Question for SW BC hunters: Thick jungle? or Recently logged mountain tops or other?

evolture

evolture

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Some more newbie hunter questions:

For all of you SW BC hunters, where do you do your best hunting? in the Thick Jungle? or Recently logged mountain tops? or overgrown logging roads or other?

I've been hunting all the same amount lately and no luck. But man are my legs and bank account worn out. I think I have spent $550 on gas this year and my wife is super pissed off that I have been spending endless weekends and days off of work away and not helping with the kids.

I have seen in total:
-lots of deer poo and some beds
-1 cougar
-2 juvenile bears
-a dozen grouse (mmm KFG)
-2 Moose
-1 bobcat
-1 gut pile that appeared along side the road over night after a midnight gunshot :rolleyes:
(darn, that gut pile was near a bed and trail I wanted to hunt in the morning.)
-suspiciously placed pile of old apples also near road.

Anyways,

I figure I've got another long weekend left in my bank account this year, I better make it worth while...
 
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evolture said:
Some more newbie hunter questions:

For all of you SW BC hunters, where do you do your best hunting? in the Thick Jungle? or Recently logged mountain tops? or overgrown logging roads or other?

I've been hunting all the same amount lately and no luck. But man are my legs and bank account worn out. I think I have spent $550 on gas this year and my wife is super pissed off that I have been spending endless weekends and days off of work away and not helping with the kids.I have seen in total:
-lots of deer poo and some beds
-1 cougar
-2 juvenile bears
-a dozen grouse (mmm KFG),
-1 gut pile that appeared along side the road over night after a midnight gunshot :rolleyes:
(darn, that gut pile was near a bed and trail I wanted to hunt in the morning.)
-suspiciously placed pile of old apples also near road.

Anyways,

I figure I've got another long weekend left in my bank account this year, I better make it worth while...
Click to expand...

I've lived & hunted BC all my life
I've yet to come across a Jungle :D
It's a lot cheaper to buy your meat at the butcher shop !
I guess your kids are too young to take with you but you can tell your wife when they are old enough you'll take them with you & teach them there is more to life than video games & cell phones . And then she will have the weekend for herself :rolleyes:
 
Before I moved to the interior myself and my partners spent alot of time hunting for blacktails in heavy second and old-growth around the Fraser valley with no success.
One of the areas we used to hunt recently ramped-up logging operations in the last two years. My buddies have both taken large bucks out of the area in the consecutive years following the logging, one so large the CO for the area said it was one of the biggest he'd ever seen come out of the area. We always knew they were there, but IMHO good visibility is paramount.

Won't name the area out of respect to my friends, sorry.
 
logged areas

Yupe us loggers just keep on making more ungulate habitat. The best blocks are ones that are couple years old and if they have been burned even better. Work the edges especially those that are irregular, not straight lines.Good luck
 
Do you try to check out as many logged area's as possible during the day? (basically in and out of the truck all day)

Or

Do you stick to one or two with lots of sign and wait it out?
 
First of all, the rut is about to kick into gear so deer will be more mobile during the day- that will help you.
Deer are an 'edge' species- so watch just inside the edge of standing timber, breaks in the slope, watercourses, you get the idea.
If you are walking to hunt, SLOW DOWN. Ok, now slow down some more. Move like a bride down the aisle.... step, close your feet, pause, step, close your feet, pause, repeat all day. Most guys move so fast that the deer just stay ahead of them all day.
Blacktails love cut blocks a few years after harvest, but as the fall moves on will migrate to steeper south facing timber with lots of moss on the trees.
Hope this helps- good luck.
 
I find hunting for black tailed deer on the Coast Mountains is very difficult due to terrain, weather and the b-t behaviour. I wait for the snows to come on the peaks this will force them down to the lower levels. You may want to check out huntingbc.ca for lots of info on hunting black tails in BC.
 
I'm given up on black tails in coastal mountains for the time being.

I've got the Kamloops/Okanagan Backroad mapbook out!!!

I can really see why hunter numbers are declining. I think for a lot of people, if you don't have your dad apprenticing you in the sport, it is a difficult learning curve.
 
The hardest part is the the lack of feedback. Most people learn by: if you do something bad, you get a negative feedback. If you do something good, you get a positive feedback.

If you are standing in the middle of the clear cut, you could have done something bad (ie shut your car door too loud) and frightened the deer away. Or not and there were no deer to begin with. You just don't know.
 
Stay strong- the rut should peak in the middle of Nov.
A good weekend trip for blacktails would be to hit up Texada Island. Its a couple ferries for you, but you are allowed 3 deer and the any ### season should be on now too. Heck, you can fill a pail with mushrooms to serve with your deer while you are there!
 
I hear you on the lack of feedback - spent my first couple years wandering all over the place with piss poor luck. Now my problem is the deer in my area are so paranoid that they're only moving in the dead of night and the bucks don't seem to be moving at all - at least I only ever find does these days.
 
evolture said:
I'm given up on black tails in coastal mountains for the time being.

I've got the Kamloops/Okanagan Backroad mapbook out!!!

I can really see why hunter numbers are declining. I think for a lot of people, if you don't have your dad apprenticing you in the sport, it is a difficult learning curve.
Click to expand...

I can understand. However, one of the best trackers I have ever met was a fellow who did not have any adults to teach him also. He did not start until he was in his twenties. He went at it hard core and learned quickly over the years. One of the best pieces of advice he gave me was to slow down and always watch the wind. Showing up and looking at an open area I often see nothing. But I move back about 100 yards from the perimeter and move slowly and keep my eyes open. I will take as much as an hour to cover 200 yards stopping every 10 paces or so to look. Often I will catch a glimpse of movement and have game move quitely by me and offer clear opportunities at ranges 50 yards or less. If you are seeing does the bucks are there and not too far off.

Rather than driving all over Gods green acre hoping to find hunting nirvana pick a place as close to home as you can with deer sign and hunt it hard and often. You will be rewarded with an opportunity. This year I have hunted one single 80 acre parcel of land two nights a week since Sept 1. I have burned very little gas and my tags are filled. I got a look at about 12 specific animals in that area and learned their patterns. Planned an ambush site and bingo.

When I was younger I always chased over the next hill or listend to stories about where others were taking animals and drove all over the country as well. You know where the deer are as much as the next guuy. You don't need a herd of 200 animals to hunt a few deer is good enough. Hunt them and let the animals educate you. If you hunt slow with little comotion even if you spook them they won't vanish. Come back in a couple days and go at it again. remember what went wrong and change what you do. You will get more deer if you let them come to you. Figure out where and when they move and be their before they are. I often joke how I shoot more deer from my arse than I ever do from my feet. Inside the perimeter of their feeding areas is where I'd focus my time. They'll be there about 2 hours before dark milling around waiting to go out and feed.
 
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