My "week off" for hunting started yesterday, but I needed to take care of some town business with the wife so we got that done yesterday. That was cool, just enjoyed the day together knowing I had the rest of the week with the season closing Sat. the 20th.
Today I went out & spent 7 hrs standing in the rain & calling. I'm guessing we got at least a solid inch of rain & the wind was blowing pretty good part of the time. Saw not a critter.
Got home & found out the guy who was going to take care of church stuff & preach for me Sunday is in the middle of a family crisis. His wife's brother is dying & not expected to make it thru the night so she's heading to Kentucky to be with the family, which makes my friend & fill in a mom as well as a dad this week (car pool for the kids school) on top of his regular full time job as a missionary pilot here.
He said he could still make it work but I told him I'd go ahead & work this week. I'd have felt bad the whole time I was hunting anyway.
As much as I was looking forward to having the last week of the season free (haven't done it in the 7 yrs we've been back in AK), some things (like her brothers death) sure put hunting in perspective.
Can't wait for next year!!!!
Besides, I'll still get out for an hour here or there & maybe the Lord will give me one a bit closer to the truck than this mornings pack wuld have been if I had seen one in the area I was calling! (would have been about 7 or 8 trips alone, each about 3 mi round trip with packs between 80 & 100#)

Thats too bad Vance! Like you said, their situation puts hunting into perspective. This will just make it that much sweeter when you get that 60" bull!

Vance,
You are a good man.

Vance,
Maybe you will get blessed and get a shot at a moose on one of the short trips you take. There is always next year.

I don't know Ernie, since I made that decision while I was still cold & wet after 7 hrs of standing in the rain in the mid 40s with wind not seeing or hearing a single animal, it may not have been totaly selfless!

Vance - Prayer's for the family, and you know what? God has something out there for you, it will walk out when you least expect it.

Vance you did the right thing. All that cold weather and rain, who want's to hunt in that?? Seriously next year the moose will be bigger and better.

Prayers on the way for the family.

Sometimes those short trips really pay off. I have taken some really nice animals on those days that I only had a few hours.

They say the Lord looks after sinners and fools… I think we are both for hunting in such foul weather!

My hats off to you for looking after your friends and family!

1 John 2:10

I have hunted California for a lot of years and never shot a deer. Last year for my 40th birthday my wife gave me the green light on a guided hunt in Montana.

Every evening while going back to the lodge my guide and I drove through a hill area that bordered his Indian reservation. We saw deer every time but it was to dark to shoot. It was day five of a seven day hunt and I was getting tired of going back to the lodge empty handed, So I told my guide I wanted to hunt this area in the morning.

It was now day six. The temp was at fourty and raining hard!
The plan was to take our wheeler to the top of the mountian and set up to glass. I knew we could catch deer moving early in the afternoon and pull a sneak while moving down the mountain.

It was now 2pm and still pouring rain. My guide was tired of glassing and told me to walk down a mile long ridge to see if I could find somthing to shoot and that he would pick me up at the bottom of the mountain. I told him no and that I wanted to sit here until at least 4pm. At that point he got up and said that he would be back in about an hour or so and started walking down the ridge.
While sitting and glassing I started thanking God for the opportunity of just being there. By the time my guide came back it had stoped raining. IT was 3:30 or so and we saw a deer about about a thousand yards down in a vally, it was a small buck. He was moving up the mountain. my guide said well? Then I said its day six and i want some meet. The plan was to sidehill the mountain and cut him off at the ridge. We started our stalk and about half way across the mountain we jumped up a buck that was in the vally below us. the buck started up the opposite side and skylined.
The buck was a little 3x4 but that was all right with me. As I sat down on my butt and set up my shooting sticks, my guide ranged him at 305 yrd's. After 2 shots and both of them missing the buck vanished over the ridge. My heart sunk and I just hung my head. My guide got up and said let's go find him. I said I want to sit here for a minute. As he started to walk off I just sat there and started to thank God for for his goodness.
I was just thankful for getting off a couple shots and also allowing me to have this guided hunt.

As I was talking to god I put two more rounds in my 7mm and looked back up on the ridge, just then my buck walk up and skylined again. I said to myself this cant be happening. Just then I had an all knowing feeling that God was providing me with this as my first deer ever.
My guide was about fourty yrd's on the side of me. He turned around to see if I was going to follow him. He saw me pointing up at the buck and he took a few steps back and covered his ears. I knew that was my green light to shoot! finely after 20 years of hunting (Deer Down!) " God does and will give you the desires of your heart "

(Good things come to those who wait)

Sounds like a great trip. Congratulations on your first deer. Hope there are many more for you.
DDawg

Vance

Yes it is soggy out their hunting .
I have stood in the same conditions and tell myself meat is cheaper at Safeway !!!!but when ever I get a chance to do it again in the same wet conditions I am back out in it again , go figure !!!!
I bet we have had at least 3" in the last week here in Homer !!and guess what snow is right around the corner !!!!

Prayers on the way for your friend Vance .
Good for you to step in and help .

RR

Slimpickens, that hunt will be hard to beat! You got to redeem yourself after missing! Most of the time after missing we are haunted with those last images of them slipping away!

Vance, as much as I hate to say it. It ain't all about hunting!

Thanks guys.
Her brother ended up passing away this morning so she was there in time to see him.
She lost another brother just about a month ago (just as this one was going into hospice), both to cancer (she has another brother with cancer that appears to be under control. They grew up as children of missionaries in Africa & DDT was used in the missionary compound to control malaria. They suspect that's the cause). She's the baby of the family.

Rick, I know the weather advisory Tuesday morning said 2" was expected in the next couple od days, so I'm sure you are right.
Are you back on your feet & feeling good? How's your moose hunting partner doing?
When you get a chance email me current prices on 320gr .429s.
Remember, I'm butying coffee in Soldotna next time you head to ANC.
Hope to get out for a few minutes tomorrow morning, & hope to get a little fall black bear hunting in yet.
You are right about being ready to go again. Decided the Cabels's dry Plus jacket stays home next time & it's the HH Impertech over wool. Breathable raingear seems to be OK up to the saturation point (in this case about 3 hrs into the hunt) point & then mine inhales rather than exhaling. Get you in trouble on a mountain somewhere. Had Impertech on bottom & was a little sweaty, but not soaked like on top.

Congrats on the deer Slimpickens! God is good!!

I guess that's one of the things I like about handgun hunting vs long guns. When it's raining I can still hunt or slow stalk with a handgun tucked in under my rain gear and both the gun and I stay dry. It's hard to keep a long gun under your coat.

Vance,

Prayers sent for you and your wife. Sucks to lose family, but its better that they move on to be with the almighty.