A Kechika River BC Adventure

[IronNoggin]

if your friend breeds/sells his dogs, shoot me a p.m.
along with a baby coming next june, the wife wants a couple new pups to join our adventure.

He just makes the arrangements as it were.
But I will be chatting with him in the next while and see if he can suggest anything or help out...
.................................................

Along the way that morning, we rounded a corner and discovered a massive old cow elk up one level from the river. She barely gave us a passing glance, but did study her backtrail quite intensely between bouts of feeding. Understanding what that might mean was instantaneous, and our powerful binocs literally raked the area below her constantly. There he is, and what a hell of a bull!!

And he was! I have hunted elk over much of North America, and it is something of a rarity (for me anyway) to encounter the serious crowning displayed my a mature Roosevelt Bull. This fellow had 9+ points a side, not the longest of main beams but as large as your thigh at the base, and crowning all over up top. An ancient scarred up Warrior, it was obvious he was more interested in the cow than us. Wish I had the camera ready, but will admit I was quite greedy sucking his vision through the binoc's and simply forgot... Excellent to see, and we wished him well in his efforts to pass that excellent genetics down the line!!

According to the GPS, we were traveling about 6 or 7 miles an hour when at idle, less so obviously if drifting. Mike's skill at the helm really showed as he navigated that sled through some bloody tight water over and over, missing the hits and correctly reading the flow every time. Even so, the miles drifted away too damn slow for all involved...

Years back, like 20 or so, we used to fly half our crew / gear in to save weight on the upstream runs. But, it has been damn near since then we've seen a plane actually land on the river. All the charter companies now refuse to do so, citing it is too dangerous to proceed with that any more.
So, imagine our surprise when a float plane circled us twice, dipped his wings, and set about touch down right below us!!

We both thought it was likely a CO dropping by to make sure we were on the up & up, and not in too serious of trouble drifting along like we were...

However it became readily apparent that he was picking up some guided hunters who, along with their gear, were being shuttled to the river for pick-up via quads and trailers. Both parties waved, and although we looked we saw no sign of horns, antlers nor meat. I did take a good note of the fellow's numbers, and will try to get ahold of him the next time we wander that way to see just what his prices are. Was another interesting development for us.

The Ladz had picked an established but empty camp to set up at for the night. By the time we got down to them, it was pretty much dark. They had the Teepee set up, and a good fire blazing for our arrival. The only thing we borrowed besides their fire pit was the grill they had conveniently left along side of that. The grilled moose backstrap tasted as wonderful as it had the first time!

A few calculations, and we recognized it would take at least another day and a half to get down to the landing.
Oh well, at least we're getting there...

Sleep came easy as the wolves once again serenaded the coming of the moonlight...

 

[Eagleye]

After the previous day's efforts, I found myself a little worn out. And so it was that I found myself stirring from slumber, only to discover I had slept in some. As I laid there wondering what the rest of the trip might bring, I heard the far off moaning of a cow moose. Hmmm... Did I imagine that? Nope, there it is again!!

Scrambling I was soon in my heavy camo to brace against the morning chill, rifle in hand, and was preparing to head out in the direction of those calls.

Kid's pretty good came a hushed whisper across the campsite.
Huh?
Yeah, that's him that got you going. Any bull hears that he may well respond.
Only ever remember hearing anyone better, and that was an ancient Cree in Northern Saskatchewan decades ago...

Just then the call came again, and DAMN! He is GOOD!
Always prided myself on my efforts to call moose, and have been downright successful doing that over the years.
But this was magical. Better than I had ever been, and still had me yearning to run out there with a ready rifle!

When my Buddy returned to camp, we all congratulated him on his calling.
He blushed with hidden pride, and accepted the comments in a reluctant manner.
Little did we know just what the effect of those calls would have on our next couple of days...

We spent much of the day again watching the animals on Terminus, and their response to the snow that had accumulated. Most had dropped down a fair bit, but the Big Goat, and the better of the young rams still held court on the highest of country.

Towards late afternoon, we decided to head over to a huge set of moose meadows we knew of which were not much more than a couple miles away. Again we loaded up the little jet rig for a possible extended stay, and again off we went to explore.
As we got to the channel that leads to the meadows, a HUGE Bull Moose appeared - feeding along the side of the channel about 200 yards out...

