My 2005 BC Whitetail Buck

Every year during November I head back to my home town of Fort St. John for a little deer hunting. This is where I took my first big game animal. It was a dinky little 4 point muley buck that I took 10 or 11 years ago.

On the 2nd day of hunting we were doing our usual rounds of the deer patch. We were looking for fresh sign and noticed some rubs that were hit during the night as well as tracks going every which way. We were glassing the rolling hills of the lightly snow covered alfalfa and spotted several does and a few small bucks. We watched them for a bit watched what they did and then started to move on.

We started up a long steep hill that is just like a corridor leading from one alfalfa field into another. There were rubs running up both sides every 20 feet or so. It was obvious the bucks work this track pretty heavy in the rut. As we started to near the crest of the hill it quickly opens back up into rolling fields on the right hand side and in one the dips only 30 yards away we noticed horns… 2 Sets… It’s two Muley bucks and they are fighting.

These deer were in a fierce battle totally oblivious to our presence less then 40 yards away. They were both decent 150-160 class mule deer but neither buck was really what I was holding out for so I elected to pass the opportunity at one of these bucks onto our hunting partner. He happily agreed and we watched them for a minute to decide on which was the bigger buck.

By this time they were 100 or so yards away and still fighting broadside to us. It was the perfect shot opportunity. We told our partner to setup and nail the buck on the right we no sooner said that and *BOOM* the 30-06 dropped the buck in his tracks you can see him going down in this picture.

Even though the mule deer buck was down and obviously not fighting anymore the other buck was still hanging around within 20 yards of us walking around in circles. It was crazy. I had a tag and he was legal but we already had one deer to get gutted and hung before lunch and he just wasn’t big enough. We hung the muley up in some trees and then headed off for lunch.

Now that we had a muley down I joked that now it was time to hunt for my big whitetail. We left our deer patch and had one field left to check. We almost never even looked into it until my dad said you wouldn’t be much of a hunter if you didn’t…

I laughed and we checked the field… Sure as shit if there isn’t 4 or 5 whitetail does out in the field and standing around with them in the middle of the afternoon is an amazing 5×5 typical whitetail buck! This was exactly what I was after so much the dismay of my hunting partner I didn’t pass this one up!

The deer were about 400 yards or so away but they were in the middle of the alfalfa field and starting to move away. I didn’t have time to make to hit the bush and flank the deer out of sight so I had to make the stalk in the
open. This field had some very slight rolls to it so the decision was made for me to go straight at the buck in one of the these little dips.

I got my rifle ready and started off on my stalk… I was crouched down, as low as I could go taking quick little steps… I made it 50 yards into the field and the buck looked right up at me. I froze… Shit… I am busted I thought to myself…

I remained calm and still frozen solid. It felt like 5 minutes but the buck eventually put his head down and I went back to my quick little steps trying to get to a good shooting position. This cycle repeated a few times with the buck looking up at me, me freezing and then he’d get back to eating again.

As I came into the last dip I was now within 200 yards of the buck and couldn’t advance anymore. As I crawled to the shallow little crest of this dip I removed my Ronyn Fleece Camo jacket and rolled it up into a rest… Slowly laid down and put a shell in the chamber… I immediately found the buck in my scope.

He was facing left and broadside about 200 yards away with his head down eating
alfalfa he had a doe right behind him so I had to wait a minute or two until she cleared out the way. I held just behind his shoulder and let one fly out the barrel of my 7MM. The buck was hit incredibly hard and must have
jumped 8 feet in the air as he sped off like a rocket. He made it about 150 yards to the edge of the field and collapsed.

Not too bad for the second day and the conclusion of my 2005 whitetail hunt.

Hope you enjoyed!

Happy Hunting!

Carl

2006 Stone Sheep Hunt

Although this year wasn’t the year I would take my Trophy Stone Ram it was still full of memories and an awesome hunt to reflect on.  We left Sidney BC on a ferry bound for Vancouver on July 25th. The plan was to arrive ultra early so we could get some scouting in on the area we were going to be hunting. The drive up north went fairly uneventful aside from a 1/2 curl bighorn ram we spotted in a farmers field along the highway. We watched him for a few minutes and I took a short video clip of him.

