Hunting with my father.
I've never hunted with my dad. It's nobodies fault but my own. He's an accountant in Vernon B.C., so not a stereotypical hunting enthusiast. He's always been keen to listen to my hunting stories, share in the bounty of my hunts, and appreciates my passion for it. He's just never approached me about hunting, and logistics (my family living in Saskatoon and him being in the Okanagan) have played into it.
Having said that, he did go out last year and take a firearm safety and a hunters safety course. He went on to get his PAL, all on his own accord. I was excited for him and called him up and got him pointed in the right direction for a couple of starter guns to shoot at the range by his place. He ended up with a .17 HMR and a .22-250, and he apparently loves it! I sent him out my old range finder and gave him my spotting scope as well to use at the range. (I'm not really that generous, I was kinda looking for an excuse to get into a new spotting scope).
So back towards my point, I was talking with him last night and he mentioned that a mutual friend of ours from the Westlok area had offered to take him and I with him this fall on his annual moose hunt. My dad was as excited as a chubby kid in a candy store and it was infectious. Unfortunately, the logistics of lining it up would be fairly intense, both being non-residents of Alberta.
We got to talking and even batted around the idea of going on a guided hunt in the Yukon. We browsed a few outfitting web sites and eventually realized that neither of us really wanted to spend ~$15k-25k for a moose hunt.
Now you might be wondering why we settled on moose? No real reason aside from myself never having shot a moose before, and both of us enjoying moose meat. I kind of figured that if we were going to go through the planning of a mutual hunt, we'd just as well seize the opportunity to attempt to harvest a critter I'd always wanted to.
So now we've more/less rules out going on an outfitted hunt in the Yukon, and neither of us seem to keen on the idea of hoping to be drawn in Alberta to be able to hunt with our friend.
My most recent progression of this hunting plan was this:
To research and find a WMU in B.C. with a relatively high success rate. Neither of us are hunting solely for antlers. Although it would be pretty neat to bag a nice bull we would both be more than happy with a good meat animal. Keep in mind this is going to be my first ever moose hunt and my fathers first hunt period.
So, assuming we could find a decent zone in B.C., he could apply and receive his host license and I could by a non-resident tag. This is the only way aside from a guided hunt that I can see us hunting together without being at the mercy of the draw.
My questions to my fellow hunters are these:
-Can you recommend starting points as far as locations in B.C. that would seem to meet our criteria? Keeping in mind that my dad is a relatively fit 61 years old. We will likely need to be outfitting ourselves unless he happens to know somebody in Northern B.C. who would be willing to help us out. I don't have a UTV, ATV, horses, or any of the typically helpful motorized vehicles. (I may be willing to buy a side by side or something if I absolutely had to)
-Am I missing something with this plan that needs to be pointed out to me? I really want to make this hunt happen, if for nothing else to be able to have memories of having hunted with my dad.
-Is it legal for me to contract the services (expertise, equipment, help processing the animal, etc) of an every day hunter, or do I need to either go it alone with dad or use an outfitting company? This is likely going to be a one off hunt so I'm not crazy about the idea of sinking too much money into equipment that I may not have much use for after the fact.
-If so does anybody have any recommendations or personal interest in helping us out?
If you made it all the way through this post, thanks for taking the time to read it. Thanks also in advance for any and all help or suggestions.
Kevin Wall.
I've never hunted with my dad. It's nobodies fault but my own. He's an accountant in Vernon B.C., so not a stereotypical hunting enthusiast. He's always been keen to listen to my hunting stories, share in the bounty of my hunts, and appreciates my passion for it. He's just never approached me about hunting, and logistics (my family living in Saskatoon and him being in the Okanagan) have played into it.
Having said that, he did go out last year and take a firearm safety and a hunters safety course. He went on to get his PAL, all on his own accord. I was excited for him and called him up and got him pointed in the right direction for a couple of starter guns to shoot at the range by his place. He ended up with a .17 HMR and a .22-250, and he apparently loves it! I sent him out my old range finder and gave him my spotting scope as well to use at the range. (I'm not really that generous, I was kinda looking for an excuse to get into a new spotting scope).
So back towards my point, I was talking with him last night and he mentioned that a mutual friend of ours from the Westlok area had offered to take him and I with him this fall on his annual moose hunt. My dad was as excited as a chubby kid in a candy store and it was infectious. Unfortunately, the logistics of lining it up would be fairly intense, both being non-residents of Alberta.
We got to talking and even batted around the idea of going on a guided hunt in the Yukon. We browsed a few outfitting web sites and eventually realized that neither of us really wanted to spend ~$15k-25k for a moose hunt.
Now you might be wondering why we settled on moose? No real reason aside from myself never having shot a moose before, and both of us enjoying moose meat. I kind of figured that if we were going to go through the planning of a mutual hunt, we'd just as well seize the opportunity to attempt to harvest a critter I'd always wanted to.
So now we've more/less rules out going on an outfitted hunt in the Yukon, and neither of us seem to keen on the idea of hoping to be drawn in Alberta to be able to hunt with our friend.
My most recent progression of this hunting plan was this:
To research and find a WMU in B.C. with a relatively high success rate. Neither of us are hunting solely for antlers. Although it would be pretty neat to bag a nice bull we would both be more than happy with a good meat animal. Keep in mind this is going to be my first ever moose hunt and my fathers first hunt period.
So, assuming we could find a decent zone in B.C., he could apply and receive his host license and I could by a non-resident tag. This is the only way aside from a guided hunt that I can see us hunting together without being at the mercy of the draw.
My questions to my fellow hunters are these:
-Can you recommend starting points as far as locations in B.C. that would seem to meet our criteria? Keeping in mind that my dad is a relatively fit 61 years old. We will likely need to be outfitting ourselves unless he happens to know somebody in Northern B.C. who would be willing to help us out. I don't have a UTV, ATV, horses, or any of the typically helpful motorized vehicles. (I may be willing to buy a side by side or something if I absolutely had to)
-Am I missing something with this plan that needs to be pointed out to me? I really want to make this hunt happen, if for nothing else to be able to have memories of having hunted with my dad.
-Is it legal for me to contract the services (expertise, equipment, help processing the animal, etc) of an every day hunter, or do I need to either go it alone with dad or use an outfitting company? This is likely going to be a one off hunt so I'm not crazy about the idea of sinking too much money into equipment that I may not have much use for after the fact.
-If so does anybody have any recommendations or personal interest in helping us out?
If you made it all the way through this post, thanks for taking the time to read it. Thanks also in advance for any and all help or suggestions.
Kevin Wall.
