First ever white tail hunt is over!

[Stéphane]

First of, I'll begin by saying thank you to everyone who helped me with this one. If I didn't kill anything, but it sure is not because I didn't receive great advice from you guys. I had a blast, and in the end, that's all that counts.

I woke up at 3am, load the truck and hit the road. I arrived in Princeton, grab breakfast I headed for Coalmont, where I've seen deer numerous times. The great thing with snow, is you see right away how much recent activities there was. And there wasn't any. On top of that, I didn't even know if the tracks were from a mule deer or a white tail. From comments, articles and all the research I did, I was looking for a funnel where there would be a beaten path. I saw none of that. I did see a lot of individual tracks, but nothing telling me I should concentrate on a specific area. By 9am, I thought I'd try elsewhere.
And it got better!
One of my fear was to not be able to differentiate muleys from whiteys. I'm glad to say that I passsed the test. I saw a doe and it struck me that she had bugs bunny ears. So, I grabbed my camera instead of my bow.
http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc77/yol68/DSC00514.jpg
I thought about shooting her, go to the hardware store, pick some spay paint to do a bit of touch up here and there, then with a pair of scissors, trim the ears a bit. :twisted:

In all I saw 8 mule doe, 7 of them well within my range of shooting.

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc77/yol68/DSC00515.jpg

http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc77/yol68/DSC00520.jpg

This was a group of 4.


I spent the rest of the day scouting, but nothing to entice to do more. I did finally find a well beaten path. The problem, it was on private land.

Minutes later, a herd of elks was grazing up the hill. I'll post the pictures later.

I finished at 5:11, but really, I was done 1/2 hour before as the visibility was none existent.

Can't wait for next year!

[coach]

Thanks for posting your story, Stephane! I'm sure a lot of us have been waiting to see how you did today. Hopefully you get a little earlier start next season. :wink: Great job spotting deer today and, even better, identifying what you were looking at.

[Stéphane]

I saw these tracks. Anyone knows what was going on here?
http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc77/yol68/DSC00521.jpg

Here are the elks.
http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc77/yol68/DSC00523.jpg
http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc77/yol68/DSC00525.jpg

[hunter1947]

Nice story nice pictures and yes there will be next year :wink:..

[Stone Sheep Steve]

I saw these tracks. Anyone knows what was going on here?
http://i218.photobucket.com/albums/cc77/yol68/DSC00521.jpg





Deer walking in the snow??:?........................................ :wink:

Great that you got your feet wet.....but, personally, I would have kept driving another hour and hit the main OK valley area. Not a whole lot of whities in the Princeton area.

Thanks for the pics!

SSS

[TyTy]

I've only seen the whities in the valley bottom around princeton, where most of the private land is.

[RoscoeP]

Hey, good going, glad you saw some deer and elk to keep you on your toes. I think you are hooked for life now and the planing has already started for next year. You have motovaited me and got me ramped up to do some hunting also. Good luck in the future. Cheers Roscoe

[goatdancer]

I agree with SSS. I used to work over in that area and almost all the deer I saw were muleys.

[Mikey Rafiki]

Re: Tracks

Ya, that's just the toe draggin elks, they are too lazy to pick up their feet when they walk.

[Bow Walker]

Congratulations on your hunt Stephane. Looks and sounds as if it was worth all the time and effort that you applied to get ready.

[Lee]

Darn, was hoping you'd have a success story to share! At least you got to see some elk, otherwise sounds like the day I had as well lol. Muley does in white tail land....

a bad day of hunting is like bad sex, disappointing but still pretty good :)

[Stéphane]

Deer walking in the snow??:?........................................ :wink:

Great that you got your feet wet.....but, personally, I would have kept driving another hour and hit the main OK valley area. Not a whole lot of whities in the Princeton area.

Thanks for the pics!

SSS

Once I figured out they were mostly mule deer, I thought about going further East, but I told my family I was in that region. I could call, but I had no real place to go either. At least, I saw some game.


I've only seen the whities in the valley bottom around princeton, where most of the private land is.
The beaten path I saw leading down the valley was on private land. Not sure 100% they were from whities, but that's the best evidence I saw all day.


Darn, was hoping you'd have a success story to share! At least you got to see some elk, otherwise sounds like the day I had as well lol. Muley does in white tail land....

a bad day of hunting is like bad sex, disappointing but still pretty good :)
Exhausting too!


There's one more story. When I was scouting, I went up Willis FSR which was supposed to bring me near Hedley. The road was plowed for the most part, approximately 30km. Then it stopped. Well, there was about a foot of snow, so why not finish the road and see if I find better places.
I have a 2000 RAV4 with 4 studded winter tires. Off I go and I'm making head ways for 1 km when the road goes up. I start skidding sideways, the truck won't go up anymore. After a few back and forth, I manage to continue until I got into a cross ditch. Now the Rav4 won't move forward, nor backward. Even worse, the tires don't spin either. Oh oh, transmission? I got off the truck, clean up in front of the wheels, underneath the SUV, and let it rest. At that point, I'm panicking a bit because it could be a very long walk. The logging truck turn off is at least 8km away.
Finally I jump back in, and the wheels are spinning. Clean up some more and I got it out. Since there wasn't any tracks anyway at that point, I got the heck out of there.

[KevinB]

First lesson, if you're going to drive anywhere in deep snow have a set of chains and a good shovel, at the very least. :wink: