Hunting guide

I'm recently back from my first job as a professional hunting guide. I still find it hard to believe that I have made it here to Canada and actually living out my dreams of living and working truly in the mountains.
Hunting Guide in the Rocky Mountains!
Picture taken by my hunter

We hunted for elk on a 10 day mountain hunt (8 hunting days) and unfortunately ended the hunt unsuccessful. I shouldn't feel too bad however, as the other guide who runs the business here was also unsuccesful, and says that it was a very strange season. The benchmark in this management area is very high as a bull elk must have 6 points on one of its antlers before you are legally allowed to shoot it. This means that finding elk is not the problem, but finding the right elk in a legal hunting area can be hard. Although we didn't get to kill a big elk, I managed to get my hunter onto several smaller (but still very impressive) bulls that was a great experience for him. One bull I called in with a bugle from around 400m and he popped up about 60m away from us bugling aggresively. Even though I knew we couldn't shoot him it sure got the blood pumping to have him up close like that, and that is what hunting is all about for me. We also saw many grizzly bears as well as sheep, goats and deer throughout the hunt.

So, after one hunt, I'm feeling even more optimistic about my prospects as a hunting guide. I have a lot to learn, but think that I could be very successful at the role if I continue on with it and become more experienced. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the year of hunting after getting past the anxiety of the the first hunt, and feel more prepared now to act as the guide for the rest of the season. I was given some pretty heavy responsibility of heading off into the mountains with my hunter on horseback and a packhorse, and setting up a spike camp. It is great to be forced to learn new skills though, and I now know how to pack a horse without a second person tensioning the diamond hitch and feel more confident about taking horses up and down seriously steep terrain.

At this stage I will be involved with at least one Bighorn sheep hunt and be the guide for two more elk hunts and three whitetail deer hunts before the season is over at the end of November. Bring it on!