Here's a slightly edited report of our deer hunts that I sent out to my hunting club:
As usual, the Camp Baldy deer hunt was a two week affair.
Week 1:
This year we had 10 hunters in camp, with 9 of 10 antlerless tags. The only hunter without a tag was a new invitee who missed the draw deadline because he was a last minute fill-in for a guy who had to drop out.
We’d seen plenty of deer and even more deer sign during the moose hunt, so we expected a lot of action during the deer hunt. There was plenty of track in the bush, and a lot of new scraping activity, so we were anticipating a lot of buck action.
I’d set up a couple of blinds, so I used one on opening day. Unfortunately, the deer decided to be elsewhere.
Our first deer was a doe taken by Pat at 9 ¾ (¾ of the way between watch 9 and watch 10), and a little later Frank dropped two does at the saddle. With recovering deer, not a lot of hunting was done in the afternoon.
The next day Paul decided to watch at Number 7, and Korey (the new guy) was going to sit at Zero. I was tired of sitting, so I decided to take a walk starting south of those watches, and still hunt my way north in hopes of either getting a deer myself (preferred) or moving something their way.
As it turns out two deer, a small buck and a doe went by Korey - or at least tried to - and he dropped them. I don’t know if I moved them, but I’d like to think I did. Apparently Korey was making noise when the doe came out, and after he shot her, he decided to light up a cigar to settle his nerves and the buck came out. As he said, those deer must have had a death wish, because they came out in spite of him doing everything “wrong”.
With five deer in two days, we started to have thoughts of limiting out as we did last year, however, the wolves seemed to move back in (they’d seemed to have disappeared after the moose hunt) and the deer became much more skittish. We still had plenty of sightings (except for me), but shooting opportunities were few.
Pat managed to drop a second deer - another doe - on Thursday at Buck Ridge, closing out the hunting success.
The first week gang pull out on Saturday, and are replaced by the second week crew. Our six deer were a decent result, and Pat, Paul and myself carried over to week 2 with two tags.
Week 2:
This year we were only five hunters. The three of us who carried over plus Steve who came in Saturday and Alan who couldn’t come in ‘till Sunday.
As our share of the venison from first week, the biggest deer (a doe) was left with us to handle after the second week hunt. On Sunday, Steve noticed that something had been at the doe on the camp’s meat pole. Examining it we concluded that it was a bear, and decided to be on the lookout for him.
What with hauling guys and gear in and out of the bush on the weekend, we didn’t get a lot of hunting in before Monday.
On Monday Pat, Paul and Steve decided to do a line drive from north to south along buck ridge, and then swing east toward camp through the inter-lake run. I decided to sit at a natural funnel at the end of the inter-lake in case they pushed something on the last leg.
Almost at the start of the line drive they put up a small buck that Steve shot on the west side of the ridge. By the time they got through to me it was raining pretty hard. They hadn’t pushed anything by me, and we headed back to camp. In the afternoon they picked up the buck, and hung it on the meat pole much higher than the doe had been hung.
On Tuesday morning we saw where the doe had been further mauled, and the bear had taken bites out of each of the hams of the buck. There was snow on the ground, so I set off on his track, while a couple of the guys set up on watches that were in the direction of his trail. I managed to put him out of his bed but didn’t see him. He also found a seam where the watchers couldn’t see him when he went through the line. He’d travelled about 2 miles at that point.
We didn’t think he’d be back for a while, but that night, Pat saw him at the meat pole. After that we took some measures, and continually checked the meat pole for him. Minimizing his activities.
On Wednesday Paul shot a doe at 9 ¾ and it was decided to leave it in a tree away from camp overnight since that would probably be safer from the bear than our own meat pole.
On Wednesday afternoon I decided to sit on a spot overlooking a 6X4 breeding scrape. I sat in a small depression with an evergreen at my back (south).
I saw a deer, and put the dot on its shoulder and squeezed off. Just as the gun went off I saw the dot above the deer’s back. My reaction was `How did that happen.`
I searched ‘till dark, and then went back in the morning and located it. I guess it was the recoil that carried the dot above the deer’s back.
It was a very small doe, and after I gutted the deer (the first I’ve ever done after it lay over night), II called for help. The only response I got was Steve calling to tell me he’d shot a doe at buck ridge. Thus our season ended.
We hung these deer high on the meat pole, but mine was tasted by the bear that night.
We never got the bear.
Here's a picture of part of the damage he did to the deer we had hung.
