Buckmeister's Hunting Log G.O.S. 2011

[Buckmeister]

HUNTING LOG DATE: Sept 4th, 2011, 10:16am

As this is my first entry for this seasons log, I must state that I have already shot a buck and a doe in August, and both of them donated their lucky feet to me. :wink: They are pretty tasty when you marinate them in a souvlaki marinade overnight and then bar-b-q them for lunch.

This morning the alarm went off at 5:00am. Myself and BuckmeisterJr. got ourselves ready and headed up our own private back forty. We headed up the hill in the old Dodge cummins lumber wagon that has all the stealth of a fully loaded garbage truck. It was about 5:45 when we came to the 1km mark, right where a small creek flows down, and right beside the road are two small muley does and on the road is a forked buck still in velvet. They ran up the hill and we carried on.

A short distance later I pulled the truck up a side road, drove a short ways and then parked. On all sides we are surrounded by old grazing land thick with grasses. I know of a nice bedding area further up the road where I have seen deer in the mornings before and I wanted us to walk in nice and quiet. Well, we saw no deer so we walked back to the truck. We get about a 50 yards from the truck and we spot 3 more deer grazing between us and just below the truck, a doe and two more velvety 2 pointers. I know BuckmeisterJr. is not interested in the smaller deer so we just watch them for a few secs. Not wanting to waste too much time we keep walking towards the truck. The deer just stay put and watch us walk right past them, getting as close as 60 feet from them. When we reach the truck the doe finally decides to spook a little and the 3 of them bound off a few yards.

We keep our eyes peeled as we drive but our goal is to get to the top of the mountain where some nice cut blocks are, about 8km drive total from the bottom. We are almost there when I spot a big doe and fawn standing in a area where I had some mineral licks the year before. I carry on up the road and am climbing the last hill before the spot where I want to park and walk the rest of the block, and the sun is shining straight in our eyes. I think to myself that I should just park the truck at the last corner and walk up this hill but I decide to drive up it. Bad choice. I crest the hill, sun still shining, pull the truck over and park, glance over to my right and I spot two deer standing in the shadow of a draw, both are bucks out of velvet. A quick look thru the glasses and I see that the 1st is a large fork with a small split that just makes him a 3 point. The second is quite a bit larger and is an easy 3 point but I couldn't make out if there where any 4th points or not. The deer ran off almost immediately. We did a short stalk but they were long gone. What surprised me was the coloring of the deer on top of the mountain compared to the ones down in the valley. The ones in the valley were still quite brown and tawny, while the ones on top had a fair bit of gray and white in their coats already, they looked like late Oct deer. I confered with BuckmeisterJr. about the size of these bucks and he informs me he wants to hold out for a much larger buck! I guess I have my work cut out for me.

Well, we walked the block but saw nothing else so we made our way down the hill still keeping our eyes peeled. We were just past the 2km mark when BuckmeisterJr. spots a nice sized black bear in the tall grass. A bit of an early morning bear cause the time was just 9:10am and I understand that most black bears don't show till about 10:00am. Well, Mr. Blackie didn't stick around and I didn't have a tag for bear anyways. I'm testing the theory that if you don't buy a tag, that is when you see the large game for that tag. So far it is working. I ate bear tag soup for the last two years so I decided to wait this year to start seeing bears before I buy a tag.

Animal count for our first day of hunting in the GOS: 5 bucks, 4 does, 1 fawn, 1 black bear. Not bad for a first day. I am glad to see that Jr. wants to be picky and take a mature deer, that just means more hunting time in the bush, and thats not a bad thing. :-D

[Downwind]

Sounds like a great day overall! A great spot you've got there too.

[pnbrock]

How did you take two deer in aug?but no tag for bear?

[Buckmeister]

How did you take two deer in aug?but no tag for bear?

I didn't say I took two "DEER" in aug, I said a buck and a doe.

Hint: there are other animals out there that go by the designation of buck and doe. :)

[pnbrock]

Ok I give pronghorn?

[burger]

Ok I give pronghorn?

