Critters Hunting Season 2013

[GoatGuy]

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[GoatGuy]

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[GoatGuy]

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[coach]

Posting pictures, GG? You feeling ok?? :confused:

Great stuff so far. Keep it coming!

[Garret]

Is it just me not able to see the photos? they come up blank on my computer

[coach]

Is it just me not able to see the photos? they come up blank on my computer

No problem on my iPad.

[GoatGuy]

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[GoatGuy]

Bit of rise/set
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[GoatGuy]

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[GoatGuy]

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[GoodPartner]

Great pictures, thanks for sharing.

[Darksith]

totally, rocky mountain sheep I assume? North or south? Great pics, thanks for sharing GG

[d6dan]

Nice pics GG, but I don't see any dead ones?. :?

[358mag]

Well Hell must have froze over !!!!!!!!! you got the rust off your camera shutter guess now your going to have to figure out how free up your trigger ... Nice pictures .... Thanks for sharing

[GoatGuy]

Well Hell must have froze over !!!!!!!!! you got the rust off your camera shutter guess now your going to have to figure out how free up your trigger ... Nice pictures .... Thanks for sharing

your turn now young fella

[GoatGuy]

totally, rocky mountain sheep I assume? North or south? Great pics, thanks for sharing GG

both ......

[GoatGuy]

Nice pics GG, but I don't see any dead ones?. :?

No pics of dead ones put up.:wink:

[Stone Sheep Steve]

I'm hoping those last 2 rams were from your northern trip???

SSS

[GoatGuy]

I'm hoping those last 2 rams were from your northern trip???

SSS
negative on that one ghostrider

[one-shot-wonder]

Is it just me not able to see the photos? they come up blank on my computer

If your a non BC resident the photos appear blank on your computer......... Now that you have your Dall, best ya move back to BC :mrgreen:!

[GoatGuy]

If your a non BC resident the photos appear blank on your computer......... Now that you have your Dall, best ya move back to BC :mrgreen:!

no doubt, wondering who that was - pretty sure he's already seen all the pics. Maybe they're blanked out for the prime + 10% crowd hahaha.

[markt308]

Awesome stuff

[yama49]

Verny nice pics...

[chris]

Some nice critters. Gets me pumped for my upcoming trip

[bighornbob]

Nice pics but ram pics don't count unless they are dead:):)

BHB

[GoatGuy]

Nice pics but ram pics don't count unless they are dead:):)

BHB

There are a few of those, but they aren't internet pictures. :wink:

And you should be one to talk.............

[GoatGuy]

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[GoatGuy]

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[budismyhorse]

Great pics JZ.....did any of these get center punched?

[GoatGuy]

Great pics JZ.....did any of these get center punched?

One lead breakfast was served.

[Sitkaspruce]

Awesome GG

I cannot believe you actually posted.....IIRC, the last picts I saw from you were when we worked up in the Central Interior and you posted up a couple moose picts....LOL!!!!!

Thanks for posting, some great animals.

Cheers

SS

[Stone Sheep Steve]

Awesome GG

I cannot believe you actually posted.....IIRC, the last picts I saw from you were when we worked up in the Central Interior and you posted up a couple moose picts....LOL!!!!!

Thanks for posting, some great animals.

Cheers

SS

He's turned over a new leaf. Can't get away from him now. Every morning I do my routine "paperwork" there's his smiling face peaking out of my reading material:-D.

SSS

[GoatGuy]

Awesome GG

I cannot believe you actually posted.....IIRC, the last picts I saw from you were when we worked up in the Central Interior and you posted up a couple moose picts....LOL!!!!!

Thanks for posting, some great animals.

Cheers

SS

Figured the positives outweigh the negatives.

[GoatGuy]

With all the great threads on wt's here's a bit of a contribution. Not 'pic heavy' as I don't heavy most of the pics on the laptop. Over the last 10 years, we seem to be getting more and more hunters in our 'crew'. Seems the wives/girlfriends are all getting in to hunting and it's getting to the point where we've run out of 'hot spots', treestands and blinds for everybody. Even had two groups show up at the same spot last week.

