2019 hunting season... so far... Updated

[SaskHunter]

2019 has been quite the year for my family and I. Around Christmas time 2018, I received orders for a deployment to Mali on a peacekeeping mission with the UN. I left Canada in late January and would spend the next seven months in Africa. My deployment went well and I got to see a lot of that country; from the Sahel desert to the capital of Bamako. I was also fortunate enough to spend a lot of time in Senegal which fairs a lot better on the scale of third world countries. I arrived back in Canada in August and spent the rest of the summer enjoying time off with my wife and kids.

My hunting season started Sept 1st with archery whitetail deer at home in Saskatchewan. On the first evening of the season, I missed a beautiful velvet buck, he came in trotting and I had to stop him, as he stopped, he stared straight at me up in my tree stand and ended up jumping the string. My arrow barely skimming off its back. I hunted a couple more evenings with no luck and chose to take it easy and spend more time with the family. On Sept 15th, I moved on to archery mule deer. The first morning started off very well, I located an extremely nice 6x5 and started my stalk. The wind was perfect and the terrain made for an easy stalk. I set up behind a small bush and waited for him to slowly feed up the opposing side of a hill in front of me. It would be an easy 40 yds shot once he would be on top. Slowly, I could see the tip of his antlers rising over the hill and within a minute or so, I had a perfect broadside 42 yds shot. That deer was big, high, wide and had all sorts of junk on its rack. I waited for him to put his head down, drew my bow and released. I saw my arrow literally fly through its back hair, I had missed and no one was to blame but me. He gave me a second chance at 50 yds but by the time I drew my bow, he was nothing but a white butt trotting away.

After missing that big mule deer and having been away from home for so long, our freezer was getting lower and lower on red meat. I wanted to get a deer but spend time with my family so I ended up telling myself that I would shoot the first decent 3x3 that I would get a crack at. A couple more days later, I arrowed a 3x4 and punched my first tag of 2019. After missing out on spring bear, picking up that bloodied arrow and finally holding onto those antlers was one of the best feeling I had had that year (being reunited with my family surpassing that, obviously). That deer was far from being my best one but it definitely felt like it.

With archery mule deer being over with, I decided to take a break and hold off on hunting whitetails, there was still plenty of time to the season. By then, I was back to work and my upcoming Wyoming Pronghorn Antelope trip was coming fast. I took the time between end of Sept to the second week of Oct to spend time with my family and slowly get ready for my trip down south. Planning this trip had started months before I arrowed my first animal of 2019. It started over xmas when I figured out my plan for Wyoming 2019. May came by and I put in for the draw and drew my second choice as planned. Since I was overseas making some tax free money, I told myself "what the heck, let's apply for a leftover type 2 tag and find a trespass fee hunt". The leftover draw results came out and sure as heck, I was holding onto two buck tags and three doe/fawn tags. Before I had even started hunting, I knew my 2019 fall hunting season would be a good one.

 

[SaskHunter]

Antelope Day 1: Day one started on 8 Oct. I was lucky to have beautiful weather on my drive to Wyoming and the forecast was calling for some serious shyt weather the next couple days. The drive south was beautiful, as always. Tons of wildlife and a truly beautiful country. I started my journey at 0600hr that morning and made it to my hotel about 1900hr that night. I had time to relax, unpack my stuff and get ready for the first day of hunting.



Day 2: Wake up at 0600hr, load up the truck, grab a coffee and burrito at the closest truck stop, and make my way to the unit I was hunting public land in. I was giving myself week days in that unit to hunt public and would move onto the ranch I had access on the weekend to avoid the crowds. Day one was great, I had never hunted that unit before and scouted the area more than I did hunting. I drove through the entire unit, making mental notes of a lot of great deer areas for possible future hunts, as well as looking for where I would start the next morning. I spent the day mostly driving Forest Services, BLM, State land, etc and hiking to high features to find goats. I managed to find three good groups of antelopes and passed on several smaller bucks since I still had a few days in that unit. On my way back to the hotel, I decided that I would stop at the first State land parcel (1x1 mile) that I had seen my first group of does on. I still had two hours worth of daylight but the weather was turning sour quick so I hiked to a high feature and started glassing. The does I had seen earlier that morning had now become a dozen or so with several decent bucks. As the weather was getting worse, I decided to pull out of there and head back to the hotel. The 30 min drive back was atrocious and definitely not the safest driving conditions. That day, I found a Mule Deer spike shed and decided to leave it out in plain sight for others to find. This is obviously something Randy Newberg does and I had done it earlier this year and ended up shooting my mule deer the following hunt. It also keeps the wife happy as I am not hoarding more sheds at home and I feel like it can't hurt for good luck.

Day 3: Started much like day 2 but with a lot more snow. I went to the small State parcel that I had seen antelopes the day before, hiked to a high feature and started glassing, nothing. I looked long enough to make sure there was nothing between/around me and the next hill where I would go to glass the farther end of the parcel. I slowly made my way there, no rush. Halfway between both hills, going slowly through tall sage brush, I caught movement to my left. Out of the brush (100m from where I was glassing) came out a buck that was bedded in the tall sage. Not too sure of what I was, he started trotting away, I took off my pack, unfolded my bipod, removed my scope cover, chambered a round and took a good look at him through my binos. He was tall but he was starting a me dead on so I couldn't see how thick he was, I ranged him at 162m, I decided he was good enough. He started trotting away as I was getting ready to shoot, he made the mistake of turning back to have his final look at me (still under 200m) and that was the last thing he did. I let my 25-06 bark and anchored him on the spot. Turns out he was tall but no mass and was a bit of a fighter as he had a broken tip. Good public land buck in my book for a second choice draw. I did a quick photo shoot, quartered it and packed it back to the truck. Made it to the hotel before 1000hr and proceeded to cut and wrap my buck inside my hotel room. That night, I met with the Ranch hunt manager for my type 2 tag, filled out paperwork and got the lay of the land. Day 3 had been a very productive day.

 

[SaskHunter]

Day 4: Morning routine had settled in, same as days 2 and 3. This time though, I was headed to the unit I hunted last year, but on a private ranch to fill my Type 2 tag (private only). This tag and ranch access was my "Me to Me" end of deployment present. I'm not a big fan of "pay to play" but all this tour money and the fact that the wait time for Antelope in Saskatchewan is 10+ years made me change my mind... I headed to the west end of the ranch, where the terrain was slightly rougher, less open fields and more sage brush. That morning started well, I glassed several decent bucks and eventually found a herd in the distance that I wanted to investigate further. I took my pack, spotting scope, rifle and headed their way. I made it about 700m away from them and glassed the herd. I could see several good bucks with the group and a very nice tall and wide buck by himself (he was actually limping and was easy to spot). I looked at the terrain and devised a plan to get closer to him to have a better look and possibly shoot him from. I started my hike, following the curves of the terrain I eventually made it to where I wanted to be but I was going in blind because of the terrain. When I finally made got where I wanted to be, the buck was gone. I got higher and found out he had left with the herd and was now far away. I made my first big mistake then, I got up, crested the hill and walked back to my truck. Next thing I knew, all 50 or so antelopes, over a 500m away, were staring at me and bolted out of there as a group. I ended up playing a game of cat and mouse with that herd for the entire day. Whenever I would make it to the hill they were on, they were over the next one or the tall sage would prevent me from taking a shot. Eventually, the herd merged in with a second one late morning and bedded in the middle of an open field. With that other herd, came an other group of hunters who had probably been chasing them until then. Seeing the other hunters who were concentrating on a smaller group of antelopes, I decided to pull back and take the long way down wind to reach the now big herd bedded in the middle of the field. The other group opened up on the smaller group they were working, eight or so shots, so I thought they wouldn't be bothering me (mistake number 2). I was now 500m away for the bedded herd. Crawling through the sage and thousands of small cactus, I was now roughly 300m from the herd and was setting up for a shot. I was seated, with the bipod extended and buttstock resting on my pack, steady for that 300m shot. At this point I had a large bedded buck in my scope and I was waiting for him to stand up. He did eventually stand up but only after two shots rang out, the whole herd got up and started running, but one buck was limping away. A third shot rang out but the wounded antelope was unphased, still limping away. I was not expecting those guys to show up nor was I expecting them to make such a long shot, it must've been at least 600m for them. The wounded antelope limped over quite a long distance and the rest of the herd was too far or spooked to make a move on at that moment. The buck eventually died 10 or so minutes later and out of the horizon came out the other group to retrieve it. I decided to completely pull out of that area and drive a few kms away, keeping the herd in sight. I finally made it back to where I had started my morning with my failed stalk. A group of bachelors with a few does had separated themselves from the main herd and were giving me the same opportunity I had missed earlier. Through the same path I made my way earlier, I got closer to the group that were finally feeding calmly. As I was walking up to where I was going to set up for the shot, more shots rang out, I got up a ridge only to see the group of hunters and the rest of the goats running away. The other hunters eventually left and I was left alone to hunt that area of the ranch by myself. The rest of the day turned into many failed stalks, my shots would either be obstructed by brush or the big bucks would stay in a group of does making a single animal kill impossible. The skittish herd would always end up spotting me and I finished the day with a poorly supported 350m shot at a big buck who proceeded to just walk away with his friends. I took the rest of the evening to scout more areas for the next morning. That night, I treated myself to a nice steak dinner with a few beers to cheer myself up. This hunt on private had given me a run for my money and was definitely one of my hardest hunts.



