Dana Youth Hunt 2009

[dana]

Here's some pics from our family trip last week.

Jesse's first grouse
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v145/BCBOY/Valemount09071a.jpg

Jesse's second grouse
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[dana]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v145/BCBOY/Valemount09155a.jpg

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[dana]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v145/BCBOY/Valemount09086a.jpg

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[Steeleco]

The family afield is a feeling second to none. No electronic gizmo's and all smiles. Great pics as always.

[dana]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v145/BCBOY/Valemount09177a.jpg

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[shaner338]

Thats great! So cool to see the kids out with you! Can't wait till mine can come out with me. Nice pics!:-D

[dana]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v145/BCBOY/Valemount09052a.jpg

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[BearSniper]

Excellent pics

Good work on the grouse:-D

[Ridge_Kid]

Those are some great pics

[Mik]

The smiles say it all! Excellent photos, thanks for sharing.

[rollingrock]

Dana, your girl resembles you! Wonderful photos!

[BlacktailStalker]

Nice pics, not a lot of kids get up that high, its good for them.
Knowing thats up there for them whenever they want is something most kids don't know, sure is nice.
Looking forward to eating some of those high country berries next week :cool:

[PGK]

Steve, the geese are alive. Remedy this!! Nice shots.

[bigshooter]

So are you a beter shot with a rifle or a camera.

[Mugger]

Dana, great pictures, love the Kootenays, I have three girls your kids age. One Sarah who loves horses and I have showed her your pictures before. I am trying to get a youth model rifle for them to use for deer.

[frenchbar]

Nice photos Steve. No deer sighted for Jesse to get a crack at ?Congrats to her on her first grouse .

[Rattler]

Great pics! Thanks for sharing...

[dana]

Nice photos Steve. No deer sighted for Jesse to get a crack at ?Congrats to her on her first grouse .

The warm weather had the whiteys pretty much holding to a noctural pattern. We saw an average of about 4 a day. They weren't too keen on standing around too long. We did see a few that were just a tad too far, as I was wanting her shots to be 50 yards or less. I made Cody sit on his hands the entire week and it almost killed him. The hunt was for Jesse and it was a good lesson for him to learn that hunting is a team effort.

I was able to get Jesse on a 4x3 muley at about 40 yards. She was using the shooting sticks. It took her a while to get comfortable but she finally squeezed one off. At the shot the buck dropped but then he got his feet back under him and he bailed. The blood was good color and I expected we would find him within a 100 yards. No such luck. The blood trail was real good at first, but the buck zigged and zagged making it painstakingly difficult to follow his dirrection. We had our leopard pup, Cruiser, (the dog in the pics) with us so I decided to give her a try on lead. Took her a while to figure out what we were up too, but then her instinct took over. It was amazing to see that dog work like that. We encountered the first bed about 300 metres from the start. That is when I made the decision to head back to the truck, grab a bite to eat and give it an hour. That also gave me the opportunity to grab my pack, GPS and more flagging ribbon. An hour later we got back on the track with only spotty blood to follow. I had the kids marking the blood we found with ribbon so if the dog lost the trail, we could go back and start at the last spot of blood. There were times the dog would lose it and start circling and then she would start pulling and I would be way in front of the kids and thinking this dog is taking me on a wild goose chase but then I'd see a speck of blood and I'd call back to the kids to come on up to this new spot. At one point we jumped a deer that went up. The dog followed and then circled back and got on the right track and pulled me across slope. She was smart enough to figure out which way to go with another deer polluting the track. That time she took me across a cut with not a speck of blood the entire way and I was doubting her judgement, but as we entered the timber, there was a spot of blood where the buck jumped a log. Another 200 metres in the timber and 4 hours after the shot, we jumped the buck. He was still alive and he bailed hard with no shot opportunity. I took a GPS point and decided to pull off the track to give him yet more time to die. We hiked approximately 3 kms back to the truck, drove back to town for lunch and then came back 2 1/2 hours later, accessing the area from another road system. With the Goto button, we were able to find our last speck of blood and were back on the trail again, this time with no more blood to follow. It was only blind trust in the pup that her breeding would shine through, and that it did. She lead us down a very steep deer trail that lead to the river. As we approached the river I thought we'd find the buck dead on a sand bank. Nope! We jumped the buck out of his bed and he ran hard away, again with no shot opportunity. I left the dog with the kids and I took off after it hoping I could get a shot a him. I followed the ripped up duff for a good 200 metres without a single speck of blood and he was long gone. 7 hours after he was shot, this buck still had the piss and vinger to bail hard. I walked back to the kids and we discussed the situation and came to the conclusion this buck was not going to die today and if we stayed on his tracks with nothing but the dog leading us, we would continue to play cat and mouse with him, so we decided that was the end of the pursuit.

