For a year I've planned to rattle for whitetails in late November on the BC side of the Canadian Rockies. Grandson Code came along at the last minute and he could shoot a youth season antlerless whitetail. Deal!
The Road Trip
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Coquihalla Pass in pic above.
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Above is along the Columbia River, about 15 miles out of Golden, BC.
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We got in one rattling stand the first evening, another at dawn and did some sightseeing to show Code the country. The waterfall below is a good 40 feet high.
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We took a long side road in deeper snow to look down into a vertical walled gorge 30 feet wide and 70 feet deep with a river squeezed through the bottom. Pics just don't do it justice. Much of this was in cold north facing canyons.
Code's Deer
Code opined that if he were a deer he'd move to where he could get more sunshine, so we drove a mile past the waterfall to where the valley turned into south facing sunshine. 60 yards into the first sunny open patch stood a big whitetail doe with no fawn. We'd agreed that with mule deer in the area, I would verify a decision to shoot. I glassed it and said, "Whitetail. Doe. Shoot it!†Code bailed out, loaded, and drilled the doe through the shoulders. He was shooting my .243 in Rem. Mohawk 600, 95 grain Nosler Partitions.
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A game warden came by and warned us that a grizzly was taking deer away from hunters in that area and to hang it high or take it to town. We moved a ways to hopefully get away from the bear. As we made a campfire, whitetails stood out in the dark snorting and blowing at us.
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My fingers had cracked deeply in the dry cold and were getting very painful, as in couldn't work a zipper!
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Thawing ice in our solidly frozen water containers. There is water in the jugs also.
The next morning we rattled in a doe before sunrise but didn't see her till walking away from the stand The skin on my fingers had cracked in the dry cold and I was in increasing pain. That plus the cold made me decide to take any legal buck instead of holding out for something bigger. And except for the doe, nothing had responded to our rattling.
We saw a smallish 3 or 4 point that I stalked and caught up with three times in timber but could never get a shot. While after the 3 point I spotted a small fork sneaking along in deep shadow, and missed a leaner at 160 yards straight into the rising sun. The shot felt good but we discovered that the buck was behind a see-through thicket from me. No hair nor blood on the snow and Code defends my shooting by saying that the bullet hit a twig and deflected.
My Deer
In early afternoon we drove toward a fresh rattling stand. A half mile from camp we saw a doe 40 yards off the logging road in semi-open timber. She kept looking behind her, so I got out, loaded and waited. She walked away and a minute later I saw deer feet coming through the timber following her. I knelt down to look under the trees and saw a small buck. I got ready to shoot it when it passed through a body length opening. Code saw it about then.
“Buck,†he whispered. He was sitting the passenger seat as I knelt in the forest edge behind the vehicle. “Buck! BUCK! BUCK!!!†he kept repeating. I didn’t want to alarm the buck so didn’t want to reply but I finally said that I saw it. The little buck got suspicious and stopped just before the first opening to shoot. Then he took off running after the doe, flashing through my shooting lanes too quickly for my reflexes. He went out of sight into the timber, then turned from broadside to running away, doing a slalom through the trees angling slightly left. I finally got on him out 60 yards, aimed to hit his last rib and exit through the front of the off shoulder. It hit him slightly farther back and ruined some ham but he went down on the spot.
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Code grilled the tenderloin and sirloin from his doe over campfire coals and with a bit of salt and pepper declared it the best meat he’d ever eaten. Tender, moist, hot in the cold air, I’d not disagree! Good trip.
Another great story and I love the pics! You guys have got some beautiful hunting country up there. Congrats! :congrats:
Sounds like you had a blast with your grandson - thanks for sharing it.
Love the pics as they add lots to the story! Congrats to you both!!! :highclap:
What a great time with your grandson. :biggrin: Thanks for sharing the story and photo of that beautiful country. :highclap:
Pat
Awesome ! Congrats to you and Code !! :yoyo: :yoyo:
Look rather cold, but wonderful scenery nonetheless! Fantastic time with your grandson no doubt. How many deer this year does that make between the two of you?
Quote from: FOsteology on December 08, 2013, 06:58:27 PM
How many deer this year does that make between the two of you?
Two apiece. Code got a blacktail fork horn with his bow, plus this whitetail doe. I got a 3 point mule deer and this whitetail spike.
Wow ! I thought our mountains were big ! Not so sure I would want to climb those ! Good job on the deer !
Thank you.
Code took all of the photos. We camped on a bench above this spot on the river shown below.
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I think the mountain view photo below was taken from where we camped.
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Beautiful scenery. Thanks for taking us along Clyde. My hands didnt even get cold :wink:
Code!...nice job :highclap:
Awesome scenery you get to live in!! Isn't North America a beautiful place to live?? :yoyo: :yoyo:
And you got a couple of nice deer out of there too!! Congratulations on a successful & safe trip afield!! Thanks for sharing your wonderful scenery.
Yep, North America has incredible variety of beauty.
Code did the rattling for me while I would set my ambush 50 yards downwind and we rattled only in timber, so deer could approach with less caution and without going out into the open. He also stayed back and rattled off and on while I stalked the 3 point buck. On that one we didn't expect the buck to come in but hoped that it would stick around and look back enough for me to catch up, see it and get a shot. That worked except for getting a shot, and the fork horn I shot at and missed was on a course to sneak downwind of Code's rattling though it was a good 400 yards away from him.
So we decided to set up on a bigger scale, using some of the ragged clearcuts and open timber to put me in place to watch for deer 200-400 yards out from the rattling man. I shot the spike before we got to try that, on our way to set it up.
We found recent wolf tracks, at least an hour and a half old and maybe as old as the previous afternoon. The tracks were hard to age precisely on top of hard crusted snow. We howled with the intent that if they replied, we would set up to call them. No reply, so we assumed they were out of hearing range and did not try to call them.
Code is out of pocket (as the Brits say) most of the time for the next week or so and won't post or look in much. So I get to tell my version :innocentwhistle:
Okanagan,
You must be in the witness protection program, as we never see your mug in the pictures! :alscalls: