Late Season Archery - The Ups & Downs

[IronNoggin]

Bit of a tale to share on this one.
Quite a few downs, but enough Ups to make one smile in the long run...

First Downer:

the evening before I was set to wander, I was pretty well packed.
Last thing was to collect my usual gifts of halibut and ling cod for those I visit over on the mainland.
Went into the fish freezer, and grabbed a few packages.
Only crystally, NOT frozen.
Oh No!!

A day or two previously the freezer had failed.
Lost over 200 lbs of the good stuff, only managing to save around 60 pounds (of which 2/3rds went to my Buddies...)
Took well into the night to clean up the mess and make arrangements for the failed freezer to be removed in my absence.
Almost cried...

The next I was on the early ferry, and off to visit a great Buddy in Vancouver.
Had an excellent night, and told tales while sipping incredibly good rum well into the night.
Made for a little later start to my day, but... I had all day to make Kelowna.

Highways were good up to the Hope Princeton run.
4x4 and 65 Kph all the way.
Then a hold up from construction around Summerland.
But made it safe and sound to a great reunion with my Hunting Partner & his Family.
His pup Zulu really remembered me, and why I was there.
The bond became instant with him once again, and to Tad's chagrin, stayed that way my entire visit!

Off to bed early in anticipation of a very early departure...

 

[IronNoggin]

Up in the wee hours, and a run from Kelowna to one of our favorite haunts near Rock Creek.
Got there with plenty of time to chain up which was very much required.
2 - 2.5 feet of snow greeted us, and we simply knew it was going to be tough just getting into the areas we hunt.

Over the course of that day we counted 50 whitetails on the nose.
Two provided opportunities, which we promptly blew in rapid order!
Getting close to a whitetail in the deep of snow was proving to be a challenge.
But with so many sightings, I literally figured This will be a cake-walk...

Wrong...

 

[IronNoggin]

The next day we went into the same area of course.
That day ended up being a bust.
We only had 6 sightings and it was like all of them had bottle rockets up their butts!
Exploding and running far to far away each and every time.
Two rather nice bucks though.

And we endured the first of several tire chain failures.
The deep snow and messy conditions were taking their toll.
Lost two chains, but recovered one of them

That evening we Jerry rigged the one we found so it was at least serviceable.

Decided to take a short day the next and hunt closer to home.

The truck simply could barely manage it's way with but 2 chains on and eventually we ended up burying her.
After getting out of that mess, we decided to call it even shorter and go in search of more chains...

Did not find any (even the major outlets were sold out!) so repaired another old set my Buddy had.

Saw ONE whitetail that day.

Still not overly worried...

 

[IronNoggin]

Up early and back down to our original spot.
Four chains again, so getting in there was dicey but do-able.

Saw a few deer, but no real opportunities.
Moving from one spot to another, the truck began to slide around again.
Yep - another chain gone the way of the dodo.

Put in some more effort on foot to no avail.

Total sightings: 7 for the day.
All spooky...

Worry starting to rear it's ugly head...

 

[IronNoggin]

My Partner had to catch up at work the next afternoon, so we did another short trip locally (West Side Road area).

Saw a small family group of whitetails, and a single Mulie.

Headed back to town and I suggested we have a quick look at a little area we have enjoyed success in years past...

Heck of a lot less snow in there as it is a lot lower down than our other areas.

Barely got into there and recognized some large bodies laying under a big old pine.

Sneak in and it turned out to be four of the rams that live in that spot:

One was a real Cranker, and the one behind him that is still bedded would have been too if only he had not sheared off one side fighting:

Wandered home and I spent the balance of the day seeking new chains within casting distance.
No Luck.

We called a buddy who lives by Lumby (having had some good success there historically).
Ge suggested an area we were not familiar with, but with only 3 chains we decided to give that a whirl...

Got there in the early to find sledders running everywhere.
Checked a few of our other spots, down that way.
Ended up seeing ONE whitetail that day...

Worry setting in now...

 

[IronNoggin]

Managed to fix another spare chain, so set off to the Rock Creek area once again.

Not meant to be.
More chain issues, conditions were just too tough.
Set out back towards Kelowna, stopping at each small town to search for replacement chains.
All told this trip we lost 3 chains, and snapped four (managing to recover those though).

In Osoyoos of all places we found a set of good V-Bars that would fit.

Next couple of days are a whirlwind of hunting for no opportunities.

At the end of day seven I was pretty well resigned to that fact of going home empty...

 

[IronNoggin]

Day Eight.
My Second Last Day and I wasn't holding out much hope.
Sightings had deteriorated drastically, and I just did not feel "Lucky"...

