We had moved to Calgary 4 years prior from grande prairie and hadn’t been hunting since. My brother and I would ask my dad every year to go out, but always had the same response that we don’t have anywhere to go. Finally after being a pain in his side he talked to his old hunting partner who used to hunt near Calgary and asked him to bring us out. That year my dad drew a cow moose tag and my brother a bull, I was only 12 at the time and wasn’t able to hunt back in those days so no tags for me.
We took a few days off of school and met up with dads old partner and his brother in law at a local restaurant. After breakfast and some talking we headed out to their spot in the West Country. On the way in to the property we were hunting, we drove behind dads hunting partner John and his brother in law George, and soon spotted a cow and calf moose.
Dad flashed his lights and stopped his red dodge caravan to get their attention, as they hadn’t seen the moose. We all bailed out of our vehicles and looked on at the moose. George said, “no we better pass there is cabin in the trees not far” he didn’t think it was safe to shoot. We watched them for awhile and then they headed off on their way. We spent the rest of the day at the back end of the property but didn’t see anything further.
The next day we hunted the other end of the property. My brother joined George and I went with dad and John further away. First thing in the morning we hear a shot then about a half hour later 2 more shots.
We met up with them about a hour later and George had taken a decent 4x4 whitetail. They started telling us the first shot they had missed a massive whitetail. They described this deer as a absolute monster and George was quite ****ed that he missed the old warrior.
The next few days turned up no moose or anymore deer. We decided that we would head out again the next Saturday and continue our search for the elusive bullwinkle. That day I spent hunting with dad and John, and Corey with George. Near the end of the day I was walking with dad and John, when dad spotted a couple deer go into what become known for the next many years as “the circle bush”. The bush was a section of bush about 100 yards by 100 yards in the middle off a cut block. We decided that dad would go to where the deer entered and I would go with John on the other side and see if anything came out.
We waited for dad to get to the other side and then started walking. Shortly after we saw the distinct flag of a whitetail deer running through the trees, dad had pushed the deer to us. The deer saw us and continued through the trees to towards the end of the bush. John tapped my leg and said “ come on”. We started to slowing jog to the other end. After a few steps a whitetail buck emerged, hopped the fence and stopped 150 yards in front of us in a cut block. John quickly raised his gun and fired. The deer immediately dropped and didn’t even flinch.
All I could see was a deer antler laying on some dead logs. “ did I get him” John asked? “Yes I can see his antler” I remarked. “ are you sure I got him”? “Yes he’s right there”, I pointed towards the buck. John still wasn’t sure but we walk towards the deer. I don’t think I blinked the whole walk over to the buck, i was afraid I would lose sight of him and we wouldn’t find the deer, so I kept my eye fixated on the antler.
We finally got to the deer and John was ecstatic. The deer was old huge buck with a drop tine off one antler. I was equally excited as this was the first big game kill I had ever been a part of.
Dad met up with us a took some pics then we Corey and George found us some time later. This was the huge deer that George had missed a few days prior. Needless to say the, seasoned hunter George was a little miffed that John had got the huge deer he missed.
That year we never did get our moose but we continued to hunt that property for years after and harvested many animals. Both my brother and I took our first deer and moose from there and dozens of other animals. We became good friends with the rancher but eventually the husband passed and the ranch got to be too much for his wife, so it was sold and we had to find new hunting grounds.
With John getting up in age he decided to give me the mount of the buck and here is a pic of it in my man cave. Maybe one day I’ll get a deer that matches the size of it.
|