It was a beautiful fall morning, one of those days you just can’t wait to go hunting. Very little snow, but a thick frost on the grass and a freezing chill in the air. Mid November and from past experience I knew the Whitetail bucks were in the rut. Not to mention I had seen good track and some antler rubs last time I was out. Today just felt like the day and I invited my hunting partner Chris Funk to come along. Chris is a great friend of mine. We grew up together and have shared many hunting experiences. You’ll hear about him again.
So we drove down the pitch black dark roads of northern Alberta, Drayton Valley country to be exact. It wasn’t a far drive, but I wanted the timing to be perfect, so we would arrive just before first light. We were totally prepared and I was decked out with my bolt action .243, bullets, skinning knife, Binoculars, warm clothes and a snack.
Now Chris and I hunt a lot and when the freezers start to get full, we will then start to get picky on the size of buck we take. Both of us have trophies on the wall but are always looking for another, beautiful bigger Whitetail. When we arrived, we had a quick discussion on just how big the buck would have to be to get us to pull the trigger. Well I think we shouldn’t shoot unless the buck looks like at least a score of 140. Our standards weren’t too high and to tell you the truth the freezers weren’t that full and I probably would’ve taken a 130.
Now, I’m sure most of you listeners know this, but for those of you that don’t, all antlered animals antlers, can be measured to create a numerical score that represents the size and beauty of the antlers. It’s a combination of width, height, diameter, number of points and how symmetrical or non-symmetrical they are. If you don’t know about this, I encourage you to research it as it’s very interesting. This is the number you would use to enter it into the record books if it quailified or the number you could tell your friends, so they knew just how big a buck you had taken. All right back to our story.
Now setting your sites on a certain sized buck, like a big buck compared to any buck makes the hunt much more difficult for it seems like as soon as you make that statement 2 and 3 point bucks start jumping out all over. I knew it was gonna take some time, and I was ready to have all the patients in the world and enjoy my adventure with my old friend.
We parked the truck, enjoyed our last sips of coffee and started heading up a promising trail. The country here is rolling hills with scattered poplar forest, trails and farm land. Well we only got about 400 yards and this area was looking good. Like I mean really good. We came up upon a ravine with four different cut lines intersecting about 170 yards away. I knew I didn’t have to go any further. The time was right, the day was right, the place was right and “Lord willing and the crick don’t rise” I’m gonna get myself a big white tail. “I’m staying right here.” I said to Chris with an authoritative dibs on that spot.
Chris said “no problem” and headed off to find his own perfect spot. I literally sat down right where I was standing. There was a skinny little poplar tree for me to half hide behind and use as a gun rest to steady my shot.
“Good enough” I thought, the sound of Chris’s crunchy steps had disappeared into the distance and I got ready to sit still and be patient.
I’m glad I’m a patient man because you would not believe how long I had to wait till something happened… 15 minutes yeah, it was just one of those days. 15 minutes and this doe comes out into the open intersection. She seemed distracted, concerned not looking towards me, but watching behind her as if something was following. Well, she had a look in her eye, her tail raised high and I could tell just by looking at her and the time of the year that that doe was in heat
and there’s a darn good chance It’s a buck that’s following her. Sure enough, she turned and started walking straight towards me. She had no idea that I was there and seemed very distracted by her Suitor. Then she turned and ran down the ravine that I was overlooking. “Snap”. I heard a sound, and my eyes shot back to where the doe had first come out of the bush.
Where sure enough, a nice set of antlers, came walking out of the bush. He stood exactly where that doe had been, and looking longingly off in her direction.
I knew he wouldn’t stand there long and I only had a few seconds to make up my mind. His antlers looked nice, but they were obscured by the willows and poplars behind him and I couldn’t really tell just how big they were, but what the heck I figured he must be over our previously decided upon standard of 140.
Up came my .243 rifle and with a rest on that poplar, I quickly had his chest in the crosshairs of my 3 to 9 scope. Boom I shot… That deer just stood there. He lifted his leg and thumped it back down, and then just stood there. Are you kidding me? I couldn’t have missed at that range? with this rifle.?
Then he turned and ran down the exact path that Doe had taken, which was straight towards me. OK well this is getting even easier I thought, and at about 70 yards I shot again. This time hitting him square in the chest. Well, that took the front legs right out from underneath him. He face planted and snow ploughed right into a big clump of trees. So his antlers were still pretty much obscured…Whoa now that was exciting. With my heart pounding I thought I’ll wait here and give him the time to pass.
Some of you non-hunters out there may not understand this practice. If you’ve made a good shot on an animal, it is best to just wait, sit down and wait. This is very difficult. Adrenaline is flowing excitement is in the air but an experience Hunter knows don’t run, don’t chase. If he was to run, up to that buck right away the buck in seeing him would more than likely have a surge of adrenaline and run even further away. Possibly not to be found. But when you wait, when you leave him be, he will know is mortally wounded, lay down, bleed out and pass peacefully.
So I’m waiting the usual rule of thumb is to wait 10 to 15 minutes and after you’ve just had that exciting of a time 10 minutes seems like an hour. But I continue to remain quiet and still staring at the spot where I had seen the buck go down. Then just 4 inches from my right ear, I heard a raspy whisper “hey Evan” holy Jeez, you scared the living crap out of me. How that friend of mine could walk up behind me without making even a single sound. I do not know but let me tell you that Chris is one sneaky Hunter in the bush. And i suppose my focus must have been intent. OK now that my heart and adrenaline is back up to 1 million and it’s been a bit of time. Let’s go take a look and see what kind of a buck I got.
Chris was really excited for me and as we got to about 60 yards away he stated oh hey that looks not bad. That must be at least 140. “Of course it is.” I said wasn’t that our agreement? We walked a little closer “no that’s a 150” chris estimated.
Well I was getting really excited because most of the time when you shoot a buck it looks huge in the scope and after the shot, as you get closer to it, it starts shrinking… It’s a phenomenon called ground shrinkage, what you think is a giant buck and by the time you get to it it’s just a small four-point. But not this time, the closer we got the more tines we seen. We walked a little closer. “That could be a 160” he said, and within three more steps “no I bet a 170.” Well now I’m really getting excited. He was still alive and I finished him off with a round to the neck. Chris and I spent the rest of the morning field dressing that beautiful buck. We took our time and caped his head out nicely. He’s big real big “this one’s going on my wall” I announced with pride. Well, Chris and I just couldn’t stop smiling and laughing as we worked. I kept the antlers, the meat, the hide… I do all my own butchering and was incredibly thankful for our good fortune and easy hunt.