Day 5: I was a little slower that morning, I had been going hard at it since the morning I had left Canada and it was starting to show. I went to a spot where I had glassed a herd at last light the previous day but no white butts were present. The snow had finally melted making them easy to spot again. I passed on a VERY nice buck that morning, he was 100 or so meters away, broadside in a field but the whole thing didn't seem right. I was driving when I spotted him and I didn't feel like shooting a buck from the trail, I had put a lot of time and effort preparing for, and during this trip and I wasn't going to finish it shooting from a hard packed trail outside of the truck (don't get me wrong, I have done so in the past and will most likely do it again in the future but in that moment, it didn't feel right). I made my way back to where it had all started the day before. I spotted a group of three bucks with 5-6 does. They were feeding, following the sun rays as they were reaching farther and farther on the grassy hillside. I quickly grabbed my gear and started making my way to a point where I thought I would get a good shot from. Sure enough, I got to where I wanted to be but the group had moved faster than I had anticipated. I somehow didn't get busted but my shot was obstructed by brush. I pulled back to set up where I would have a better field of view and clear shot, all I had to do was wait for them to continue feeding as they were. 10 minutes passed by, still no antelopes. I was worried they had spooked so I knelled up to get a better view and started glassing, nothing in sight. I sat back down and as I grabbed my rifle, something caught my attention to my left. The group had been doing what I thought they would do, except the terrain was not as flat as I had thought it was and had passed right under my nose. They were now completely to my left and I was caught in the open while they were feeding at my level but on the opposite hill. The rising sun had saved my azz, the goats were to the west and I was sitting to the east with the sun having barely crested the hill I was sitting on. They couldn't see me as the sun was directly in in my back. I turned to the left, set up for my shot and ranged them at 268m. The group had three bucks, all roughly the same size but one caught my eyes, he was much wider and had nice curls. At that point I had decided that I was going to go for the widest heart shaped buck. He may not have been the biggest of the three but I could already picture his euro mount on my mantle (where he currently stands)! He was azz first so I waited, he fed away going uphill and finally gave me a nice quartering away shot. I finally let the 25-06 loose, confirming that the previous day's miss was all my fault and watched him drop in its tracks. Day 5 was Saturday and my wife was throwing a massive Thanksgiving (we celebrate Thanksgiving in October in Canada) feast that Sunday for two other military families (one of which who's husband was deployed). I decided to quickly de-bone my buck, pack him on ice, pack up my stuff and check out of my hotel and head back to Saskatchewan that same day. I still had three doe/fawn tags left in my pack and plenty of cooler space but spending time with my family was more important . On my way back to the truck I spotted an old Mule Deer shed, I hung it up on a fence post for someone to find and thought it was a nice way to end my Wyoming trip. I made it home in the middle of the night, butchered my antelope on Thanksgiving morning, started working on both heads for euro mounts and helped the wife finish her Thanksgiving feast!

 

[Bigjay73]

Family, deployments , hunting, you're quite the juggler. Thanks for your service, always liked training with and held a lot of respect for Canadians.

 

[SaskHunter]

At this point, it was mid-Oct and I decided to take time off of hunting for a week or so. I finally headed back to the woods later that month but this time with the muzzle loader. One evening, after work, I decided to go out for a couple hours. We had had snow and cold weather that week and I could see the deer starting to move a lot more. That night, I had forgotten my puffy jacket and couldn't sit for more than an hour at a time without freezing my ass off. I hunted with the wind, doing soft calling and rattling to see if the boys were starting to be receptive. I was sitting at my favourite spot on that property but the setting sun was now blinding me and I was getting cold, I decided to move on to a different spot 200m away. As soon as I got to my new spot I realized the wind wasn't right, although we had a good NW wind, it was twirling where I was so I realized I had made a mistake. I ended up choosing to go back to my previous spot as the sun would hit the tree line and I could sit the rest of the evening there. I made my way back to the ridge I was on when I spotted a buck feeding not 50m from where I had been sitting 15 minutes earlier. My initial thoughts were "you're a dumbass for having changed spots" but then I realized that the buck would have been coming in with the sun and would've most likely spotted me before I did. I gave him a good look and saw some good character, I rested my muzzle loader on my pack and shot him as he was quartering away. What followed was a mix of emotions, the buck's first reaction was to kick its hind legs so my first thought was a good hit (I mean, I don't miss at 70m, right?). Then the buck did a few steps and stopped to stare at me, my second reaction was "shit, how did I miss this shot???". I stayed still as he stared at me for a little while, I couldn't see any blood or anything that looked like a hit, I had missed, WTF? Next, he did what looked like the "I'm about to die right here head tilt" only to walk slowly away. That's when I realized I had clearly missed and needed to reload as he may give me a second chance as he seemed to be walking in the treeline. I got a little higher on the ridge and started looking for the deer with no luck. I walked to where the buck had been standing and saw its tracks on the sandy ground, not a spec of blood. I didn't give up just yet, I followed its tracks in the hopes to find blood but it wasn't looking good. I was following the tracks, head down, starting to tell myself that it had been a clear miss when all of sudden I saw antlers poking out of a cattle trail not 5 feet away. Because of the terrain, I couldn't see that the deer had died right at the treeline and had done a 180* flip right when I had lost sight of him. It had not gone more than 20m. When I finally got to see him closer, he was a thick 9 pointer with good mass and a massive body, a good buck to punch your tag on. I normally do the gutless method and pack the quarters out with most animals but when it comes to whitetail, I'm always hunting near the house so I normally pull the carcass out. The drag out was hands down the hardest one I have ever done, I didn't get the chance to weigh him but from experience I can easily say that this was a 200+ lb deer. He was fat and ready to tackle the upcoming rut and Saskatchewan winter. The following days included butchering and doing the euro mount of my buck with my favourite helper!

It's been a busy season so far, but it's still far from over. I still have two mule deer doe tags and my brother and father-in-law are flying in next week to fill their non-res whitetail tags (more to follow on that). On top of that, I have an antlerless elk tag for a southern zone that has a January late season. If all goes well, I will be starting the new year freezing my butt off and chasing elk, not a bad plan!

 

[SaskHunter]

Family, deployments , hunting, you're quite the juggler. Thanks for your service, always liked training with and held a lot of respect for Canadians.

I like to keep busy! haha

I've trained with Americans a lot and find that while we are a little different, we are still very alike... if that makes any sense...

 

[Nathan]

Congrats.

2019 has been my best hunting season to date.

 

[fishing4sanity]

A very busy & productive season so far, you're going to need to buy more freezers at this pace. Congratulations!

 

[Bigjay73]

I like to keep busy! haha

I've trained with Americans a lot and find that while we are a little different, we are still very alike... if that makes any sense...

It does. I know that at least in the 90s, y'all could drink us under the table like nobody's business

 

[SaskHunter]

A very busy & productive season so far, you're going to need to buy more freezers at this pace. Congratulations!

We'll eat the equivalent of both deer and pronghorns as we don't buy any red meat. I also send at least two 50 lb boxes back home to my family every year. I don't come from a family of hunters and my brother is the only other hunter in the family. We like to provide the rest of the family with what I believe to be the best meat possible! Depending on the year, right around Christmas time, my wife and I will also give meat to families who need it and to a non-profit org in the city. It keeps us hunting and provides for our whole family and others.

 

[SaskHunter]

Season update - I've managed to fill my two antlerless Mule Deer tags. I had taken a break of being the hunter after shooting my late October Whitetail and concentrated on helping my brother and father-in-law fill their non-res Whitetail tags. Having blood relatives as residents of this beautiful province, they each get better odds in the family-first pool of applicants here in Saskatchewan. It's a yearly tradition and I usually concentrate my efforts on helping them when they make the trip. Both were successful in tagging out, the FIL bagged a beautiful 165 5/8 inch typical and my brother decided to shoot a much much smaller buck on our second morning together. The first day with my brother was filled with quite a lot of "downs", it was Sunday and there was an abundance of "field/road hunters/trespassers", I think it was by far the worst I have seen it. We still had some action on that first day as the rut was in full swing but never anything withing ML range. The following day was much better, it was Monday morning and we had the property to ourselves. We arrived at first light and as we made our approach to the spot I planned on hunting that morning, I spotted a good buck chasing a doe, I told my brother what we should do and he followed my advice. We made a quick run downwind to where I figured the doe and buck would run through and I started calling. It took only 30 seconds and a small buck ran in, downwind of us. I had quickly set up my brother on the edge of a field/fence line in tall grass and I was a few yards away in a tree line. I could see my brother starting to set up for a shot, the buck was roughly 50 yards away, walking towards me. I could see that he was ready to take this small buck so I asked him if he was going to shoot, he said "yup". He was still trying to set up for a shot and the buck was still coming slowly towards me, following the treeline. My view was obviously different than my brother's who couldn't get a shot so I asked him if he wanted me to stop the buck in the hopes the buck would turn his attention to me and give my brother a shot, my brother went "yup", so I "mehhh'd" and a few moments later BANG! My initial thoughts were "Dude, I can't believe you just shot a barely three points buck?!?", we had talked enough about his expectations (he had shot a very nice wide 10 point the previous year) and concluded that he wouldn't shoot anything smaller than an eight pointer. My initial WTF thoughts turned quickly into joy and excitement once I saw my brother's face as he turned and looked at me. "Dude, that was f'n cool!". I realized quickly that it wasn't my hunt, it was his and I was just there to enjoy time with him as we only see each other once a year.

