brotherjack
09-02-2006, 08:48 PM
So, after being late in the morning for our elk, we showed up 2 hours early and setup our brand new ground blind for our evening whitetail hunt. This is the way to do this now, I tell you! Sitting inside with two comfy reclining fold up chairs, waiting on your game to show up with your best friend and wife at your side, is way nicer than scrunched up in an uncomfortable tree stand alone or trying to perfectly still while sitting in the open.
After a little over two hours of waiting, the first potential shot of the night presented itself. A little 3x2 whitetail sauntered over to the water hole we were setup on, and gave my wife a good 2 minutes to decide he was entirely too young a deer to be taking on opening day. Last day of the season, sure, but not opening day.
A doe showed up about 5 minutes after the young buck left, and stomped and blew a few times. We were confused as to what we had done wrong, until we heard the deer run off and a lady on a horse with two dogs in tow rode by. I guess that's what we get for hunting within sight of the the road.
About half an hour and a few cars passed before the action picked up again. A middle-aged doe, with no fawns in tow, showed up and gave my wife the old broadside at 15 yards angle. A very legal animal, and definitely plump enough to eat on for a while. Though before my wife could raise the crossbow I saw a gorgeous buck and doe pair making their way towards our waterhole from an angle my wife couldn't see. “There's big buck coming, if you want to wait” I hissed quietly to my wife. She waited.
About 40 yards away, and still out of my wife's line of sight, the doe with the big buck noticed our blind, and got skittish and headed back into cover with her tail up (no hissing and stomping though, thankfully). The buck just stood there looking clueless, and turned around three or four times as if trying to figure out what had spooked his lady friend. Finally, several agonizing minutes later, he walks off toward cover too, though obviously still not spooked himself; just following his companion. Of course, our original plump little doe is now out of shooting position. Oh well, the evening is far from over, and it was only going to get more exciting.
A few minutes later, a spike whitetail came down for a drink, and off in the bush something big moved around. A few minutes later, that something big materialized into an absolute dandy of a buck who headed down to join the spike at the water hole. This fellow had 'shooter' written all over him, from his big juicy hindquarters, to his heavy, well developed antlers. My wife and I watched him come down the hill to the water hole. Closer and closer. Other deer were starting to come out of the woodwork, but we were focused on our shooter. About the time our shooter buck had gotten to where he only needed to take 2 more steps, and turn about 5 degrees more broadside, disaster struck.
A small herd of elk come tromping out of the bush, and chased off all the deer. I looked over at my wife, and whispered “normally I hate the idea of getting an elk out of the bush in the dark, but if we were ever going to, this is the time and place.” The road was very close, and assuming a good shot, we'd have less than 100 yards to drag the elk over fairly flat and even (for BC) terrain. She brought up the bow, and watched. The rotten elk, having chased off all our deer, hung up about 35 yards away. That will sound plenty close to most of you bow hunters, but my little $129 Horton crossbow starts getting sloppy in the accuracy department by 30 yards, so I've determined 25 yards as our absolute limit with that particular weapon, and The Wife (tm) and I stick to that like a religion.
We did get a couple of moments right as the light was fading (though still legal to hunt) when a couple of the elk came just barely within that 25 yard range and turned broadside, but in the end, we both decided it just wasn't worth the risk of possibly making a poorly placed shot in the rapidly fading light. Besides, tracking and packing a bow shot elk in the dark just didn't sound like much fun to us. If it was the last day of the season and the freezer was still empty – you betcha we'd take that shot without a blink, but not on opening day of a season when my wife has an elk LEH for the upcoming rifle season.
Anyway, not much hunting got done today (Sept 2), and what was was rather dissapointing. Better hunting tomorrow, when we return to our original elk hunting spot (see other thread) and wait for them to show back up.
After a little over two hours of waiting, the first potential shot of the night presented itself. A little 3x2 whitetail sauntered over to the water hole we were setup on, and gave my wife a good 2 minutes to decide he was entirely too young a deer to be taking on opening day. Last day of the season, sure, but not opening day.
A doe showed up about 5 minutes after the young buck left, and stomped and blew a few times. We were confused as to what we had done wrong, until we heard the deer run off and a lady on a horse with two dogs in tow rode by. I guess that's what we get for hunting within sight of the the road.
About half an hour and a few cars passed before the action picked up again. A middle-aged doe, with no fawns in tow, showed up and gave my wife the old broadside at 15 yards angle. A very legal animal, and definitely plump enough to eat on for a while. Though before my wife could raise the crossbow I saw a gorgeous buck and doe pair making their way towards our waterhole from an angle my wife couldn't see. “There's big buck coming, if you want to wait” I hissed quietly to my wife. She waited.
About 40 yards away, and still out of my wife's line of sight, the doe with the big buck noticed our blind, and got skittish and headed back into cover with her tail up (no hissing and stomping though, thankfully). The buck just stood there looking clueless, and turned around three or four times as if trying to figure out what had spooked his lady friend. Finally, several agonizing minutes later, he walks off toward cover too, though obviously still not spooked himself; just following his companion. Of course, our original plump little doe is now out of shooting position. Oh well, the evening is far from over, and it was only going to get more exciting.
A few minutes later, a spike whitetail came down for a drink, and off in the bush something big moved around. A few minutes later, that something big materialized into an absolute dandy of a buck who headed down to join the spike at the water hole. This fellow had 'shooter' written all over him, from his big juicy hindquarters, to his heavy, well developed antlers. My wife and I watched him come down the hill to the water hole. Closer and closer. Other deer were starting to come out of the woodwork, but we were focused on our shooter. About the time our shooter buck had gotten to where he only needed to take 2 more steps, and turn about 5 degrees more broadside, disaster struck.
A small herd of elk come tromping out of the bush, and chased off all the deer. I looked over at my wife, and whispered “normally I hate the idea of getting an elk out of the bush in the dark, but if we were ever going to, this is the time and place.” The road was very close, and assuming a good shot, we'd have less than 100 yards to drag the elk over fairly flat and even (for BC) terrain. She brought up the bow, and watched. The rotten elk, having chased off all our deer, hung up about 35 yards away. That will sound plenty close to most of you bow hunters, but my little $129 Horton crossbow starts getting sloppy in the accuracy department by 30 yards, so I've determined 25 yards as our absolute limit with that particular weapon, and The Wife (tm) and I stick to that like a religion.
We did get a couple of moments right as the light was fading (though still legal to hunt) when a couple of the elk came just barely within that 25 yard range and turned broadside, but in the end, we both decided it just wasn't worth the risk of possibly making a poorly placed shot in the rapidly fading light. Besides, tracking and packing a bow shot elk in the dark just didn't sound like much fun to us. If it was the last day of the season and the freezer was still empty – you betcha we'd take that shot without a blink, but not on opening day of a season when my wife has an elk LEH for the upcoming rifle season.
Anyway, not much hunting got done today (Sept 2), and what was was rather dissapointing. Better hunting tomorrow, when we return to our original elk hunting spot (see other thread) and wait for them to show back up.