Mustangs Rule
Well-known member
- Joined
- Feb 4, 2021
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Hunting Deer And Antelope by Canoe.
My family’s New England dairy farm was a rectangle about a mile by half a mile. Running all along one long side there was a beaver damn pond. At most it was 150 yards wide but what a world it was, with lots of dead trees and a depth of 5 or 6 feet at the center.
A few times when it got very cold suddenly the ice got thick enough to walk on and was almost as clear as glass. Kinda wavy. It froze so quickly that small air bubbles did not cloud it. I would ice skate on it and look at turtles, fish, beaver even a rare otter swimming under me. During the fall I would drag a 17 foot Grumman aluminum canoe to the pond with a 1948 Farmall Tractor.
I made a gun rack for my canoe which held three firearms, a Remington model 14 .22 Pump, a double barrel 12 gauge Le fever Nitro express shotgun and some type of a center fire rifle. The first was clunky mail order 7.65 Argentine Mauser, and later I went to a Marlin 336 T in.35 Remington.
With the .22 I shot sitting ducks and geese, with the shotgun I shot incoming ducks and geese and grouse along the edge of the pond, and with the rifle I shot deer, who seemed to pay no attention to me while I was in the water. My being even pretty close did not push any predator response button.
When I moved to Wyoming nearly 40 years ago I built many a hunt for both deer and antelope around the use of a canoe. Sometimes to just cross a river, at other times, after glassing and seeing game near the river, I would float down and tie off along a high bank, climb up and go “bang”.
One time I saw a herd of antelope way up high on a bench next to timber. I floated down about a mile, tied off at a dry creek bed, hiked up under cover of the creek bed, then stalked the buck antelope though the forest. I shot him at about 60 yards with my 35 Whelen. I was on a big boulder under a fir tree
I dressed him out, skinned him and used a plastic roll “Deer Sleigher” to drag him to the river. It was steep and covered with smooth dry grass. An easy drag. Next I put him on the wooden rack I made for the bottom of the aluminum canoe. The metal really transferred the cold well
There was a wide shallow place in the river. I tied my canoe off and let him cool down real well all night. This was grizzly country and it seemed the safest place to leave my carcass.
Water can be hunters friend even with streams too small for a canoe. Twice I have shot a buck deer near such a mall stream in marshes, gutted and skinned him then brought out the truck tire tube I had in my pack. I pumped it up, tied the carcass on the tube, attached a long line to and floated my critter back to my camp.
I recall one time when I saw a herd of mostly does right next to the river. The bank was pretty high and I stalked them while walking right in the river along the edge. They kept moving and moving and moving as I kept walking in the water. Finally I took my shot, just as snow was falling and thw wind picked up bronging a storm in with it
There was a kid with me on the other side of the river. I yelled to him to go downstream and get the truck.
The river was narrow but deeper where I was now, and my canoe way down stream. So I just tied my rifle to the doe and floated her across. Antelope hair is very hollow. She made a good raft
I changed my clothes right away but had the deepest cold in my body after being wet for about a half hour. This was 7,200 in the Wyoming Rockies. Te best tasting anteple come from such high country with the best forage
I never did this before, usually i just throw the liver away. This time how ever I ate about half of it. Soft, raw. blood filled easy to chew and so warm.
I never warmed up quicker.
My family’s New England dairy farm was a rectangle about a mile by half a mile. Running all along one long side there was a beaver damn pond. At most it was 150 yards wide but what a world it was, with lots of dead trees and a depth of 5 or 6 feet at the center.
A few times when it got very cold suddenly the ice got thick enough to walk on and was almost as clear as glass. Kinda wavy. It froze so quickly that small air bubbles did not cloud it. I would ice skate on it and look at turtles, fish, beaver even a rare otter swimming under me. During the fall I would drag a 17 foot Grumman aluminum canoe to the pond with a 1948 Farmall Tractor.
I made a gun rack for my canoe which held three firearms, a Remington model 14 .22 Pump, a double barrel 12 gauge Le fever Nitro express shotgun and some type of a center fire rifle. The first was clunky mail order 7.65 Argentine Mauser, and later I went to a Marlin 336 T in.35 Remington.
With the .22 I shot sitting ducks and geese, with the shotgun I shot incoming ducks and geese and grouse along the edge of the pond, and with the rifle I shot deer, who seemed to pay no attention to me while I was in the water. My being even pretty close did not push any predator response button.
When I moved to Wyoming nearly 40 years ago I built many a hunt for both deer and antelope around the use of a canoe. Sometimes to just cross a river, at other times, after glassing and seeing game near the river, I would float down and tie off along a high bank, climb up and go “bang”.
One time I saw a herd of antelope way up high on a bench next to timber. I floated down about a mile, tied off at a dry creek bed, hiked up under cover of the creek bed, then stalked the buck antelope though the forest. I shot him at about 60 yards with my 35 Whelen. I was on a big boulder under a fir tree
I dressed him out, skinned him and used a plastic roll “Deer Sleigher” to drag him to the river. It was steep and covered with smooth dry grass. An easy drag. Next I put him on the wooden rack I made for the bottom of the aluminum canoe. The metal really transferred the cold well
There was a wide shallow place in the river. I tied my canoe off and let him cool down real well all night. This was grizzly country and it seemed the safest place to leave my carcass.
Water can be hunters friend even with streams too small for a canoe. Twice I have shot a buck deer near such a mall stream in marshes, gutted and skinned him then brought out the truck tire tube I had in my pack. I pumped it up, tied the carcass on the tube, attached a long line to and floated my critter back to my camp.
I recall one time when I saw a herd of mostly does right next to the river. The bank was pretty high and I stalked them while walking right in the river along the edge. They kept moving and moving and moving as I kept walking in the water. Finally I took my shot, just as snow was falling and thw wind picked up bronging a storm in with it
There was a kid with me on the other side of the river. I yelled to him to go downstream and get the truck.
The river was narrow but deeper where I was now, and my canoe way down stream. So I just tied my rifle to the doe and floated her across. Antelope hair is very hollow. She made a good raft
I changed my clothes right away but had the deepest cold in my body after being wet for about a half hour. This was 7,200 in the Wyoming Rockies. Te best tasting anteple come from such high country with the best forage
I never did this before, usually i just throw the liver away. This time how ever I ate about half of it. Soft, raw. blood filled easy to chew and so warm.
I never warmed up quicker.
