dime
01-20-2010, 10:41 PM
I have been on the site for a couple of years and have finally figured out how to post pictures so I can tell the story of a recent hunt.
A group of us were hunting in November and had woken up to some fresh snow. Getting out of our wall tents there was a feeling like this was the turn in the weather we had been waiting for, as it had been warm and raining prior to that day. We had gone for a morning hunt-drove up to some territory we had been successful in the past and did a hike for a few hours but had turned up with nothing but a couple of does. We had returned to the truck to drive back at camp and have a bite to eat when we drove past a set of tracks crossing the road. My buddy stopped the truck and backed up. I looked down and the tracks were big- very big. I said we have to follow them and see if we can bump this big boy. We knew the tracks were fresh as it had started to snow again yet there was no snow accumulated in the prints. I loaded up my gun and started to follow the tracks across a big open slash towards some timber. The tracks were evenly spaced and not far apart, obviously the buck was walking along calmly. I tracked the buck into the timber and out the other side into another slash with a deep gully through the middle. As I was going along, my radio squalked as my buddy tried to call and see if I had given up the chase. As soon as my radio made a sound, I could see the buck jump out of his bed on the ridge above me. He bounded off taking huge leaps as I brought my gun up to my shoulder, but he took off like a bat out of hell and did not stop, offing no good shot. I quickly climbed to the top of the ridge hoping to see him pause on his way but to no avail. I got back on his tracks, but now he was taking huge leaps, with 20 or more feet between bounds, going over blow downs and trees like they did not exist, making it difficult to track him as I had to keep looking for his next footprint as he flew the ground. He got into the timber next to the slash, through to the next slash and into yet another timber on the other side. At this point I had been tracking him for well over an hour, covering quite a bit of ground and I was sweating up a storm. As I went down towards a spur, I could hear a truck coming down from the main FSR, and caught a glimpse of my buddies rig making his way towards me. At this point the tracks had dissapeared into a little group of christmas trees (12 foot high regen), bordered on all four sides by little spurs. I caught up with my buddies and said we should split up, one guy on each side of the group of trees, and one guy will follow the tracks. I was on the far side and let my buddy take up the chase, but as I ducked around the corner the buck must have went out right behind me as when I walked back 5 minutes later his tracks went right over my boot prints. I thought he was gone for sure at this point, but we decided to make one last ditch effort. We knew there was another slash in the direction that the buck was heading so one buddy started walking down the road to try and get ahead of him. I went up another road parallel to this one and my other friend started following the tracks in the snow hot on his trail. About 10 minutes later I heard the shot, our "wolf pack" effort had paid off. Sure enough, the buck had come out into the next slash and my buddy had made a good shot. Nice to see that a group effort (and I do mean effort, I must have tracked that deer for over 7km before my buddy started to follow him) pays off once in a while.
It is me holding the deer but I did not pull the trigger. Sorry the pic is a bit blurry but I think we were all shaking a little.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=17600&size=big&cat=&ppuser=1603
A group of us were hunting in November and had woken up to some fresh snow. Getting out of our wall tents there was a feeling like this was the turn in the weather we had been waiting for, as it had been warm and raining prior to that day. We had gone for a morning hunt-drove up to some territory we had been successful in the past and did a hike for a few hours but had turned up with nothing but a couple of does. We had returned to the truck to drive back at camp and have a bite to eat when we drove past a set of tracks crossing the road. My buddy stopped the truck and backed up. I looked down and the tracks were big- very big. I said we have to follow them and see if we can bump this big boy. We knew the tracks were fresh as it had started to snow again yet there was no snow accumulated in the prints. I loaded up my gun and started to follow the tracks across a big open slash towards some timber. The tracks were evenly spaced and not far apart, obviously the buck was walking along calmly. I tracked the buck into the timber and out the other side into another slash with a deep gully through the middle. As I was going along, my radio squalked as my buddy tried to call and see if I had given up the chase. As soon as my radio made a sound, I could see the buck jump out of his bed on the ridge above me. He bounded off taking huge leaps as I brought my gun up to my shoulder, but he took off like a bat out of hell and did not stop, offing no good shot. I quickly climbed to the top of the ridge hoping to see him pause on his way but to no avail. I got back on his tracks, but now he was taking huge leaps, with 20 or more feet between bounds, going over blow downs and trees like they did not exist, making it difficult to track him as I had to keep looking for his next footprint as he flew the ground. He got into the timber next to the slash, through to the next slash and into yet another timber on the other side. At this point I had been tracking him for well over an hour, covering quite a bit of ground and I was sweating up a storm. As I went down towards a spur, I could hear a truck coming down from the main FSR, and caught a glimpse of my buddies rig making his way towards me. At this point the tracks had dissapeared into a little group of christmas trees (12 foot high regen), bordered on all four sides by little spurs. I caught up with my buddies and said we should split up, one guy on each side of the group of trees, and one guy will follow the tracks. I was on the far side and let my buddy take up the chase, but as I ducked around the corner the buck must have went out right behind me as when I walked back 5 minutes later his tracks went right over my boot prints. I thought he was gone for sure at this point, but we decided to make one last ditch effort. We knew there was another slash in the direction that the buck was heading so one buddy started walking down the road to try and get ahead of him. I went up another road parallel to this one and my other friend started following the tracks in the snow hot on his trail. About 10 minutes later I heard the shot, our "wolf pack" effort had paid off. Sure enough, the buck had come out into the next slash and my buddy had made a good shot. Nice to see that a group effort (and I do mean effort, I must have tracked that deer for over 7km before my buddy started to follow him) pays off once in a while.
It is me holding the deer but I did not pull the trigger. Sorry the pic is a bit blurry but I think we were all shaking a little.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=17600&size=big&cat=&ppuser=1603