Here is couple of para's out of the story I wrote for this wolf
The Ghost Of The North Woods
I quickly turned on the camera just in time to see a second wolf a white wolf working its way in. Then I heard more wolves, some to the right, and some to the left, working their way through the woods obviously on the hunt.
To my disbelief, there stood one of the rarest trophy's a bowhunter could ever wish for, and it was offering me a perfect broadside shot at just 24 yards. I slowly raised and drew my bow still amazed at what I was drawing on, but somehow I remained extremely calm. As soon as I reached full draw the arrow was on its way. I watched closely as the arrow struck its mark perfectly but I was surprised to see that I never got a full pass-through. The arrow looked to go in deep enough to get both lungs but it all happened so quickly that I wasn't sure. As I watched the wolf retreat with my arrow sticking out of it, I began to doubt my hit. I was able to see the wolf run off for at least 50 to 60 yards and had a pretty good idea of the direction the wolf was taking. However, we could not be sure because the whole woods seemed to come alive once I struck that wolf. There were sticks and twigs snapping all around us. We could hear the wolf/wolves run off for about 6 seconds or more, than the woods fell silent again.
As I sat there replaying the magical event that just transpired over and over in my head, I looked over at Tony and felt some much needed relief when he gave me the big thumbs up. Darkness would soon be setting in on us and because of the fact I never got the pass-through I was hoping for, I knew we'd better get started tracking the wolf as soon as possible. We only waited for about 10 minutes in the stands before we started to climb down to began what I prayed would be a very successful tracking job. The first thing I did was to pace off the distance to where the wolf was standing when I arrowed him, 24 yards exactly. We followed the deer trail the wolf took as it departed and began to search for the slightest trace of blood. I knew because of the nature of the hit it would take a while before the chest cavity filled up enough to allow the blood to spill out onto the ground. After we covered the 50-60 yards that I was able to see the wolf travel and not having spotted a single pin drop of blood my concern level was greatly increasing. I knew we only had about a half hour of good tracking light left so I decided the best thing we could do was to split up and continue searching for the wolf and blood sign. Tony walked down a trail to the left that the wolf could have taken, as I continued to search the area where I last seen the wolf for the start of the blood trail. Like I said earlier, the wolf would have travelled 50-60 yards and the blood should be hitting the ground by now. Tony had only been gone a couple of minutes when I heard him call out that he found the wolf. It had taken trail to the right of the one Tony walked up. Once Tony spotted a little field to his right he walked over to its edge, there he immediately spotted to wolf lying on the edge of the tree line. I was extremely relieved, and covered the distance between Tony and myself in seconds.
Wow what an astonishing animal, lying there with part of my arrow still sticking out of it. At that moment I was filled with many emotions ranging from very happy, to the very sad. I was happy in the fact that I had arrowed and killed a wolf, and did so as humanely as possible. The wolf must have been on the ground within 10-12 seconds and only covered about 100 yards on a flat out run before it collapsed. I was saddened to have taken such a remarkable and elusive animal and to the fact of knowing that no other hunter would have the opportunity to witness such a majestic marvel as it slipped through the north woods in its ghost like fashion. It was almost haunting the way it maundered through the forest. I felt great relief and comfort that the wolf was found so quickly, as I had doubted my hit as one so often does as one replays the scenes over and over in their head while waiting for the time, (which all of a sudden appears to have stopped frozen in some time-warp) to pass. I felt proud knowing that my hunting and shooting skills proved flawless at the moment of truth. And yes, once again I felt connected to land and all the creatures of it as I so often do when I've completed my hunt. We took the next few minutes to finish off the video and snap a few pictures before we were faced with the chore of carrying the wolf out to the jeep.
Deer are easy to drag out for me because I'm never concerned with damaging the hide, but I wanted to be extra careful with this wolf so I opted to carry it over my shoulders. The wolf weighted well over 100 lbs but felt more like over 200 lbs by the time I carry him the 300 yards back to the jeep. As we started packing our gear back into the jeep I paused and looked at the beautiful white wolf I just arrowed. I remembered thinking that this was an evening I would cherish for years to come.
My first Alberta Spring bear hunt had been my most exciting bear hunt ever. I arrowed a wolf with a traditional bow; how rare was this? I've since found out after a couple of weeks on the internet that I was the only known Canadian to kill a wolf with a traditional bow and only one of 5 in the world to do the same. Later after finding out how rare a hunt this actually was, only made it seem all the more remarkable. I had been under the impression that many/most of the Spring bear hunters here in Alberta would/have seen wolves at or around their bait sites. It was only after the fact that I have come to realize the rarity of this Springs black bear hunt turned wolf hunt. The 27th May 2005 might just be the date that remains unparalleled in my bowhunting adventures. What more could a traditional bowhunter ask for?
As for the buck, well he was a monster estimated over 400 lbs live weight. Here are a couple of pictures of him. One with my hunting buddy Tony and the other of him hanging. Note: Got 85 lbs of meat off that doe hanging between his two halves. I was thinking about getting him mounted but there were no forms large enough. His neck was way to big and he was an inch to long on the measurement from the corner of his eye to the tip of his nose. For a comparison I weighed about 215 lbs at the time of that picture.
Topic: Show us who you are! (Read 25556 times)
