Pick the Right Gear for Elk, Deer, Bear and Cougar Hunts
Vancouver Island, just off the west coat of Canada, is well known for surfing, vineyards, super-sized cedar and spruce trees and world-class salmon fishing. It does not, however, come to most people’s minds when discussing top big-game hunting destinations. And most Island hunters aren’t upset about this. They are happy to enjoy their passion in relative obscurity. But the truth is, this island paradise not only hosts good populations of big game, but it also offers hunting for some very unique species. The four main big game species found on Vancouver Island are Roosevelt elk, black bear, black-tailed deer and cougar. They unofficially make up the Vancouver Island slam. I suspect the slam hasn’t been completed by many hunters, due in large to the cost/difficulty of obtaining a Roosevelt elk tag, the terrain and also that hunting cougars there not only requires the use of hounds but some very specialized hounds.
I’ve had the good fortune to hunt Vancouver Island on numerous occasions and have hunted all four species but so far, the black-tailed deer has managed to elude me. In fact, I’ve had three blacktail tags and have yet to fill one. I’ve taken one bear and been a long on a couple other hunts. I’ve also been successful on cougar and Roosevelt elk. I’m really hoping to get back in the next year or so to hunt blacktails and complete my Vancouver Island slam.
Roosevelt Elk
There are two species of elk found in British Columbia; the Rocky Mountain and the Roosevelt. The Rocky Mountain are most widely distributed, with the Roosevelt only found on Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast of the mainland. British Columbia’s Roosevelts are considered to have the largest bodies of all elk species in North America, but antlers don’t often match their humongous bodies. While the world record for Roosevelt Elk is a bull taken on Vancouver Island in 2019, scoring 419-6/8 points, the Boone and Crockett minimum is a modest 290 points. Roosevelt Elk are also found in Alaska, Washington, Oregon and Northern California.
Resident tags are available through a limited-entry draw with odds of about 1:100 and both residents and non residents can hunt through an outfitter and utilize their quota without having to draw a tag. Outfitter quota is extremely limited and hunts with some outfitters are now approaching $50,000.
In 2021, with Covid restrictions still limiting movement at the border, I received a call from Glen Wallman, at Vancouver Island Coastal Bear Adventures letting me know that he’d had a cancellation on an elk hunt. His hunter had been unable to cross the border and the only hitch was that I had to be on Vancouver Island in two days. Ever since I saw my first Roosevelt elk some 20-plus years ago, I’d dreamed of one day hunting them and I decided to jump at the opportunity, despite it still being a hefty sum of money.
I arrived on the Island on the second day of the season. It was late morning and Glen, and his guide Aaron Parrotta, suggested we go for a drive, so I could familiarize myself with the area and then we’d get serious about hunting the next day. It was about half an hour into the drive that we stopped to glass an old, logged area. It didn’t take Glen and Aaron long to find a herd of elk, well concealed in the regrowth. After considerable glassing, it appeared it was a herd of cows with a couple young, satellite bulls. Just as we were about to leave, Aaron caught some movement to the left of the herd, and it was a big, mature bull.
I wasn’t really in a hurry to end the hunt but one look through the spotting scope changed my mind. While many Roosevelt bulls look like their Rocky Mountain cousins, with all tines coming off perpendicular to the main beam, I really had my heart set on one of those bulls that crowned at the top like a red stag, and that’s exactly what this bull did. My mind was made up and after a challenging stalk through the slash, I put the bull down at a little over 400 yards. He was an absolute dream bull and while the hunt happened much faster than anticipated, there was no way I could have turned him down.
Gear List
Rifle: Sako 90 Adventure 300WM https://www.sako.global/
Scope: Zeiss 3-18×50 V6 with custom burned Ballistix Turret https://www.zeiss.com/consumer-products/int/hunting.html https://ballistix.ca/
Ammunition: Hornady Precision Hunter with 200-grain ELD-X https://www.hornady.com/ammunition/rifle/300-win-mag-200-gr-eld-x-precision-hunter#!/
Rainwear: Stoney Creek Nitz https://www.stoneycreek.co.nz/shop/layering-system/rainwear-layer/nitz-pullover?layer=1
Boots: Lowa Renegade https://www.lowa.ca/en/product/renegade-gtx-mid/
Camo clothing: Stoney Creek Tuatara Forest https://www.stoneycreek.co.nz/shop/series/tuatara-camo-products?category=135
Black Bears and Cougars
With my elk down early, I focused my attention on black bears. While I’d been along on several Island black bear hunts as a cameraman and hunter, I’d never pulled the trigger on one myself. Glen warned me that fall hunts for black bears were tough and to compound that, Mother Natured dumped nearly eight inches of rain on us over the next couple days. My bear curse on the Island seemed to be following me. With all the rivers overflowing their banks and many roads washed out, I headed home before the main roads flooded. It was a good thing I did, as one of the main highways home had several bridges washed out just days after I left.
The following spring, Glen had another cancellation hunt and asked me if I’d like to come out and hunt black bears and indicated that we’d have an opportunity at a cougar too. On the Island, the cougar season remains open until mid June and this region boasts the highest density of cats in the province. With limited snow, I wasn’t sure how we’d be hunting cats, but I was excited about the bears. The black bears on Vancouver Island have been classified as a distinct subspecies because of their isolation from the mainland population and Safari Club International even has a separate trophy category for them. There are no coloured bears on the Island and while a few will have brown muzzles, most are jet black.
