DrMike
Ballistician
- Nov 8, 2006
- 37,420
- 6,290
Great account of a great hunt, Guy. I had wondered about the story behind that elk. You've posted some of those photos before, and now we read the rest of the story.
Your "Best" Big Game Animal
- Thread starter gerry
- Start date
- Oct 30, 2004
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Guy Miner
Master Loader
- Apr 6, 2006
- 17,807
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Dang Fotis, he looks pretty good!
Nice shooting, congrats.
Nice shooting, congrats.
Guy Miner
Master Loader
- Apr 6, 2006
- 17,807
- 6,141
DrMike":1dsdp12e said:
Thanks Mike, Scotty and all. I know he's not that great an elk. Doesn't even make The Book, but he's the biggest game animal I've ever shot, and it was one heck of a hunt, with a great guy, in an amazing setting.
Love it!
Guy
Excellent stuff you guys. Congrats to all involved. And Guy, those are way bigger than my elk antlers... 
Seriously, great story.
My own was my one and only bow buck from 2009.
Quintessential bow hunt; clear high-pressure day, first week of November. A buddy set me up about 15' up in a tree stand on the edge of a clearing. A group of does and button bucks came out the opposite side of the clearing and browsed for about 15 minutes, but kept peering back over their shoulders into the timber. Sure enough, he nonchalantly worked his way out and then promptly destroyed a maple sapling, tore up a scrape and hosed it down.
He caught up with the group, which by then had moved to my left. A lone doe peeled off and looped back in front of me and he followed. I had set up pieces of bark as yardage markers through my open shooting lanes. He had stepped right over my 30-yard bark piece when I bleated to stop him. Horrified he would jump the string, I tried to focus on smoothly pressing the release. The arrow struck him about two inches further back than I wanted, but still through the heart, and stuck in the ground on the other side. He ran about 60 yards back to where he had come out of the timber, over a small rise, and I heard him crash.
With my die cast, I sat back and politely asked the hunting gods to move on to my buddy. My pleas were unanswered, though; I lowered my bow and climbed down when I saw his flashlight bobbing along the tree line. We followed the short blood trail to my buck.
We discovered a caked-up broadhead lodged in his left shoulder, which came out at a little over 125 grains when I got home. Had to be from the year before; it was all healed over and looked like it might work its way back out. Whether the deformation of his right side was due to that, or something else, I shall never know. In any case, he was a tough dude.
Incidentally, given the show he put on, I fully expected to him to be inedible. However, his backstraps produced steaks which, when butterflied, were as big as a ribeye and almost as tender. And had none of the skunky flavor I feared.
A whitetail buck is not exactly exotic, nor is it the biggest or heaviest game I've taken, but this guy was perfect.
Seriously, great story.My own was my one and only bow buck from 2009.
Quintessential bow hunt; clear high-pressure day, first week of November. A buddy set me up about 15' up in a tree stand on the edge of a clearing. A group of does and button bucks came out the opposite side of the clearing and browsed for about 15 minutes, but kept peering back over their shoulders into the timber. Sure enough, he nonchalantly worked his way out and then promptly destroyed a maple sapling, tore up a scrape and hosed it down.
He caught up with the group, which by then had moved to my left. A lone doe peeled off and looped back in front of me and he followed. I had set up pieces of bark as yardage markers through my open shooting lanes. He had stepped right over my 30-yard bark piece when I bleated to stop him. Horrified he would jump the string, I tried to focus on smoothly pressing the release. The arrow struck him about two inches further back than I wanted, but still through the heart, and stuck in the ground on the other side. He ran about 60 yards back to where he had come out of the timber, over a small rise, and I heard him crash.
With my die cast, I sat back and politely asked the hunting gods to move on to my buddy. My pleas were unanswered, though; I lowered my bow and climbed down when I saw his flashlight bobbing along the tree line. We followed the short blood trail to my buck.