We immediately landed, and a spotting scope was set up FAST. Moose have to have 3 up front, ten around, or be a spike/fork in order to be legal in that zone. A shift in the breeze suddenly carried our scent his way, and the reaction was immediate! As he turned the spotter murmured I count 12 one side! All I needed!! As the bull raced dead away, I lined up on the back of his neck just below the base of his skull. A little over 250 yards now, bullet would be still climbing from my ancient 300 Weatherby, so I adjusted slightly down the spine. BOOM! The rifle bucked almost unexpectedly against my shoulder, only to come down back on target to see him shake his huge head violently, and race into the timber!!
WTH? 180 partition didn't simply dump him at that range??

We backed off for an hour and a half, collected the tracking dog and his leash, and went in for a boo. The bull had run 100 yards uphill, then laid down. Two drops of blood was all. And he had departed well before we entered the picture. The next few hours were spent behind the dog as he worked out the exit trail. At 3/4 of a mile, darkness dropped over us like a suddenly dropped wet blanket, and we had to return to the boat and make our way back to camp with the aid of headlamps. The moose had not laid down again. At camp the other Ladz jokingly accused me of shootin' for the horns, suggesting I may have put one into an antler. No damn way, I KNOW where that hit...

It was a tough night of little sleep for me. I kept going over the shot in my mind, wondering just what the hell had gone wrong. Before daybreak I was up drinking coffee in the morning's chill, waiting for the rest of my crew to rise and accompany me for an extended tracking effort. Picking up the trail where we had left it the night before, we began to decipher where it lead from there. Into a bunch of deadfall that literally took hours to struggle through. He knew we were in pursuit. And he had not laid down yet again. At another 3/4 of a mile, our crew was drenched in sweat, and more than a little disappointed. Back to camp to rethink and regroup was my suggestion. It was well taken, and it wasn't iuntil early afternoon we made a late breakfast back in camp.

While we were chowing down, the dog suddenly began his I SEE SOMETHING YOU SHOULD LOOK AT whine!
My Alberta Buddy & I glanced over, and saw a monster of a bull moose slightly upstream of the camp, knee deep and swallowing great amounts of water from the river! Nobody Panic (worse thing to say as invariably everyone does each time you say it) and a mad scramble ensued. I nodded towards our Young Gun and smiled at the tall Albertan. Yep.
Danny, get your rifle on him I said, having already centered my scope on the 200 yard distant bull. I count 12 one side came the comment from the man behind the rapidly deployed spotting scope!

My Friend, shoot that bugger right in the heart were my words that followed.
Ka-BOOM!
The bull simply collapsed like a cheap lawn chair, nose first, right into the river!
WOAH!

Another mad scramble to get the small jet rig launched, as the current pushed the bull towards our shore.
Minutes later a couple ropes were secured, and we managed to push the bugger right to the beach, less than 75 yards from camp!
Did I say BIG?
Check out the size compared to the jet rig!!

There was absolutely no way the four of us could ever drag or push the weight up onto that beach!
So, drawing straws and two men donned the boots.
Quartering the high side kept the meat clean & dry...

After which we were able to roll him up onto the beach to finish processing him:

While doing so, we came across a bullet hole in the back of his neck, just below the base of his skull.
And a little digging produced a perfectly mushroomed 30 caliber Nosler Partition.
How that did not drop him on the spot I will never know.
He is only the second of dozens of animals that rifle has taken not to literally drop in their tracks.

We also found another bullet track, one that both entered and exited.
Along it's path, it found the exact item I had requested:

We all were grinning at recovering the big boy, and at the mountain of meat he provided us!
No more MRE's!!!

What bullet is that one shown?.......certainly not a Partition.. Would like to have seen the Partition, having shot over 100 head of game
with them successfully.
BTW, awesome trip, glad you all got out safely....very nice narration. Hope that lip healed up well. Dave.

 

[Eagleye]

###

 

[IronNoggin]

What bullet is that one shown?.......certainly not a Partition..

LOL! Unless it managed to morph into something else after it left my barrel, that is indeed the 180 Nosler Partition we dug out of the moose's neck. I'll take a couple better shots of it tomorrow and post them for you. Front end opened up as intended, back end is still intact...

The next morning we were up and wandering right at first light again.
The wolves carried on that day well into daylight, had us wondering just what they were up to...

Something I forgot to mention when we were up on the hill. My two companions decided it probably wasn't going to rain, so they hoisted their rain gear high up into a tree. The one fellow's gear was like mine - workable, but not overly pricey. The other fellow is the complete opposite! Between the Kuiu drybag, pack cover and rain gear, it was worth close to $ 1,800.00 clams. Upon our descent, they were quite disturbed to discover a bear had found an eaten all of that stuff except one woolen cap. My HH gear stayed with me, and I was happy to be wearing it on the last leg out of the hills! Another OUCH for the one fellow for sure as he had yet to even wear the stuff...