So we started putting t-cams out in a few new locations in July. We're looking for 20+ year old regen butting up against mature stands or simply looking for mature timber with very few roads (not a lot of that in R.8). The thicker, the better. Steep canyons are a great place as nobody is willing to hike in to them and logging companies usually don't jam a road up them. The places we avoid have new logging or burns in the last 10 years, especially selectively logged areas. The reason is those places attract hunters, have fewer old-aged bucks and lower sex ratios.

So we had pictures of lots of bucks, even daytime stuff right into september. Built a few treestands, a couple ladders for portable stands in 'likely November haunts'. Over the course of the fall a few of the most promising spots were logged and it seemed a couple of the good bucks vanished.

One spot we wanted to hunt looked promising until Oct 20th, then things went quiet and stayed like that into the beginning of November. We figured someone was hacking our cams, and we did get two pics of a fellow. Anyways, being a new spot we clearly didn't have the 'rutting grounds' figured out. Quick check on google earth helped narrow it down. We're always looking for benches or deciduous patches for the rut. We aren't looking for feeding areas, we're looking for transitional areas - these seem to be the spot where the bucks travel when they're looking for love. So we started laying down boot leather and we started figuring things out. It's amazing what even 100 yards can do for a person.

Anyways, 'we found em'. Scrapes, rubs, yada, yada, yada.
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[GoatGuy]

When we're talking rubs and scrapes, we aren't talking about a year old willow that looks like somebody took a nail file to it, or a bit of dirt the size of a pitcher of water. Need to find the scrapes that are getting used regular and everybody is checking them.

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Once we got back in to 'em it was a matter of culling daytime versus nighttime spots. It seems some areas are predominantly night spots, some both, some more day. One of our old spots is famous for this. T-cams in most directions have nighttime only pics of bucks; where we sit has always had daylight pics of the same bucks, usually traveling between 10 and 2. We know the concept of the 'knockturnal' only deer doesn't work as their digestive system isn't built for it. Also, from an evolutionary perspective limiting breeding to nighttime only would be a serious constraint on reproduction (just imagine trying to find a willing participant and trying to have kids for basically a one week period every year and only being able to do it at night). Again, we started moving the cams around and started zeroing in a little better.

Long story shot we ended up harvesting 4 bucks between Nov 20 and 30 in that area. One of the spots we tried a resident apple population, but that lasted less than a week hahaha. Anyways, first deer sitting time 15 minutes, second was about 90 minutes, third was 7 hours, fourth was 3 hours.

The 23rd I got home @ 10:00 am and had strict orders to make it an any buck day as that was basically it for the season. I had also ruined my cover that the other bucks that went through weren't offering good shots when she came up and harvested a buck on the 20th, seeing that it's pretty much a straight shot to where the scrape is.

How HBC Ruined my life

Long story short the 'human dimension' thread was in full swing (any buck is killing off all the deer). Buck came in at 12:22, last picture was 12:29 and I didn't spot him until he was just out of sight after checking the scrape. A quick grunt and he stopped and paused, then about a minute later started walking straight away - luckily he quartered to the right just before he was out of sight.
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Buck is looking toward the blind - probably laughing about hunting regulation talk.

[GoatGuy]

Phone died shortly thereafter. Was only able to get one pic.
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Butchered 3 deer up last night. The buck had multiple puncture wounds in the neck and hind quarters. One of the puncture wounds in the hinds was full of hair and went right through to the bone. Unfortunate as a lot of the best cuts were full of 'bloodshot' meat and hair but that's the way she goes.

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[GoatGuy]

So the learning is similar to the other posts.

Find an area other hunters don't hunt. Most guys drive past the best deer hunting on their way to the Christian Valley. Don't hunt open areas, hunt the bush. The thicker the better. You'll find less pressure, more age, better sex ratios. Also, if you don't want people finding your spot don't dump the guts there - move them.

You don't need to see a lot of real estate, just the real estate the deer are using. The shots in that spot were 20-50 yards.

Do not educate the deer as you will ruin a 'long-term' spot - don't call at deer unless you're planning to harvest. Rattling in the same spot will educate the does/fawns - they hang out in maternal groups so you're educating a generation, not just an animal. If the wind is wrong don't hunt the area. If you need to, move the treestands farther away if you have new people with you. We definitely did some educating due to 'antsy' hunters who aren't used to sitting all day and that will kill a spot. There's nothing worse than being 26 feet up a tree and having deer come down the trail and look right at the tree you're sitting in - they've been 'learned'.

Don't move, don't talk and do whatever you need to to stay warm. Ourea has the program dialed with the heater. After years of doing it without this is the best solution. We've been sitting in sleeping bags freezing for a longgggg time.

Harvesting a wt buck is a matter of one, not seeing a bunch of deer running away. Most hunters will spend an entire week watching white-tail flags 'hoping to get lucky.' Or they'll drive around aimlessly hoping something runs across the road and stands long enough for a shot. We've witnessed this in one area where a group from the coast/island have been hunting for 30 years. Unless the conditions are perfect (cold & fresh snow) they're lucky to get a buck or two in a week because they all still hunt. We have multiple bucks/day in the exact same area and these guys have yet to clue in that walking is not an effective strategy. And from their perspective when they don't shoot something it's because of the hunting regulations, the rut isn't on yet or what have you - meanwhile we're usually dragging a deer or sometimes two a day out. They're nice guys, just haven't got it figured out.

[markt308]

Wow great live pic of him! That's a fantastic buck

[Sitkaspruce]

Great Buck Jess, would like to see the guy who battled with him.

Thanks for the info, it had definatly opened my eyes up to a whole new world of hunting. Now to take what I have learned and refine it like you are doing.

Thanks again.

Cheers

SS

[GoatGuy]

Great Buck Jess, would like to see the guy who battled with him.

Thanks for the info, it had definatly opened my eyes up to a whole new world of hunting. Now to take what I have learned and refine it like you are doing.

Thanks again.

Cheers

SS

It's definitely a great way to pursue wts. We've been getting complacent with finding new spots, so all the 'new hunters' and reappearance of wolves in a couple spots have given us the impetus to look at new areas. Hopefully it helps a few folks.

The cams are going to get moved this week to cast a bigger net and try to figure out who laid a whoppin' on him. We'll be moving all the cams to start an inventory in some other spots that we've got 'pinned' for further exploration. The nice thing is we don't have to worry about someone else finding our cams now that the GOS is over - this is definitely the best time to get a headstart on next year.

The big learning now is on the pred file. Never done much winter wolfing, so we've got a good supply of edibles from about 10 critters ready to go.

[Garret]

Nice to see ya connecting on a great buck, congrats and thanks for posting jess!

[kennyj]

Great photos. Thanks for sharing.
kenny

[Stone Sheep Steve]

Nice work, GG! Glad to see the wife has been squirting your trigger with some WD40!!

I've been stuck in a rut with my whitey spot. Things have changed and I need to as well. Just need to find some time to get the tcams out and let them help me figure it out.
Nice buck!

SSS

[snareman1234]

Good read J

[BCrams]

Was shocked to see you post up but great read and adventure! Goes to show what people need to do to score on whitetails on a consistent basis.

[Darksith]

nice work, thanks for sharing

[~T-BONE~]

Thanks for sharing some valuable insight on what "it takes" to score on good wt's.. Nice buck too! ;)

[hunterdon]

Great photos GG and good sound advice! Very nice buck!!!

[Salty]

GG thank-you big time for your detailed accounts of how you went about things and why on this new area. You just put a few pieces of the big puzzle together for this wt newb I really appreciate it. Gorgeous buck dude.

[358mag]

Well Hell must have frozen over !!!! Congrads to see you found the WD-40 and found out how to release the safety some good eats on that nice Whity . So great info in your write up , hope nobody drove over your campfire .

[horshur]

Just have to say I appreciate your attempts at educating others on here and hope you continue....

[hunter1947]

Thanks for taking the time to put up all the nice picture as for your stories some very nice picture taking was involved ,,that WT buck is a very nice WT buck that you took ,congrats to you..

[GoatGuy]

Well Hell must have frozen over !!!! Congrads to see you found the WD-40 and found out how to release the safety some good eats on that nice Whity . So great info in your write up , hope nobody drove over your campfire .

Used the wife's gun.

Usually the roadblock's just a vehicle - in the WK they even put a fire in the middle of the road.