I was teamed up with guide, Korey Fletcher, for this return hunt and the first thing that became apparent was that you needed an intimate knowledge of the area to even have a chance at a bear. Much of it was behind locked gates and bears weren’t plentiful. And then once you spotted one, getting to it was another matter. We spent the first day and a half glassing logged areas and managed to spot a few bears but nothing that interested us. It was around lunchtime on day two when we ran into Glen. He’d been exercising his dogs when they struck on a cougar scent. I’ve had the good fortune to be on a lot of cat chases and have been to 50-plus trees with cats in them, but this was my first experience hunting them without snow. I quizzed Glen as to how he knew it was a cougar scent and not a bear. He looked a bit puzzled at my question and responded because he’d trained them that way. Most hounds I’d ever run behind would chase both bears and cougars with equal zeal, so to see Glen’s confidence that his dogs were that solid was inspiring.
We released the hounds on the track, and they took to it easily. With limited roads in the area, it was challenging to keep up with them. Doing it strictly on foot would be next to impossible. Several hours and about 12 kilometers into the chase, the dogs showed on the GPS as having something bayed up. We trekked into the location where the unmistakable sound of hounds singing “tree” was coming from and were pleased to see a nice mature cougar up a huge pine. The one problem with hunting cats on dry ground is that without tracks to reference, you never know what size or age cat you are running. I quickly dispatched the cat with Korey’s 308 and was quite pleased not only at my good fortune but to have seen such an incredible pack of hounds work.
After skinning the big cat out and packing all the meat back to the trucks, Korey and I headed out for the evening bear hunt. It didn’t take us long to spot what appeared to be a large boar, several miles away on small cut block. Korey seemed confident we could get fairly close with the truck and then we’d walk in from the main road. It took nearly 30 minutes and about 20 different turns to cover what was about three miles as the crow flies. I was thoroughly lost when Korey pulled the truck off the road and said we’d walk from there.
It took us about 30 minutes to find the big boar and after playing cat and mouse with him for several more minutes, he finally offered a perfect broadside shot at about 120 yards. The 200-grain ELD-X bullet struck him hard, and he leapt in the air and ran about 20 yards before succumbing to the lung shot. He was a perfect specimen; a very old, jet-black boar. These Island bears are classified as Coastal bears by Safari Club International, and after laying my hand on the big bruin, there was no doubt they are unique. I’m not certain where else in North America a person could take a cougar and black bear in the same day, and I felt truly blessed.
Gear List
Rifle: Sako 90 Peak 308 Winchester https://www.sako.global/
Scope: Zeiss 4-16×44 V4 with custom burned Ballistix Turret https://www.zeiss.com/consumer-products/int/hunting.html https://ballistix.ca/
Ammunition: Hornady Outfitter with 150-grain CX https://www.hornady.com/ammunition/rifle/308-win-150-gr-cx-outfitter#!/
Rainwear: Stoney Creek Nitz https://www.stoneycreek.co.nz/shop/layering-system/rainwear-layer/nitz-pullover?layer=1
Boots: Lowa Camino https://www.lowa.ca/en/?s=camino&lang=en
Camo clothing: Stoney Creek Tuatara Forest https://www.stoneycreek.co.nz/shop/series/tuatara-camo-products?category=135
Black-tailed Deer
Blacktail deer hunting is like a cult for Island residents. Of the serious hunters that I know on the Island, that have traveled the world hunting and taken many of the high-profile mountain species, they all rate blacktail hunting in the big timber their favourite passion. They may go years between taking bucks and that’s just fine with them. While I’ve had three tags and put in my time, I honestly don’t feel worthy when talking to some of these hunters. The dedication and knowledge required to consistently take mature blacktail bucks up in the timber may be unrivaled in North American hunting.
There are two species of blacktails found in BC; the sitka blacktail found on the Queen Charlotte Islands and the Columbia blacktail found on Vancouver Island, lower mainland and Sunshine Coast. These are tiny deer, with a Columbia blacktail buck averaging around 150 pounds. They are found in the agricultural and urban areas on the Island, but the purists only hunt them in the mountains. I have passed up a couple young bucks during my hunts and on one late-season hunt, we snuck in on a huge-bodied buck, but when we got a closer look, he’d already shed his antlers.
Gear List
Rifle: Sako 90 Peak 6.5 Creedmoor https://www.sako.global/
Scope: Zeiss 4-16×44 V4 with custom burned Ballistix Turret https://www.zeiss.com/consumer-products/int/hunting.html https://ballistix.ca/
Ammunition: Hornady Precision Hunter with 143-grain ELD-X https://www.hornady.com/ammunition/rifle/6-5-creedmoor-143-gr-eld-x-precision-hunter#!/
Rainwear: Stoney Creek Suppressor Jacket https://www.stoneycreek.co.nz/shop/layering-system/rainwear-layer/suppressor-jacket-tcf?layer=1
Boots: Lowa Camino https://www.lowa.ca/en/?s=camino&lang=en
Camo clothing: Stoney Creek Tuatara Forest https://www.stoneycreek.co.nz/shop/series/tuatara-camo-products?category=135
I hope to complete my Vancouver Island slam one day soon, but I know it’s not going to happen without a lot of local knowledge and help. Truthfully, the same can be said about all hunting on the Island. It’s not a place you can just decide to go hunt one day and show up and expect to be successful. It’s some of the toughest hunting you will ever experience. Access is via a maze of logging roads, many of which are locked or decommissioned despite what your phone app tells you. Game densities are low and are definitely found in pockets. If you don’t know the pockets and aren’t familiar with the roads, not only do your odds of success go way down but your odds of getting yourself in trouble go way up.
I feel blessed to have hunted the Island as many times as I have, with the knowledgeable and skilled locals that I have. And with any luck, I’ll soon join a very small group of hunters that have completed their Island slam. Hunting the Island is as tough as it gets and may be some of the purest hunting I’ve done in North America. For more information https://vancouverislandbearhunt.com/ or https://www.goabc.org/