What reminded me was a blackie we encountered as we idled down the river day 2. He wasn't overly large, but the Ladz certainly were trying to get me to shoot him. More out of revenge than anything else methinks, and I wasn't going to shoot just "any" bear this trip! In fact that tag has a date with a rather large bruin, perhaps it may even top last year's Monster, that is frequenting one of my local hunting areas right now...

The bear is in there:

Passing the confluence with the Turnagin meant we were actually making progress. Not enough that we wouldn't have to camp again that night, but certainly enough we would be off the river the next day...

Here's the mandatory shot of the big rock with the cross on it.
Never did find out who wandered on there, nor under what conditions.
But I always give a tip of my hat to another wanderer who apparently paid the ultimate price there.

Another interesting formation along the way - almost looked like a castle turret falling apart:

Camp that night was actually quite a bit of a party. We all knew we'd be off the river the next day, and thus our time together was drawing to it's conclusion. Out came the final dregs of rum, and we attacked the moose tenderloin for the first time - actually eating all of it between us! A finer feast was never had!!

The next morning we were again off and moving early. The Ladz in the other rig ran down to the launch, and readied ropes etc in case we had an issue on our final approach. Although we bumped once or twice before re-entering the Liard, it was nothing serious. And we jockeyed across the larger river with no issues, floating nicely right up into the bay at Skooks Landing.

Most of the rigs were long gone, giving us ample room to pull ours from the water. The water itself however was so low we had to tow the trucks attached to the trailers back up the hill to get them off the beach:

A quick scramble to load our rigs, and we were soon on our way back to "civilization"...

 

[IronNoggin]

The ride home was boring chiefly. A few distractions such as Sheep, Buffalo and Caribou:

We again over-nighted in Chetwyn, and blew out of there well before the dawn.
Miles seemed to fly by, and our moods swung between reflection / satisfaction of doing what we do, and the near dread of getting back to "society" and all of it's trammelings.

Vancouver was it's usual Horror Show, and although well ahead of schedule, we managed to miss the target ferry by about an hour. Never ceases to amaze me how CitIdiots can come to a complete full stop - on a highway - on a repeated basis!
Were I to have to live there, I honestly believe the other side would look a LOT more promising than suffering through that BS on a daily basis!!

Arriving home, all was thankfully well.
Still don't have all the gear put away, but the moose is

This ESCAPE was one I desperately needed.
Back to my version of "Reality"
Back with tried, tested and true Friends who always have each other's backs.
And back to the Rivers and Hills I love so much.

I felt the trappings of daily life and concerns slide off me as soon as we hit the river.
I still feel a fair amount of that coursing through my veins a tad later. Refreshment much desired and fulfilled.
The news and the developments since we have been gone have little interest for me at this point.
And already, I am actually yearning to go back...

There were more than a few trials and tribulations on this run.
Never had any boat issues before, and guess we have now made up for all of the past in that regard.
Happy the big moose was recovered.
Wish like hell I had had a Grizzly Tag in tow!

But most of all, I am Damn Happy for having been there!
Soul Cleansing Indeed!
And in my heart, I KNOW I will return...

Hope Y'all enjoyed this tale.
There will be the odd hunt or two still to come along this fall, but none as "serious" as this one was.
I'll still tell the tales, and hope that some are a little amused by my wanderings.

Eventually I'll add in a video or three to this one, so watch down the line if you're at all interested...

The Very Best of Luck to all who choose our pursuit this fall!
May you shoot straight, and the game be plentiful!!

Happy Thanksgiving too!
I truly understand we still have a lot to be thankful for!!

Cheers!
Matt

 

[Boombb]

Bravo!

 

[Eagleye]

I am certainly not wanting to start something here, but I have loaded many hundreds of Nosler partitions, from 6mm right up to .375 diameter.
I have never seen the base of a Partition that looked like the bullet in the picture. They are always made with the rear lead core showing from
the back. I am going to guess that somehow, a different bullet got into your box of partitions, and got loaded without being noticed. The bullet in
the picture looks like a bonded bullet of some kind or other, it shows a fairly heavy jacket with core adhering to it. I would love to see a couple of
more pictures from other angles. Dave.

 

[GUB]

I am certainly not wanting to start something here, but I have loaded many hundreds of Nosler partitions, from 6mm right up to .375 diameter.
I have never seen the base of a Partition that looked like the bullet in the picture. They are always made with the rear lead core showing from
the back. I am going to guess that somehow, a different bullet got into your box of partitions, and got loaded without being noticed. The bullet in
the picture looks like a bonded bullet of some kind or other, it shows a fairly heavy jacket with core adhering to it. I would love to see a couple of
more pictures from other angles. Dave.