We discovered a caked-up broadhead lodged in his left shoulder, which came out at a little over 125 grains when I got home. Had to be from the year before; it was all healed over and looked like it might work its way back out. Whether the deformation of his right side was due to that, or something else, I shall never know. In any case, he was a tough dude.
Incidentally, given the show he put on, I fully expected to him to be inedible. However, his backstraps produced steaks which, when butterflied, were as big as a ribeye and almost as tender. And had none of the skunky flavor I feared.
A whitetail buck is not exactly exotic, nor is it the biggest or heaviest game I've taken, but this guy was perfect.
Guy Miner
Master Loader
- Apr 6, 2006
- 17,807
- 6,141
What a buck! Love those antlers. Absolutely.
Nice job.
Guy
Nice job.
Guy
DrMike
Ballistician
- Nov 8, 2006
- 37,420
- 6,290
That buck is a real toad. He is a beauty, to be sure. Great story.
salmonchaser
Ammo Smith
- Dec 13, 2013
- 5,067
- 5,275
Great stories, a two cup morning getting caught up.
Africa Huntress
Handloader
- Feb 14, 2012
- 461
- 2
Guy, I see you are a horseman, so if America turns out to be Jerry;s choice, you might be able to work as a wrangler, or a guide during hunting season. Scotty, Dr. Mike, Jim, do you fellows know how to drive, rope, brand and castrate cattle, or would you just be interested in the guiding part of the job ? LOL
Sorry Gerry, got off point, my bad
Great, stories fellows,
A
Sorry Gerry, got off point, my bad
Great, stories fellows,
A
DrMike
Ballistician
- Nov 8, 2006
- 37,420
- 6,290
Once upon a time, I was great at castrating and dehorning. That could be a tad tough on an old duffer today. I used to test ride the horses my dad shoed (he was a blacksmith and farrier). However, even those activities are way back in my rearview mirror. I'll just stick to telling tales around the campfire.
A for approximately 20 years my wife and I took last week of March & the first week of April off as it was calving time down at my sister's ranch we usually calved between 150 & 180 cows. We at one time used the burdizzo and then later switched to rubber rings. MY nephew has started up the cattle operation again but is only calving around 30 cows right now with him being a pro calf roper it does not take him very long to rope tie and then ring the young bulls we always inoculated them at the same time.
We worked hard but it a great break for me being a paper pusher.
Blessings,
Dan
We worked hard but it a great break for me being a paper pusher.
Blessings,
Dan
Africa Huntress
Handloader
- Feb 14, 2012
- 461
- 2
Dr Mike, in order to let the knees rest for hunting season, we were going to ask you to tend bar. But in reading your post, we may change that as you certainly know your way around a horse.
Dan, Since you have also been there and done that, I think an invite to you would definitely be in order LOL
Dr Mike, Dan thank you for your replies but we need not to hijack gerry;s thread.
Has Scotty given this thread a story yet, now might be a good time,
A
Dan, Since you have also been there and done that, I think an invite to you would definitely be in order LOL
Dr Mike, Dan thank you for your replies but we need not to hijack gerry;s thread.
Has Scotty given this thread a story yet, now might be a good time,
A
DrMike
Ballistician
- Nov 8, 2006
- 37,420
- 6,290
Africa Huntress":2gqy63na said:
Hear! Hear!
nvbroncrider
Handloader
- Aug 20, 2011
- 3,085
- 4
Africa Huntress":1c0ajyzq said:
If they don't I can teach them might be a lot of fun!
Guy Miner
Master Loader
- Apr 6, 2006
- 17,807
- 6,141
Africa Huntress":2tpejhg7 said:
Don't be fooled by a photo of me on a horse A! :grin: Yes, I've worked on a ranch, but it was a long time ago. Putting those little rubber rings on the calf's nuts was about the goofiest thing ever. I'd need a serious refresher course in how to work a ranch. But yes, actually, I might just be interested. Starting to feel restless, been here in Washington longer than anywhere, ever, in my life.
