Many of you reading this will not associate white tailed deer hunting and mountains, most will think of dark cedar swamps, or hardwood forests and cornfields. Where I hunt for this most sought after north american game animal are the Selkirk and Purcell mountains of south eastern British Columbia. Steep and rugged is nothing to to these northern deer. They reside with elk and mule deer, they don't go quite as high but they definitely overlap and compete for the same resources. To the north of our house there is a mountain, it's not a tall mountain, it doesn't have much true alpine just shades of, but it does have a lot of different terrain. Over the years we have spent quite a bit of time exploring it's trails and slopes, we hike it in the spring, summer, and fall. My wife and daughter's run on it, we snowshoe up it, and of course we hunt on it.
Over the years we've had great success filling our freezer with good organic wild game. I've shot two cow elk, three white tailed deer, two turkeys, and numerous grouse on it. My daughter also got her first deer, a respectable 4 point(per side western count) buck last year. If I'm just going for a day hunt I'm just as likely to head up our mountain as all my other short hunt spots combined. The morning of November 17th was one of those hunts. My favourite method of hunting whitetail, still hunting, was out for the day. We'd had snow throughout the week but with it freezing and thawing everyday the snow was like glass. Really crunchy and loud. I'd have to get into my spot before first light and just sit and watch.
I was first up the mountain and the sun was just a faint glow to the east when I parked my truck 2.5km away from where I wanted to be. The fading moonlight on the snow was all the light I needed to find my way along the logging road and up the ridge to the spot I had chosen for the morning, or at least until I got too cold to sit. I had just layered up and made myself comfortable on my perch as it became possible to discern individual trees and it wouldn't be long before I'd be able to tell buck from doe and mule deer from white tail. By 7:40am I had shooting light as I sat sipping my coffee and letting the bush settle down. The ridge I was sitting on runs north to south and elevates me 10-15m(33-45ft) above the surrounding area. I'm sitting on the eastern edge of a selectively logged cut with numerous shooting lanes out to 200m looking to the south, to the west my distances reach to 100m and less while to the north it's tight only 30-40m. Middle of November means lots of deer movement, and this was a great spot to sit and wait for a buck.
The first image is where I was sitting with the shooting lanes to my south. The second is of my perch from below as I made my way down onto the cut.
I hadn't even finished my coffee and pulled my gloves back on when I spotted a doe moving through the trees to my south. She had her head down following a track, she was definitely not feeding. She was moving along very quickly with very few and very brief pauses to look around. She was through my shooting lanes and out of sight in very short order. I rearranged my position so I was more comfortable shooting to my far left and waited. Within a few minutes I could hear a deer moving along the same trail(crunchy snow is good when it's not you moving) but I was only catching glimpses through the cedars and shrubs. As the deer entered my first shooting lane at 150m or so he stopped with just his nose and heavy, not particularly long tines visible. He then moved rapidly across my first four lanes before pausing briefly in the fifth. It turns out briefly was all I needed and at the shot he ran south west over the edge of a steep slope and out of sight. Almost immediately I heard loud crashing sounds, turns out he tumbled and cartwheeled a couple of times in his rush down the mountain.
I find it difficult to wait when I think an animal is down just out of sight so I starting packing my gear right away and made my down off the ridge towards where I had last seen the buck. Within a short time I found the blood trail and inside of 60m or so I found my buck on a flat spot on a fairly steep slope. Before the tumble he was a heavy 5x4 but broke one of his tines in the tumble. A big bodied buck with a linebacker neck. Best of all it was all downhill on frozen snow to a landing where I could get the truck, less than 600-700m(less than 1/2 a mile). I cut my tag, poured myself a cup of tea and tried to collect my thoughts, calm my nerves. I don't enjoy the killing part of hunting but it is integral to the hunt. I gave my thanks to the deer and spent the next quarter hour contemplating the hunt while admiring my harvest.
I had just made the initial cut without puncturing anything(yet) when I became aware that another hunter was approaching me, turns out it's my neighbour also deer hunting. Even though I told him I was fine and that he should continue his hunt he stayed and helped with the cleaning, dragging, and loading. Great guy, he's getting a Christmas package of deer meat.