Rabbit? he did say lucky foot

[Buckmeister]

Rabbit? he did say lucky foot

We have a winner.

I'm sorry, sometimes tongue in cheek humour doesn't translate very well over the internet.

[Buckmeister]

HUNTING LOG DATE: Sept 11, 2001, 9:01 pm.

I resurrected the old hunting vehicle this evening and took her up the hill with BuckmeisterJr for a quick hunt. It was about 7:30pm when we headed up. I only brought my .410 in case we spotted grouse or rabbit and BuckJr brought his 243.

No sign of deer. We approached a stretch of road that I am nicknaming "Rabbit Alley". I quickly spotted some ears. Stopped the vehicle, got out, loaded the shotgun, then walked staight for the prey taking carefull but casuall strides with the shotgun held in the ready position. Spotted a second hare just around the corner from the first one. I kept my eyes on the first one. Got to within shooting range and was closing the gap a little further when the first started to bolt. Much to my surprise and delight it headed straight for the other hare. I took a side step to the right so I could see both animals, lined up the sights when number 1 was in front of number 2 and squeezed the trigger. I could see dirt spray up in front of the first one and it went down while the second one got clean away. Dang....was soo close to having 2for1 rabbit tonight. Stalked up the road a little ways further and spotted another set of ears, but this one bolted right away.

Now it was too dark to hunt deer so we headed down. Saw a very small black beer running down the road in front of us, I would say it was still a cub. Oh well, fix up the hare, marinate it for a meal tommorow, and make preparation to head out first thing tommorow morning with BuckJr. Good night all.

[pnbrock]

didnt give one thought to rabbits...well played!!!

[Buckmeister]

HUNTING LOG DATE: Sept 18th, 2011

Due to some technical internet difficulties, I have not been able to post for almost a week, and thus have not been able to report on my hunting activities from Monday, Sept 12th. So here is a quick sumation from that day. Got up early with BuckJr and went up the hill, spotted one doe and six bucks, all bucks were 2-pointers of varing sizes and shapes, some velvet some not, killed one grouse and one rabbit. Later that day on a drive into town I spotted a better than average black bear near a corn field.

Today's hunting activites went as follows: BuckJr. and I got up early and went up the hill. The temp at the house was 6 degrees, overcast and spitting rain. We were about 1km from the top of the hill when about 8 or so deer burst onto the road in front of us at about 100 yards. There is a switchback there that opens out onto a cut block and just below the switchback is a landing. The deer were running from the landing, up the road, and into the cut block. A quick turn to the left and they could be in some tall timber. I took a quick look through the binos and could only see some small racks, 2 or 3 pointers at best, but I couldn't get a view of the few deer leading the pack to see if they were of any decent size. I parked the vehicle at the landing and BuckJr and I started walking up the road in the direction the group went. I spot 3 does lower down in the cut to our right. BuckJr then turns around and low and behold another doe is directly behind us, she had come up over the bank and wasn't even concerned about us.

Well, the bachelor group had made a quick dissappearing act so we turned back to the landing and walked over to the edge to have a look at the lower section of the cut. That's when I noticed a big fat grouse not 10 feet from me sitting by the edge of the landing. I glanced at the grouse and then cast my gaze directly over it and spotted a small 2 point buck not 25 yards away. He was standing behind a small bush and at the right angle could almost completly dissappear behind it. He didn't move or even twitch a single muscle. We didn't see anything else so we went back to the vehicle.

I drove a short ways up and then parked so we could walk the last kilometer to the top. We didn't see anything until we got right to the top and then spotted another 2 point not far from where we saw the two 3 pointers from our 1st day of hunting. That spot is the narrowest point in the cut between two patches of heavier timber so it is like a bit of a pinch point for deer on the move from cover to cover. I left BuckJr there and told him to sit and watch for anything else to walk by while I hiked back down the road to retrieve the vehicle. On the way down I bumped into another hunter on a quad who was up with his relative (who was down another road) and we had a short chat. I retrieved the vehicle and then I retrieved BuckJr. When I drove up to where he was, standing right where the 2x2 had been was now a 2x3. Wow, I can't believe how unspooky these young bucks are!

