Arrived at camp on the afternoon of the 4rth to find my brother and nephew set up and waiting for me.
Was awesome to see that MD left a nice stack of firewood and some spare rope which both came in very handy on this trip.
My weapon of choice for this trip was my shorty enfield but once i got it in the bush the crosshairs just disappear on dark surfaces..... no good. I regret buying the Bushnell Engage series of scopes..... it will get repurposed to a range only scope. Was cheap so whatever.
So my trusty Ruger M77 MKII 7mm rem mag stepped up for the task. My brother brought along his 45-70 lever gun with an aimpoint. That is one slick rig. My family is fairly private and I've been asked not to share some of the pics from the trip with faces other than mine.
So day 1 , the 4rth ended after a brief trip up the mountain to get the treestand ladder set up.
Oct 5 I was up at 6am and headed into the stand while my brother and nephew hung back. He's a shift worker and needed a couple days to adjust LOL So in I went, into the fog and old growth timber set on moss covered bedrock. There were all kinds of mushrooms and the whole forest smelled of musty earth and mushrooms. The leaves are about midpoint in turning this year...... seems later than usual and "a lot" more leaves on foilage than the same time other years. Temps got up to +9 and the day was moslty cloudy with a bit of sun here and there. So I woke at 6am , made coffee and grabbed some snacks and a boost drink, loaded up the rifle and hit the trail in the dark. I was in the stand just as legal shooting light arrived. The fog moved in and out of the draw as the morning progressed. I could see thru the trees down hill that the valley below was hidden in thick fog. A little after an hour the first movement caught my eye to my far right and I could make out the ears of several deer approaching at a purposeful pace. I chose my moment to swing the rifle to sight in on the incoming deer but as I watched them appear one by one in a single file line, the first group were all does and fawns. This repeated untill a little after 10:30 as a total of 16 deer moved thru the shooting lanes and down the mountain. No bucks today.
Oct 6 was pretty much a repeat and 13 does and fawns came thru the draw. Weather sucked with mostly rain off and on, temps stayed the same.
Oct 7th was a wet morning and my brother and I both headed up the mountain after a 6am wake up and quick prehunting prep. I set him up in a spot lower and directly behind the stand 100 yards or so. We verified shooting lanes to stay safe and I headed up to my perch in the stand.
Looking at the high ground above me directly out from the stand
just to the right of the first pic
downhill to the left
and the right side shooting lane where a lot of the deer were coming from on this trip
at around 8:30 ish and after seeing 8 or 9 does/fawns come thru, a doe came straight at the stand from the right hand shooting lane and then took the high ground on the right in the above pic as it approached to 20 yards thru the bushes. Then the buck popped into view in the foggy spot right beside the big fir tree trunk and I quietly and slowly got my rifle and body into position. He was walking fast catching up to the doe when I let out a doe bleat to stop him in his tracks. Sounds just like a sheep or goat sound. He stopped at less than 20 yards , near broadside and looked right at me and the rifle barked, sending that 160gr nosler partition on it's way. One shot did the trick and he made it maybe 10 yards.
After cutting my tag and dragging the deer whole down 50 yards from where I shot him..... i called my brother up from his ground hide and got him into the stand while I sat back below and behind the stand to watch the show. Within an hour I saw his shoulder move which was immediately followed by the report of that beautiful stainless 45-70..... My brother took his first BC coastal mountain Blacktail and I feel very blessed that I could experience that with him. He had an elusive doe draw for the region and her size was fairly representative of the typical doe.
Here are the deer we harvested on the 7th
Oct 8th some other hunters had arrived the evening before and were walking all over the area in the bush being stupid hunters (for the area) and messing up the mountainside for any volume of deer movement. I;ve bumped into this family of clowns before and they purposefully set thier camp up where they know the deer will not move past them. I saw one doe that morning from first light till noon. figures
Oct 9th saw 7 deer , all does and fawns except for one spike buck. He was not as big of body as the one I already took and his spikes were only 3 or 4 inches long. I had a brief window to take him as he came in from the right side and turned to go down behind me..... pretty much the exact path the buck I already harvested took. I let him go. If I didn;t have a bull moose draw coming up in 10 days..... I would have taken him for the meat. I don't hunt for antlers and I only eat game meat so letting him walk was a decision but I made it fast.
At around 11 am , movement below to my left in my peripheral grabbed my attention and I was stunned to see a mature and very uniquely colored wolf heaing up the hill at a hunting pace. I should have let out a bleat to stop him but I took a moving shot and missed at 50 to 60 feet max..... I tried for a second shot by leading him but as wolves do..... his course change just as I pulled the trigger was another miss..... and he was gone. That really burned me LOL...... I will do better next time... if I am ever presented with that golden opportunity again.
Unfortunatley the weather really hammered us this trip and dry clothes became hard to come by after wednesday morning's hunt so we called it
We didn't see any deer that morning anyways as the 3 moron hunters above us had already spread thier scent far and wide along the ridge like complete newbies. They aren't though, I have seen this family up there over the 20+ years I have hunted this spot and changed my hunting dates to avoid them. Not this year apparently.
But not to cast shade on an awesome trip. My brother punched his tag and is really happy and my nephew got to cruise around on a fancy atv to his hearts content.
All in all, great memories were made and a successful trip for us both