Guy
Okay, I will try and type this out as best I can. I can't really nail down "my best" big game animal to be totally honest. I really enjoy hunting anything that lives in the mountains. It was 1995, my senior year in high school, my dad booked a hunt near Ft. St John, BC. My grandfather and my dad's friend went alot with us on the trip, so we rented a conversion van and constructed a cooler box to put on a small trailer to pull behind the van in order to store the meat. Well, we drove from Upstate NY through the Northern US until we got into Montana, then we cut North and traveled up into Banf, Alberta. We had the opportunity to meet up with my aunt and uncle in Canada for them to site see with us.
We saw all kinds of things and animals I had never seen at this point in my life, elk, sheep, moose, mule deer, etc. I was in awe the entire trip. We took a tour on a glacier somewhere around Lake Morraine and just took all the sites in.
After our site seeing tour around Alberta, my aunt and uncle took my grandfather home with them, then the three of us continued North to Ft St John. Again, for a 17 year old kid, it was all I could do to sit still since the country was just beautiful and I couldn't stop rubber necking at everything I was laying my eyes on.
Finally getting to Ft St John, we had a day or two until we met our outfitter. We ended up driving around the outskirts of the city and I saw the biggest horned mule deer I can ever remember.. We weren't even out of the danged city limits more than likely..
Well, the fly in day was upon us and we flew into a lodge in the backwoods. I think it was probably a 45 minute flight, maybe a little more. There were 4 of us in the plane, not including the pilot. We landed at a very nice lodge and were greeted by the outfitter. We unloaded our gear, got settled in, had some supper then went to check our rifles. Once everything was deemed good to go we settled in for some rest.
The next morning my guide, George (Indian from BC) saddled up the horses and we began about a few hours ride into the backcountry. That day I video'ed two or three grizzlies, saw some mountain goat's and a few sheep. I had tags for moose and caribou..
I think we hunted for another day around the main lodge. My dad was hunting elk and they were getting into elk right around the lodge so he was going to stay in place and continue hunting with his guide there. Since I was after moose, they flew me out to another camp in my first ride in a Super Cub.. Awesome stuff! Still remember flying right off the edge of mountains. I was lovestruck with the Rocky's!
Well, we hunted out of a small camp about a 30-40 minute flight. My guide and me hunted around the camp for a few days. While at that camp I got to know the 4th hunter that had flown in with us. Come to find out he was a newly retired Master Gunnery Sergeant from Washington state. This fella had been saving up in order to do a hunt of a lifetime, and man, he was starting it off with a bang. That first day after we got back into camp, he had taken a beautiful silver tipped Mountain Grizzly. I was in shock in how beautiful the hide was and it was a fairly good sized bear, squaring around 7.5 ft..
Now get this, another first for me.. When we were sitting around the fire that night, as a young rifle loony, I asked him what he took the animal with and he said, the 35 Whelen.. First mistake....
He pulled one of the cartridges from his pocket and mentioned it was a necked up 30-06.. I am not sure if it was exactly love at first site, but I can't remember being more awed by much else besides meeting my bride and the birth of my children!
This fella went out the following day and knocked down a heckuva good bull elk with it as well. I wished I could remember what he was shooting for bullets but I "think" it was the Remington 250 grain PSP's. I remember seeing him pull the yellow and green box out a few times, but I can't be sure on that.
Myself and my guide continued hunting around this area for a few days, but moose seemed sorta slim. After we returned from the 3-4th night, they decided to move me to another camp. Well, another short plane ride had me in another camp. We met another old Indian guide named Sandy. Sandy assured me we would be on moose in the morning since we would be traveling into 100 Moose Valley.. Heck, just the name sounded good to me!
Well, that night the talk turned to guns again. Sandy asked what rifle I was carrying. I proudly told him my Model 70 7mm Rem Mag. I remember him nodding in approval of the cartridge and rifle. He mentioned he had one rifle as well, a Model 70 270 Winchester. 2nd mistake.... I asked to see it.. Well, he pulled this old Pre64 Model 70 from a scabbard. It was worn from years of hunting and riding in a scabbard, but he assured me he had taken over a 100 moose with the rifle, countless elk, deer, sheep, etc.. I think it was an old Lyman or maybe a Leupold scope on the rifle. The only sure thing is remember a dot in the center of the retice... I do remember the ammo though, 130 grain Winchester Silvertips..
