850&size=big&cat=500&ppuser=5706)
On the Tuesday morning, Aaron was sitting on a lick, much like the one above (which I was sitting on) and he shot a nice doe with his bow. When the deer come into these licks, they are absolutely wired and are on high alert. It's a considerable feat to get your bow drawn without getting detected. He was excited to have some meat for the freezer!
The following morning our original plans were thwarted when the bridge we needed to cross was closed for repairs. We ended up going out to the ridge from the first day with plans to sit in some stands a little lower on the ridge (just below where we had the cow elk encounter).
By 10:00 that morning I hadn't seen a breath of movement. I dug a novel out and started to read, while still keeping an eye out. About 10 minutes later I spotted a buck standing to my right and about 35 yards downhill from me! It was on its way up the mountain.
Immediately my thought was 'there's no chance I'll get a shot at this buck". He's on my off side, there's very little cover, he's on the move, I still have to put down my book, grab my bow, get stood up, get turned around and get my bow drawn. Not likely!
What do you know though! The deer on this ridge aren't nearly as spooky as the ones hanging around the mineral licks. I managed to do all I needed to, freezing everytime he looked my way. I got my bow drawn as he went through a small opening at about my level and then attempted to follow him until he stopped. I panicked momentarily when my upper bow limb hit a sturdy tree limb as I was following him. Luckily I was able to crouch down on my stand (while facing the tree) to get my bow under the limb.
The buck stopped and contorted his body into a quartering away position as he fed. I had a good quartering shot but was thinking, I'll just wait until he's right broadside. After about 10 seconds though, the adrenalin started to get the better of me and I thought, "I'd better take this quartering shot".
My arrow caught him at about the second rib and exited just in front of his drivers side shoulder. He bolted about 20 yards, stopped for 5 seconds, and when he started to walk away, stumbled and rolled down the hill! I was stoked! I didn't think there was any way I was going to get a shot at this deer.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/deerspot.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=12843&size=big&cat=500&ppuser=5706)
This picture is taken from my tree stand. My brother is standing right in the middle of the picture where the buck was when I shot him.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/jjbuck.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=12849&size=big&cat=500&ppuser=5706)
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/jbuck2.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=12847&size=big&cat=500&ppuser=5706)
The shot was 23 yards and I was using g5 Tekan II's.
The following day, my brother managed to arrow another doe while hunting over a new lick we found. The picture below shows the lick and old wooden stand built over it. This stand was REALLY old and not safe...the trees were all dead. You can see Aaron's stand just to the right of the wooden stand on a closer tree.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/ajdoestd.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=12842&size=big&cat=500&ppuser=5706)
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/ajdoe2.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=12841&size=big&cat=500&ppuser=5706)
The final cool experience was sitting in a tree stand in the pitch dark about 45 minutes before light, when a branch cracked behind me and an aweful undescribable (though I'll try) monkey howl like sound almost scared me out of my tree! When I finally got the nerve to turn and look, there was a Barred owl (about 16 inches tall) on a branch about 8 feet behind me that met my movement with anther freakish howl in my face that startle the h$ll out of me again. After a couple more of these, I looked down to pull my headlamp from my pack and when I looked up, he was gone...not a whisper of a sound...Very Cool.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/SELF.JPG
I was up in Hinton Alberta last September 6th to the 13th to try and chase down an Elk or deer. Generally the primary purpose of this hunt is a bowhunt for Elk but this year my brother was having to have rotator cuff surgery at the end of September, so deer (aka a supply of meat in the freezer), was pretty high on the list of priorities. We weren't successful on the Elk front but we did have some cool times.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/rocky21.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=12854&size=big&cat=500)
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/rocky1.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=12853&size=big&cat=500)
Above are a couple pictures from the ridge we did a fair amount of hunting from. I never get tired of the view.
Our first night was fairly exciting as I arrived in the afternoon after an 8 hour drive, got my tags and we headed off for the above ridge. By 7:40 we had 3 different bulls bugling but not moving any closer. As it was getting closer to dark, we opted to stay in our stands and not go after them. At about 8:00, my brother turned in his stand to see a Grizzly bear about 15 yards from the bottom of his tree. He had lost his bear spray and I was about 110 yards up the ridge from him. He dug out his camera from his pack, firstly, hoping the bear would see him and spook and secondly, thinking he may get a picture. Turned out his camera wouldn't work and all that happened was the Grizzly saw him and got pissed!
The Grizzly bluff charged the tree he was in 3 or 4 times while it worked around trying to get his scent. Each time it would back off and stand on his hind legs and huff and sniff. He finally got around onto Aaron's scent and took off at full speed about 50 yards, only to stop, wander around a bit and then slowly walk off.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/grizztree.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=12846&size=big&cat=500&ppuser=5706)
This is a picture of my brother in his treestand as taken from my tree stand (zoomed). Little did I know when I took this picture that he was dealing with a Grizzly.
I was a little suprised when I walked up on my brother at our meeting place just before dark and he had his knife in his hand....after hearing his story I got my bear spray out immediately.