Well, we headed back down and explored an area where I know of a natural mineral lick but we didn't see anything else so baJrck home we headed. A little while later I took BuckJr1 and BuckJr2 and 2 of my BuckMissys out in the family wagon to do some scouting up on the hill on the other side of the valley. No animals but we did see alot of bear sign and quite a bit of Moose sign. It was nice to get familiar with a new area.

This seasons KILL COUNT:
Mulies = 0
Whiteys = 0
Moose = 0
Elk = 0
Rabbit = 4
Grouse = 1
Coyote = 0

[nature girl]

Sounds like you have a great little spot to hunt there. SSShhhh better not tell anyone. Good luck hunting.

[Buckmeister]

Sounds like you have a great little spot to hunt there. SSShhhh better not tell anyone. Good luck hunting.

Since there are soo many small racks around that are easily found, I have been inviting my friends who are 1st time hunters or meat hunters to come up in October and try their luck. I like showing people the ropes.

[Buckmeister]

HUNTING LOG DATE: Sept 30th, 2011

Well, due to ongoing internet connection problems I have been unable to keep up on my logs in a timely fashion and this post is only 4 days late.

Last Sunday I got up early at 5:30am. My goal was to search out a new area and some terrain I had not been in before. I walked outside and all was dark, not a star in the sky and it was warm too. I walked back into the house and a downpour began. I waited for the rain to die down, fired up my quad and headed up the mountain on the other side of the valley. From my house I have access to literally hundreds and hundred of km's of trails and roads and cut blocks to hunt in. I reached the top of the mountain at first light. I checked out a few small cut blocks that I knew of but saw nothing. I was excited about the recent rain cause cause any fresh track would stand out like a sore thumb on the ground. Much to my dismay I didn't see a fresh track all day!

And soo much for my scouting trip, I put on nearly 100 km's and saw nothing but road and trees. I did find some new cut blocks that are curently being logged that should show some promise in the years to come as access to them takes quite a bit of driving and time to get to. All I saw that day was one itty bitty, teeny weenie, itsy bitsy little black bear.

Well I eventually got back into an area that I was familiar with but saw nothing. I did however find an easy access into an area that I have been dying to get into for a couple of years. It is an area that has a cut block up beside a large knoll (I'm calling it Buck Knoll) that I have seen big deer frequent in years past. This has me pretty excited and it made my day after having a rotten scouting trip.

So on Monday evening I took BuckJr with me and we visted Buck Knoll. We walked in nice and quiet and did plenty of glassing. We walked a large circle and just as we were coming back to where we started we spot 3 big does right in front of us. I figure they had been bedded on a small hill just above us that we had circled around and they had just gotten up as the light was fleeing fast. That has me excited too cause my hunch was right that this is an area that deer feel safe to be in. I will be visting this spot more often me thinks.

[Buckmeister]

HUNTING LOG DATE OCT 2, 2011

Today was rather uneventful. BuckJr and I headed up the back40 at about 6:10am. It was still soo dark we waited on the road for awhile for it to lighten up some. At about 6:30 we carried on our way. We didn't get a half kilometer when I spotted our resident black bear. Surprising to see a blackie that early in the morning as I recall a thread once about bears not being out until late morning.

Anyways, we drove up to the cut blocks and then got out to walk. We saw absolutely nothing. Lots of fresh track, some Moose track even, but no animals. We headed back to the hunting wagon and just when it was in sight we spot a lone doe just above us. We were between her and her escape route so she just stood stalk still and didn't twitch a muscle.

We got back in the wagon and started making our way down. I said to BuckJr, "sure would be nice to get a grouse", just then I turned a corner and a grouse flushed from the side of the road. It alighted onto a branch high up in a tree. I loaded the 410 and made it sing.....score: 1 grouse. We made our way back home for brunch. We chopped up some fresh potatoes from the garden into hashbrowns and I cubed up the grouse meat and made a shake and bake with flour, garlic and onion powder, salt, paprika, ground peper, oregano, and basil flakes. Some olive oil in a skillet and I cooked the grouse to a golden brown....mmmm tasty, kinda reminicent of dry garlic pork ribs in flavour.

