stones
01-21-2013, 05:10 PM
2012 hunting season.
Well this is going to be a recap of my Brothers, my dad and my 2012 season, it includes a goat/sheep combo, a moose hunt and a bison.
It started off with a fly in trip for our goat/sheep combo. My brother got sick at the last minute and couldn’t make the trip. So 3 of us flew in searching of the elusive Stone Sheep.
We planned for 10 days in there, 8 days of hunting. We fly in on the 28th of July, as we thought it was going to be a zoo and want to get away from the lake before other people showed up. We ended up splitting up and planned to meet back at our main camp on the 3rd with a sheep in tow. After hiking around some amazing country, seeing a few Billie’s, (which we weren’t going to shoot till the end of the trip if we never got a sheep) and quite a few ewe’s and lambs it was finally opening day. By this time I was already soaked and abit worn out from covering so much ground, and to be honest it had crossed my mind to pack it in and get back to that bottle I had stashed in camp. But as I was walking up the valley I saw a band of 8 rams on the hillside. It was almost surreal to finally see them after 5 days of seeing no decent rams. I got out the spotter, they were about 1km from where I was and although I knew 2-3 were close to legal its so hard to judge 100% if they are legal when you in the moment like that and your heart is pumping.
Well I unloaded most of my pack and marked my spot on my gps, and planned the perfect approach on this group of rams. I planned to go up one drainage and sneak up over the hump and I would be 150yrds from the group who seemed content to sit around, eat and play.
I made my way through the trees and made sure to break the treeline out of sight of the herd. I climbed my way up a small drainage to the tree I marked which would put me just above the rams. I snuck over the the top of the drainage and loaded my gun. My heart of pumping as I looked over and prepared myself to pick out the biggest ram. But as broke the small hill all the sheep had F’ed off and were looking down at me from above as a few of them ran over up and out of sight… talk about a let down, I still don’t know for sure that any were legal, but I like to think that there was at least one in there way was a shooter.
Im pretty sure that they winded me.. god know I was pretty ripe by that time. And even though the wind was not that strong you could see the mist moving right in that direction.. live and learn I suppose.
Although none of us got a sheep that trip I did end up getting a decent goat. Just over 9”. Goat hunting was pretty cool, we had never specifically targeted goats before, but it was definitely a challenging and rewarding hunt.
See some pictures from the hunt.
Now for the moose hunt which I got my bro to write…
We took the long drive up to north, pushing it through the night arriving at around 8 am the following day. That day was pretty much a wash as we set up camp, got some rest and had a few pops. The next few days were spent getting to know the area and scouting out for spots that looked most promising to us. We hunted by foot, truck and packed the zodiac in to lakes that had proved to be successful in the past years. On day 4 we dropped one guy off near a lake that he hiked in to, to do some calling as two others went in with the boat to a nearby lake to row down and also do some more calling as it should be prime rut now anyday. We were about half way across the lake when I heard three gunshots. Knowing the direction they were coming from we were confident our partner we dropped off had been the lucky hunter. We decided to paddle back to shore and go see if it was him. Sure enough when we got to the truck and called his hand held radio we heard some hootin and hollering as it was his first moose! The moose had gotten in to the lake but luckily not deep, so he put on some waiters tied a rope to him and about 400 yards of rope later the truck was towing him out. The line snapped a few times but before long he was being winched right into the truck. It was dark now but with the help of 4 of us he was cleaned skinned and hung within a couple hours. Couple days went by and seemed the moose were in full rut as we were seeing lots of fresh sign. Eventually we came across some tracks that appeared to be smoking fresh so my buddy and I went for a walk calling and scraping through the bush an along the river. We were surprised nothing showed up. We went back to the truck and went up the road and seen more tracks crossing the road that we never noticed previously and we knew that a moose had crossed the road since we had driven by. Once again went for a walk. This time we walked up and spotted a cow in some willows. She had seen us and was staring attentively. I knew there had to be a bull there close by so after letting out a call or two and proceeding to slowly keep walking to change my angle of view through the brush I seen the big bulls rack. It took a second to get a good clear shot but squeezed one off and hit him hard. He ran maybe 50 yards and down he went. High fives and few "f**k ya's" were definitely in order as this was my biggest bull to date.
All in all, a great trip spent with my dad my cousin and a good childhood friend. Some of my best memories come from trips like this, away from everyday life where you can truly relax and enjoy every moment.
Finally my dad and his brother and another cousin went in to get my dad’s bison. I wasn’t there, so ill just post a few pictures, they did have an awesome trip and took a nice bison
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/thumbs/P8010086.JPGhttp://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/thumbs/P8010093.JPGhttp://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/thumbs/P9050367.JPGhttp://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/thumbs/P9050383.JPG
ps - surely this isn't the best way to get pictures in here....
