2024 Hunting Season

Got home a few days ago with this Antelope buck. Best one I’ve got to date. Not very tall and front cutters aren’t notable, but has a trash point and heavy mass. 425yds with a 7mm REM mag, 180gr Eld-M.
Nice, mature buck, regardless of length! I'll take a heavy mature buck any day!
 
Did a 10 day moose hunt in Northern BC with my Brother and Brother in-law. We managed to connect with this beautiful bull on morning of day 9.

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Nice bull and a great adventure!
 
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Some of you may remember that my wife and I moved this last spring from the Skeena valley down to the southern interior near Shuswap lake. We are able to get a shared moose draw near our new home.

A new friend from church took me to a place where there are quite a few moose and we were able to call this guy in just before dark. We were calling and he was answering back for about 45 minutes but with darkness coming we had to get right down in there where he was with his cow. This is my biggest moose so far and is 52.5" wide. I used my 6.8 Western with 170 gr Ballistic Tips we couldn't find the bullet in the neck area but in the dark didn't look too hard either. When I'm done the butchering hopefully we'll find a bullet. The 170 gr Ballistic Tip worked fine obviously though.

We were surprised when we walked up to him, he had a huge body too. Didn't get home until 2:00 am, we had another friend come out and help get him out which was awesome. I look forward to helping out both of these amazing guys in the future!
Very nice bull Gerry, congrats!
Always great when friends lend a helping hand!
 
This was the opening day of Missouri's early antlerless season. It's extraordinarily warm for this time of year but was in the low 50's about 0600. I got to the stand and didn't see or hear anything except squirrels and birds until right at 0800 when two does appeared. They were the same size but I shot the one that gave me the best view through the scope.
Tikka T3x 308, using Sierra 165 gr HPBTs. Ranged later at 88 yds. Dropped at the shot. Autopsy revealed the lungs were heavily damaged, but the heart wasn't touched. I hadn't used this bullet before but had read positive reviews online.
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This was the opening day of Missouri's early antlerless season. It's extraordinarily warm for this time of year but was in the low 50's about 0600. I got to the stand and didn't see or hear anything except squirrels and birds until right at 0800 when two does appeared. They were the same size but I shot the one that gave me the best view through the scope.
Tikka T3x 308, using Sierra 165 gr HPBTs. Ranged later at 88 yds. Dropped at the shot. Autopsy revealed the lungs were heavily damaged, but the heart wasn't touched. I hadn't used this bullet before but had read positive reviews online.
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Heard lots of good things about that bullet, that looks very good. I have used the 130 gr 6.5 mm HPBT and it did very well too. Congratulations on the deer.
 
Had another great day on the field on Saturday, with my wife, mother and step-father!
We hunted an area a few hours northeast of Fort St John where I used to work.
We saw a few deer (whitetails and mulies...but no whitetail buck for Susan) and moose, including the south end of a northbound bull moose that seemed to remember an urgent appointment somewhere deep in the dark timber...he was wide, but never did get a look at his rack, other than to note that he had long tines on his paddles, so obviously a younger bull in his prime. We also saw a couple of cow caribou, that stopped to give us a quick look before disappearing to the black spruce.
We saw no other hunters in the area, but did see lots of moose, grizzly and wolf sign along the trails and roads. From time to time we also found deer, caribou, and bison sign.
With less hunting pressure in the area, we did manage to bag a number of spruce grouse and a few ruffies. The 28 gauges continue to earn their keep! Everyone got to have some fun adding the upland birds to the bag!
Just before last light we came across a couple of nice young caribou bulls, and the 140 gr Trophy Bonded Tips from the 270 WSM at 210 years convinced one to come home for dinner. The broadside shots fully penetrated the bull so I do not have a recovered bullet to test for expansion or retention characteristics, with this being the first animal I have taken with this bullet and rifle. I can say that there were two very distinctive "whops" as the bullets struck the bull, and he went down quickly, so obviously they performed as intended!
He fell within a couple of steps from where he took the shot. While a very narrow rack, he had two shovels, two very nice back points and 4 and 5 points on the tops. He had two broken beams from fighting (his left bez beam and double bez beams; he still has his right bez beam and second bez beams - a very interesting feature on this bull! one I haven't seen before on a caribou, whereas I have seen double beamed whitetails, but usually on one side, not both). And he had a beautiful thick white mane. It is with regret that we later realized we had neglected to take photos of this beautiful animal! (more interested in getting him processed as much as possible before we had to use headlamps and flashlights). We shall have many tasty meals from this young bull!

Update: after washing the game bags we brought home the field dressed caribou in, we found one of the bullets!
The 140 gr Trophy Bonded Tip bullet had expanded to 0.601" from 0.277" (2.12 times expansion) and retained 127.8 gr of weight (91.3% weight retention) from approx. 2750 fps and 2360 ft.lbs of retained velocity and energy. Not bad performance for this hunting bullet on approx. a 450 lb live weight animal!
 
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Sue shot this 8 pt with her new Ravin R26X crossbow with a 40 yard shot. She let him walk opening morning but closed the deal the second time around.

JD338
 

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Congratulations to Sue. Yeah, I don't think I would have passed on that one a second time either. Good shooting on her part. Kudos to the coach and mentor as well.
 
Finally got my first antelope buck, last antelope i shot was over 30 years ago, when i was 16 or 17.
Shot was under 200yd used my 264wm with 143 norma bondstrike, shot was high and got it in the spine and back strap :(. Some recent back issues had me changing up my rifle choices for this year so going to go for a 1 gun season using the one that weighs the least.
 

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Best part was i was also only a couple hundred yards from the truck, wife was really happy about that, she watched from the warm cab then brought the sled out. Hung, skinned and back in the house before lunch.
 
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