It started as always back during the draws. With limited time off this year I 999’d everything. But being in Alberta that still means lots of opportunity. I purchased some new goose decoys and clothing, including sitka and kuiu. Both great gear. The zipper on my sitka incinerator jacket broke off, one call to them and a new one was on its way!
So on to the hunting. First part of the season is always waterfowl for my hunting buddies and me. We hunt in an area on the fringe of the flyway, but being that some of my hunting buddies are very intertwined in the community, permission is not an issue and we hunt a lot of different fields. We sometimes get up to 8 people hunting with us. Probably too many for a shoot, but heck the company can’t be beat and that is paramount for us.
Ducks coming in:
We scouted a great field one night and were rewarded the next morning with a limit quite quickly:
After that first shoot we took a weekend off for an oilmans skeet shoot. Great times as always:
One of the hardest parts of hunting season are those days we have to work and get taunted by the game, I think geese are masters at this:
But then the weekend or day off comes and its back to sitting in the blind:
And these years it seems there are plenty of birds to be had:
While scouting or driving I’m always looking for game, and sure enough found this antlerless elk while scouting for ducks. The best part is he is an area not really known for elk hunting but is a general 3pt and so maybe I have a starting point to scout.
As a father of 2 young daughters I’m looking forward to when they can join me. This is my eldest daughter’s first “hunting trip” with Dad. We were just trying to do some pothole jumping:
Next up after the birds came our annual guys trip. This varies year to year, but the last couple we have gone for elk in the same area. Each time we have come across this camp. I can only assume it’s a group of people who like to get out in the woods just like my buddies and I. No worries we left it untouched, as we have in previous years:
We didn’t get an elk, saw lots of mule deer though. We were back in 10km from our camp, while the elk were at the highway, ha ha. This picture is driving in to town to get some gas:
Regardless of the success, the reason we do this trip is to sit around this and hang out with the guys:
Through the whole season I saw lots of these, they are certainly doing well this year I think:
My next trip was a solo sheep hunt. I’ve got great hunting buddies, just none as keen to climb mountains. It was a great time, always too short. Found this guy through the spotting scope. When I went after to get a closer look he was gone. I need to work on taking pictures through the spotting scope:
With all that aside its time for WHITETAILS! Starts with going back to all our old haunts and finding the signs:
And now we have cameras to help us see what goes on when we aren’t around. These pictures are from a couple quarters of land a good friend purchased last year. We weren’t sure about the deer prospects initially, but these images have given us some hope that he’s got a great place.
I easily spent the most time after whitetails. The first part of the season was on crown land which has grown in very thick since a fire over a decade ago. We weren’t seeing many whitetails, but lots of moose, and helped a couple people fill bull tags. We hiked, sat and quaded a lot of country. Finally one morning I decided I would push along a creek and see if that would scare a deer past my hunting partner. Well it worked to perfection and this guy came within 20 yards of him. One shot and done:
After that I moved off to another area to hunt (the same area as the trail camera pictures). Now I was seeing deer everywhere. This is I guess fringe country. Farming land not far from the vast crown of the north. Here’s a bedded doe that held tight thinking I didn’t see her:
While walking I came across this on my friends land. We would have passed it a dozen times in the last year since he has owned the property.
Seems someone years ago was trying to bait in ol’ pooh bear:
As always there are great deer to be seen going to and from a place you have permission. There was a group of 8 mule deer and 10 whitetails with this buck. Not on land I have permission, nor a tag for Mule Deer either:
So I spent many hours, sitting, rattling, walking. Here was a heavily used cutline:
And then on my last day I filled my tag. He isn’t the biggest, nor the one I was specifically after, but it was my last morning of hunting. The morning started out very promising. I passed 3 bucks heading towards the property I have permission on. Once on the property I started walking a ravine edge. Immediately 4 does popped out of the willow. Around a bend and another two does and a young buck jumped out. I was almost at my sitting spot and I looked forward down the trail and this guy was standing there. He stood for a second and then tucked and ran for the treeline. I had a split second before he was in the trees and pulled the trigger. He dropped in his tracks. Obviously not as big as my friends above, but a nice deer with good height, but not enough points or spread to score big.
So that is my 2012 season. It was always a great one and I already can’t wait until next year. We aren’t quite done as a good friend pulled a Bison tag, so we will be going after that in the new year.
Looking to 2013. I am sitting at P11 Antelope with my Dad, so we will be going for those. A good buddy (that shot the buck above) has high priority for both mule deer and cypress hills elk, so he will pull one of those and we will do that hunt. Of course there were always be great waterfowl, whitetail and sheep hunting to be had!
Thanks
