Whitetail in the Canadian Rockies

[Okanagan]

Grandson Zay went with me last week to hunt whitetails in the Canadian Rockies.  He is 14.  There are deer and whitetails a lot closer to home but it is such a beautiful country with so many memories that I have tried to take each grandson.  It was a bit of a last minute trip and we didn't get a youth license so I did the shooting and he did the grunt work.

We had a lot of rain instead of the usual sun and cold snow so most of these scenics were from my trip over there last year.  The road trip is through mountains all the way.  The first pic below was heading north with the Purcell Range on the left and the (Kootenay) Rockies on the right.



Miles of logging roads with some good glassing spots and pockets of timber where rattling has been good.  Zay did the rattling for me and at our first stand on a low ridge, he pulled in a deer but I never got a shot.  After that, nothing seemed to respond.



We hiked to one of my favorite spots, below:  no roads, no human trails, no footprints other than game.  We nudged elk and deer off of the open rim. 





The water in that country has a color all its own.



We killed a 3x3 a mile downriver from this spot.  He was a gift.  We had hunted hard with no luck when we spotted a buck by the logging road as we drove from one rattling stand to another. 



40 yard shot as he walked almost broadside.  He ran 25 yards and fell 10 yards back in the trees from the river. 



I could not find any sign of a hit but Zay has way better young eyes and he found a trace, then tracked it to the buck.



Excellent tasting buck, makes up a bit for the bad mule deer earlier.  This one weighed 63 lbs. of mostly boned out meat at the same point that the large mule deer doe weighed 70 lbs. 

[HuntnCarve]

Congrats on a very fine buck Clyde!  Thanks for taking us along through that beautiful country.  I know you will cherish the moments spent with your grandson forever.

Dave

[Hawks Feather]

That buck looks great and I am sure it tastes good, but the images of the area are what I am most impressed by.  Great post.

Jerry

[pitw]

Always love your pics.
Pretty country but a lot of gravity to fight.

[JohnP]

Ditto to what everyone else has said.  Was surprised on the boned out weight of that buck, would have guessed much heavier.  At any rate congratulations on some good table fare.   

[Dave]

Congrats to you on spending a great day with Zay.  Great read and pics as usual.

[FinsnFur]

Wow...that country is absolutely beautiful! The dandy buck is the bonus. Congrats

[nastygunz]

Dang story and pix make me want to go Jeremiah Johnson:


" His name was Jeremiah Johnson, and they say he wanted to be a mountain man. The story goes that he was a man of proper wit and adventurous spirit, suited to the mountains. Nobody knows whereabouts he come from and don't seem to matter much. He was a young man and ghosty stories about the tall hills didn't scare him none. He was looking for a Hawken gun, .50 caliber or better. He settled for a .30, but damn, it was a genuine Hawken, and you couldn't go no better. Bought him a good horse, and traps, and other truck that went with being a mountain man, and said good-bye to whatever life was down there below."

[bambam]

Dang  beautiful country. Congrats on the nice buck. !!!