We found his buck 40 or so yards away after following a foot wide blood trail. As we were walking towards the deer, I could see just how happy my brother was, he had shot another "Saskatchewan Whitetail", it was a spiker and he was just as happy as when he had shot his big ten. We gutted the deer, hung it in a tree and continued hunting the rest of the morning to try and fill my Mule Deer doe tags. The rest of the morning was nothing but observing Mule Deer bucks, no does, and that made that day even more special for him as we don't have them back home. On our way back, we talked about his Whitetail and why he decided to shoot a "spiker", he explained to me that it was a very special moment for him as I was there with him and had called his buck in. He hadn't gotten the chance to go out hunting back home and would bring quality meat home. He continued by saying that he was happy we had spent time hunting together and that now he would take the rest of his time off to enjoy quality time with his nieces.

My FIL's hunt was a bit different, he ended up shooting his monster 3 hours into his first day and roughly 10 yards from where I had shot my buck late October. A quick calling sequence brought in his buck down the same trail mine had come out of. This property is our favourite to hunt and we've both taken several good bucks there over the years. I wasn't there for the kill but I managed to get away from work in time to go help haul his deer out. He's in his mid-60s and has had cancer, still he's in good shape but I prefer to go out there and help him as much as I can. I normally drop him off on my lunch break and pick him up after dark. He's one of the best eastern deer hunter that I know and is truly the real deal! No baiting just still hunting and properly reading the terrain with topo maps and decades of experience hunting the same woods. That buck is his best to date, a solid typical 10 point buck with antler bases the size of a beer can. He phoned after shooting his deer and told me where we'd meet up. Walking up to that buck reminded me of two seasons ago when I had shot MY personal best (167 3/8) and he had come to give me a hand. He usually guts the deer and I do the rest, that is our "tradition', he gets his hands dirty then I drag the deer out.

Having shot his deer on his first day, my FIL spent the next week with his grand-daughters, observing all my deer, antelope, moose, bear skulls, and obviously getting on my nerves . The last weekend of the season, I took time to go and try to fill my two Mule Deer doe tags. I joked that morning that I would come back with a truckload of deer, well, I did just that. The morning started slow but the wind was right, I would spend the next couple hours hiking, wind in my face, looking for Mule Deer. I eventually found a dozen does and bucks bedded on a bushy hill side. They were bedded ranging 150 to 170 yds away. I set up for a comfortable shot and spent the next half hour observing them. It was pretty cold that day and decided I would have to shoot soon or I would probably be too cold to do anything as I was dressed for still hunting. A big doe eventually stood up to re-position herself, all she gave me was a frontal shot so I aimed just above her throat patch and let the bullet drop do the rest. The rest of the herd stood up and stayed there, they gave me enough time to reload the smoke pole, pick another one out and shoot it. I rarely fill my doe tags but had decided to try and fill both this year for several reasons: one of the Mule Deer buck that was taken on the property the previous year had come back positive for CWD (I would submit the heads of my does, the MNR has only taken serious actions towards CWD in recent years and submitting heads is the best way to get an actual sample size), the herd on the property I hunt is very healthy and finally I would send the meat back home to my family. I spent the following days butchering the deer with my daughter and the FIL, time well spent!

My big game season is over until January 1st when I will go after antlerless elk!

 

[Mtnhunter1]

Nice recap write-up, congrats on a freezer fill'n fall season.

 

[Randi]

what a great season for you. congratulations. Good luck in Jan. will you hunt with your friends over in B.C. this year ?

 

[SaskHunter]

what a great season for you. congratulations. Good luck in Jan. will you hunt with your friends over in B.C. this year ?

I don't have any friends in BC, but I sure wish I did! Both Alberta and BC require you to hunt with a guide or hunter host! It's a shame as both provinces are within driving distance, until I find friends in those provinces, I'll keep hitting Montana and Wyoming!