Here goes the story of how this beautiful buck will feed my family this year.
First off, we were hunting in North Central Alberta, in the Boreal Forest. The area is well known to my cousin who prepped many of the cut blocks we hunted for reforestation. The cuts are really grown in with stands of 8 to 10 foot Aspen that are so thick that it is hard to see in to them. Thursday morning we had been into a cut block where he (my cousin) had harvested quite a few big bucks over the last 4 or 5 years. The bush was thick with deer sign. No snow on the ground, so it was tougher to tell how fresh the sign was, but it appeared to be a very busy area for deer. We spent the morning there and did not see one deer. (We had been there the morning before and saw a nice tall 4x4. I did not shoot as I didn't want to tag out on the first morning. He was nice enough to stand there and let me study him.) Usually if you see a big one there is an even bigger one behind him.)
As the early morning had not provoked anything, (not even the customary whitetail solute) we decided to move. We went about 4 kilometers (2.5 miles) east down the forestry road. There my cousin said that if I walk up the road it should take me to a lake on the left, and he would go up the hill on a cut-line to sit and wait. I walked about a mile give or take and saw no evidence of a lake, just another cut-line. Thinking I had misheard the directions I was going to walk back and check with him to see if I had heard right.
As I was walking I got to the top of the hill on the road (you can see it in the picture). There I was looking to the right at the aspen cut thinking that it looked like a great place for deer to hide. too bad it was so thick that I could see into most of it. Then to my left I heard the hiss of a doe, followed by a lot of crashing. I blew my grunt just in case. I did not see the white tail solute so did not know If I had been made or not. The crashing continued so I chambered a round (Sako L61R Finnbear in 7mm rem mag) and got ready for a shot. The crashing continued away from me then it started to get louder, and louder. The doe sprung onto the road in front of me about 90 yards away, and as fast as she hit the road she left the road into the aspen block. By now I was quite certain that there was another deer, and I was ready, suspecting it was a buck since it is the start of the rut and she was being chased by another deer. I knew I would have a split second to decide if I wanted to shoot. He jumped out and I could see 5 tines through the scope, then luck favored me as he turned and ran straight up the road towards me. His rack was as wide as his body. I knew I was going to shoot as soon as he turned to go into the aspen. He ran at me for three or four bounds, and then turned about 70 yards from me. I had no idea where to line up the shot, so I held about 1/3rd below the height of his shoulder while he was running at me. Crack, the crisp clean sound of my 7mm rang out and he fell right where the shot found him. I watched - there was no more movement. I could see him laying there along the edge of the Aspen. I walked up to him.(I know that you are supposed to wait, however, I did not know if he was going to get up and needed to have a better line of sight If I was going to make a second shot. He was not able to get up and I put another shot into him when I got there as his leg was still twitching and he was still breathing. I am glad that he did not get into the Aspen as that is a whole lot of work to get them out. The shot was a neck shot, just luck that he dropped on the spot. Standing shots on a running deer do not always go so well. By the way shooting here was legal as it is an old logging road, that is not in use, and not regularly maintained.
He was a beautiful buck and I am grateful for the sacrifice that he made to feed my family. That brings to an end the 2010 WT buck hunt for me and already has me dreaming about next year. My wife is a saint for letting me go while she stayed and watcher the kids - thank-you sweety.
Lessons learned. - Be ready, find the does and I will find the bucks, smile and have fun. I little luck helps in being at the right place at the right time.
My First Buck
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