After a nap we headed back up the hill for some firewood. After making a ton of noise sawing and such, we headed back down and spotted a doe not 100 yards from where we were working and in the same vicinity we saw the doe earlier in the day. Hopefully I can see some bucks next time up cause I have some friends who want to go out sometime in the next week and i don't want to dissapoint them.

[Buckmeister]

HUNTING LOG DATE: Oct 9th, 2011

One word....SUCCESS!!!!
Early yesterday morning (saturday) my friend Harry came over and I took him up the back 40. He doesn't get to go out hunting much, he only went once last year, so I wanted to help him out in putting some meat into the freezer. We went up and checked out the usuall spots but saw nothing. There was alot of fresh track on the road so it looked promising, but we saw nothing. We decided we would go down and head up a different hill that has tons of terrain.

As we were driving down we turned a corner and saw 4 bucks standing on the road. Harry got out and fumbled with his gun what seemed like forever as I watched the deer start to disperse. The biggest one of the group climbed up a bank and just when I thought he would dissappear into the bush he stopped and turned around to have a look at us. A few seconds later Harry was ready with his rifle and he smacked the hammer down on this buck. The buck walked about 10 yards and fell over. BUCK DOWN!

I've never seen my friend so happy. His name is now "Happy Harry". We went to inspect the buck when another hunter came down behind us. I asked him if he wanted a 2 pointer that just went running down the road. He said yes so he walked down around the bend. 20 seconds later we hear a shot. He walked back up to inform us that the 2 pointer got away but a great big 4x4 had just stepped onto the road with a doe, so he took a shot at it but missed!

We cleaned up the deer and Harry took him home. The deer's rack is a 2x4 with a small brow on the 4 side. I'm guessing a 2 1/2 year old deer. I am very happy for my friend that I was able to guide him to the largest deer he has ever taken. That now frees him up to go job hunting as he just completed 3 years of retraining in electrical engineering.

Well, tommorow I am heading up into the high alpine in search of the BIG boys. Hopefully there will be some snow on the ground which makes tracking easier. Here is a picture of Harry and his buck.

http://i362.photobucket.com/albums/oo63/Buckmeister_01/HarrysBuck.png

[moose2]

congratulations to your buddy and yourself on a nice buck.
Mike

[Spy]

Good Job! :-D I Have enjoyed following your hunting escapades! Must be nice to have hunting so close to home,Im envious!:mrgreen:

[Buckmeister]

Good Job! :-D I Have enjoyed following your hunting escapades! Must be nice to have hunting so close to home,Im envious!:mrgreen:

Thanks! I forgot to mention what happened later in the day. My boys were holding a garage sale and a neighbor bought a freezer but she had no way of getting it to her place. She only lives a few minutes down the road so I offered to deliver it for her. After we drop of the freezer we are driving back to the house in my truck when a grouse pops out of the weeds and stops in the middle of the road while I'm doing about 60km/hr on the dirt road. BuckJr says, "are you going to go around it?". I says, "no, it will move." Well....it didn't. All I see are feathers and flapping wings in my rear view mirror. So we stop and pick it up. Death by blunt force trauma via Dodge 3/4 ton pickup, a smack to the head with the front axle. This grouse was tasty too.

Oh yes, I also forgot to mention that I did see a coyote up on top the hill and I could have wacked him too, but I didn't want to disturb the peace while deer hunting. Lucky yote. =(

Updated seasons KILL COUNT:
Mulies = 1
Whiteys = 0
Moose = 0
Elk = 0
Rabbit = 4
Grouse = 3
Coyote = 0

[kennyj]

Great thread. Nice to get new hunters out there. Keep up the good word.
kenny

[Buckmeister]

HUNTING LOG DATE: Oct 11, 2011

My hunt up in the alpine on Monday was fun but uneventful for seeing any game. Up on top there was about 2" of snow, lots of fog, and almost mini blizzard like conditions at times. I did a huge circuit and came across about 9 fresh sets of track only. When I say fresh, the first 4 were about an hour old, the next 3 were only minutes old, and the last 2 I found onto of my tracks and they were about an hour or two old. I basically couldn't be were the deer were at the same time.