Well this is going to be a recap of my Brothers, my dad and my 2012 season, it includes a goat/sheep combo, a moose hunt and a bison.
It started off with a fly in trip for our goat/sheep combo. My brother got sick at the last minute and couldn’t make the trip. So 3 of us flew in searching of the elusive Stone Sheep.
We planned for 10 days in there, 8 days of hunting. We fly in on the 28th of July, as we thought it was going to be a zoo and want to get away from the lake before other people showed up. We ended up splitting up and planned to meet back at our main camp on the 3rd with a sheep in tow. After hiking around some amazing country, seeing a few Billie’s, (which we weren’t going to shoot till the end of the trip if we never got a sheep) and quite a few ewe’s and lambs it was finally opening day. By this time I was already soaked and abit worn out from covering so much ground, and to be honest it had crossed my mind to pack it in and get back to that bottle I had stashed in camp. But as I was walking up the valley I saw a band of 8 rams on the hillside. It was almost surreal to finally see them after 5 days of seeing no decent rams. I got out the spotter, they were about 1km from where I was and although I knew 2-3 were close to legal its so hard to judge 100% if they are legal when you in the moment like that and your heart is pumping.
Well I unloaded most of my pack and marked my spot on my gps, and planned the perfect approach on this group of rams. I planned to go up one drainage and sneak up over the hump and I would be 150yrds from the group who seemed content to sit around, eat and play.
I made my way through the trees and made sure to break the treeline out of sight of the herd. I climbed my way up a small drainage to the tree I marked which would put me just above the rams. I snuck over the the top of the drainage and loaded my gun. My heart of pumping as I looked over and prepared myself to pick out the biggest ram. But as broke the small hill all the sheep had F’ed off and were looking down at me from above as a few of them ran over up and out of sight… talk about a let down, I still don’t know for sure that any were legal, but I like to think that there was at least one in there way was a shooter.
Im pretty sure that they winded me.. god know I was pretty ripe by that time. And even though the wind was not that strong you could see the mist moving right in that direction.. live and learn I suppose.
Although none of us got a sheep that trip I did end up getting a decent goat. Just over 9”. Goat hunting was pretty cool, we had never specifically targeted goats before, but it was definitely a challenging and rewarding hunt.
See some pictures from the hunt.
Now for the moose hunt which I got my bro to write…
We took the long drive up to north, pushing it through the night arriving at around 8 am the following day. That day was pretty much a wash as we set up camp, got some rest and had a few pops. The next few days were spent getting to know the area and scouting out for spots that looked most promising to us. We hunted by foot, truck and packed the zodiac in to lakes that had proved to be successful in the past years. On day 4 we dropped one guy off near a lake that he hiked in to, to do some calling as two others went in with the boat to a nearby lake to row down and also do some more calling as it should be prime rut now anyday. We were about half way across the lake when I heard three gunshots. Knowing the direction they were coming from we were confident our partner we dropped off had been the lucky hunter. We decided to paddle back to shore and go see if it was him. Sure enough when we got to the truck and called his hand held radio we heard some hootin and hollering as it was his first moose! The moose had gotten in to the lake but luckily not deep, so he put on some waiters tied a rope to him and about 400 yards of rope later the truck was towing him out. The line snapped a few times but before long he was being winched right into the truck. It was dark now but with the help of 4 of us he was cleaned skinned and hung within a couple hours. Couple days went by and seemed the moose were in full rut as we were seeing lots of fresh sign. Eventually we came across some tracks that appeared to be smoking fresh so my buddy and I went for a walk calling and scraping through the bush an along the river. We were surprised nothing showed up. We went back to the truck and went up the road and seen more tracks crossing the road that we never noticed previously and we knew that a moose had crossed the road since we had driven by. Once again went for a walk. This time we walked up and spotted a cow in some willows. She had seen us and was staring attentively. I knew there had to be a bull there close by so after letting out a call or two and proceeding to slowly keep walking to change my angle of view through the brush I seen the big bulls rack. It took a second to get a good clear shot but squeezed one off and hit him hard. He ran maybe 50 yards and down he went. High fives and few "f**k ya's" were definitely in order as this was my biggest bull to date.
All in all, a great trip spent with my dad my cousin and a good childhood friend. Some of my best memories come from trips like this, away from everyday life where you can truly relax and enjoy every moment.
Finally my dad and his brother and another cousin went in to get my dad’s bison. I wasn’t there, so ill just post a few pictures, they did have an awesome trip and took a nice bison
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/thumbs/P8010086.JPGhttp://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/thumbs/P8010093.JPGhttp://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/thumbs/P9050367.JPGhttp://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/thumbs/P9050383.JPG
ps - surely this isn't the best way to get pictures in here....