Popped in for a short.. As always Ryan I enjoy your stories and adventures!

Little man shot his first goose. It seemed like he waited too long but when he shot he spun the goose right around with a headshot. One of those ones where the goose just spreads it wings and comes straight down. His first try of the year.

Put up a cell booster at the camp so we’re getting good service

Our beaver season is done, and your rat hunting hasnt started yet...

Tools of the trade


Sure had fun hunting alone last night. Ended up with 186 in a 15 hour hunt. 161 in the picture and 25 were already in the freezer.

Picked up another black one too

That's great! Look like good size rats.

Love me some 'rats with 3 eyeholes....! Shoot all night, skin all day. Never sleep 'til you get home!

Pete

You must get pretty dead eye shooting that many in short time.
Nice haul Ryan.

It was good . You must have dropped the Rem 572 in the drink as it it not on the cooler .Thanks smith

Yup Good size rats Mike. In good habitat there’s usually straight big rats. One short chain lake I hunted last week had 37 big rats out of 38.

Pete. Sometimes they only have two eye holes but one is just a little bigger than the other.

You sure do get on the mark when you’re shooting good Boco. Good rat hunters usually pick up right where they left off the year before. If a guy is missing claiming he hasn’t shot in a year then leave him at home next time. It’s especially good when you hit a hot corner of the lake and the rats seem to keep coming out of nowhere. Last year we picked up 15 in one spot. This year the best I did was 6 in one spot.
I used 4 boxes of shells to get 186 so I was shooting pretty good. Probably 13 Duds and one miss. Haha

I’m thinking the firing pin is work out on the old 572 Smith. I took it out on the first hunt and it kept misfiring so Bobby put his foot down and said to just use his. Ok son ok. I’m also carrying Greg’s Winchester with a red dot this year. Also great for getting on target fast

Change of seasons on the geese hunt


He’s gonna shoot like his dad I think. Proud of my boy for getting his first goose, muskrat and beaver this year.


3 healthy yellow leg. Local name for specks

A lot of geese have been cleaned on that table


My boy and his 410


One of many meals of fresh geese at the cabin

“Someday all this mud will be yours son” lol. Me and my boy

The river cleared out this day and we launched the boat after a late supper.

More yellow legs cooking. Love my traditional food. Still got some good fat caribou out away to switch it up some days too

Sonnys turn to be copilot on the way to town this year

First evening rat hunt close to town

Thank you for the ride along Ryan ! It's fun watching how much Bobby is growing , maturing and becoming such a good young man ! Keep up the good work !

Darn nice shooting on the muskrats I'm so jealous it's not even funny I always had a place in my heart for those furry buggers !

Right on

Said it before. Unbelievable that Delta country, and nearby, how productive it is compared to here. If I were religious I say you are truly blessed with abundance. And govt helps people with subsidy for land based activity too a bit I think. Scarce here that kind of help.

Nice stuff, cool to see the change of seasons at your camp. Is that a Winchester 94/22?

Thanks all. The region is definitely an abundant area.
Wide variety of species on the land and in the water. GOV of NWT and local native organizations have funds available at different times of year to offset costs associated with harvesting activities. It’s all though applications. Those funds are aimed more at equipment, groceries and gas. Theres also funds available for traditional skills educational programs A guy could make a livable income accessing the funds to take kids out, or any form of teaching traditional skills. That’s even including taking adults out to learn. Say I applied to take people out to set nets under the ice. For some this will be the first time seeing it in years or at all. Think “Teach a man to fish”. After teaching how to work with the catch The fish will be given out to local families with priority to our elders, the ones that taught us in the first place but are less active in older age. At the end of the program each participant might get a small fish net and leave knowing how to set the thing. Now we have another fisherman that can feed themselves year round and also share the catch. That’s just one quick example. Other examples might include hunting caribou with students then having community members come in to the school and teach proper cutting and bagging followed by a community feast and distributing the bagged caribou. I usually apply for Funding for supplies like groceries and gas twice a year. Over the whole season it’s a couple drops in the bucket but when you’re used to working day in and day out to support yourself and family any help is definitely appreciated. I’ll also usually lead a couple programs a year if time allows and that’s only when I’m asked to do it. “Take a kid trapping” is the name of one of the programs. Learning Traditional skills is even in the school curriculum. Several programs a year that take entire classes out hunting, trapping and fishing. I’ve even taught fur handling to the high school through my current job. I was vollun-told at 9am to go skin a few furs after working with my own fur until 5am. I looked at my boss with traces of sleep still showing in my eyes and said
“They better have good coffee at the school”

Sure got off topic there when all I meant to say was yup it’s a 94/22.

I just remembered that fur handling day at the school was a full day. All grades came through the shop throughout the day. Even my own kids. Haha. I made sure I was a cool dad though. Did some sharp witted verbal sparring with the odd student that like disrupting the class or disrespecting the teachers. It was fun. Anyways I’m really stalling again. Last 12 thawed rats to skin and I can get a few hours of sleep. Better get busy

The one on the right went for top price in the auction.
Reinvest it all in more wolverine traps.