Click
To Watch Some Alaska Highway Wildlife

We arrived in Fort St. John on the 26th of July and after getting all of our gear together and packing up the quad & trailer we spent the night trying to shave a few measly ounces off each of our packs. We were on the road by 7:30 the next morning. We saw plenty of wildlife on the drive up and arrived at the location where our hunt would begin early that evening. We spent an hour getting our camp setup and then headed off to start glassing for sheep.

It wasn’t even 6pm the first night and we were already looking at a small group of rams 4 or 5 in total we were quite a ways away and we could tell there wasn’t a shooter in the bunch. None the less we were seeing sheep and the season wasn’t even open for a few more days.  After a nice comfortable nights sleep in the toasty warm “Eena” tent we were out of bed around 5am had an early breakfast and scurried off to start glassing again.

My dad is an old sheep guide with a set of unbelievable eyes, if sheep are on the mountain he’s going to find them and it wasn’t long until we started seeing sheep again. This time we were looking across a thick timbered valley at a small group of 4 rams that quickly turned into 5 rams, then 6 rams, no 7 rams, before we knew it 18 rams had come together in this group and were feeding somewhat scattered across a high grassy hillside. We watched these sheep carefully through the spotting scopes for over an hour and determined that 2 or 3 of the sheep were definitely legal full curl rams but not big enough to make anyone drool yet. Besides we still had yet 3 more days until opening day.

The plan to hike into our spot on the 29th went perfectly to plan and the weather cooperated with an extremely nice and sunny day for the hike in. It’s no easy hike with multiple washes to traverse, willows 15 feet high and some really steep country where you have multiple sections of lengthy side hilling to work through. I’ll admit it’s a tough hike with a fully loaded pack on!

The days before the opener we would spend picking apart the surrounding mountains with our optics. The mountains in this area are comprised of high grassy ledges, with big sweeping bowls and alpine meadows set amongst the rough black shale cliffs. There was plenty of timber and buck brush down lower to make some really wicked ram country. This particular spot we were hunting at my family has hunted for decades and there have been some real dandy rams fall in this small patch of hunting ground.  We spotted 6 ewes and lambs that night and also observed plenty of locations on the mountains where there was sheep activity but the rams had so far managed to elude us in here.

The day before opening it started raining at about 11am and wouldn’t let up for the entire day… After chasing a porcupine out of camp when we returned from glassing in the partially fogged in valleys we proceeded to cook our Mountain House freeze dried meals for dinner. I ate Pasta Primavera on this particular night and it went down really well compared to the meal I had the night before. The pasta actually tasted great and set me up for a good nights sleep. We went to bed that night in our little two man tent
with high hopes for the next day. The weather so far was no longer cooperating and we were hoping for a break.

As many of you know weather in the mountains can change rapidly and I awoke several times during the night to the pounding of the rain on the sil-tarp covering our tent (another great gear investment Sil-Tarp II). The weather had no intentions of going along with our plan. I awoke in the morning and it was still raining and so cold I figured there would be snow on the ground. I wasn’t too far off. The mountains were almost completely fogged in aside from the snowy peaks we could see through the clouds… Not even 1000 feet above us and there was probably 6 inches to a foot of fresh snow.

Glassing was impossible as the fog was rolling down really low and we couldn’t see anything. This lasted nearly the whole day with some brief patches to get glassing in. We waited out the rain for another day and when it had not let up in nearly 3 days we decided it was time for us to head out and try our luck in another area we had planned to hunt.

The hike out took most of the day and was raining the entire time. Good rain gear is a must when hunting for sheep in August!

We arrived back at our base camp in the evening and had a great steak dinner before retiring to bed. I awoke at 5am the next morning to my dad firing up the wood stove and heating up the tent… That makes it a whole lot easier getting out of bed to start looking for sheep again. While my hunting partner and I were in the mountains my dad was able to get some more scouting in and found several more small bunches of rams. He had spotted a few legal ones in the bands he had found but we would need a closer look to know what they were for sure. Upon returning to these locations the rams were nowhere to be seen.  In fact sheep were nowhere to be seen. It was now into the season and it was obvious there was a lot of hunting pressure in the area. The sheep had started to really move around.