To eleborate more on the 3 sets of track that were only minutes old, I followed them for some ways. The track made a bee line through some moderate timber. It was easy walking but vision was limited to about 20 to 30 yards through the brush. Had I pressed on I would have caught up with the deer, but to what end? First off I was by myself, secondly I had no pack board and after about 300 yards of tracking I wasn't releshing the thought of a long drag as I had already crossed several blow down and a creek, thirdly I didn't know what I was following, was it does or bucks?, the track didn't look overly large. My intent for this hunt was to search the really big boys and this track didn't excite me very much.

I did come across some mondo couger track though. Print size was about 4 1/2" in diameter and the strides were about 2' feet apart. A sizeable cat I would think. But I'm not a couger hunter so it's really just a best guess. I also spotted only 2 grouse, one was still on top of the mountain in the snow and I think it was a Sharptail, first time ever seeing one of those.

So after 7 hours of hunting I returned to my truck lower down the hill. I did happen across a cow moose along the way and I startled her big time. That evening I got home and BuckJr and I went for a quick drive up the back 40 at last light but we only saw a single doe. Tommorow is a new day and my friend Scott is coming over first thing in the morning. I will be taking him up the back 40 as well in hopes of hooking him up with a buck. He just started hunting this year and he sure is eager. Wish us happy hunting!!

[Buckmeister]

HUNTING LOG DATE: Oct 12, 2011

Success again!!!!!

Scott showed up at our place at about 1/4 to 7am this morning. We loaded our gear into the hunting wagon and headed out at about 6:56am. We slowly made our way up the back 40. The lower part of the hill is quite open so we drove slow and looked hard. We reached the 2km mark and turned the corner and there on the road was a buck.

Before Scott got out of the vehicle the buck walked off the road and much to my surprise walked parallel to the road TOWARDS us!!! The buck then stopped behind a bush, the only close cover. Scott gets out, I get out and step up onto the opposite bank to get a view. The deer then moves lower down to another group of bushes about 30 yards away. We both notice that the buck is limping, he has an injury of some kind. Scott and I walk down the road and then go down the bank and angle around to where we can see the buck. The buck comes out from behind the bush and stops dead broadside. Scott sneaks up another 10 yards and lines up a shot. He is shooting an old pump action 30.06. He takes the shot, the deer runs down the hill another 30 yards and just as he skirts another bush it appears he fell.

We go over to where the buck had been standing and then slowly make our way down. I can see the buck laying in the grass. DEER DOWN!!! I take a look at the time, it was 7:06am, we were only 10 minutes into our hunt. This deer is another 2 1/2 year old, fairly even 2x2 with brow tines. We take some snap shots and drag the deer up to the road. Upon inspection we find that Scott made a perfect shot and took the heart right out. BUT, we also find ANOTHER bullet hole! This deer has been shot before in the front shoulder and his leg was broken. We roll him over and find a huge hole between his front legs. Fortunately he didn't smell of rot and it looks like the rest of him is fine. I estimate he had been shot sometime over last weekend.

Scott hasn't seen a deer gutted since he was 13 so I did all the dirty work, and I was pleased to do it too. I showed him some tips and tricks on how to not taint the meat while gutting and skinning. I'm glad we could put this wounded deer out of his misery and hopefully the rest of the meat turns out good. Just a word to everyone out there, be sure of your shot BEFORE you pull the trigger, I myself have learned this from experience.

Anyways, another friend with another deer down, today IS a good day. Thank you God. Saturday will find me and BuckJr and another friend, Dean (another brand new hunter), off hunting in my favorite whitetail spot, another private acreage that sees no hunting pressure except for what I give it. Although I like to keep this spot to myself, I will be super glad if I gan hook Dean up with a deer.

