It has been 50 years since I bought my first hunting licence and this season has been a real highlight to celebrate those 50 years, many of which have seen me eating more track and tag soup than deer meat. I’ve always been a more enthusiastic than successful hunter.
After a two week skunk trip for moose in September I was pretty discouraged, but then with considerable assistance from 45ACPKING in a spot we coincidentally have both haunted for years I got a small 3x3 blacktail October 13 and decided to try for a mulie too.
I had been to a spot briefly a couple years ago and had seen a stand of timber that I had walked into and had vowed to come back and hunt it properly. On my way out I had seen a small herd of does and thought that it must be popular with deer, so when I had a chance to get out for a last hunt during any buck season in October I headed there.
Sunday I drove up to my selected forest service road. I was pretty discouraged at first because of the lack of deer sign, and even told my wife before I lost cell service that I might go to another spot if there was nothing there.
But anyway, I drove looking for a camp spot and found a turnout with some dead trees across the road for firewood.
I parked and got some wood together and just before dark went for a little walk up the road. It turns out that there were quite a few tracks on the road so I was on the right track after all.
I made the fire and heated up leftovers in the frying pan and climbed into the truck for the night.
Didn’t get up until 7:00 and two trucks went by me as I was making tea.
Once I was finished eating and drinking, I packed up and started off up the road, intending to climb up the edge of a nearby gully and either stake it out for the morning or hike into the timber on the upper side of the road. But the snow was too crunchy under the trees so I carried on uphill until I came to the road leading a network of smaller roads. I heard a couple shots in the distance. It sounded like the guys who’d passed me had maybe got lucky.
Spent the day up there, sticking to the roads, noticing a lot of crossing points laden with track, remembering them for later. I ran into a young couple in a truck who said the young woman had been lining up on a two-point on the other side of a clearcut when they too had heard the two shots. The deer did too, despite the distance, and ran off.
I went back to camp for lunch and a nap and then checked out the road for the evening. There sure were lots of tracks on the road.
The next day I was up at 6:00 to beat the rush and walked up the road at daybreak. Only about a half a kilometre from camp I looked up into the trees and saw that it looked like real easy walking in here. I remembered walking into that patch of trees two years ago.
Anyway, as soon as I got in the trees I saw deer trails and the farther up I went there were beds and fresh droppings too. This was looking good. I came to the edge of an area that was a little more open so I sat on a fallen tee. I wasn’t even adequately hidden really; it wasn’t anything like a blind. So I just sat there and played with my Primo's bleat can and tinkled with my rattling antlers.
Seemed like just minutes when a doe showed up, coming downhill. It seemed to notice me right away but when I didn’t move, it stopped looking, sniffed the ground, looked up again, and then circled away down hill out of sight. I stood up to follow her with my eyes and suddenly noted another deer run away up hill. ####, I thought, that was probably the buck following her. But then she reappeared from below, walked into the clearing father, looking at me again, and then turned away. Then suddenly there were two does angling away from below me and took off.
I tipped the can once again, and tickled the antlers. I reached into my pack for my apple and was about to take a bite when I saw a movement to my right, and a huge 4x4 stepped into the open on my right from below. I was stunned for a second. I'd been hoping to see more deer descend along the same path the does did from uphill, not from down hill. I remember seeing the full rack first, almost gliding gently through the air under this enormous buck. Since I started hunting on the Island at 15 in 1968 I have had the occasional good fortune to shoot respectable blacktails. In fact my first deer in October 1970 was a 4x5 blacktail on northern Vancouver Island.
Since moving to the mainland in 1986 though, I’ve got a few mulies; small bucks and LEH does, but believe it or not last Tuesday was the first time in 50 years of hunting that I saw a live 4x4 Mule deer during an open season. I'd seen one in the summer once.
He stopped and gave me a gave me full broadside presentation at about 60 yards. He was looking right at me but I had time to pop my earplugs in, raise the rifle and boom! I’d been in that spot about an hour if that.
It was a bit of a chore to drag him the 300 yards to the road's edge, even if it was mostly down hill. There was a really steep high dirt bank where the trees met the road, so I left the deer there, went back and got the truck and then drove back up and after sewing up the abdomen with some net-mending twine to keep dirt from the bank out of the body cavity, rolled the deer down the bank.
I put some tarps and sheets under him to keep the meat clean and cut him up into manageable chunks and tossed them in the truck. From shooting him at 8:30 I had him in the truck and was ready to head out at 1:00 pm.
If there’s anything I think I’ve learned in the past 50 years it is patience. Sure, I’ve been successful driving on the road sometimes, and even occasionally hiking in the woods, but if this year’s experience has taught me anything, it is that finding a busy spot and setting up an ambush works. Something else funny happened too, this is the first time beat can calling and rattling has ever produced results. Of course it being October 30 and the start of the rut helped too.
