Last week was the end of Nova Scotia's General Deer Hunting season, Andrea was really motivated to try and see the really nice buck we had on camera so she took off the afternoon Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, as well we hunted all day Saturday.
We last had any sign of this buck on the 27th of November:
The next day we had our first real snow fall which in MB was exactly what we wanted, I have harvested several deer in snow storms in MB.
Last year hunting the South mountain as soon as there was snow all sign of deer disappeared, I thought at the time it was an anomaly - yet the same thing happened here on the North mountain we were hunting this year. We spent 3 afternoons and all day Saturday hiking and searching for sign with nothing, not a track to be found.
Honestly it was a bit unmotivating to not find a track in the snow at all, it warmed up later in the week and most of the snow had turned to water, which was not a surprise as the ground was already completely saturated and standing water was everywhere.
We really enjoy hunting together, the time spent in the woods is similiar to the time spent walking on sand beaches or summer hiking trails, peaceful and a great opportunity to be connected without electronic tethers. The bonus is far more exercise with the potential to harvest some delicious meat.
I am sure most of you have figured out that Andrea never harvested a deer this year, not for lack of effort on her part but we are definitely both still learning the differences in hunting techniques here in NS. I have previously talked in my blogs about the differences in rifles we are working with, Andrea went all in on her choice for a new hunting rifle for the bush, I really like her taste as well.
Her new to her rifle is the beauty on the left, beside my very nice Browning XBolt Micro Medallion 308. Hers is a Ruger M77 MK 2 also in 308. It is noticeably smaller than my rifle which is pretty compact itself. She knew going in that she would lose even more muzzle velocity from the 16.5 inch barrel as well as having some additional muzzle blast. No worries though, it will be very capable of a 300 yard shot if that opportunity ever arises. The rifle arrived Friday morning and I immediately headed off to the range after setting it up with my second favorite scope in the cupboard. (Redfield 2X7X32), I took some handloads and zeroed the scope, a very pleasant experience I must say. It was quite accurate for a rifle with no testing conducted as well. Andrea was able to hunt Friday afternoon and Saturday with this rifle and was quite thrilled with its weight, compact size and easy handling deep in the bush. Saturday we covered several kilometers of rough mountain side, blowdowns and just thick brush. We found absolutely no sign of deer but there were many wonderful sights to observe, deep gullies with finger ridges were my favorites followed closely by spots where we could look out over huge swathes of the Western portion of the Annapolis Valley.
We found a nice place for a coffee break on the top of this clearcut, it was a great view - we would spend some time glassing here for bedded deer but could not find any.
Our thoughts on being more successful are that we need to start earlier, I know that it other parts of the province hunters are still seeing deer, however in this area it seems everyone says the same thing, the deer just disappear after the first real snow. We plan to start much earlier next season and actually hunt the muzzleloader . archery season before the general hunting season and then hunt that as well.
On that note, rifle plans for next year are becoming more complex every day: I thought about what direction I wanted to go and decided I wanted a heavier bullet but still in a light easy handling rifle. I knew where to find a 338 Federal packaged in a Tikka T3 Stainless Synthetic...which means yes, contrary to my statement in my last blog regarding wooden stocks I just purchased a rifle wrapped in a synthetic stock. I am willing to try it, a good friend and mentor whom I consider much wiser has informed me he is going to all stainless synthetic for his hunting rifles and I do understand why. I am going to put aside my skepticism about how noisy the stock will be and give it a fair shake. Worst case scenario, after viewing the laminate stock on Andrea's new rifle I can also go that route and put a lightweight laminate stock on it and still have a nice light easy handling rifle that will throw 200 grain .338 caliber projectiles as my main carry rifle. It will be topped with a Redfield 2X7X32 as well so Andrea gets to keep my other one...
There is other rifle stuff going on behind the scenes but that can keep for another day.
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