The real clincher happened when we had spotted 3 beauty rams in a very unlikely place. The lead ram was a really heavy, dark colored ram that my dad figured would go 40+” and the second ram was real light horned and light colored and figured it would go 38-39″. After looking at plenty of
rams through the spotting scopes these were definitely the most impressive we had seen so far. The decision was made to pack up our camp at it’s current location and make a move closer to where these rams had been spotted and then hike in and have a go at them. It was still going to be a 2 mile hike just
to get to the mountain they were on and then it would be a long haul to even get to the rams. They were in a really sketchy spot.

The camp was packed up and everything ready to move within an hour and we were on our way to the new spot. My dad had arrived there ahead of me and was watching through the scope when we got to him.  He wanted to get a bead on the rams before we finalized the plans. When I finally caught up to my dad he looked over at me and said… So, You want the good news or the bad news?”…. I knew what he meant right away but let him finish, “Gimme the good news” I said… “Well” my dad replied… “The good news is your ram is still there… The bad news is there are two hunters already skinning him!” That sucked!  But I have to tell you I was a little relieved of not having to make the trek to get to him anymore. All of the hiking was beginning to take a toll on my feet.

The last few days of the hunt were a little more relaxed and we spent a few days scouting and just enjoying the scenery. We met two great guys from the Kootenays that were up there hunting also and shared a couple of campfires with them and had an all around really great time. The quest for my ram will continue next year.

Nothing Beats Sheep Hunting – No, No… Wait… Nothing Beats You Up Like Sheep Hunting!

Happy Hunting!
Carl

My 2004 Non-Typical Whitetail Deer.

It was a drizzly Vancouver Island November morning when my dads buddy Bob showed up at my house at 6:30 in the morning to pick me up and take me with him up to Fort St. John for our annual Deer Hunt with my dad. We were in a hurry to get the 7am ferry so we could get that long drive out of the way so we could be hunting the next day.

The 13 hour drive to Fort St. John was pretty uneventful but we did spot a semi-decent 4 point mule deer outside of chetwynd in a farmers field. We stopped to have a look at the deer (it was the first of the trip) and then moved on to John. It didn’t really matter though as I was hunting whitetail because I had shot a muley buck the year prior and you are allowed only 1 mule deer every 2 years in region 7.

The year before this hunt I had worked a deal with a local landowner to hunt his private land in exchange for me building him a website and hosting it for his business. It was an offer I presented and this gentleman happily agreed. His house was the first stop I made as I pulled into John so I could say hello, let him know I had arrived and to pick up the key so I could unlock the gates to my whitetail hunting paradise.

After I had acquired the key it was off to my dads house where we quickly got settled in, and decided that we wouldn’t pressure our hunting patch just yet, instead we were going to head out to a different area that we had hunted several times before and had permission from the land owner(s).

The first night there we were seeing bucks mostly smaller whitetail bucks with a few mule deer scattered here and there. I wasn’t hunting for meat and planned on holding out for a really good whitetail buck since my first whitetail was already a great buck.

We hunted these areas for the first few days of our hunt eventually taking a very nice whitetail on
the 3rd day for our hunting partner Brad. He made a steller 150 yard shot on great 4 point (w/eyeguards) whitetail buck. Brad and I had been waiting in the field his buck came into for a bigger buck we knew was there as my dad had seen him on several occasions but when given the opportunity on this one Brad took it. This was his first whitetail.

Now that we had one whitetail down I was back onto the trail for my big buck and after hunting the same area for a total of 6 days we decided to head off and start exploring the private patch of land we had acquired to hunt. Really we just wanted to let things settle down in there because they were hauling hay and the trucks and tractors were going everywhere. The deer were a little skittish to say the least but not as skittish as you may be thinking…

The first day on the fresh hunting patch we drove around and checked the area out looking for buck sign which we found everywhere. And by the looks of it there was some really decent whiteys in the area. We did see some younger bucks that first day and passed on all. The truck and tractor were still going full bore but my dad assured me that we wouldn’t have to worry about them spooking the deer. It turns out he was right.

On our third day of hunting this area it was now the 19th of November and there was only 1 day of
deer season left. The crunch was on. We had checked our whitetail spots earlier in the morning and my dad and I were in one truck and Bob was in another. We discussed our plan of attack and my dad and I decided to work this small patch of afalfa where there was a lot of buck sign but it didn’t seem like the greatest of spots. The road they were hauling hay on ran right through the right hand side of this field and there was a truck going back and forth every 10 minutes.

Bob thought we were crazy and decided to go over the hill a little ways and hunt another field. Fine by us we thought. We found a nice little spot in the field to back the truck into, shut the engine off and just wait… Wait and see what comes out of the bush.

My dad had a feeling about this patch right from the get go. The sign was everywhere and you could see very distinct patterns they were working. The bucks were here we just needed one to make a mistake.

About a half an hour had gone by and the hay truck just went by again, I was getting frustrated as it’s 3pm and here we are sitting in a field that looks to disturbed from the hail hauling traffic I didn’t think we had any chance at a decent buck.

Boy was I wrong… The hay truck went by and not more then 1 minute later a Whitetail doe came swiftly trotting out into the field… Our first clue. “See that” my dad says… “Yeah” “That Doe came straight out into the field without even looking around first.. Whitetails don’t do that” my dad says… “There is a buck right on her ass… I guarantee it.”

I shut up and listened to the old man and we sat dead quiet as the doe started to eat. She would glance back towards the bush every few seconds and we knew that she knew there were more deer there. It was a just a matter of time.

After watching the doe for 2 or 3 minutes she seemed to relax and settle down when all of a sudden out of the bush bursts a little spike whitetail and he you can tell he’s running scared. He gets out into the field and then just stares back into the bush.

My dad is laughing at this point because you can tell by the body language of this little deer that he is in fear of his life right about now. None of the deer have even seen us and this is all unfolding 80 yards away and don’t forget the hay truck is due back in probably 3 or 4 minutes!!!

My dad “says, that little buck just had his ass kicked, your buck is right in there…” I believed him at this point and was poised for action at any time. After a minute or so that little buck slowly went to eating and would glance up every few seconds. I was looking at the Doe and little buck when my dad shouts out “There He Is, Dump’im”

I looked up to see this really dark & heavy old buck, head hung down low, trotting out of the bush, he was panting, and madder then hell that is doe had decided to run out of the bush and go eat leaving him behind. I barreled out of the truck as quietly as I could and threw a shell into my 7mm rem mag and set the scope up on the buck. He had made it about 30 yards into the field by now and as I looked at him through the scope I could see just how old and heavy he really was. I knew right away this was a good buck he was by far the heaviest deer I have shot yet. I set my sights just behind the front shoulder and and squeezed. The buck dropped in his tracks right there.

He was done so we immediately went over to him and had a look. He was a great buck! 6×4 and his horns were really, really heavy as you can see in the pictures. He didn’t score all that well but he is an awesome deer An “Old Campaigner” as my dad called him. He had obviously been fighting heavy, and his ears were torn and he even had puncture wounds on his body. I would have loved to have seen the deer fighting with him. He would have been a bruiser too.

It wasn’t 2 minutes after I shot my buck that the haytruck came back down the road, the old farmer totally amazed at what we had just done in the span of about 10 minutes. It all happened in the blink of an eye but it just goes to show that patience and experience always pays off.

I have to give credit to my guide (dad) for this one as I would have never chose this spot to hunt.

We called Bob on the radio and told him I had just a really good buck, so up the hill he came and congratulated me on my buck. We took some pictures then my dad and I loaded it into the truck to go and gut it and skin it out and Bob decided he would go over the hill again and wait for a deer on his little spot. Sure enough he got a little 3 point meat buck and another deer hunting season in region 7 had come to an end for us.

We spent the next day out at a Buffalo Ranch where bob got himself a nice yearling buffalo to bring back home for meat and then we were on our way home again.

It was an awesome trip, and my last trip with Bob as he passed away January of 2005.

Happy Hunting!
Carl

This section is where I will be sharing my own personal BC hunting stories and trip information. If you have any stories you would like to submit to the BCHuntingBlog then please send them to me and I would be more then happy to post your story and pictures of your succesful and even not so-successful hunting trips.

This is a resource for BC Resident hunters or anyone looking to come and hunt in BC and yet one more site out there created by an avid BC hunter to help promote and preserve the sport of hunting in Beautiful BC.

Happy Hunting!
Carl