SaskHunter
Well-known member
Pretty late to be a live hunt but a few of this year's hunts are done so it's giving me time to sit down and do a write up. Unfortunately, with work and the land border closure, I've had to cancel my Wyoming/Montana trips, again , but I hope to finally be able to hunt the 2022 season down South.
So much like 2020, this year will be local hunts, I might do a Manitoba trip in November but not too sure at the moment.
The season started slow with spring bear, 5 days of nothing but nocturnal bears in May. I managed to get very lucky on the last morning of that hunt and tagged a beautiful colourphased blackie. A few weeks later, plans changed and I managed to head North again to try and fill my second tag but decided not to shoot any of the smaller bears I saw. All and all, spring bear was slow but still beat staying home!
Fast forward to August, I hit the elk woods. I did a five day stint for archery and had some decent action, got into some cows the first morning and called in a bull to 81 yards a couple days later. 20 yards out of my comfort zone so he lived to see another day!
A couple weeks later I was back at it for a few days during rifle season. Not much action for the rut and the orange army was out in full force. The last couple days involved some vocal elk that never showed themselves. Overall, pretty good elk season with lots of new lessons learned. Got to test my new wall tent on both trips and can't believe I didn't get one before this. Not sleeping in a truck or on the ground and being able to actually dry my wet gear was amazing!
Elk season rapidly faded into archery mule deer. Lots of failed stalks or opportunities I chose to pass on. As always, the cacti were present and made for interesting stalks. Side note and piece of advice, always watch where you fling a piece of cactus at. I learned that the hard way when I flung a piece of cactus which unknowingly landed on my crotch, only to burry itself into my left testicle a few moments later! Anyway, back to archery mule deer; I succesfully stalked a nice 180 inch 4x4 and released what was a great shot but at the wrong range. I had rapidly taken a 61 yard range for what was actually a 52 yard shot. I watched that perfect shot fly straight above that deer. Getting a proper range after confirmed that that was the issue and all and all I was happy I hadn't injured a deer. September archery is always a great time, tons of animals, beautiful skies and awesome weather.
So much like 2020, this year will be local hunts, I might do a Manitoba trip in November but not too sure at the moment.
The season started slow with spring bear, 5 days of nothing but nocturnal bears in May. I managed to get very lucky on the last morning of that hunt and tagged a beautiful colourphased blackie. A few weeks later, plans changed and I managed to head North again to try and fill my second tag but decided not to shoot any of the smaller bears I saw. All and all, spring bear was slow but still beat staying home!
Fast forward to August, I hit the elk woods. I did a five day stint for archery and had some decent action, got into some cows the first morning and called in a bull to 81 yards a couple days later. 20 yards out of my comfort zone so he lived to see another day!
A couple weeks later I was back at it for a few days during rifle season. Not much action for the rut and the orange army was out in full force. The last couple days involved some vocal elk that never showed themselves. Overall, pretty good elk season with lots of new lessons learned. Got to test my new wall tent on both trips and can't believe I didn't get one before this. Not sleeping in a truck or on the ground and being able to actually dry my wet gear was amazing!
Elk season rapidly faded into archery mule deer. Lots of failed stalks or opportunities I chose to pass on. As always, the cacti were present and made for interesting stalks. Side note and piece of advice, always watch where you fling a piece of cactus at. I learned that the hard way when I flung a piece of cactus which unknowingly landed on my crotch, only to burry itself into my left testicle a few moments later! Anyway, back to archery mule deer; I succesfully stalked a nice 180 inch 4x4 and released what was a great shot but at the wrong range. I had rapidly taken a 61 yard range for what was actually a 52 yard shot. I watched that perfect shot fly straight above that deer. Getting a proper range after confirmed that that was the issue and all and all I was happy I hadn't injured a deer. September archery is always a great time, tons of animals, beautiful skies and awesome weather.