Hate to admit it but I really blew a shot today. We loaded up this morning to go Caribou hunting. In the confusion my wife moved my rifle out of the way so it would not get bumped. Only problem was it slid behind someother stuff that I was not taking. After we went through Delta (90 miles south) I realised I did not have my gun. Norm and Jeff had theirs. When we got farther down the road we started seeing Caribou. We went down to where we could intercept them when they crossed the road. Jeff shot his, then Norm did the same. Jeff handed me his rifle to use. I did not see anything in the area I wanted to shoot, so I started walking down the highway while they were field dressing their animals. I walked about 3/4 of a mile and then walked off to a small lake about 1/4 mile from the highway. Caribou were headed for the lake so I got out there and sat down in the snow ahead of them. I sat there about 30 minutes and the Caribou started passing all around me. Cows and Calves everywhere. I sat real still and watched for something to shoot. The cows would come to within 15 to 20 yards of me, look at me, then just start feeding. I soon saw a big bull coming down off the hill. He had heavy beams, and good height. But the thing that impressed me was the width, I had not sen many this wide. I watched this big boy for 45 minutes, he kept holding back and letting the cows pass him. Finally he came to a clear area that was within range, 125 yards. I was using Jeffs 300 Win Mag, with a 4 power scope. Not really enough magnification for that type of area. I took the shot, aiming at the center of the shoulder, saw the right antler disappear. Caribou started shaking his head, and just stood there. I moved closer, I crawled to within 30 yards of him as he stood there shaking his head. That is when I realised I had been shooting through a small bush about 15 yards from the bull when I took the shot. Appearantly, the bush deflected the bullet enough that the bullet hit the antler. The Antler was broken in half, and the bottom half flew off too. The antler came loose from the skull just like it had been shed. I made a second shot, center of the shoulder and down he went. That was at ten this morning, Norm and Jeff have been giving me a hard time over (blowing his antler off) for the last ten hours as we came back home. Jeff took pictures wanting to show everybody my HALF RACK. I told them I was going to split the skull down the middle, turn it sideways, and mount it on a plaque.
