Hunting Year 3 - November Trip 2010

A letter to Tom:

Hi Tom,

I don't know if you remember me, but I took a course from you a couple of years ago and I sent you an email last year about my first successful hunt -  where I went over to the island and shot a large buck (for a columbian blacktailed deer) and a small doe during the anterless season.  This year I went back again - but this time it was just me and a friend who was brand new to hunting.

I had time in the 'off season' to get a bit better with my 7mm Rem Magnum and was feeling quite a bit more confident about hitting pie plates at 100m from a hunting position 9 times out of 10.  My friend bought a Stainless Browning X-Bolt in 30-06 and had a chance to put about 40 rounds through it at the rifle range in Squamish.

Our plan involved us leaving for the island during the antlerless season for 3 days and two nights.  We got off the boat, set up the cabin, got our gear organized and were ready to hunt by noon.  I had been 4 times to the island with my family during the summer and had had the chance to scout out the area quite well.  Almost every time I went out by myself in the summer I was able to spot deer.  I had picked a ridge looking out onto a wetland area where I had seen deer come down to feed early in the morning.  We setup there and spent 2 hours watching - nothing.  However, sitting so still served to heighten our senses (sight, smell, hearing, even feeling the change of wind direction on my face).  We moved further down into the wetland area and I sent Neil along what is known as the 'blue trail'.  I moved parallel to him about 100m away.  After about 20 minutes I spotted what I thought was a smallish doe about 30m away.

I thought quickly back to what my wife had asked for as I headed out that morning - she wanted one smallish deer and one large deer.  I thought about where Neil was in relation to me.  I looked past the deer to see where my shot would go should I miss or pass through her (into blowdown right behind her).  I raised my rifle, took aim behind her shoulder and fired. 

The shot was a good one and she didn't even make one step - she just collapsed.  I moved quickly towards her and saw that she was still breathing.  I chambered another round, put the muzzle of my barrel a few inches behind the base of her skull and fired again.  I unloaded my rifle, opened the action and set the rifle down on the mossy forest floor.

I bent down and collected some ferns for her mouth and took off my back pack.  Neil had found me and just at that moment it started to pour with rain.  I turned her over to find that she was a he!  He was an immature buck whose antlers were not yet fully showing.  I picked him up and moved him under a cedar tree to take shelter from the rain and then clipped my tag.  We gutted the deer, saving the heart and one kidney (I couldn't find the other one), and then carried him back to the cabin.  We hung and skinned him while having a beer.  By the time we were done it was about 4pm and as we had had a beer and darkness was coming by about 5:30ish, we cooked up his heart and kidney, had dinner and settled down for the night.

The next morning we got up early and tried our luck at the same location.  After an hour of being still on the ridge we moved back down in the wetlands.  I was just softly speaking to Neil about how invisible the deer are when I spotted a good sized doe about 30m away in the bush.  I pointed her out - it took him a moment to see her.  I was about to tell him he might want to take a knee as I saw him raise his rifle.  Not wanting to interrupt him, I just kept my eyes locked on the doe and waited for him to fire.  He shot and immediately the doe bounded away.  I lost sight of her almost right away in the thick woods and we started to make our way to where we last saw her.

I took my pack off and looked for any obvious sign that she had been hit.  I then set out in the direction I last saw her go.  It ended quite quickly (in about 20m) with some blowdown.  I got on top of the blow down but couldn't see anything. I asked Neil how he thought his shot went - he did not seem confident that he hit.  We went back to where we last saw her and looked carefully for any sign that she had been shot.  There was nothing.

I put my pack back, did up the straps, but couldn't shake the feeling that Neil had hit.  I started to think 'where would I go if I had been wounded'?  It seemed to me that she started quickly towards the blowdown, but would not have gone right as that would have been back in our general direction.  I turned left and spotted her about another 20-30m away lying on her side - almost invisible on the forest floor.  It had been a gut shot that had passed clean through her with no expansion of the bullet.  Even after gutting her I still couldn't tell exactly what the cause of death was.  Maybe shock.  Still, I was very happy that I had spotted her and to be fair to Neil - no meat was wasted as a result of his shot.  My 7mm Rem. Magnum blew a good chunk of bone and muscle off of the antlerless buck that I shot the day before.

We dragged her back to the cabin and got to work skinning her.  We were done by about about noon but both had come to the conclusion that that was enough deer for us.  Last year I harvested 2 deer that I shared 50/50 with my hunting partner.  That, combined with 1/8th of a cow from Vancouver Island fed my family through the winter and into the fall.

We spend the rest of the trip exploring the island.  We saw many tracks, but no more deer the rest of the trip (but we were also not being terribly quiet while moving around).  It is a fascinating island as the western side has been logged, but the eastern side (where the cabin we stayed at is located) is completely off the grid and has no road system - only deer trails winding their way through the dense mixed forest.

The next day we returned to the mainland.  Neil dropped me off at home and then drove up to Squamish and hung the deer at his place.  I came up on Thursday and butchered.  It was the first time that I had butchered without supervision and it went very well.  We boned out both deer and had next to no waste as a result.  I made a curry with some of the 'stew' meat on Saturday for my family and it was fantastic.

As a result of this latest trip I have made a decision to sell my 7mm Rem. Magnum and buy a Sweedish M96 sporter 6.5mm x 55SE (off of Tradex).  I did a bit of research ( http://www.chuckhawks.com/swedish_mauser.htm) ( http://www.chuckhawks.com/remarkable_trio.htm)  and it seems to be a very good round and exactly what I want for hunting blacktail deer.  It shoots flat, has about half the recoil of the 7mm Rem. Magnum, and has lots of killing power for blacktail deer and even larger animals (mule deer and maybe an elk one day).  While they do hunt moose in Sweeden with that round, being a school teacher I can't imagine that I will ever get the time off to hunt a moose.

Anyway, I just wanted to send you an email to say that I am passing on what I learned from your class as best I can recall.  I hope this email finds you well.

Cheers,