Author Topic: And So It Starts (Read 5127 times)

Walleyes · « **Reply #20 on:** October 27, 2019, 08:44:33 AM »

-12 out at the ranch here this morning, should start to freeze things up nicely.

Heading on a scouting trip for two days starting tomorrow morning waaayyyyy up north, possible moose hunting grounds in the future we will see what I find. Then off to work for 2 weeks then home for 2 weeks of hard core Whitetail hunting during prime time, can’t wait.

AxeMan · « **Reply #21 on:** October 27, 2019, 10:59:09 AM »

Ice on the ponds now. Good to see some freeze up happening.
I was out for a bit yesterday morning. Nothing we saw we could have shot.
Could have almost petted some mule deer does though.

Sooner · « **Reply #22 on:** October 27, 2019, 10:59:47 AM »

I haven't been out or even close to being ready. This delayed and delayed harvest is making my job super busy, on the road all week for claims, paperwork till 9 at night and weekends to keep up. Plus in between work, helping a friend build a garage package since mid sept. Now my best buds kid is having a bday party on Nov 2nd and my daughters women's soccer team that I help coach, starts their Sunday games today. Looks like the boy and I will get 3 weekends to chase deer this year. This much of a late start has never happened for us.

Walleyes · « **Reply #23 on:** October 27, 2019, 04:21:27 PM »

This one started to show up last night at my place, I know the horn pattern as I chased his dad back here for a few years then he quit showing up last year. Either the coyotes got him or old age as I never heard of anybody taking him. Couple more years for this one to thicken up and he’s a shooter, nice to see the gene still in the herd. I’ve got at least 6 different bucks on the cams, it’s looking like it’s going to be a good year.

AxeMan · « **Reply #24 on:** November 10, 2019, 04:17:44 PM »

-20 for tomorrow morning. Clear after the storm. I will be set up and bundled up. Hoping the for the best.
Wt's should be on the move tonight.

greylynx · « **Reply #25 on:** November 10, 2019, 04:23:15 PM »

Hungry and Horny, or Horny and Hungry. Or maybe just Horny. Who Cares.

Walleyes · « **Reply #26 on:** November 10, 2019, 06:25:39 PM »

Good luck axe.

I’ll be home Wed hope to get after them some.

Sooner · « **Reply #27 on:** November 11, 2019, 11:35:47 AM »

I am living through others hunts this year. I have not even been out once due to a very busy fall(picked up blank tags on friday lol). Looks like the kid and I will have 2 Saturdays to hunt this year. Never in 40 yrs have I had to wait this long to hunt. Ugggh. Good luck to all and post pics.

fargineyesore · « **Reply #28 on:** November 11, 2019, 07:45:33 PM »

I've got a nice buck I've seen on my camera a couple times but haven't seen him in a couple days. Doe one day too.

I'm in 248 so shotgun or other non-rifle shooting.

Trying to see a pattern on the camera, getting ready to just go out and try to rattle him in.

Question: got an old JC Higgins pump 12 Gauge with 28 inch barrel full choke.

Got a Remington 12 Gauge 870 Tacital with short barrel.

Which one better for deer or moose (son has a Moose draw) hunting?

I'm thinking the Tactical barrel's a little short.

AxeMan · « **Reply #29 on:** November 11, 2019, 07:59:59 PM »

Well, it was a cold day, but we got it done.
Filled the antlerless moose tag today with the new sabot gun.
Story and pics tomorrow. Too tired tonight.

AxeMan · « **Reply #30 on:** November 12, 2019, 09:20:09 AM »

Nov 11 story.
We hunted the morning for deer and saw just a few does. -22 in the morning hours. I was surprised by the amount of nocturnal activity in the fresh snow only on the ground for 2 nights. The moon was very bright on Sunday night and it looked like they deer were up all night making tracks and feeding. Not too much pre-rut scrapes and stuff yet though, I was surprised. We decided to come back to the farm to do a bit of work and water the cows midday before our plan of heading to another bush we had permission on for the later afternoon.

Driving home we noticed a fresh set of moose tracks heading into a small bush on our quarter. I drove the field lane and saw that the tracks didn't appear to come out of that small bush. Game on. My brother has the Strathcona antlerless moose draw tag and I am partnered on it. He heads down the creek and sets up on the tip of the bush on the east end in the creek, while I head back around to the west end and follow the fresh tracks in with my trusty 16 gauge foster slug gun with the red dot sight . Not long before I hear crashing ahead of me and 30 seconds later "boom...slap". The year and a half year old came out right on queue and into the field. My brother dropped it at 138 yards with my Maverick 88 12 gauge rifled barrel with the Hornady sabot slug. Right in the heart, dropped it on the spot. The time I spent getting that gun dialed in this summer sure paid off.

Drug it back to the yard with the Jeep and had it gutted, skinned, and hanging all before dark. Perfect afternoon. Now we can be free to hunt WT bucks for the rest of the season.

Hammer spur · « **Reply #31 on:** November 12, 2019, 10:10:44 AM »

Congrats on the moose.
Gotta luv when it comes together like that.

Walleyes · « **Reply #32 on:** November 12, 2019, 11:52:35 AM »

Sweet, quick one but sounds like a fun little adventure and a nice little meat bull for the table. Nice little farm fed young moose, they don’t get any better than that one.

