Bow Hunting & Buck Fever

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Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
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McBride, BC
Kinda raises the hair on the back of your neck, huh? Neat to see the moose tipping his head and showing off his rack.
Watch the guy's right arm with the shakes!
The open truck door was all that separated me and a 4 pt buck mule deer the other night. Big. Silent.

Guy in the office next to me was a very successful moose hunter.
Called in a big bull and shot it, point blank, on the other side of a single spruce tree.
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
The real advantage of banging a moose is the bartering power for other kinds of meat.
Chickens, pork, lamb, beef, venison, elk, what have you.
Plus the moose is fabulous clean, organic, lean meat.

I used to buy at least a side of bison every November. I have eaten 6-7 2 yr-old bison.
I bartered lots of it for all sorts of meats. The variety was enjoyable.
I quit because I just don't eat nearly as much meat of any kind as I did when I was younger.
Plus, it took a lot of money, up front, that I had to hold in inventory until we ate it all.
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
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McBride, BC
I learned a long time ago that the way to save food money is with a good-sized freezer.
You have to be instantly ready when deals come up. Or, you project food needs for 6-12 months.

I have no recollection what I paid for it in 2000 when I bought this house.
I do remember that the first few sides of bison and ??bags of carrots/beans/peas/berries
paid for it (by store food prices) in less than 3 years. It owes me nothing if it croaked tomorrow.

I move a selection of foods upstairs to the kitchen freezer, as needed.
So, I'm not into the big freezer every day.
My freezer performance monitor is a cup of water, frozen, with a coin sitting on the ice.
If the freezer failed, the ice would melt, the coin would sink and we start over!

WX is good enough to light the grill. Tonight was bison T-bone steak.
 
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santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
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Florida
..My freezer performance monitor is a cup of water, frozen, with a coin sitting on the ice.
If the freezer failed, the ice would melt, the coin would sink and we start over!

WX is good enough to light the grill. Tonight was bison T-bone steak.
Good tip to check if a possible defrosting occurred with the glass, water and coin. We do the same.
Good ideas are universal!
It helps. But ice melts at 32f (0c) whereas chicken isn’t considered safely frozen unless it’s below 28f (-2.2c) In a sealed freezer The ice would remain frozen while the chicken could be legally thawed for days or even weeks.
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
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McBride, BC
Used to be such a chore, re-arranging the food in the freezer for another side of bison.
A bull moose of that size is about the same as killing an average-sized horse.
They are all so lean and boney that what you eventually take home
doesn't look like much from the animal that you started with.

I think that about 12 hours is as long a power failure as I can remember here over then last 20 years.
Keep the doors shut and frozen foods should(?) be able to last longer than that.

We did have a massive power failure (wildfire damage) just a few years ago.
The Village went door-to-door and told everybody to box up and label everything in their freezers.
They had rented and set up some 18-wheeler freezer truck units in the park and we all got our food saved FOR A MONTH.
The very best giggle was when we learned that somebody had stolen the generator from the police station!
 

Janne

Sent off - Not allowed to play
Feb 10, 2016
12,330
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Grand Cayman, Norway, Sweden
It helps. But ice melts at 32f (0c) whereas chicken isn’t considered safely frozen unless it’s below 28f (-2.2c) In a sealed freezer The ice would remain frozen while the chicken could be legally thawed for days or even weeks.

It is more likely the freezer goes to ‘off’ position due to a long powercut.

Then the ice will melt.
No method is perfect!
 
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Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
If I knew for certain that others would show up, I'd go back to buying bison just for the bartering.
Moose is heavenly good. Best gravy on the planet.
Lots of locals call them "Swamp Donkeys." Even a local dark ale with that name.
 
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Spirit fish

Banned
Aug 12, 2021
338
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31
Doncaster
Used to be such a chore, re-arranging the food in the freezer for another side of bison.
A bull moose of that size is about the same as killing an average-sized horse.
They are all so lean and boney that what you eventually take home
doesn't look like much from the animal that you started with.

I think that about 12 hours is as long a power failure as I can remember here over then last 20 years.
Keep the doors shut and frozen foods should(?) be able to last longer than that.

We did have a massive power failure (wildfire damage) just a few years ago.
The Village went door-to-door and told everybody to box up and label everything in their freezers.
They had rented and set up some 18-wheeler freezer truck units in the park and we all got our food saved FOR A MONTH.
The very best giggle was when we learned that somebody had stolen the generator from the police station!
id love to hunt a el k in America one-day with a compound they make our red stag look tiny
 
i found myself face to face with a wapiti stag in broad daylight during mating season in Fjordland (=bottom of South Island of New Zealand) of the house.of a remote farm i spent 3months- we looked at each other before he slowly walked off... shame i didn't have a camera with me to prove it...
i never witnessed it myself but apparently in the days when feral deer were a big issue in New Zealand some guys (with rather large testicles) used to jump from low-flying helicopters onto the deer's back to wrestle them down before transporting them to deer farms, also remember hearing that the US government employed some "Kiwis" to help catching deer using this method (might been in Yellowstone but i'm not sure)...
 