Anyhow, the next morning we saddled up the horses and traveled up over the mountain and dropped into the valley. Immediately Sandy had spotted a moose down on the valley floor. We quickly put together a plan to put a sneak on the animal. Sandy stayed up with the horses, George and I quickly moved down to get on top of the moose. We got down into the bottom and realized the moose had been plural, and another bull had somehow got between us and was traveling up the mountain where we had just came from. He was moving towards an opening. I asked George if he was legal and a good animal to take. George estimated him at 45". I thought to myself, 45" is big.. The biggest buck I had taken was about 16", so 45" was huge!
Well, I remember kneeling, getting a sight picture on the rear of the moose and letting a shot fly. It was around 200-250 yards. George said he couldn't tell if I had hit him so we began climbing up the mountain to check for sign.. Well, as we got closer, the moose was down, but not out. I put another shot into the moose and finished him..
Well, we began taking pictures, skinning, quartering and caping the animal. I was in awe how big the darned animal was. Just incredible. Ended up being 46" and had great points on him. I was proud as a peacock though. Well, fast forward a few hours, we were through with all of the chores and we decided to press on to see if we could find a caribou. Sandy said there was a good caribou population in this area as well. I was all in..
Well, we ended up riding for about 30 minutes and got off the horses to glass for a bit. Well, immediately we spotted a caribou about 250-300 yards out. Hindsight, he was a small bull. I really had no idea about the size of caribou, so I asked if he was good to take. The guides said to wait since he needed 5 points on top..
Well, this caribou ended up coming right to us. Probably 50-75 yards away! the problem was he was straight on and they still couldn't identify if the animal was legal. I had him dead to rights, but I couldn't shoot till they gave me the go sign.. Well, he moved his head a little, Sandy said he is legal, then he took off in a run, I swung with him, and pressed trigger. Well, I saw a rear leg pop up at the shot, but he disappeared in some trees.. I was a little sick feeling as I had excellent success stopping animals with my old 7mm Rem Mag and 140 PT's with no trouble. Meaning nothing had stepped out of it's hoof prints to this point. I had switched to 160 Barnes X's prior to this trip. I got them to shoot decent, but I didn't have a ton of confidence in them to be totally honest.
Anyhow, we went to where the shot impacted and found blood, hair and bone pieces. Well, another few yards we found the bull, dead..
Well, once we finished with pictures and the rest of the work, we strung up the caribou pieces in a tree, the same way we did the moose. Then we began our ride back to camp.
At camp that night we had a great supper, moose backstrap and a bunch of other great chow. I was on cloud nine..
The following morning we rode in, packed the animals out on horses and arrived back at camp later that afternoon. I waited for the outfitter to return in his SuperCub to retrieve me and my animals. By this time we were getting pretty close to the end of the hunt and I had been away from my Dad and his buddy for about a week. Well, when I flew in, I had the caribou and moose antlers strapped to the wing struts. My Dad was near the little run way when I flew in. I remember hugging and shaking hands, more hugging, more shaking hands.. It was pretty awesome.
Come to find out, the elk had evaded my Dad, but he was able to take a nice 50" moose.. Again, now we had two moose and a caribou for our meat locker. We flew out shortly after that and packed all of our meat on ice in our homeade cooler. Worked real well. We traveled back to NY across Canada. Even that was a great trip, somewhere North of NY, we cut down through Canada and crossed the border... Back in NY.. We finally arrived home a few hours later. I took the meat to a butcher since it was September and the weather was still real warm around home. They made steaks, sausage, snack sticks, etc.. Great stuff.. We gave alot away, but still remember eating a whole lot of them and loving it!
