Another trip to Alberta

[Dave King]

Well, it's that time of year again and I'm packing up for a trip to Alberta to bother the locals and maybe chase/catch a black bear or two.

I figure to hook up with Ian M for a day or two to get rid of any stale ammunition he may have and try out some of his toys. Its a little logistical juggling to make everything fit but that's what the trip is all about...time away from work and days with nothing hard scheduled.

I'd like to catch up with Richard Graves and a few folks down his way and maybe a fella or two up in Fort McMurray but that's getting pretty optimistic with time.

I figure to spend a few free hours whitetail antler shed hunting (via 4 wheeler maybe) and a few hours hunting up some septarian nodules ("thunder eggs" I believe the locals may call them) for a rockhound friend.

I don't have a real need for another black bear hide but if a giant washtub head looking thing ( or a nice color phase) comes too close there could be some exciting moments.

I'm also gonna look for some of that blue can beer /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif (no green can beer /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif) and try to dispose of a few of those during the wee hours.

I'll be up there from the 28th of April to 10 May.

 

[Ian M]

Dave,
Have toys. Will travel...
Plans are being worked on today, will confirm as soon as I get a call-back.
Look forward to our visit. Sounds like you have an interesting trip planned.
ps
Do you shoot .308's at all anymore /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smirk.gif

 

[Dave King]

Ian

Thanks for the info.

I still shoot 308 a little bit (several hundred rounds last month) but plan to bring "The Monkey Blaster" 375 H&H for this trip as I don't want any bears getting away. I'd considered bringing 'The Retina Detacher' 416 Rigby but it scares me a little to repeatedly plink with it...400 grains at about 2550fps make for a fair kick in the unbraked beast.

 

[Pete Lincoln]

You know Dave, one of these days i'm gonna come along with you if you'll still have me. You are always welcome in Scotland or here in Germany ok.
Ive just had my piggy permit renewed for another year, season kicks of again on May 1st, so its gonna be another 10 months of hunting hard. I doubt i'll top last season on bag numbers mind..
have a good trip mate, say hi to your family for me.
Pete

 

[Dave King]

Pete

You're always welcome to come along, I'd need to clear some of the things with the lucky folks we'd stop by to visit on the escapade/adventure. Anything local is just a loadup and headout type of affair.

My wife has been wanting to visit Scotland (she likes men in skirts I believe) for a while now and maybe I can get her Mum to come along for the highland games (I'm sure she'd do well in the caber toss or maybe a British gurning competition).

My son is well and still in school for the C-RAM weapons system. He figures he'll head back to Iraq later this year for another tour. Thanks again for the help and concern(s).

I'm only on one deer depredation permit so far this year but I'm working on some others and I've been invited to Texas to do some "wild" hog termination(s) ("wild" being more-so escaped Russian stock but also some obviously feral short-snouted variants too).

I get a little wrapped-around-the-axle on hunting and vacation type of affairs, way too many offers for the time I can be away. I'd like to hunt a genuine German wild hog and perhpas a Roe critter but if hunting can't be arranged we'll settle for a few nights of wheat beer and heavy food, maybe some lies and guffaws too.

 

[Pete Lincoln]

Dave you come over during hunting season (May 1st to Feb 28th) and there is a EU hog and a Roe with your name on em, not to mention some wild boar roast, knodel dumplings with red cabbage and a barrel of weizen bier.
Hell i'll even dig my skirt out if it will please your good lady ( i once wore one whilst guarding Buckingham Palace you know, )
Pete

 

[Dave King]

Ian and I got together with Earl, Andy & Trevor in Lloydminster and spend some hours chatting and then a rather cilly day shooting. All-in-all we had a good time but there were some cold moments and windblown shots. It was down in the mid-20's with gusty winds but we managed to shoot til we were deaf and frozen. "No gophers were injured in the making of this adventure!"

I'm still just playing and riding in the truck, it'll be a few days until the weather is warm enough for many bears to be moving around.

 

[Pete Lincoln]

Dave, ive been there. LLoydminster.. we used to get a 10 man taxi from Camp Wainwright and visit a Dico in LLoydminster, That brings back memories.
Pete

 

[Ian M]

Dave,
I have some decent images of the shoot - almost forgot about those **** gophers. Maybe the fact that their holes were in between our 900 and 1000 yard targets made them so saucey. Seems to me one of the little rascals kept holding up his right paw and gave you the finger after several of the near-misses. We did them a favor with the .50, those 750 Amax's were digging dandy new holes for them to crawl into.
Lots of good hits on the steel considering the gail winds, sleet, rain and occasional snowflurries that almost made seeing the targets impossible. Excellent for callling wind tho, you could see the frigging wind most of the day... Then during the last hour the wind did a complete 180 on us, at least down at the targets it did, stayed the same at the firing position.

Next time we will shoot the white buffalo, or go back and keep shooting at those **** gophers till we hit one. I sent the images to your yahoo address yesterday. Still cleaning blow-dirt out of my rifles, that **** .50 made for a lot of flying dirt at the firing point and out at the targets. The .338 Ultramags, .30-378 with their big brakes also did a fair number on us. Made my little .300 WSM and .325 WSM look like puppies. My little GAP Nontypical held its own with the big boomers, shot really well and did not heat up at all since it was so **** cold out.

Have fun on your Alberta break - I am off to Manitoba this weekend for another bruin vs .325 WSM event. Give me a shout before you head home.

Oh yea, for some reason Dave spent a LOT of time in the heated spotters tent - not sure his blood has as much antifreeze in it as us Canucks. But we had fun, EH!