Nonetheless, we went back to one of our spots beyond Cristina Lake with crossed fingers.
Another chain failure just after we arrived made us ~ and hour and a half late to the show.
Did not boost the confidence much...

Half an hour later while moving between spots my partner sez: I just saw a big dry doe lay down behind a big Ponderosa Pine.
115 yards out.
Carry on, come back in an hour...

Marking the tree that approach was excruciatingly slow.
I knew this was likely the only opportunity to salvage the hunt, so went slower than molasses in January.
At 30 yards, the doe became nervous, stood up and stuck her head and neck around the tree to look at me.
I centered the 30 yard pin on her white throat patch, and watched as the Luminok flew straight to target.
The mechanical broadhead (Spitfire) severed both jugulars and the windpipe.
She did not make 10 steps.

She had completely bled out in those ten steps.
So much so there was NO blood inside of her which made for quick and clean dressing.
My Partner showed just then and that drag wasn't bad at all.
Feeling rather elated actually...

 

[IronNoggin]

We hunted hard the balance of the day, but although seeing more deer (total 42 whitetails that day) there weren't any more opportunities.

Final Day - Day Nine

Back to Rock Creek and another Region.
Hunted hard all day to little avail.

As dusk began to settle, we began to extract.
Best to be off the mountain when it gets full black there.

On the way down I saw a silhouette behind some brush around 50 or 60 yards out.

STOP! Come back in 15 minutes but drive away slow!!

I used the noise of the departing truck to cover the distance back parallel to where I had seen the doe.
After the sound of the departing truck departed, I waited a good five minutes.
Then simply moved my right foot enough to make the snow squeak.
That did it.

The doe largely cleared the brush at 50 yards, broadside, and stared in my direction.
The brush covered much of her chest, so I tried to slip the arrow in tight behind her shoulder.
It impacted on the shoulder bone, sounding much like a baseball being smacked by a bat.
And passed through into outer space.

This one ran almost 100 yards uphill in the deep snow, spraying red every inch of the way.
My partner returned, and we struggled our way out to her.
No pix, forgot the camera and sure as hell wasn't going back for it!!

Took an hour and a half for the two persistent Old Men to clean and drag her out.
Puffing like old plough horses at the end of it, but Smiles & High Fives all round...

Talk about Last Minute!!

 

[IronNoggin]

The next day I saddled up to head home.

Roads were beyond bad.
Between Princeton & Hope I never got above 60 Kph in 4x4.
Saw 13 semi's and 24 vehicles ditched.
Some were not survivable crashes...

Made it to my Buddy's place in Van again over crappy roads in time to take him out to celebrate his birthday with a fine dinner.
Then back for more BS'ing and a few rums.

Overnight it snowed 1.5 feet in Vancouver.
My normal 25 minute run to the ferry stretched over an hour.
First 2 sailings cancelled, but they honored my reservation.
Third last vehicle on Das Boat.

Arriving in Nanaimo, I realized the Island had gotten smoked by the snow storm too.
Met up with a good Buddy to collect some Prawns, and set off for home.
Another run in 4x4 every inch, and running at 60...

Damn happy to see my home.
The hounds went absolutely NUTBAR greeting me!!

Hung the frozen deer (went to minus 26 my last night in Kelowna and froze them like rocks) and unpacked.

The deer thawed just yesterday, now cool and hanging.
Supposed to stay below 4 degrees Celsius during the day and just 1 overnight for the next week.
Will leave them until next weekend.

A Buddy offered up an empty freezer to hold them once butchered.
And I found a freezer the right size that will be available on the 6th.

All in all it worked out.

Would not have if it hadn't been for the stubborn persistence of Two Old Men...

Looking forward to some fine winter grits now...

Cheers,
Nog

 

[IronNoggin]

...

 

[Brett McK]

Great tale nog, great persistence!

 

[pdfish]

Well done!

 

[IronNoggin]

Interesting point I forgot...

That final day in Rock Creek we saw a healthy Cougar.
Season was open.
Had a tag.
But don't usually carry a rifle when bowhunting (obvious reasons).
It was out just over 100 yards.

May have to revisit the rifle packing consideration down the road...

Cheers,
Nog

 

[RiverBoy]

Interesting point I forgot...

That final day in Rock Creek we saw a healthy Cougar.
Season was open.
Had a tag.
But don't usually carry a rifle when bowhunting (obvious reasons).
It was out just over 100 yards.

May have to revisit the rifle packing consideration down the road...

Cheers,
Nog

Her name is Charlene and she live in a mobile down near Saturday Creek. Leave her alone. Love of god leave that one alone
Y’all know that mobile trailer y’all gonna hell
Damn i miss hunting around Princeton

 

[mr eagle]

Thanks for sharing and well done! One short trip for me in the fall and tag soup it is.