Dalin Charters and Guiding

Roy has hunted waterfowl worldwide and pretty much has every species and its subspecies.
He called here and said I need to come get a Vancouver Canada Goose one of the 11 subspecies of Canadian Geese. I tried talking him into coming earlier in the season when I knew exactly where to go get one (or thought I did they all look like Canadian Geese too me🤷‍♂️)
He said nope I need to come late when they’re fully plumed, only need a few to mount in my waterfowl collection….so freezing cold and snow we got, along with his Vancouver!
He also noticed our Barrows Goldeneye’s were prettier than any he’d ever seen so added a pair of them and Common Goldeneye to his Trophy Room.

Our friend Eric wanted to take his wife Heather to get her first Sitka Blacktail, we had a short window with Eric’s work schedule and before my first group arrived so we gave it a go!

Finished up 2025 with a few waterfowl hunts, main targets of course the Harlequin then some Barrow’s Goldeneye, Scoters and some others thrown in.

Made a post a few days ago that I guess is part 1 of this, if you missed it look back.
In a quick recap about 4 days prior I had spotted this buck on our friends property, the way smaller of a few they have and a fairly tough one to hunt because the only available cover is the same cover the deer are using as they go on and off the property.
I spotted him I think the second or third time I had looked there and spent almost 2hrs crawling through stickers trying to close the distance from over 600yds to under 500. I made it to about 490yds but with the strong wind that day decided my bullet probably wasn’t going to end up where I wanted it so laid there till after dark and left.
The next few days on my way back and forth from the other property I kept watching it from a distance so I wouldn’t educate them and kept making plans where and how to set up and hunt it but the wind direction was keeping me out of range from getting to the end 3/4 of the deer were using.
The wind switched a little on like day 3 so I set up on the opposite side but still at the wrong end I had seen one decent buck that day while walking in but before I could get a spotting scope setup to determine if it was him he ran a doe into the woods, I got set up behind a 3x3 by 5ft long 5inch square wire old hog trap that had been abandoned there. It wasn’t the best spot but the best I could come up with without spooking the place, most of the deer came out at the far end 800yds away( the end he was closer to 3 days prior)but a handful did come out 200-400yds away in the middle, a big old hog did go right across the field a few hundred yards away but I decided I best give him a pass instead of educating the deer, I never saw the one that had been chasing the doe again that evening and of course like the few days prior I could hear gunshots in all directions so I didn’t really know if my target deer was still around and thought maybe I should of let some lead fly in the wind three days ago.
Day 4 I went there again in the evening around 3pm and the light breeze again wouldn’t let me set up on the far side so I decided to head back to my hog trap I thought at least I had options there from maybe sneaking closer, him running a doe my way or even using rattling antlers to get him to come investigate.
I got set up and there were already a handful of deer on the far far end down where I couldn’t sit because of the wind, as I was there on my knees using my hog trap for a bit of outline breakup I thought I should bring a few branches out here to make this a bit better if I have to back out and make a sneak later, about that time I saw some movement in the shelter belt maybe 70yds away and thought great some deer are going to come out right there, spook and educate everything here with over two hours of daylight left🤦‍♂️
Next I got a glimpse of it getting closer through the trees and brush not coming out but still heading my way and this time I saw some flashes of antlers (there were plenty of small bucks around) I slowly lowered my binoculars and lifted the rifle just in case knowing he was going to see me or cut my wind at anytime as he passed by, yep looking through the scope at branches a few yards away to where the deer was didn’t work I had it all set up to shoot 300yds plus! Without lowering the gun or taking my eye from the scope I reached up with one hand and found the dial and started lowering the power as I got it way down things came into focus and I could see him there looking at me now, big, mature, mass and yes those stickers! It was far from a great shot but I dropped the crosshairs from his head to below his throat patch got the angle took a quick glance and thought there’s a hole where the bullets gonna miss all the trees and branches, one tree had a quarter of his chest covered but a few inches to the right of it and…. bang, flop, he never knew what happened!
I stood up from my knees never even chambered another round and thought that wasn’t my plan….It was Better! I looked back out at the field for a minute expecting a bigger one to walk out and then walked through the trees and brush the whole 32yds (yes I used my rangefinder afterwards) to the Buck I had named “Stickers”
With deer tag filled now those hogs were in trouble, I lost count when I passed 10😊👍🐷🐖