whitetails

[bear baiter]

was just wondering if what i hear about saskatchewan is true about your giant whitetails my dream hunt is up there but i want a giant whitetail though just wondering if the stories i hear are true

[buzzbomb]

I dunno, what did you hear about them?    There's some big ones but it usually takes some looking (or some good luck) if you want a real big one.  Non Canadians are restricted to the northern 2/3 of the Province for big game to keep out the day-trippers and boost the guide business.  That's not really bad news though, as there are big deer up in the mixed forest area. The year after Milo shot the record buck I saw trucks with plates from all over the states heading north, some with those plastic decoys strapped into the back.    The hunting synopsis is available on-line...look for SERM or Saskatchewan Environment Resource Management and just keep clicking.  My cousins guide American deer and bear hunters every year and they seem to have good success.  I used to look at that Big Buck magazine and I think  Manitoba and Alberta have their share too. 

[moosetalker]

I have ben there 2 times and yes its true.But the hunt is over BAIT .You will see alot of deer.Price   $3500.00 Lice $300.00,geting in by flying $950.00 motel $100.00,tips $150.00 extra stuff $300.00 = over $5000.00 BUCKS  :'(I like ALBERTA WAY better. But that hunt is $4750.00 fly $950.00 Extra $400.00 over $6,000.00 I got a 9 piont 235lb with a bow in alberta this sept.Saw 2 BOONERS and saw over 150 deer

[buzzbomb]

Bait?  I didn't know that.  I figured it was a given they were shooting the bears over bait but deer?  It  hasn't worked in the southern part of the province for me at all, (I guess because there's just too much natural food around).  I've tried putting piles of crabapples - no result to speak of, and a salt block - big deal, they already go lick the salt where the closest farmer has cattle.  Where I hunt I'm nearly always interdicting deer between their feeding and bedding areas and if they stop to browse it's only for a minute or two .....  Hunting beside the water hole, or setting up in the alphalfa field the mulies like ....that works and could be considered hunting over bait.    If you like I could phone my cousin and ask if they use bait? I can ask just what goes on up there.  He lives near where that record was taken, but I believe the guiding goes on farther north.  All he told me about it was that he takes his guys out and puts them in tree stands .  I just assumed it was in the right places since he's got 40 yrs of experience at hunting them.  I know it's legal here to bait deer but except for me (and those apples) and the odd guy with a decoy, I've never heard of anyone actually doing it (though I know they're selling those blocks to someone). A friend put a mineral block near his boathouse 2 years ago and it doesn't seem to have attracted any of the resident deer.  The cost! $5000 U.S.? Yikes! I pay $11 for a habitat cert., $33 for the either sex license, and $20 for an antlerless tag.  That's $64 Cdn to shoot 2 deer and I don't have to go far to do it. I know that in the states there's high priced hunts on some of those game ranches where they set up towers (seen it in  magazines), but I've never actually hunted out of a stand in a tree. Moosetalker, is 235 the carcass weight?  If so that's a real bruiser!  9 pt is  the overall count, right? What we'd call a 4x5? The biggest I've ever seen weighed 220 dressed out (no skin or head) and that was in 1970 (my first deer hunt, and it was a 33 pt non-typical and every ounce was tough! ).  This one from 1992 probably went in the 200 lb. range naked in the woodshed.  I've gotten several others as big in the last 10 or so years, but not every year! A couple had bigger antlers, but lacked the mass and big bases this one had. None of them would of been record book material, but there's a pretty good pile of horns all together. I'm a meat hunter, anyway...last year I passed on a doe at 20 ft. thinking, "I haven't shot a big buck in a few years, maybe I'll try"...went out 10 more times then wound up shooting a 2nd doe anyway! I used to see a real hat-rack every year, but not for the last few years, and 3 years ago I let one big buck walk and shot the smaller one because he was the only biggie I'd seen all year. Bear in mind, I'm only hunting 2 or 3 spots near where I live, and not road hunting putting on hundreds of miles so I'm less likely to see as many as some folks.   It all depends on the weather here and sometimes the consequences of a bad winter can take several years to show in the pop. as there are fewer breeders being born after a heavy snow.  There should be lots this year, though, last year wasn't too bad.  This one was a 5 pt,(each side) with a count of 13 overall counting the stickers.

