Ok fingers and toes crossed.........my boss has decided that we're going to work fridays now, my one chance to beat the crowds, lost....crap. This isn't the same guy that took me horse packing, he's retired now. My current boss (who bought out the other guy) is a world traveler, 10yrs younger than I, and loves himself very much. Not much sympathy from him. I guess I can go out on Fri. evenings and then again on Sat. mornings.....crap.....I'm so mad. Wish I had a tent camper or something. Too rainy for a tent. Back of my truck? I dunnnnno. I'll feel better by Friday to figure things out. The end of the month he's on a flight somewhere and I can go until Nov. 6th (end of season). Actually I had good luck last year at the end of season....I guess I'm spoiled a bit too. Everything MUST go my way.....am I talking to myself again? Well anyway none of my hunting friends have had any luck except for the elk hunters. One gal said she and her husband were crossing a clearing and he was in front of her by about 100yds or so and just as he crossed and got into the woods again, a baby elk wandered out of the woods next to her and suddenly noticed her. She said she didn't know who was more surprised, it's eyes got huge and it froze, screamed like a little girl, all it's legs went in different directions and it more or less jumped out of there almost knocking her over. She said she was laughing so hard and scared at the same time. Didn't see the mama but that could have been disastrous too.

Suz

Cancelled my flight last week & stuck my tags in the mail back to Colorado DoW this morning.
I ain't going hunting this year.

Business unfortunately not only comes before pleasure but pays for it too & right now I'm just too damn' busy to escape.

Sounds like your seasons are shaping up like mine! I'm "on call" for 4 of the 6 deer season weekends and they won't tell us if we have to work until Thurs. or Fri. of that week.

Ouch that hurts!

Here in MN we only have a 10 day deer rifle season. And of course I have guard drill one of those weekends.

As a custom cabinet designer I can really work my schedule to get some hunting during the week. I just hang a sign on my computer saying "Having Homicidal Tendencies..... Gone To Therapy". I see the need for a lot of therapy this fall.

Damn....that's a bugger Mike. Oh well...you can always go chasin' a few bunnies or fox in the Old Country.

Cheers, Vince

It's thanksgiving weekend here in Canada. Three glorious days of hunting. It's snowing a bit this morning so I hope that means I'll have 3-4 inches down for the weekend. Historically, I've had pretty good luck on the Thanksgiving long weekend, here's hoping that translates into my first Elk...

It is rather exciting for me this year, new Province, new terrain and new critters to hunt. It's almost like learning to hunt all over again.

New here.

Good luck this weekend. I use to live north of Grande Prairie. Took a few elk when I lived there. Usually hunted up near the Bad Heart or along the banks of the Peace. Also shot a couple in 526 when I could draw a cow.

This year has not been too bad. Took a good black bear and a huge old wood bison in the Northwest Territories during the spring when I was up there guiding. Was tied up baiting and guiding bear hunts from mid August until a short time ago but got out one evening and managed to kill a huge black bear at home on my farm. I have been taking my bride out in the evenings bear hunting and she has passed on quite a few, while I got a bit of video footage. She has been trying to get her sights on a nice blonde one I saw last week, that or it will have to be really big before she will pull the trigger.

We do not have any time to hunt elk or moose this year as we are busy fencing right now, but for a change I am going to have the whole muzzleloader and the rifle whitetail seasons to hunt instead of guide. This Thanksgiving weekend we will check the zeros on our muzzleloaders and rifles we are going to use and set some beaver traps.

Good luck to you all.

I haven't had a chance to get out for quite a few months now...but watch this space. I hope to get out in about 10 days time.

Now for my grumble.

Received a call from a mate tonight who lives in Tasmania. He gets out to do a spot of camping, and have a shot on a regular basis...well...he rang tonight to let me know that he set up his camp, had just made a cup of coffee and was sitting down to watch the sunset when a mob of about 40 fallow deer wandered past his camp...and only about 60 yards away. They didn't even appear interested in him.

He said he couldn't be bothered taking a shot so he just watched them amble past. But tomorrow morning he has plans to go for a wee walk and surprise them in their bed space.

Am I jealous...what do you reckon!!!

Cheers, Vince

Really nice pics .

We got our bull Moose on opening day, Oct 19 th. What a surprise that was. A small Bull but we got meat and that's what it's all about. Got to chase a cow and a calf but the calf was as big as the cow so I couldn't take that one.
Got to shoot them with the cell phone camera but the quality sucks.
I will try to post a pic later of the Bull

Got my deer this morning!!! Yea! Yea! Just missed going yesterday and today was supposed to be raining, which I thought would be to my advantage, but no rain today. Anyway I got on my little hill and looked around while moving up slowly, after only 10 min. or so I saw about 5 deer headed my way and one was a buck. I waited for him to pass behind a tree so I could bring my rifle up and had a hard time finding him in my scope but after I did I decided to wait for a broadside and hit him in the top of the back. I hit him a tad low (because I totally forgot about my sighting-in lessons from you generous boys) it was about a 50yd shot, but he only went about 10ft. I was alone and I did a piss poor job of gutting because of the slope he was on and it was a chore to drag him out and lift him into my truck but it was a lesson learned. (bring a buddy next time) My Dad helped me skin him at least. It's a small blacktail with 5points but plenty for me to handle. I'll post photos when my Mom decides to e-mail them to me,
Suz

Well the guys I should have been with surpassed themselves:
Four hunted Colorado 2nd Rifle & three filled their tags, with all three cow elk taken at 650yds+
Only one took a second shot & that was seen to have been superfluous when cutting up to bring down the mountain.
Having done the "packhorse" thing from the same game trail in 2007, I can sympathise with them on the carry outs.

Sod it - I'm going after a roe deer before Christmas one way or another as compensation.

Well done Gremlin and Suz...at least you have been able to get out there and have a go...I'm still waiting for the opportunity.

Hang in there Mike...your time will come mate, and when it does...watch out the critters.

Cheers, Vince

Just found out that the owner of one of my two hunting spots "forgot" that we were hunting there (it has been several years since she gave me access and she doesn't live in the area) and gave others permission to hunt there also. We're only talking about 20 acres here. I'm supposed to get the phone number of the other hunters and see if we can work something out so we don't interfere with each other. On the other hand I might have a lead on 70 acres plus another 30 next to it...

The problem here is getting access to the private lands, because some slob in the past was careless or foolish and messed things up.

That's a bit of bad luck Punkin. It's funny, but I lost access to a magnificent place I used to hunt because the old fella who owns it forgot that he had given me permission.

Good luck mate...hopefully you will have somewhere to hunt.

Cheers, Vince

I can relate to that I am looking at new hunting grounds also. There is a fair amount of public land near home but I just don't know how heavily hunted it is during our deer season. I might just strap on the BFR and walk this year that way I can find a good spot for ML season. The old keeps a lot of people from hunting with a smoke pole.