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Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
Don't get Canadian moose, elk and caribou confused with each other. They are all horse-sized but very different animals. The long-legged black moose are not even the same as the short-legged brown moose.

We have a little elk season (introduced vermin) but hunters draw a lottery for no less than 6 point bulls. Some guys are pretty successful. The harems are cow-dominated and those old girls are the ones that need to be culled.

I'll hunt range-fed bison with a cheque book.
 

C_Claycomb

Moderator staff
Mod
Oct 6, 2003
7,354
2,365
Bedfordshire
id love to hunt a el k in America one-day with a compound they make our red stag look tiny
With a compound? Not a more traditional or even natural style of bow and gear?

I missed out on a chance to bow hunt whitetails some years ago, visiting with family. What I think one really wishes for is not just the hunt, but to be in the place with a lifestyle that allows one to participate in the whole process, from scouting to feeding ones family. Coming in for a couple of weeks, finding game and then needing to pack it home on a plane with all the attendant import problems, or just leave it behind, it isn't the picture most people have.

Edit: I should add, I built my own wood take down long bow, and footed shaft arrows, then practiced multiple days per week, for a couple of months, in my parents' back garden which is long enough and shaped such that I could shoot out to 25 yards with a safe backstop.
 
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TeeDee

Full Member
Nov 6, 2008
10,448
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Exeter
With a compound? Not a more traditional or even natural style of bow and gear?

I missed out on a chance to bow hunt whitetails some years ago, visiting with family. What I think one really wishes for is not just the hunt, but to be in the place with a lifestyle that allows one to participate in the whole process, from scouting to feeding ones family. Coming in for a couple of weeks, finding game and then needing to pack it home on a plane with all the attendant import problems, or just leave it behind, it isn't the picture most people have.

Bows are surely more a modern invention arn't they? I mean in the grand scheme of things they are recent inventions. Surely a flint tipped spear would be more sporting and fitting. :)
 

Robson Valley

Full Member
Nov 24, 2014
9,959
2,664
McBride, BC
Neolithic hunting practices vary a lot because not all big game lives everywhere in North America. There's no better example of this than the Bison. Plains variety or woodland variety, they do not exist in the west coast forests like elk, moose and caribou.

Together with Mule Deer and Whitetail deer, they are all very much creatures of "edge," such as you would see with a patch of forest logged off.
Deer stand on my front doorstep in winter, maybe no more than 18" from the door. We all kind of take it for granted!

Best estimate is 60,000,000 bison on the Great Plains by 1750. They are far too dangerous to hunt in a one-on-one conflict. Nobody is foolhardy enough to try to walk up to one and stick a flint spear in their guts. As landscape features, cliffs used as "buffalo jumps" were the practical technique for 13,000 years that we know of.

Once again, bowhunting differs in popularity from one region to another. Of course, the hunter is responsible for the best possible dispatch of the game. Compound bows do add some security. Not effective in dense understory growth in our western forests. Open, deciduous forests east of the Rockies is a different matter altogether.

As a visitor, you are required to hunt with a licensed guide and they don't come cheap for the services that you will get. As a resident, I can't take you out (as a hunter) with anything more than a camera. Come along. We will drive up 3,000' above the river and maybe whack some chickens for supper.
 

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santaman2000

M.A.B (Mad About Bushcraft)
Jan 15, 2011
16,909
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67
Florida
I prefer a traditional recurve bow as well. For me that‘s part of the point of bow hunting. For many though it’s just a chance to hunt an extra season. @C_Claycomb I believe we‘re thinking alike on this one.
 
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Spirit fish

Banned
Aug 12, 2021
338
73
31
Doncaster
With a compound? Not a more traditional or even natural style of bow and gear?

I missed out on a chance to bow hunt whitetails some years ago, visiting with family. What I think one really wishes for is not just the hunt, but to be in the place with a lifestyle that allows one to participate in the whole process, from scouting to feeding ones family. Coming in for a couple of weeks, finding game and then needing to pack it home on a plane with all the attendant import problems, or just leave it behind, it isn't the picture most people have.

Edit: I should add, I built my own wood take down long bow, and footed shaft arrows, then practiced multiple days per week, for a couple of months, in my parents' back garden which is long enough and shaped such that I could shoot out to 25 yards with a safe backstop.
I don't have chance to practise... bowhunting is illegal in the UK ,I could trap with nothing but it's not legal!! thanks for your informative comment seems your in teedees gang
 

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