Below are two pictures, one of Scott and his deer, and another of the damage done by a different hunter.

Updated seasons KILL COUNT:
Mulies = 2
Whiteys = 0
Moose = 0
Elk = 0
Rabbit = 4
Grouse = 3
Coyote = 0

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/scotts_buck_2.png

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/scotts_buck.png

[835]

How the heck did that thing stand after that!
That is brutal.

[Th0r]

Wow! Terminator Mulie.

[Downwind]

Taking it out of it's misery is putting it lightly I would say. Needless to say it would have been carrion if you guys hadn't taken him out.

[Buckmeister]

HUNTING LOG DATE: Oct 18th, 2011

Well, Saturday BuckJr and I spent pretty much the whole day hunting, and on Sunday we hunted till lunchtime. Not a single kill the whole time. All in all we saw 6 grouse, 15 deer, 1 cow moose, 2 coyotes, 1 bear, 1 rabbit. We tried for some grouse but they took to the wing pretty quick before we could even chamber a round.

On Saturday we spent the first three hours hunting my favorite whitetail spot. All the usuall sign was there, but no deer spotted. All the deer we saw that day were in farm fields we did not have permission to. We spent most of the rest of the day exploring an area we have not been in before. Pretty cool checking out some new spots. We'll have to come back again.

On Sunday we headed up to what I like to call "Moose City", needless to say I have seen lots of Moose there before and it's only about 10 mins away from our house. I wanted to get into a certain cut but was distracted by another cut on the way. An hour later we headed for the original cut. When we got there we witnessed some people pulling a 2 point immy out of the cut. I asked, "how long has he been down?". "About an hour", they replied. Dang! If I kept to the original plan it could have been me pulling that immy out. Well, for the rest of that morning we only saw a cow moose in some standing trees. Counting the immy I saw being pulled out, I heard of 3 immy's taken over the weekend.

Well, I'm not sure where to head next Saturday, Moose city or the back half of our back 40. I am also considering taking next week off for some serious hunting. Would like to get a poke at an immy before they are all shot up. The weekend after next should be starting to be a good time for the transition area I like to hunt big mulies for so I might consider heading that way too. Who knows? We'll see what happens.

[Buckmeister]

BUCKMEISTER'S HUNTING LOG: Oct 26, 2011

My log report today includes hunting that took place last Saturday and yesterday (Tuesday). Not much to report for Saturday except that I headed up to "Moose City" and saw a bunch of hunters. I headed for the cut where I saw a cow moose last time. I was just parking the truck and was getting ready to walk the cut when I spotted a big bull walking, and then I spotted a second moose that I couldn't ID right away. I quickly geared up, locked the truck, and went running into the cut. I got to the top of a small rise and looked for the moose. I spotted a cow and calf, then the bull reappeared and the 3 of them walked off together. I didn't see anything else for the rest of my time there.

Yesterday I took BuckJr with me back up to "Moose City" while it was still dark. We spotted one doe on the way there. We went through one cut and spotted a cow moose. We then headed up to the cut where I spotted the 3 moose a few days earlier. Low and behold we see a big bull (the same one?) and two cows this time. We continue through to some adjoining cuts. We get to one that is rather remote when BuckJr says, "There's a deer!". I say "where?". He says, "by the tree". I see nothing. Then I spot two deer by the tree line. I say, "oh, up there". He says, "NO, right by the tree!". It turns out there was 5 does standing there. We watched as they slowly made their way into the trees.

We continued our tour. He headed into one particularily large cut when I did a quick glassing and spotted a deer about 400-500 yards away. A second look confirmed it was a buck, and a sizeable one at that. I couldn't get a tine count cause of the foilage behind him and he stood there like a statue not moving, looking at us. There was no way we could approach him unseen. There was a trail headed in his general direction that would get us within 100 yards of him rather quietly, but I was sure he would move on before we could get close enough for a better ID and a shot if we wanted. We walked about 150 yards closer before we lost sight of him. We got up to where he was standing, there was snow on the ground so I thought we would pick up his trail and track him. NO SUCH LUCK!!!! I've read about big bucks becoming ghosts at will but this is the first I have experienced it first hand. I was following his tracks when they just DISSAPPEARED!!! I did a wide perimeter search and NOTHING. Very weird and frustrating. Oh well, we carried on but saw nothing else for the rest of the day.

