DOUBLING UP ON BIG ALBERTA WHITETAILS PART2

Backing up to when we were all gearing up for elk season, we were also keeping tabs on some good whitetail from prior years. I went to my father in-laws’ house in late June to go fishing with my Brother in-law, Kyle and Cousin In-law, Billy.

A free online version of every issue is there for viewing! No need to sign up, no obligation, no cost, just 100% FREE viewing of real hunting stories from real hunters.

Kyle decided that he would be happy shooting a spiker as he had never shot a deer before and this was going to be the last day that he was able to get out hunting. He wasted no time, making a perfect shot on one of the spikers out in the field for the freezer.

We were driving home from the lake one evening and, as always, we took the back roads home looking for deer and the next potential shooter buck and as usual we were seeing lots of deer feeding but nothing that really stood out to us.

When we rounded the corner, we saw four deer in the back of a field and as I put up my vortex binos up, I noticed one was much bigger than all the others and looked to have a lot of mass. Right then I knew this was a shooter deer. We instantly called the landowner to ask if we could hunt his property and he was grateful enough to grant us access to hunt all his land. The plan was to keep our eyes on him for the rest of the summer and Kyle would try to get the buck when season started as I would be busy with elk hunting. The summer went by with very little for sightings and when we did see of the buck, it was near sunset and there was very little time to watch him. I didn’t have any spare cameras to hang in the area so all our scouting was through the glass and with me living four hours away it was tough to find time to go scout for the big buck but we were confident that we would have a good chance at him.r

In the meantime, Bryan had a big buck of his own he had his eyes on and it was very exciting watching this buck grow on his camera. I made the trip to Bryans one day in July to help set up a blind and two stands and then we would leave the area alone, with Bryan only going in to check his camera once a week before the opening day of archery season. The first day Bryan could sit in the blind was August 28th. I was out locating elk with my wife that evening when I received a phone call from Bryan and he had the bad news that he had missed his target buck. After only being in the blind for five minutes, Bryan was just getting his camera set up and checking the clearance of his bow at full draw and when he was letting down he noticed the buck standing 30 yards away and from half draw he drew back and made a quick shot as the buck was staring at him because he didn’t think he would have much time and as the arrow was flying he watched it hit a limb and deflect under the bucks belly.

Fast forward to September 16th the day before Northern Alberta’s opening day of rifle season. I received a picture from Kyle and although the picture was blurry and you could only make out a little bit of the frame because of the distance the picture was taken from, we both were excited for Kyle to be out there on opening day. With no sightings of the big buck for the first week of rifle season, we were left wondering if the buck maybe moved on or if another hunter got lucky. Kyle hunted the area hard trying to lay eyes on the big buck, but with no luck, so Kyle decided to leave the area alone for a while and hope for the best.

In the meantime, Bryan was searching everywhere to find his target buck, including moving cameras and scouting new areas, but he was having no luck either. I was finally able to find time to make it up to hunt with my brother in-law, Kyle, in the first week of November. We hunted hard for three days when finally, on the evening of the third day, the big buck showed himself, but he came out with five minutes of legal shooting light left and was 800 yards away. With no time to make a stalk to get within shooting distance

“Bryan decided to get into his stand where the elk had entered the field. With the wind being perfect, he slipped in and got settled for the last four hours of daylight.”

we watched him from afar and made the plan to be in there at first light.

The next morning my father in-law Wayne drove us out to the field, and he was going to watch another field we had permission on. When Wayne dropped us off we saw a big deer in the field and, as I looked through my binos I could tell that it was the buck we had been watching the evening before and all we had to do was get within shooting range and we had the buck that had eluded us all season. We started making our way in, staying behind the trees on the edge of the field and when we got to where we would be able to shoot from, he was gone. Kyle and I hunkered down to see if the buck would come back out. We watched does and small spike bucks for a couple hours and with the weather being -20 degrees Celsius and the wind blowing, Kyle decided that he would be happy shooting a spiker as he had never shot a deer before and this was going to be the last day that he was able to get out hunting. He wasted no time, making a perfect shot on one of the spikers out in the field for the freezer.

“I hit the rattle bag again and within 30 seconds another doe came out and then we caught movement across to our left and there he was”

After we finished cleaning and cutting up Kyle’s deer, I decided that I was going to go back out and sit in that field as there were does coming out as we were dragging Kyle’s deer out. We arrived out into the field at 2:00 in the afternoon and after getting everything set up, I decided to hit the rattle bag. Within a few short minutes there was two does coming out into the field. We watched those two does for a good hour when three more does started making their way into the field. We thought the bucks would be coming out any time now with five does in the field feeding. By 4:00 we were freezing but we also knew that the deer would be moving at any time. I hit the rattle bag again and within 30 seconds another doe came out and then we caught movement across to our left and there he was, walking wile fixated on the doe that just walked into the field. With one quick look through my binos, I knew that this was the buck we had watched all summer. I quickly panned the camera onto the buck and got ready for the shot. The buck then began to trot across towards the doe and following him with the camera I stopped and got ready to shoot. One perfectly placed shot flipped the buck over and when I turned to Kyle to give him a high five the buck got up and started running. I quickly got back on him and gave him another shot and that was it, he was done, and I had my target buck on the ground. I called my wife and buddy, Bryan to tell them the news. We quickly took some photos as we were losing light, then loaded the huge bodied deer up and took him back to the house.

Two days later I was off to Bryan’s house to help him find a good buck. We started the week off by setting up on a trail going into an old pea field, but the morning was slow with no deer sightings. That afternoon we decided to go for a hike and check out some new land that Bryan had received permission on that was just south of where he missed his target buck in archery season. The afternoon hunt did not turn up anything, but we did find lots of tracks and rut sign, so we decided to check out the other half of the property the next day. The next day we were in the field edge early and seen some small bucks and three does but no sign of the big buck Bryan had his hopes on. We headed back to the house for lunch and to get ready for the afternoon hunt. We decided to go check the camera where the buck was earlier in the season to see if he had been in the area, but as we expected he had not been in the area so we walked down the fence line opposite of the field where we sat in the morning and noticed a lot of good scrapes so we decided to sit on the edge of a swamp area where we could see good all around us. We got all set up and I hit the rattle bag and

after twenty minutes I noticed a buck crossing the tree line. I knew it was a good buck, but I couldn’t stop him before he hit tree line again.

“Bryan got steady and when the buck presented a good shot, he took it and dropped the buck in his tracks.”

In a rush I grabbed the camera to get a better view and hit the rattle bag on my leg as I moved, the buck walked back out and I knew that it was the big buck Bryan had been hunting. Bryan got steady and when the buck presented a good shot, he took it and dropped the buck in his tracks. After Bryan shot, I told him that it was the big buck he was after and he couldn’t believe it and he said all he knew is it was a good buck. As we walked up to the deer it grew bigger and bigger and when we got to the deer Bryan realized that he was in fact the big buck he was after. We took some photos and cleaned the deer then went back to get the side by side to load up the deer. I would like to send out a big thank you to everyone for the great support and especially our wives for being our biggest supporters

We hope you enjoyed reading about our team’s experiences. Be sure to follow all of our adventures through social media at Boreal Pursuit.