For this hunt I was using my Marlin 25-06 shooting 100gr Trophy Copper by Federal Premium, Vortex 10x42 binoculars, and for field dressing I use a Havalon Piranta. I butchered him the following weekend and got 70+lbs. Thanks for taking the time to read my tale. I hope you enjoyed the read I know it was a great morning for me.
Over the years we've had great success filling our freezer with good organic wild game. I've shot two cow elk, three white tailed deer, two turkeys, and numerous grouse on it. My daughter also got her first deer, a respectable 4 point(per side western count) buck last year. If I'm just going for a day hunt I'm just as likely to head up our mountain as all my other short hunt spots combined. The morning of November 17th was one of those hunts. My favourite method of hunting whitetail, still hunting, was out for the day. We'd had snow throughout the week but with it freezing and thawing everyday the snow was like glass. Really crunchy and loud. I'd have to get into my spot before first light and just sit and watch.
I was first up the mountain and the sun was just a faint glow to the east when I parked my truck 2.5km away from where I wanted to be. The fading moonlight on the snow was all the light I needed to find my way along the logging road and up the ridge to the spot I had chosen for the morning, or at least until I got too cold to sit. I had just layered up and made myself comfortable on my perch as it became possible to discern individual trees and it wouldn't be long before I'd be able to tell buck from doe and mule deer from white tail. By 7:40am I had shooting light as I sat sipping my coffee and letting the bush settle down. The ridge I was sitting on runs north to south and elevates me 10-15m(33-45ft) above the surrounding area. I'm sitting on the eastern edge of a selectively logged cut with numerous shooting lanes out to 200m looking to the south, to the west my distances reach to 100m and less while to the north it's tight only 30-40m. Middle of November means lots of deer movement, and this was a great spot to sit and wait for a buck.
The first image is where I was sitting with the shooting lanes to my south. The second is of my perch from below as I made my way down onto the cut.I hadn't even finished my coffee and pulled my gloves back on when I spotted a doe moving through the trees to my south. She had her head down following a track, she was definitely not feeding. She was moving along very quickly with very few and very brief pauses to look around. She was through my shooting lanes and out of sight in very short order. I rearranged my position so I was more comfortable shooting to my far left and waited. Within a few minutes I could hear a deer moving along the same trail(crunchy snow is good when it's not you moving) but I was only catching glimpses through the cedars and shrubs. As the deer entered my first shooting lane at 150m or so he stopped with just his nose and heavy, not particularly long tines visible. He then moved rapidly across my first four lanes before pausing briefly in the fifth. It turns out briefly was all I needed and at the shot he ran south west over the edge of a steep slope and out of sight. Almost immediately I heard loud crashing sounds, turns out he tumbled and cartwheeled a couple of times in his rush down the mountain.
I find it difficult to wait when I think an animal is down just out of sight so I starting packing my gear right away and made my down off the ridge towards where I had last seen the buck. Within a short time I found the blood trail and inside of 60m or so I found my buck on a flat spot on a fairly steep slope. Before the tumble he was a heavy 5x4 but broke one of his tines in the tumble. A big bodied buck with a linebacker neck. Best of all it was all downhill on frozen snow to a landing where I could get the truck, less than 600-700m(less than 1/2 a mile). I cut my tag, poured myself a cup of tea and tried to collect my thoughts, calm my nerves. I don't enjoy the killing part of hunting but it is integral to the hunt. I gave my thanks to the deer and spent the next quarter hour contemplating the hunt while admiring my harvest.
I had just made the initial cut without puncturing anything(yet) when I became aware that another hunter was approaching me, turns out it's my neighbour also deer hunting. Even though I told him I was fine and that he should continue his hunt he stayed and helped with the cleaning, dragging, and loading. Great guy, he's getting a Christmas package of deer meat.
For this hunt I was using my Marlin 25-06 shooting 100gr Trophy Copper by Federal Premium, Vortex 10x42 binoculars, and for field dressing I use a Havalon Piranta. I butchered him the following weekend and got 70+lbs. Thanks for taking the time to read my tale. I hope you enjoyed the read I know it was a great morning for me.
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