I'm sure some of the high moral ethictians on this site will say I was wrong to pull off, but it was my experienced opinion this buck wasn't going to die. I feel the hunt was actually very positive and taught my kids some valuable lessons on tracking that many other hunters don't ever get to learn. Wounding game is a fact of life in hunting. IMO, those that jump up and down on this site slamming hunters for poor shots, actually haven't spent enough time hunting themselves. Those of us who have hunted for a long time have all had it happen to us personally.

[Blainer]

Hard lesson for a young hunter.
I hope she can take solace in the fact that every effort was made for a recovery.

[sparkes3]

shitty to lose any animal but you went a lot further than a lot of people do so dont worry.sarg(the male puppy i got off you ) is doing well ,growing fast so is bella( brother in laws dog) will try to get some pics soon.they also show good hunting traits,points ,follows scents anywhere,and are not afraid to go see whats making noise in the bush.both really want to be with our families all the time very social dogs.

[.308win]

Dana, your girl resembles you!

Have you met his wife!!??;):biggrin:

Great pics Dana, should be some Goat pics next week eh!!?? Hope Jesse wants to get back on the horse and keep riding!! Good job on putting forth the effort to get back on the Deer!! As stated before, more then a lot of guys would have done, best of luck to her for the rest of the season!!!

Perry

[frenchbar]

Hopefuly it doesnt shy her away from getting back on the bike so to speak ,your right wounding game is a fact of life,it happens to a big percentage of people that hunt im sure,its happened to myself.Good luck to her on the rest of her hunting season.

[Marc]

Good Pictures and good story. Losing game is part of hunting at some point in time. It really sucks when it happens but it happens to everyone sooner or later.

It's to bad she didn't get to recover what could have been her first deer, this like you said is a valuable lesson for both of them that even though you did your best to try and recover or finish the animal off there will be times when animals don't get found or can't be dispatched.

It sounds like this deer will live to see another day and will have a battle scar for some lucky hunter in the future. Good to see that they're getting out there and enjoying their time in the woods.

[dana]

shitty to lose any animal but you went a lot further than a lot of people do so dont worry.sarg(the male puppy i got off you ) is doing well ,growing fast so is bella( brother in laws dog) will try to get some pics soon.they also show good hunting traits,points ,follows scents anywhere,and are not afraid to go see whats making noise in the bush.both really want to be with our families all the time very social dogs.

I'm glad to hear you are both enjoying the pups. I'm looking forward to getting their father on a lion track this winter.

I made every effort to make this experience a positive one for Jesse. She actually loved the tracking. Leads me to think she'll be running behind the dogs this winter. ;) She's going to giver a go with my Oct moose draw, but on that one she'll have her ol' man backin' her up. We'll giver another go for deer in Oct and I've got my doe draw in Nov that she's keen to fill as well. I've also got a Jan cow elk draw that we'll try to get her on. That one will depend on the weather though. If it's 40 below, I'll probably be hunting that one solo.

[Dirty]

Sounds like she shoots like her dad. ;-) Go back next week and see if you can find it. Hopefully you will have another ending like another story I remember reading.

[Sitkaspruce]

I made Cody sit on his hands the entire week and it almost killed him. The hunt was for Jesse and it was a good lesson for him to learn that hunting is a team effort.

I would have love to seen that!!!!:razz::smile:

Great picts as always,

An experience like that in her first year of hunting will just make her a better hunter. Good on you to take the time to explain what happened and to spend the time looking.

And she does not look like you, but like her mother in so many ways!!!:smile:

Cheers

SS

[triggr31]

nice work, i as well hunt with my son and wife its the best way to live . The simple life, is it not the best .[ATTACH]2192