[moosetalker]

yes thats dressed,In maine I have saw 275 dressed 3 times

[buzzbomb]

 Field dressed weight of 275 would translate into what carcass weight?  Still  about 220 wouldn't it?  I'm trying to guess what the head, hide, hocks and hooves would weigh.   Why would anyone want to spend  $6 grand  to go hunting when there's deer that  big in their own back yard?  I'm not knocking it straight off, mind you, I just can't get my head around that kind of money.  Let's face it, that world record from Biggar was a freak and Hanson was just lucky to shoot it, and doubly lucky that whoever shot the right main beam with the .308 didn't shatter the rack and render it worthless.  Most pictures I've seen of deer from the eastern states seemed to have good sized antlers, but were small bodied compared to the larger bucks here.  If they're growing that big in Maine, then Maine should be the deer hunting mecca, not Sask.

[Spicoli]

I would have to disagree. I do not believe that you can find much biggar deer anywhere else in the world than saskatchewan, alberta, and manitoba, you just have to look at the deer taken every year, there will be a few nice deer taken everywhere else, but i mean lots of places will have deer being fed crops grown to make biggar antlers. Just pick up a magazine like big buck. It will show you everything you need to know.

[buzzbomb]

I just cut a deal to get the first week of Nov. as holidays owed from last year so I'll see if I can't find one for you Normally I just go early, then get back to work by noon but this time I'll be able to put a little more effort into it.  It's been about 4 years now since I've shot a big buck and I have to admit I've got the itch.  I thumbed thru Big Buck the other day in the store and it's nice to see the big racks, but those hunting and fishing magazines all seem redundant to me..  Not that I know it all, but I know enough of it to get by, and probably enough so I'm not going to change the way I do things much.  I started taking rattling antlers with me about 10 years ago, and calling with bleats about the same time after seeing them used on tv,(like stamping your foot a couple of times to get a curious doe in, wow!) but lots of gadgets I reject as unnecessary or just plain gimmicky.

[buzzbomb]

After going out 4 times and only seeing does, I finally saw a couple of bucks yesterday, and one's a Buster! Big big big big big, and a wide rack too.  Not tending any does, but neck swollen way up and looking ready.  I wouldn't take the iffy shot (150+ yds and downhill......I'm slug hunting) even though I've taken them that far out in the past, I'd rather never see him again than risk wounding and losing him.  If there weren't 12" tines, I'd bet there were 10"ers ....record book? no, but I'd take him in a heartbeat.  This one'd have a carcass weight of 200+ easy.   I'm going to keep trying!

[trev.357]

buzzbomb so your slug hunting .now that means your hunting in moosejaw/Regina zone or the Saskatoon zone  thats not that big of an area  for me to find that big one you saw .lol 
  one more week and reg rifle season opens  i have not seen that many big ones yet only two that might go 140-150, but i have found the doe's and lots of them on a regular pattern so it is just a matter of time before the big boy's start moving in on them . hopefully we get some snow the night of the opener. and as for the bigger deer up here i always have to chuckle when i see those doe's with antlers for the lower u.s states(ie. Texas) they have good head gear but the body size I'd have to watch out for my dog down there.

[lucky]

we see alot of whitetails that score between 150 and 170 there no hard to find usually the problem is getting them if u want a big buck be willing to crawl roll drag your self with your elbows or make a 200 - 300 yd shot when the ruts on heavy u can sneak right up to them in a field when there laying there usually but u gotta keep your eyes open for horns or heads in the grass

[buckhunta]

they get big in maine we just dont want people comin here shootin our deer