Next hunting outing will probably be on Saturday. I think I am going to head to an area I have not been in yet this year. When that area is "on", it is pretty good for mulies and moose are there to boot. Here's to hopping!!

[Buckmeister]

BUCKMEISTER'S HUNTING LOG: November 8th, 2011

My report today will focus on todays hunting activities. However, I will say that I have put in a solid 8 days of hunting in the last 2 weeks or so. During that time I have seem various game from moose to whiteys and mulies, and bagged another grouse. No other kills to report.

I was excited about todays hunting opportunity what with the fresh snow on the ground. I headed up the back40 solo and first light. Right from the bottom of the hill to the very top I was seeing fresh track all the way. I find this encouraging as it shows the deer are on the move. On todays walk-abouts I noticed rubs and bush rakes showing the mulies are going into rut mode.

I got to the top of the mountain and so no animals so I headed back down with my trusty diesel hunting wagon. I didn't make it a half kilometer when I see a doe and buck (4x3) in front of me at about 20 yards. He was not the calibre of buck I'm looking for so I let him walk. He was hot on the does trail. Nice to see this rut activity. They passed in front of me and carried on not caring if I was there or not.

I continued on down the hill, seeing no other animals but seeing fresh track ontop of my tire tracks. After a few klicks I turned around and headed back up to the top as there seemed to be lots of movement. Then I see MORE fresh track ontop of my tire track that I just made so I know the deer must be close. I turned a corner and see 2 does and a small 2x2 buck. Again, I watched them and enjoyed their presence. They headed up into a small slash, so I decided to get out and take a look for some bigger bucks in the slash.

It was foggy out and vision was limited. I spotted the two does again but the buck was nowhere to be seen. I had left the diesel idleing on the road as it seems to not spook the deer and I didn't plan on going to far from it. It was cool watching the does cause for the first time ever I was close enough to observe one of them, which was oblivious to my presence, and I heard her bleat. I've heard bucks grunt but never a doe bleat so that was neat.

I turned to head back to the vehicle when I see a doe looking in my direction. She is about 50 yards away and I am in the wide open. I am sure she sees me, but to my surprise she quickly trots in my direction. Directly below me to my left is the road and in front of me is a game trail leading from the slash to a bend in the road. The doe travels right down the trail and stops at the road edge about 25 feet in front of me!! She was looking at my idleing vehicle. I could see her sniffing the air. Then she turns her head toward me, and then we lock eyes. It was funny cause you could see her whole countanence change when she recognized what I was. You could see in her eyes that she was thinking, "Oh CRAP". She then did a 180 and bounded away. She only went about 20 yards though and then returned to browsing. Crazy. I guess my efforts into taming the local deer is working. ;)

I headed back down the road and saw one more doe. I did some walk about in a familiar area and found where a buck had been raking a bunch of bushes.

Tommorow I plan on heading back up to "Moose City" and see whats going on there. Still trying to get a bead on an immy. I had excellent opportunities to bag an immy the last two years that I more or less screwed up, so I think this year is my year for a moose while there is still a season. My buddy Dean is coming over on Friday for a hunt. This is his first hunt this season and his second hunt ever!! Hopefully I can hook him up with a 4 point mulie.

Updated seasons KILL COUNT:
Mulies = 2
Whiteys = 0
Moose = 0
Elk = 0
Rabbit = 4
Grouse = 4
Coyote = 0

[Buckmeister]

BUCKMEISTER'S HUNTING LOG: Nov 9th, 2011

All I can say is that today I only saw a coyote running to beat heck away from me, no time to get a shot off. General lack of moose sign too, so that was a bit dissapointing. Big bucks are wondering around though looking for hot does.