Anyhow, I know I left out some stuff that I can't fully remember, but that is probably one of my best animal stories. Scotty
We saw all kinds of things and animals I had never seen at this point in my life, elk, sheep, moose, mule deer, etc. I was in awe the entire trip. We took a tour on a glacier somewhere around Lake Morraine and just took all the sites in.
After our site seeing tour around Alberta, my aunt and uncle took my grandfather home with them, then the three of us continued North to Ft St John. Again, for a 17 year old kid, it was all I could do to sit still since the country was just beautiful and I couldn't stop rubber necking at everything I was laying my eyes on.
Finally getting to Ft St John, we had a day or two until we met our outfitter. We ended up driving around the outskirts of the city and I saw the biggest horned mule deer I can ever remember.. We weren't even out of the danged city limits more than likely..
Well, the fly in day was upon us and we flew into a lodge in the backwoods. I think it was probably a 45 minute flight, maybe a little more. There were 4 of us in the plane, not including the pilot. We landed at a very nice lodge and were greeted by the outfitter. We unloaded our gear, got settled in, had some supper then went to check our rifles. Once everything was deemed good to go we settled in for some rest.
The next morning my guide, George (Indian from BC) saddled up the horses and we began about a few hours ride into the backcountry. That day I video'ed two or three grizzlies, saw some mountain goat's and a few sheep. I had tags for moose and caribou..
I think we hunted for another day around the main lodge. My dad was hunting elk and they were getting into elk right around the lodge so he was going to stay in place and continue hunting with his guide there. Since I was after moose, they flew me out to another camp in my first ride in a Super Cub.. Awesome stuff! Still remember flying right off the edge of mountains. I was lovestruck with the Rocky's!
Well, we hunted out of a small camp about a 30-40 minute flight. My guide and me hunted around the camp for a few days. While at that camp I got to know the 4th hunter that had flown in with us. Come to find out he was a newly retired Master Gunnery Sergeant from Washington state. This fella had been saving up in order to do a hunt of a lifetime, and man, he was starting it off with a bang. That first day after we got back into camp, he had taken a beautiful silver tipped Mountain Grizzly. I was in shock in how beautiful the hide was and it was a fairly good sized bear, squaring around 7.5 ft..
Now get this, another first for me.. When we were sitting around the fire that night, as a young rifle loony, I asked him what he took the animal with and he said, the 35 Whelen.. First mistake....
He pulled one of the cartridges from his pocket and mentioned it was a necked up 30-06.. I am not sure if it was exactly love at first site, but I can't remember being more awed by much else besides meeting my bride and the birth of my children!
This fella went out the following day and knocked down a heckuva good bull elk with it as well. I wished I could remember what he was shooting for bullets but I "think" it was the Remington 250 grain PSP's. I remember seeing him pull the yellow and green box out a few times, but I can't be sure on that.
Myself and my guide continued hunting around this area for a few days, but moose seemed sorta slim. After we returned from the 3-4th night, they decided to move me to another camp. Well, another short plane ride had me in another camp. We met another old Indian guide named Sandy. Sandy assured me we would be on moose in the morning since we would be traveling into 100 Moose Valley.. Heck, just the name sounded good to me!
Well, that night the talk turned to guns again. Sandy asked what rifle I was carrying. I proudly told him my Model 70 7mm Rem Mag. I remember him nodding in approval of the cartridge and rifle. He mentioned he had one rifle as well, a Model 70 270 Winchester. 2nd mistake.... I asked to see it.. Well, he pulled this old Pre64 Model 70 from a scabbard. It was worn from years of hunting and riding in a scabbard, but he assured me he had taken over a 100 moose with the rifle, countless elk, deer, sheep, etc.. I think it was an old Lyman or maybe a Leupold scope on the rifle. The only sure thing is remember a dot in the center of the retice... I do remember the ammo though, 130 grain Winchester Silvertips..