The Grizzly mishap was something I had hoped we wouldn't be dealing with. Over the years, my brother has run into them several times on this ridge, including one that came to the bottom of his tree and pushed it. 3 weeks prior to my arriving, a guy was mauled by a Griz across the road from the bottom of this ridge (he made it out OK).
Anyways...the next morning we were hiking up the same ridge in the dark....this time I had my bearspray in my hand. About 3 quarters of the way up, in the pitch black by the light of our head lamps, there was a sudden huge crashing coming down at us! My brother (in front) and I both looked up to see the glow of eyes thundering down at us. The immediate thought was "Grizzly" and my brother went "hey, hey,hey" and jumped out of the way (I guess sacrificing me:shock:) just as the cow elk came into the beam of our headlamps, missed my brother by a foot and cut about 2 yards in front of me! In the next split second, a second elk bounced out from above us heading directly at us. Aaron had moved just off the trail but I had moved to the left and was a sitting duck. I went "hey, hey, hey!!" (figuring it worked for my brother). The elks bounce brought it to a stop broadside 12 inches in front of me on the uphill side. We both looked at each other in states of panic and she dug in and bolted to my left. There we were left, standing in the glow of our headlights, wishing we'd remembered fresh underewear.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/elkchrg.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=12845&size=big&cat=500&ppuser=5706)
Above is the spot (in daylight hours) we had the elk encounter. They'd obviously winded us, or winded something, panicked and just about run us over.
The rest of the day wasn't nearly as exciting as the Elk had appeared to have shut right up. This was the theme of the balance of our Elk attempts. Talking to my brothers friends and hunters in town, everyone was finding the Elk unusually quiet and were having very little success.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/mead.JPG
This is a nice meadow and ridge in another area we were exploring.
The next few days brought exploring and some sitting in stands on mineral licks. These wet licks were being hit by moose, elk and deer so we had some hopes. Most of the trail cam pics of moose and elk however were during the night.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/lick1.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=12850&size=big&cat=500&ppuser=5706)
On the Tuesday morning, Aaron was sitting on a lick, much like the one above (which I was sitting on) and he shot a nice doe with his bow. When the deer come into these licks, they are absolutely wired and are on high alert. It's a considerable feat to get your bow drawn without getting detected. He was excited to have some meat for the freezer!
The following morning our original plans were thwarted when the bridge we needed to cross was closed for repairs. We ended up going out to the ridge from the first day with plans to sit in some stands a little lower on the ridge (just below where we had the cow elk encounter).
By 10:00 that morning I hadn't seen a breath of movement. I dug a novel out and started to read, while still keeping an eye out. About 10 minutes later I spotted a buck standing to my right and about 35 yards downhill from me! It was on its way up the mountain.
Immediately my thought was 'there's no chance I'll get a shot at this buck". He's on my off side, there's very little cover, he's on the move, I still have to put down my book, grab my bow, get stood up, get turned around and get my bow drawn. Not likely!
What do you know though! The deer on this ridge aren't nearly as spooky as the ones hanging around the mineral licks. I managed to do all I needed to, freezing everytime he looked my way. I got my bow drawn as he went through a small opening at about my level and then attempted to follow him until he stopped. I panicked momentarily when my upper bow limb hit a sturdy tree limb as I was following him. Luckily I was able to crouch down on my stand (while facing the tree) to get my bow under the limb.
The buck stopped and contorted his body into a quartering away position as he fed. I had a good quartering shot but was thinking, I'll just wait until he's right broadside. After about 10 seconds though, the adrenalin started to get the better of me and I thought, "I'd better take this quartering shot".
My arrow caught him at about the second rib and exited just in front of his drivers side shoulder. He bolted about 20 yards, stopped for 5 seconds, and when he started to walk away, stumbled and rolled down the hill! I was stoked! I didn't think there was any way I was going to get a shot at this deer.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/deerspot.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=12843&size=big&cat=500&ppuser=5706)
This picture is taken from my tree stand. My brother is standing right in the middle of the picture where the buck was when I shot him.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/jjbuck.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=12849&size=big&cat=500&ppuser=5706)
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/jbuck2.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=12847&size=big&cat=500&ppuser=5706)
The shot was 23 yards and I was using g5 Tekan II's.
The following day, my brother managed to arrow another doe while hunting over a new lick we found. The picture below shows the lick and old wooden stand built over it. This stand was REALLY old and not safe...the trees were all dead. You can see Aaron's stand just to the right of the wooden stand on a closer tree.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/ajdoestd.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=12842&size=big&cat=500&ppuser=5706)
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/ajdoe2.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=12841&size=big&cat=500&ppuser=5706)
The final cool experience was sitting in a tree stand in the pitch dark about 45 minutes before light, when a branch cracked behind me and an aweful undescribable (though I'll try) monkey howl like sound almost scared me out of my tree! When I finally got the nerve to turn and look, there was a Barred owl (about 16 inches tall) on a branch about 8 feet behind me that met my movement with anther freakish howl in my face that startle the h$ll out of me again. After a couple more of these, I looked down to pull my headlamp from my pack and when I looked up, he was gone...not a whisper of a sound...Very Cool.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/SELF.JPG