Highlights In The Shadows: 36 - Hunting
In this latest episode of his life story Owen Clement goes on a “big game’’ hunt.
For earlier chapters of Owen’s story please click on Highlights In The Shadows in the menu on this page.
Prince George was where I went on my last two hunting expeditions.
My friend Glen Brown, the airport agent, was a keen hunter. He and the resident aircraft mechanic regularly went after moose and deer during the hunting season.
Early one frosty autumn morning the three of us drove to the end of the main runway and after a brief walk over cleared ground entered the forest. A foot of wet snow lay on the ground. I followed Glen as an observer. We cautiously tried not to make any noise when stepping over the mulch of fallen twigs and branches in the pre-dawn darkness.
We had been moving along cautiously for about half an hour when Glen suddenly froze indicating for me to stand quite still. I strained to see or hear through the gloom what it was that had attracted his attention. I could not see or hear a thing. By gently pressing down my shoulder he signalled me to crouch down and stay where I was. He lay flat on his stomach and with his loaded rifle across his arms crawled commando-style towards a barely discernible clearing. He was soon out of my sight and hearing. Despite being well protected with my winter gear I was soon wet through and cold. Dawn was still about half an hour away.
Just as I saw the clearing begin to lighten, I heard and then saw Glen stomping towards me making no effort to be quiet. He was obviously in a rage.
When he had halted suddenly his keen eyes had picked out a large animal feeding at the other side of the clearing. He had crawled slowly and gingerly through mud and snowy slush to a spot near enough to make sure of his shot. Moose are large animals and Glen needed to be quite certain of his hitting his mark, as he did not want to make his prey suffer unnecessarily nor make such a huge animal angry enough to charge. Like me he had to lie and wait for quite some time. However, what he thought was a moose had turned out to be someone’s horse. He was so furious that he felt like shooting it anyway. We had a good laugh about it later
The next and last time I ever went 'big game' hunting was again with Glen during the next deer-hunting season. Glen was very partial to venison. We drove to the end of the runway once again and walked into the forest as usual. Only this time it was in the afternoon. We took up our position behind a tree, stood quite still and waited. A large doe eventually appeared and as Glen clicked off his safety-catch the doe looked up, turned and faced us. Glen fired shooting off the animal's lower jaw. The wounded deer obviously in shock seemed to look at us in utter disbelief. I had never seen a more pathetic sight. Glen quickly fired again killing the doe instantly. I helped him skin and cut off the two hindquarters, which we lugged through the forest to the truck with great difficulty. The rest of the animal was left for the scavengers. It took me a long time to get over seeing the tragic sight of such a beautiful creature being harmed in such a dreadful way.
I enjoyed other interesting times in Prince George. I particularly remember one weekend during the fall.
© Clement 2006