The blacktail
The mulie
After a two week skunk trip for moose in September I was pretty discouraged, but then with considerable assistance from 45ACPKING in a spot we coincidentally have both haunted for years I got a small 3x3 blacktail October 13 and decided to try for a mulie too.
I had been to a spot briefly a couple years ago and had seen a stand of timber that I had walked into and had vowed to come back and hunt it properly. On my way out I had seen a small herd of does and thought that it must be popular with deer, so when I had a chance to get out for a last hunt during any buck season in October I headed there.
Sunday I drove up to my selected forest service road. I was pretty discouraged at first because of the lack of deer sign, and even told my wife before I lost cell service that I might go to another spot if there was nothing there.
But anyway, I drove looking for a camp spot and found a turnout with some dead trees across the road for firewood.
I parked and got some wood together and just before dark went for a little walk up the road. It turns out that there were quite a few tracks on the road so I was on the right track after all.
I made the fire and heated up leftovers in the frying pan and climbed into the truck for the night.
Didn’t get up until 7:00 and two trucks went by me as I was making tea.
Once I was finished eating and drinking, I packed up and started off up the road, intending to climb up the edge of a nearby gully and either stake it out for the morning or hike into the timber on the upper side of the road. But the snow was too crunchy under the trees so I carried on uphill until I came to the road leading a network of smaller roads. I heard a couple shots in the distance. It sounded like the guys who’d passed me had maybe got lucky.
Spent the day up there, sticking to the roads, noticing a lot of crossing points laden with track, remembering them for later. I ran into a young couple in a truck who said the young woman had been lining up on a two-point on the other side of a clearcut when they too had heard the two shots. The deer did too, despite the distance, and ran off.
I went back to camp for lunch and a nap and then checked out the road for the evening. There sure were lots of tracks on the road.
The next day I was up at 6:00 to beat the rush and walked up the road at daybreak. Only about a half a kilometre from camp I looked up into the trees and saw that it looked like real easy walking in here. I remembered walking into that patch of trees two years ago.
Anyway, as soon as I got in the trees I saw deer trails and the farther up I went there were beds and fresh droppings too. This was looking good. I came to the edge of an area that was a little more open so I sat on a fallen tee. I wasn’t even adequately hidden really; it wasn’t anything like a blind. So I just sat there and played with my Primo's bleat can and tinkled with my rattling antlers.
Seemed like just minutes when a doe showed up, coming downhill. It seemed to notice me right away but when I didn’t move, it stopped looking, sniffed the ground, looked up again, and then circled away down hill out of sight. I stood up to follow her with my eyes and suddenly noted another deer run away up hill. ####, I thought, that was probably the buck following her. But then she reappeared from below, walked into the clearing father, looking at me again, and then turned away. Then suddenly there were two does angling away from below me and took off.
I tipped the can once again, and tickled the antlers. I reached into my pack for my apple and was about to take a bite when I saw a movement to my right, and a huge 4x4 stepped into the open on my right from below. I was stunned for a second. I'd been hoping to see more deer descend along the same path the does did from uphill, not from down hill. I remember seeing the full rack first, almost gliding gently through the air under this enormous buck. Since I started hunting on the Island at 15 in 1968 I have had the occasional good fortune to shoot respectable blacktails. In fact my first deer in October 1970 was a 4x5 blacktail on northern Vancouver Island.
Since moving to the mainland in 1986 though, I’ve got a few mulies; small bucks and LEH does, but believe it or not last Tuesday was the first time in 50 years of hunting that I saw a live 4x4 Mule deer during an open season. I'd seen one in the summer once.
He stopped and gave me a gave me full broadside presentation at about 60 yards. He was looking right at me but I had time to pop my earplugs in, raise the rifle and boom! I’d been in that spot about an hour if that.
It was a bit of a chore to drag him the 300 yards to the road's edge, even if it was mostly down hill. There was a really steep high dirt bank where the trees met the road, so I left the deer there, went back and got the truck and then drove back up and after sewing up the abdomen with some net-mending twine to keep dirt from the bank out of the body cavity, rolled the deer down the bank.
I put some tarps and sheets under him to keep the meat clean and cut him up into manageable chunks and tossed them in the truck. From shooting him at 8:30 I had him in the truck and was ready to head out at 1:00 pm.
If there’s anything I think I’ve learned in the past 50 years it is patience. Sure, I’ve been successful driving on the road sometimes, and even occasionally hiking in the woods, but if this year’s experience has taught me anything, it is that finding a busy spot and setting up an ambush works. Something else funny happened too, this is the first time beat can calling and rattling has ever produced results. Of course it being October 30 and the start of the rut helped too.
The blacktail
The mulie
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