Well done boys enjoy the deer hunt now.

greylynx · « **Reply #33 on:** November 12, 2019, 12:38:35 PM »

Tasty looking meat on the hoof.

And you did not have to rush all that much to chill the meat.

Thanks for the post Axe.

AxeMan · « **Reply #34 on:** November 25, 2019, 07:49:14 AM »

Strathcona on the weekend. Now the moose is out of the way, we spent some time looking for a couple whitetail bucks.
Pushed some bushes and walked some land. Thanks Greylinx.

Just want to say how absolutely the county is over-run with mule deer now. We saw dozens and dozens, and many good bucks. Some absolute tanks out there now.
I am surprised the bow guys aren't having a field day with those cranker mule bucks. They are dumb as a post now as well. In all my life, I have never seen so many mule deer in the county.

Sooner · « **Reply #35 on:** November 25, 2019, 04:45:08 PM »

Finally got out on Saturday. Took my 83 yr old uncle for the day who spends every day going to the home to help his wife for lunch and supper. We road hunted my go to zone(516) till 2 ish. Then went to his sons bush quarter in 509 and he watched a field till dark on one side, I on the other and his son and wife were in the bush.

In the am we seen 1 WT doe, 6 grouse. At the bush quarter, nada. Spent an hour visiting after dark beside the wood stove, then went home. Was a really good day all around.

Yesterday I did 10 kms walking the bush trails we chased moose on the last 2 years out east of Edmonton, snow was soft due to the heat so if you went slow, it was fairly quiet. It snow/sleeted on me all morning and I only heard a deer blow from far away in the bush. Seen a bunch of grouse and jumped a beautiful cow moose and her twin 1st yr calf's. No fresh tracks but abundant deer trails so thats good.

Hope to sneak out of work a couple times for a late day watch this week. Will most likely spend the last day of the season there Saturday. Got just as much chance of seeing a buck there than 3 hours north and its 45 mins from home. Was super slow this weekend, I'm sure due to the main rut ending but good to be out finally.

Walleyes · « **Reply #36 on:** November 25, 2019, 06:25:47 PM »

Always nice to be out regardless if we kill anything, I’m sure your uncle enjoyed being out.

AxeMan · « **Reply #37 on:** August 16, 2021, 08:40:49 PM »

Okay, I guess its time to re-kindle this old thread for 2021. Saw some decent wt bucks, 3 of them, hanging around our bush at the farm.
Got a few cell phone shots, so figured it was time to get the trail cams out.
Put them out yesterday so the good pics should start rolling in soon. Checked out my tree stand and all is good except for the massive hornets nest hanging inside....

Another big nest hanging in a tree in Cam2 location as well, yikes, bringing in a can or two of wasp blaster on the next check.
Oh btw, brother pulled the Strathcona anterless moose tag this year so we are on for another shotgun moose again. Yay!
Here is a far cell phone pic of one of those 3 good wt bucks.

Sooner · « **Reply #38 on:** August 17, 2021, 11:20:05 AM »

Nice buck.

I have been out to my friends farm all summer. Put out 1 trail cam so far. Got a nice Mama moose and 2 calves, couple deer, one small buck and the black bear we thought was a boar last year, now has 2 little cubs lol. Makes quadding the trails a bit more un nerving at night lol.

On the Aug long, went for a rip to see what the far field had for game that morning and to see if mama bear and her cubs were feasting on saskatoons and 2 up an comer bucks I recognized from last Nov jumped out of a bed. They have increased in size this year so time to get all the cams out.

Was back to my old hunting grounds by Calling Lake on Sat. 3 of us trying to clear the old trail to my wall tent spot. Haven't done this in over 5 yrs so expected a bunch of work. Called it quits after 3 hours and only going 1 km down the trail of 15 kms. SO many big spruce have fallen. Guess that plan will take a few day trips to complete.

And got to try out my new toy, a 2021 Grizz SE in the real world and not on nice farm or the iron horse trails. I am impressed. Slid into a muskeg hole with the left side, engaged the diff lock and it walked right out with me beside it.

I am so looking forward to having an atv again. Dads 6x6 Bigfoot got me around but it was slowwwwwwwww. Gonna be fun re exploring old hunting areas.

Little bummed at the excess MD tags given out seeing me and my son have enough points to hunt bucks anywhere together now. Of course we were gonna pull those tags next fall, so once again Murphy comes along and potentially screws me before it even starts. Worried there will be a slaughter of bucks this fall.

Just general tags for us this year but my 85 yr old uncle got an antlerless moose draw for the area my friends have their farm by St Paul, so with the help of hunting the local farmers land who rents their fields, we may just get one more moose harvested for the old guy. I need to buy a nice ground blind for us to sit in this Nov too, so we can watch the deer in comfort, so if you have any suggestions, it has to hold 2 adults with enough room to be comfortable, for some gear and a Big buddy heater.

Walleyes · « **Reply #39 on:** August 21, 2021, 08:13:45 AM »

Heck of a deer Axe.
We aren’t doing our moose trip this year, have a couple family obligations that are making it difficult so we decided to burn one tag and not go this year. So will be after the whitetail hard this fall. Looking forward to it already.