By: Charlie Reade

I’d like to start by saying how grateful I am for organizations like the Alberta Bowhunters Association who contribute to maintaining and improving the lifestyle we all love so much, the outdoor lifestyle. Organizations like this help ensure the future of our sport and for that I am very grateful and honored to be a new member this year. This series of articles will detail my journey of achieving the difficult to obtain and coveted small game award.

Growing up in Nova Scotia, small game hunting dominated our sport. A good percentage of the hunting there is either migratory birds, partridge or running rabbits with some beagles. It was until recently, after joining the ABA that I learned there was so much more to small game hunting than ducks and rabbits.

Soon after becoming a member of the ABA I read the awards synopsis from their webpage regarding small game and knew instantly this was going to get my full effort. On the other side of the coin I also knew that you could fill a stadium with all the things I didn’t know about most of these animals in the 6 small game categories. Now, add to that I’ve only been bowhunting for 4 years and this was sure to be good for a few laughs and a great learning experience.

So, I took somewhat of a mathematical approach to determining the animal that I felt gave me the best odds of harvesting from each category based on geography and the knowledge I had of my area.

The first thing that jumped off the page to me was SKUNK! So that’s where my story begins, please enjoy it!

Like most avid outdoors people, I can’t wait to get out of the house when the weather starts to get nice out in the spring. Most springs I spend scouting for whitetails and their sheds while envisioning next falls tree stand placements. This spring is a bit different. If I’m going to achieve the small game award, I’ll need to put what few skills I have for big game hunting to use, and likely I’ll need some new tricks and a bit of good luck.

I have lived in Kinuso, Alberta for about 8 years now. I’ve made some great friends and married into a fantastic family who have introduced me to some other amazing people. With that, came a lot of discussions about hunting permission and access to land. Over the years I have found some properties to be more worthy of my time than others and have maintained close relationships with those landowners whether I plan on hunting them or not. This is a situation where I was able to give something back to one of them without having hunted their property.

For 4 years I’ve been running trail cameras on John and Marylene Karpas property North of Kinuso. Both for their piece of mind being an older couple in a rural area and for my benefit. They own some beautiful property on the south shore of Lesser Slave Lake, that has all the ingredients to grow monster deer. With the few cameras I run I never did come across any of them if they are in there, nothing more than a 150”er. But one thing I always remember them telling me over those years was to be on the look out for a skunk because it has chased their dog and sprayed it in the past. So, when I saw skunk on the synopsis, I gave Mr. Karpa a call.

As fate would have it one of the first things John asked me was when am I coming back out to put up my cameras? After a short discussion about how much snow there was and when I would be able to access it. He went on to tell me that his dog had gone partially blind that winter and that the skunk was back and had moved right into their yard. Perfect I thought. “Of course, I can come take care of that for you”. Once I said it, I kind of instantly got that “I’m going to eat those words” kind of feeling. What did I know about hunting a skunk? Not much that’s for sure.

When I got out to their property it was still almost completely snow covered. April 18 and there was knee-high snow through all of his fields. One advantage that did give me was the ability to see some tracks. And it really didn’t take too long to determine where that skunk had been traveling regularly.

I gathered all my equipment and headed into the area the tracks were heading and I was immediately overcome with the foul stench of skunk! The landowners had a row of tall pine trees as a wind break on the west side of their property. On the east side of that sat some old farming equipment and some old vehicles. Jackpot I thought! I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t nervous as heck. I didn’t know if that bad boy was going to hop out and give me some stink juice or if I was even going to see him, but then in an instant I did. So, I did what I’m trying to make a knee jerk reaction which is set up my video camera. And although I couldn’t maneuver quick enough to get the shot on video, I was able to capture some cool screen shots from a couple of the glimpses I did get of him.

The shot itself was the closest I have ever been to anything while shooting, I’m guessing about 5 yards. He poked out from underneath an old car and after disappearing a few times already, I wasn’t going to risk trying to move the camera again. I took my shot and was very happy to see that it went right through the little guy and he hardly even knew anything had happened. He simply laid down and closed his eyes. I knew instantly that would make the landowners feel relieved, not to mention my relief when I didn’t get sprayed. Add to that their dog didn’t have to worry about this particular skunk anymore. But most importantly that it died in what seemed to be a very peaceful way and very quickly.

Phase 1 was now complete.

Not only was I able to knock off one species on the ABA small game award checklist, but I was able to help a very faithful friend and landowner. This was a huge win-win situation in my eyes! The relationship between landowners and hunters is vital to continuing our great tradition and pastime. So, any chance I get to help one out, I take it.

Thanks very much for reading this little story. And stay tuned as I attempt to complete 4 more categories.

Stay safe everyone.

Charlie