I'm holding partitions in my hand now.. Both unfired and recovered and I have to agree with you Dave

 

[Jay]

What a GREAT read, thank you for sharing!

Cheers
Jay

 

[VanIsleCam]

Great conclusion IN - see ya in a bit.

 

[hawk-i]

Thanks for sharing your story...the damage to the boat is a pitty though!
I've run lots of very shallow and narrow rivers including the kechika. ..damaging a boat to that extent would pretty much wreck the trip for me.

 

[IronNoggin]

... I have never seen the base of a Partition that looked like the bullet in the picture. They are always made with the rear lead core showing from the back. I am going to guess that somehow, a different bullet got into your box of partitions, and got loaded without being noticed. The bullet in the picture looks like a bonded bullet of some kind or other, it shows a fairly heavy jacket with core adhering to it.

I owe you an APOLOGY Sir!
Had another look after reading this, and you are correct.
Have no idea how that could have happened, but the investigation will commence this very day.
Somehow must has gotten another 30 caliber projectile mixed in with the Nosler's when loading those. Was several years ago now, but I think I should be able to track it down. Haven't used any but the Partitions for years, so anything else on or near the bench should be the likely culprit. I will search hard, let you know what I discover, and fire off a few more pictures here as well.

Good eye, and may help me resolve the matter of the IndestructiBULL!!

Thanks for sharing your story...the damage to the boat is a pitty though!
I've run lots of very shallow and narrow rivers including the kechika. ..damaging a boat to that extent would pretty much wreck the trip for me.

The boat was scheduled for sponsoning (widening) this winter.
As such the owner wasn't crying overly hard over the damage.
In fact, it is up on blocks and getting a chop job as I type.

Green Death already has a heated up 427 in her while the big mill gets torn down to determine what her injuries were.

First time we've ever had any issues with the boats.
Guess we were overdue.
Both owners simply shrugged noting It goes with the territory...
Sometimes apparently it does...

Have a wonderful fall Folks!

Cheers,
Nog

 

[Eagleye]

I owe you an APOLOGY Sir!
Had another look after reading this, and you are correct.
Have no idea how that could have happened, but the investigation will commence this very day.
Somehow must has gotten another 30 caliber projectile mixed in with the Nosler's when loading those. Was several years ago now, but I think I should be able to track it down. Haven't used any but the Partitions for years, so anything else on or near the bench should be the likely culprit. I will search hard, let you know what I discover, and fire off a few more pictures here as well.

Good eye, and may help me resolve the matter of the IndestructiBULL!!



The boat was scheduled for sponsoning (widening) this winter.
As such the owner wasn't crying overly hard over the damage.
In fact, it is up on blocks and getting a chop job as I type.

Green Death already has a heated up 427 in her while the big mill gets torn down to determine what her injuries were.

First time we've ever had any issues with the boats.
Guess we were overdue.
Both owners simply shrugged noting It goes with the territory...
Sometimes apparently it does...

Have a wonderful fall Folks!

Cheers,
Nog

NOG; NO apology needed!! But when you mentioned a failure of a Partition to penetrate, you got my attention.
I was enjoying your trip story immensely, but balked at the Partition failing to do it's job. [A failure is possible, but
extremely rare] I await your investigation into this. Very curious about the source of that bullet. Dave.

 

[pete dobinson]

I really enjoyed this thread, great story and beautiful pictures. Well done sir.

 

[45ACPKING]

agreed, very much enjoyed this thread.
it even has a bonus mystery segment with the bullet conundrum.
How cool is it that fate brought the very same wounded moose back into the sights of your hunting party and it was successfully harvested? That's farrr out

 

[tripoli99]

Awesome story and pics. thoroughly enjoyed the break while toiling here in the big traffic jam of YVR.

 

[Runningfool]

Thank you so much for sharing your trip like that! I wish this forum was filled with more posts like this...I would savor every last one!

 

[Johnny G1]

The best hunting story of the yr. Need more of them.

 

[Hokus Grey]

Great write up for a worthy adventure!

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Kechika]

Spent some time up there this year in those very locations... I was much much earlier then you were though

Loved the story and always tell myself I will take more photos but rarely do - always caught up in the moment. It was a pleasure laying eyes on some very familiar spots. I always wondered if the front of that range held rams... now I know there are G bears too!

Cheers