Tommorow will find me still hunting in Region 8 for big mulies. Last day for mulies in region 8 tommorow....boy...that needs to change....would be nice if the season was extended for mulies.

[killer_shot]

Region 8 is a gong show, tmr will be a highway of people scouring the bush. Glad i dont have to hunt there anymore, still some good critters around there though just need access to the private land with a bow.

[Buckmeister]

BUCKMEISTER'S HUNTING LOG: Nov 14, 2011

My foray into region 8 for the last day of mulie season was for naught. Only saw 2 does, looks like the bucks were moving in the night time only. And pretty much holds true for all the hunting I've been doing in region 3 as well. Bucks moving at night, only seeing a few does during the day. A few times now I have stumbled across some fresh buck track and I decided to do a stalk, but those jokers led me thru some of the nastiest brush on the mountain. I've hunted an average of 5 to 7 hours per day for the last 10 days with nothing to show. But my spirits are still up, the moon is going into a dark phase and we are inching closer to the rut every day, I will just have to find myself in the right place at the right time. It's nice to have some snow on the ground to determine travel patterns for does and to have an idea of numbers as well.

Which brings me to ask this question, "I wonder how many fawns survived so far to date this year?". I have seen very little fawn, none actually, prescence this year. Makes me kinda worried.

[Buckmeister]

BUCKMEISTER'S HUNTING LOG. Nov 22,2011

Since I last posted, I can't remember how many times I have been out, but still no buck to post up. Last Saturday evening was the most exciting. I took BuckJr up the back40 and with about 30 minutes of light left we spot a decent shooter buck about 400 yards away. We have good cover and I figure we can close the gap to about 75 yards or less without the buck even knowing we are there. He was just browsing on a hillside. There were a few knolls and gullys to cross so we carefully made our way. Just as we were passing through a gully and about to climb the last knoll, I spot 2 smaller bucks below us, they were walking straight up the hill towards us. BUSTED. They turned and stotted off towards the big buck. We climbed the knoll.....no deer to be seen. Dang it. We spotted 2 more 4 pointers before it got dark, but they were just babies and we let them walk.

The next day I was out hunting Whiteys. Not much to report, except that I spotted a beauty buck (a 5x6 whitey) on private land on the way home. Even though I couldn't shoot it, it sure is nice to see the big boys out and about.

Todays hunting was pretty slow, only 5 does spotted. To date, I have only seen 2 bucks chasing does this season. Last friday I was out and saw over 30 does and just 1 buck. Starting to get a little frustrated, but I'm going to keep at it. If the last day of season comes around with no tags filled, then I might pull the trigger on a smaller 4 point just to get some meat in the freezer. Hopefully my patience will pay off.

My question right now is: "Where are all the bucks who want to get a piece of hot doe?? Or are the does just really late this year like everything else???".

[Buckmeister]

BUCKMEISTER'S HUNTING LOG: Dec 6, 2011.

Well it finally happened, but not the way I wanted. I was hoping for a Big buck this year. I've let lots of smaller bucks walk this season, but for the last 9 days I have not even seen a legal buck, just one little spiker. I've hunted hard for the last month, putting in 5 to 7 hours a day, but nothing to speak of. A few missed opportunities for BuckJr and alot of does spotted. But no big bucks. Since there were just a few days left in the season I told myself I would probably shot anything legal, and that is just what I did tonight. You can catch the rest of the story here.... http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/showthread.php?75594-My-late-season-Mulie...mostly-for-meat

BuckJr still hasn't tagged anything so I will continue to take him out in these remaining days. My friend Dean might come out on Saturday (the LAST day) for one last kick at the can. Still looking for a big Whitetail, but now I will have to do it with a bow, which will be hard cause I don't own a bow. Here is a pic of my 4X3 in case you don't check the other thread.

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/resized_pic1.png

Updated seasons KILL COUNT:
Mulies = 3
Whiteys = 0
Moose = 0
Elk = 0
Rabbit = 4
Grouse = 4
Coyote = 0