Winning the Lottery: LEH style

I won the Lotto! Boo yah!

I received good news today, I won the Lotto. I was successful in the LEH draw: Limited Entry Hunting.

I was fortunate enough to win a Bison Draw and a Bull Moose draw.

I have been applying for Bison for years with no luck. This year, my luck has changed. It’s quite the prospect; most people regard this as a once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity. I must remember however, just because I got the draw, doesn’t mean I’m going to harvest the animal. That will require more luck and more blessings. Actually, I can’t leave it all up to luck and blessings: it will take time, skill and knowledge. I can shoot and my aim is true, but I don’t know the animal’s habits and the terrain. It is foreign territory to me. Last year, I read about a few local boys that hiked for miles in and out of the wintry terrain, hauling their animal out by quarters.  They had to get off the road and go deep in the valley to find where the herd was. They said never worked so hard in their life for their meat.

I know my husband and I will be educating ourselves on the Bison of the Liard region of British Columbia. I wish we could go to the area and educate ourselves on the terrain before hunting season, but it’s just a bit too far with our limited time. It’s more than a hop, skip and a jump away. We will have too Google Map it and go based on other peoples accounts of the area. Whatever happens, I’m sure I will have an adventure of a lifetime with my husband: my hunting partner, my rock.

Now, the Bull Moose draw…

Back in the year of 2012 I got my first Bull Moose draw. The draw entitles you to hunt any moose with any size of antlers. If you do not get that draw, you are looking for the ‘unicorn”, a 2-point moose (a moose with at least two tines greater than one inch on one antler). Those 2 pointers are hard to come by. I’ve seen three myself in all the time I’ve been hunting; two of those were in city limits in a no hunting zone. Anyways, in 2012, I got an LEH draw and I was fortunate enough to get my first 7×8 bull moose. He was gorgeous (as gorgeous as a moose can get) and when he was packed away in the freezer, he gave us 565lbs of all-natural wild meat. He was a hefty boy considering his antler size.

I waited years again before I go another draw. In 2016 I received another piece of paper in the mail giving me permission to harvest any Bull Moose. Again, I was blessed to come across another Bull Moose and harvest him. I call him my ‘pretty boy’ as he was a pretty bull. Sleek and shiny coat, beautiful long tines, long legs with the whitish-grey coloring below his knees. He wasn’t a large moose, but he provided us with 395 lbs of meat.

Ahhh…I got to stay on topic. I will have to share these specific hunting memories with you one day.

You see, here in British Columbia, once you get an LEH draw for a Moose or a Bison, you are at reduced odds for 3 years. Because I got a draw last year, I was automatically put in for reduced odds. It doesn’t matter if you harvested an animal or not. To get another draw this year, well, is pretty much a miracle. That is why I consider it a blessing to have another opportunity to hunt a Bull Moose. I hope and pray we are lucky again this year; our family appreciates the meat. It’s great to be in the right place at the right time. If we don’t harvest something, that’s ok as there is a chance for new memories, new stories and new bonding opportunities with my fellow hunting partners. In life, I already won the lottery with the country I live in, the friends I have, and the family I have. Let’s just say however, winning this LEH draw for a Bison and for the second year in a row, a Bull Moose, is icing on the cake.

Now, a Hunter’s Prayer: