Hello and welcome! It's always nice to have an enthusiastic participant on these forums.
My hunting season went very well.
I hunt all year. Does coyotes in January count?
A trip S to Montana was an April was a fine adventure and my first time Turkey hunting. What a rush! i called in a lovesick tom from more than a half mile away, across semi-open ground. I'm hooked.
Varmint shooting in summer helped fill in the "gap" between seasons.
Waterfowl started in September, with lots of birds around as usual. Got my Pudelpointer back to earning his keep Sept 1st.
Followed by regular elk season, which was a little challenging this year, we only got 4 for 7 hunters but some grouse and bear hunting filled in the gaps. It was rewarding to kill a bull on the run at 80 yards with my restored Brno 21H 8x57.
Moose season was a draw tag in the farm country for me and two friends. It was fun to guide both buddies to their first moose. We had a lot of fun, and found 5-7 moose each morning, so tagging out was not a big challenge. I called two bulls in to rock trowing range. I actually threw a rock at one to shoo it away. My .375H&H Ruger RSI worked as expected, and after accounting for a moose, 2 elk and a bear it is now ready for its real purpose in Africa.
Sharptail grouse are in big trouble around here, I hunted three of my favourite spots on different days and didn't see a single bird. I wouldn't have shot one if I did, but it would have been good to give my dog the reward of pointing some. No huns either. A few ruffed grouse in the bush had to suffice. A single trip South SK for pheasant was interesting and challenging, with enough birds and bad weather. Two days in driving rain. A backpack trip NE for grouse and brook trout was a magical time, full of memories without a full game bag.
A trip back to our bush camp for whitetails with my sons was very nice because I haven't hunted with them for a couple years. My youngest took the biggest buck of his life, well over 300 lbs. My older son almost connected on a wolf. The deer population is coming back on our forest fringe, nice to see.
A trip to the SW for whitetails with my brother at the invitation of a good buddy was a real good time. Staying on a ranch in excellent game country, with plenty of WT and mule deer, big herds of bull elk, and lots of stories around the wood stove. I shot my first white tail buck in a three years. A new Sako Bavarian 7x64 did the trick.
I took a couple kids on the last day of whitetail season, one of my highlights of the year when a little buck stepped out at 40 yards and the young hunter made a perfect heart shot.
One December trip S to Montana for pheasant and sharptails gave my dog a very good workout and produced a few birds. We saw one flock containing over 100 sharptails! My 16 ga. Citori was the choice for that hunt.
Shot a few coyotes lately on the home farm, ( Brno ZKK 601 .222) and that's about it.
No hunting so far in 2016.