Anyhow, the next morning we saddled up the horses and traveled up over the mountain and dropped into the valley. Immediately Sandy had spotted a moose down on the valley floor. We quickly put together a plan to put a sneak on the animal. Sandy stayed up with the horses, George and I quickly moved down to get on top of the moose. We got down into the bottom and realized the moose had been plural, and another bull had somehow got between us and was traveling up the mountain where we had just came from. He was moving towards an opening. I asked George if he was legal and a good animal to take. George estimated him at 45". I thought to myself, 45" is big.. The biggest buck I had taken was about 16", so 45" was huge!
Well, I remember kneeling, getting a sight picture on the rear of the moose and letting a shot fly. It was around 200-250 yards. George said he couldn't tell if I had hit him so we began climbing up the mountain to check for sign.. Well, as we got closer, the moose was down, but not out. I put another shot into the moose and finished him..
Well, we began taking pictures, skinning, quartering and caping the animal. I was in awe how big the darned animal was. Just incredible. Ended up being 46" and had great points on him. I was proud as a peacock though. Well, fast forward a few hours, we were through with all of the chores and we decided to press on to see if we could find a caribou. Sandy said there was a good caribou population in this area as well. I was all in..
Well, we ended up riding for about 30 minutes and got off the horses to glass for a bit. Well, immediately we spotted a caribou about 250-300 yards out. Hindsight, he was a small bull. I really had no idea about the size of caribou, so I asked if he was good to take. The guides said to wait since he needed 5 points on top..
Well, this caribou ended up coming right to us. Probably 50-75 yards away! the problem was he was straight on and they still couldn't identify if the animal was legal. I had him dead to rights, but I couldn't shoot till they gave me the go sign.. Well, he moved his head a little, Sandy said he is legal, then he took off in a run, I swung with him, and pressed trigger. Well, I saw a rear leg pop up at the shot, but he disappeared in some trees.. I was a little sick feeling as I had excellent success stopping animals with my old 7mm Rem Mag and 140 PT's with no trouble. Meaning nothing had stepped out of it's hoof prints to this point. I had switched to 160 Barnes X's prior to this trip. I got them to shoot decent, but I didn't have a ton of confidence in them to be totally honest.
Anyhow, we went to where the shot impacted and found blood, hair and bone pieces. Well, another few yards we found the bull, dead..
Well, once we finished with pictures and the rest of the work, we strung up the caribou pieces in a tree, the same way we did the moose. Then we began our ride back to camp.
At camp that night we had a great supper, moose backstrap and a bunch of other great chow. I was on cloud nine..
The following morning we rode in, packed the animals out on horses and arrived back at camp later that afternoon. I waited for the outfitter to return in his SuperCub to retrieve me and my animals. By this time we were getting pretty close to the end of the hunt and I had been away from my Dad and his buddy for about a week. Well, when I flew in, I had the caribou and moose antlers strapped to the wing struts. My Dad was near the little run way when I flew in. I remember hugging and shaking hands, more hugging, more shaking hands.. It was pretty awesome.
Come to find out, the elk had evaded my Dad, but he was able to take a nice 50" moose.. Again, now we had two moose and a caribou for our meat locker. We flew out shortly after that and packed all of our meat on ice in our homeade cooler. Worked real well. We traveled back to NY across Canada. Even that was a great trip, somewhere North of NY, we cut down through Canada and crossed the border... Back in NY.. We finally arrived home a few hours later. I took the meat to a butcher since it was September and the weather was still real warm around home. They made steaks, sausage, snack sticks, etc.. Great stuff.. We gave alot away, but still remember eating a whole lot of them and loving it!
Anyhow, I know I left out some stuff that I can't fully remember, but that is probably one of my best animal stories. Scotty
Thebear_78
Handloader
- Sep 30, 2004
- 3,098
- 870
Sounds like a great trip and memory of a lifetime!
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
DrMike
Ballistician
- Nov 8, 2006
- 37,420
- 6,290
Great stuff, Scotty. I might even know where you were hunting. :grin: I'd give pretty good odds that BlkRam even knows the native guides. Again, chances are pretty good that he can claim a relationship with them. :grin:
