gbear
12-01-2009, 07:39 AM
As our local whitetail season was coming to close here in the Peace, I was getting excited. I had 4 days off work planned, plus the weekend, which meant I could hunt the last 6 days of the season. Those that hunted the Peace this deer season know that we had some unusual warm temperatures, which likely had an affect on deer movement and behaviour.
I had 3 stands set up with trail cam's out. Well, found out only 2 because someone else felt they deserved 1 of them more then I did. Regardless, since I had the cameras out, I had collected over 12,000 pictures between them. One of my stands had 2 nice bucks in the area. One was a nice typical 5x5 and the other was a cool looking non-typical, which I had pictures of from last year also. I decided that was going to be the place to hunt for the home stretch. I was kind of glad this stand had the best activity, because it was also a fairly comfortable set up. In the summer I had built a platform up in the trees that was large enough to put a ground blind in. So, I did that and that kept the wind off me. Anyone considering this, it's a great option. Not a single time was I blown at by a deer. I was going to treat these last 6 days like a guided hunt - stay tight in my stand all day and watch over my area.
Day 1, alarm goes off at 5:15 and I get up to let the dog out, and I notice it was freezing rain out. I think, a deer isn't worth driving in this, so back to bed. Wake up later and it had stopped, so I gave it another couple hours for roads to get better and I decide to head out mid day and stay till dark. See a number of deer, but not the one I want.
Day 2, up at the same time and get ready and head out. See 9 different deer of which 4 are legal bucks, but not the guy I am after.
Day 3 comes and the same routine. In my hut before legal shooting time and right away start seeing deer. And for whatever reason, deer activity didn't slow down this day. I seen 11 different legal bucks. I don't think I ever went longer then 20 minutes without seeing a deer. At 5:15pm, I see 2 small bucks in front of me and all of a sudden, they become very alert and are looking south and looking nervous. Then one of them starts backing up. Instantly, I know what is going on because I have seen that behaviour before. Something big is coming! I reach for my gun and get it ready and lean forward so I can look out the window and to my far left I see a big body moving through the trees. He moved through an opening and I see it is the nice 5x5. I didn't sense any hesitation in me so, the next opening he came through I was going to shoot. But, when he got there one of the smaller bucks stood right in front of him and blocked the shot. They stood there for what seemed like forever. Then the big guy turned away from me and stood with his butt to me. Of course, that's when the small guy moved. Again, no shot. Finally the big guy moved to the right a bit and gave me a quartering away shot and I let one fly. He bucked and ran off to my right about 4 steps and then stopped. I figured he was going down, but then he started moving again, so I let another one fly. He bucked again and ran off about 20 yards under a big spruce tree and I seen a flash of white. At that point, I knew he was down. I gave it a couple minutes and then went to claim my deer. After 10 hours in the stand that day, and getting the deer I had on trail camera and hoped to get, I was in awww. It all came together
Then the work began. I was by myself, it was pretty much at last light, I was about a mile from the truck and this guy had a good size body on him. I had to drag him out in halves. After 2 hours, I was all loaded up in the truck and on my way home
Of course, here are some pictures. Not the best, because I had to put the camera on a stump and quickly try to get in the pictures before it went off.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/IMG_0300_Small_.jpg (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=16582&size=big&cat=)
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/IMG_0303_Small_.jpg (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=16584&size=big&cat=)
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/IMG_0301_Small_.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=16583&size=big&cat=)
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/IMG_0293_Small_.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=16581&size=big&cat=)
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/IMG_0291_Small_1.jpg (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=16580&size=big&cat=)
I had 3 stands set up with trail cam's out. Well, found out only 2 because someone else felt they deserved 1 of them more then I did. Regardless, since I had the cameras out, I had collected over 12,000 pictures between them. One of my stands had 2 nice bucks in the area. One was a nice typical 5x5 and the other was a cool looking non-typical, which I had pictures of from last year also. I decided that was going to be the place to hunt for the home stretch. I was kind of glad this stand had the best activity, because it was also a fairly comfortable set up. In the summer I had built a platform up in the trees that was large enough to put a ground blind in. So, I did that and that kept the wind off me. Anyone considering this, it's a great option. Not a single time was I blown at by a deer. I was going to treat these last 6 days like a guided hunt - stay tight in my stand all day and watch over my area.
Day 1, alarm goes off at 5:15 and I get up to let the dog out, and I notice it was freezing rain out. I think, a deer isn't worth driving in this, so back to bed. Wake up later and it had stopped, so I gave it another couple hours for roads to get better and I decide to head out mid day and stay till dark. See a number of deer, but not the one I want.
Day 2, up at the same time and get ready and head out. See 9 different deer of which 4 are legal bucks, but not the guy I am after.
Day 3 comes and the same routine. In my hut before legal shooting time and right away start seeing deer. And for whatever reason, deer activity didn't slow down this day. I seen 11 different legal bucks. I don't think I ever went longer then 20 minutes without seeing a deer. At 5:15pm, I see 2 small bucks in front of me and all of a sudden, they become very alert and are looking south and looking nervous. Then one of them starts backing up. Instantly, I know what is going on because I have seen that behaviour before. Something big is coming! I reach for my gun and get it ready and lean forward so I can look out the window and to my far left I see a big body moving through the trees. He moved through an opening and I see it is the nice 5x5. I didn't sense any hesitation in me so, the next opening he came through I was going to shoot. But, when he got there one of the smaller bucks stood right in front of him and blocked the shot. They stood there for what seemed like forever. Then the big guy turned away from me and stood with his butt to me. Of course, that's when the small guy moved. Again, no shot. Finally the big guy moved to the right a bit and gave me a quartering away shot and I let one fly. He bucked and ran off to my right about 4 steps and then stopped. I figured he was going down, but then he started moving again, so I let another one fly. He bucked again and ran off about 20 yards under a big spruce tree and I seen a flash of white. At that point, I knew he was down. I gave it a couple minutes and then went to claim my deer. After 10 hours in the stand that day, and getting the deer I had on trail camera and hoped to get, I was in awww. It all came together
Then the work began. I was by myself, it was pretty much at last light, I was about a mile from the truck and this guy had a good size body on him. I had to drag him out in halves. After 2 hours, I was all loaded up in the truck and on my way home
Of course, here are some pictures. Not the best, because I had to put the camera on a stump and quickly try to get in the pictures before it went off.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/IMG_0300_Small_.jpg (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=16582&size=big&cat=)
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/IMG_0303_Small_.jpg (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=16584&size=big&cat=)
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/IMG_0301_Small_.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=16583&size=big&cat=)
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/IMG_0293_Small_.JPG (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=16581&size=big&cat=)
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/IMG_0291_Small_1.jpg (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=16580&size=big&cat=)