Untouchable
11-16-2009, 12:30 PM
I had one deer tag burning a hole in my pocket and was eager to fill it with a big Muley. My little Brothers buddy had never taken a mule deer before and had the week off work to hunt, so a plan was quickly formulated. We planned on heading to Prince George on the first day, however after talking to some guys in Quesnel we opted to try our luck out by williams lake. On the drive up we had almost taken out a decent four point on the highway! We hunted for two days in williams lake, seeing the odd doe and odd buck but no shooters. Lots of wolf sign...
Forget this, lets head up to Prince George where it's any buck, not to mention any doe. During daylight hours, in two days of hunting we didn't see a deer. There were wolf tracks everywhere! We thought we would at least shoot a dog, but we never even saw one. Man this late season hunting isn't much like september muleys. Well I know some good spots in region 3, lets start heading back towards the coast.
The first two days we got into my spot, we didn't see any hunters or any deer, although the tracks were abundant. I waited till after dark and drove the roads trying to figure out whether the deer were nocturnal, no dice. We were completely discouraged, and decided to give it one more day. :(
I busted out my mapbook and decided on some roads taking us into some promising looking areas. It started snowing mid morning as I was heading up this one road I'd never been on. We were looking for fresh tracks crossing the road, but we saw zero. Around one o clock we reach the end of the road, and meet up with a forestry worker. "yah been seeing the odd doe, no bucks in three weeks up here though...". Just what I wanted to hear! Turn around and start heading out. On the way down I caught sight of something moving in the woods(one of those times when you don't know if it was something or not) I ask Mike whether he saw it and he thought he saw something too... Lets go for a hike.
He grabs the shotgun with birdshot for small game and I grab my 7mm and we get walking. When we get to the spot where we thought we saw it there was fresh deer tracks. However they were tiny tracks. A hell we ain't seeing anything anyways, lets follow em for a picture. We are now in the thick timber, and we can guess by this deers bounding tracks that it is now aware of our presence. Then we cut across two bigger fresh tracks. "I vote we follow these ones". Off we go. This wasn't still hunting, I was marching through the bush. Within ten minutes of following these tracks my heart skips a beat. Through the thick stuff I catch movement. The deer I had seen moves over the knoll and I cant see what it is. I take another step forward and see an absolute brute take a step and turn to look at me. Safety off, scope covers open, find his vitals through the brush and squeeeeeeeezeeeee. Felt like a good shot.
Oh My God!!!! Did that just happen!!! After a week of hard hunting and not seeing hardly anything, just like that! What a thrill. Lets go follow this blood trail before the snow covers it up. 30 yard recovery and I give thanks. Here is what we walked up to.
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x105/themanfromsummerscreek/DSC00890.jpg
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x105/themanfromsummerscreek/DSC00885.jpg
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x105/themanfromsummerscreek/DSC00904.jpg
The truck was about a kilometer and a half, but the road was only about 500 meters downhill! The kid gets the truck while I take the brute down to the truck. By the time we field dress and load him there is about an hour and a half of light left. I really want to get the kid a deer, so we head down the road. Lets go for another walk... We get out of the truck just in time to see the forestry guys( there's a second one now) making their way out for the day. I had to show em my deer and they say there was three more bucks on their way down. Alright guys, we whip the truck around and head back up the mountain. In the exact clearing where we had parked the truck earlier there's now deer...doe doe doe.....buck. Instantly the kid hops out, yeah he's a four take em! Earlier in the day we were shooting long range at some targets and he still had his gun focussed at 1500 yards and on 18 power! needless to say his first shot was clean miss. Shoot again! Made no mistake on the second shot, a clean heart shot put em down for the count. We were jacked! high fives and cigars! unbelievable! After our week of hunting it all came together just like that! The kid with his first Mule Deer!
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x105/themanfromsummerscreek/DSC00912.jpg
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x105/themanfromsummerscreek/DSC00914.jpg
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Forget this, lets head up to Prince George where it's any buck, not to mention any doe. During daylight hours, in two days of hunting we didn't see a deer. There were wolf tracks everywhere! We thought we would at least shoot a dog, but we never even saw one. Man this late season hunting isn't much like september muleys. Well I know some good spots in region 3, lets start heading back towards the coast.
The first two days we got into my spot, we didn't see any hunters or any deer, although the tracks were abundant. I waited till after dark and drove the roads trying to figure out whether the deer were nocturnal, no dice. We were completely discouraged, and decided to give it one more day. :(
I busted out my mapbook and decided on some roads taking us into some promising looking areas. It started snowing mid morning as I was heading up this one road I'd never been on. We were looking for fresh tracks crossing the road, but we saw zero. Around one o clock we reach the end of the road, and meet up with a forestry worker. "yah been seeing the odd doe, no bucks in three weeks up here though...". Just what I wanted to hear! Turn around and start heading out. On the way down I caught sight of something moving in the woods(one of those times when you don't know if it was something or not) I ask Mike whether he saw it and he thought he saw something too... Lets go for a hike.
He grabs the shotgun with birdshot for small game and I grab my 7mm and we get walking. When we get to the spot where we thought we saw it there was fresh deer tracks. However they were tiny tracks. A hell we ain't seeing anything anyways, lets follow em for a picture. We are now in the thick timber, and we can guess by this deers bounding tracks that it is now aware of our presence. Then we cut across two bigger fresh tracks. "I vote we follow these ones". Off we go. This wasn't still hunting, I was marching through the bush. Within ten minutes of following these tracks my heart skips a beat. Through the thick stuff I catch movement. The deer I had seen moves over the knoll and I cant see what it is. I take another step forward and see an absolute brute take a step and turn to look at me. Safety off, scope covers open, find his vitals through the brush and squeeeeeeeezeeeee. Felt like a good shot.
Oh My God!!!! Did that just happen!!! After a week of hard hunting and not seeing hardly anything, just like that! What a thrill. Lets go follow this blood trail before the snow covers it up. 30 yard recovery and I give thanks. Here is what we walked up to.
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x105/themanfromsummerscreek/DSC00890.jpg
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x105/themanfromsummerscreek/DSC00885.jpg
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x105/themanfromsummerscreek/DSC00904.jpg
The truck was about a kilometer and a half, but the road was only about 500 meters downhill! The kid gets the truck while I take the brute down to the truck. By the time we field dress and load him there is about an hour and a half of light left. I really want to get the kid a deer, so we head down the road. Lets go for another walk... We get out of the truck just in time to see the forestry guys( there's a second one now) making their way out for the day. I had to show em my deer and they say there was three more bucks on their way down. Alright guys, we whip the truck around and head back up the mountain. In the exact clearing where we had parked the truck earlier there's now deer...doe doe doe.....buck. Instantly the kid hops out, yeah he's a four take em! Earlier in the day we were shooting long range at some targets and he still had his gun focussed at 1500 yards and on 18 power! needless to say his first shot was clean miss. Shoot again! Made no mistake on the second shot, a clean heart shot put em down for the count. We were jacked! high fives and cigars! unbelievable! After our week of hunting it all came together just like that! The kid with his first Mule Deer!
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x105/themanfromsummerscreek/DSC00912.jpg
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x105/themanfromsummerscreek/DSC00914.jpg
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