2019 season is pretty much all wrapped up for me now. Since I always appreciate reading a good hunting tale, might as well share mine.
Weather for the start of the Saskatchewan rifle deer season was garbage, we had beautiful -15C right up until the day I got home from my 2 week work shift and then it warmed up to +10C. The quick melt turned the southern grid roads and pasture trails into snot not unlike the infamous Montana gumbo mud. I still managed to get out and the deer were definitely rutting by the time the season opened on the 15th. I was seeing tons of deer the first few days, just nothing worth going after. I was hunting the same big southern community pastures where I shot an old worn down brute of a buck last year. With the soft roads, I had to stick fairly close to the main trails but was still able to walk back into some of the secluded brushy basins that the deer like to shelter in.
By the 19th, the weather had dropped back below freezing, opening up some of the more remote sections of the pastures. That morning I made it back to a glassing point overlooking two big secluded basins and spotted a bunch of deer and two bull elk right away. I could see what looked to be a pretty good whitetail with a doe but it was hard to tell how big. Most of the animals were close to 2 miles away, so I decided to go back to the truck to relocate further south and try to get in to within a mile or so of them via the next trail into the pasture.
To get to the next main access road, I had to make a big loop back north, east, south, then finally west again into the pasture. On my way south, I caught a deer shape out of the corner of my eye standing along a fence line through a small slough ½ mile across a field. I did the old "Sasky slow roll' over the next hill before applying brakes to avoid spooking the deer. From the next approach I was able to tell that it looked to be a nice 5x4. He had a good frame, heavy’ish, and was a mature looking deer. There was a farmyard on the opposite side of the road with signs of life, so I popped in an chatted with the couple that was out choring. They confirmed that I had the right landowner on the map and gave me his cell #. After a quick call and a “go ahead” from the owner, I was in the game.
It was a pretty simple approach, just had to follow a fence line east, then cut diagonally NE across the canola stubble and I’d be somewhere on the west edge of the small 20 acre slough, within rifle reach of where the buck disappeared. I had a fairly solid belief that the buck was in the small patch of trees near the centre of the mushroom shaped slough. This belief would turn out to almost cost me the entire gig, more on that later.
I made quick progress. Cutting across the canola stubble was the trickiest part, that stuff is loud. within an hour I was within 100yds of the west edge of the slough. As I approached, I was increasingly aware that there was way more deer in the slough than I originally thought. At first, it appeared it was just the buck and the 3-4 does I’d seen him tailing from the road. The closer I got, then more ears I picked out of the cattails and weeds. A couple of times I thought I was hooped when I looked up and saw does standing and staring in my direction. As completely exposed as I was, those moments seem to always ends in snorting, stomping and white flags disappearing over the horizon. For whatever reason, the does ended up buying the “big orange rock” impersonation I was selling them and went about their business.
The slough
To be continued...
Weather for the start of the Saskatchewan rifle deer season was garbage, we had beautiful -15C right up until the day I got home from my 2 week work shift and then it warmed up to +10C. The quick melt turned the southern grid roads and pasture trails into snot not unlike the infamous Montana gumbo mud. I still managed to get out and the deer were definitely rutting by the time the season opened on the 15th. I was seeing tons of deer the first few days, just nothing worth going after. I was hunting the same big southern community pastures where I shot an old worn down brute of a buck last year. With the soft roads, I had to stick fairly close to the main trails but was still able to walk back into some of the secluded brushy basins that the deer like to shelter in.
By the 19th, the weather had dropped back below freezing, opening up some of the more remote sections of the pastures. That morning I made it back to a glassing point overlooking two big secluded basins and spotted a bunch of deer and two bull elk right away. I could see what looked to be a pretty good whitetail with a doe but it was hard to tell how big. Most of the animals were close to 2 miles away, so I decided to go back to the truck to relocate further south and try to get in to within a mile or so of them via the next trail into the pasture.
To get to the next main access road, I had to make a big loop back north, east, south, then finally west again into the pasture. On my way south, I caught a deer shape out of the corner of my eye standing along a fence line through a small slough ½ mile across a field. I did the old "Sasky slow roll' over the next hill before applying brakes to avoid spooking the deer. From the next approach I was able to tell that it looked to be a nice 5x4. He had a good frame, heavy’ish, and was a mature looking deer. There was a farmyard on the opposite side of the road with signs of life, so I popped in an chatted with the couple that was out choring. They confirmed that I had the right landowner on the map and gave me his cell #. After a quick call and a “go ahead” from the owner, I was in the game.
It was a pretty simple approach, just had to follow a fence line east, then cut diagonally NE across the canola stubble and I’d be somewhere on the west edge of the small 20 acre slough, within rifle reach of where the buck disappeared. I had a fairly solid belief that the buck was in the small patch of trees near the centre of the mushroom shaped slough. This belief would turn out to almost cost me the entire gig, more on that later.
I made quick progress. Cutting across the canola stubble was the trickiest part, that stuff is loud. within an hour I was within 100yds of the west edge of the slough. As I approached, I was increasingly aware that there was way more deer in the slough than I originally thought. At first, it appeared it was just the buck and the 3-4 does I’d seen him tailing from the road. The closer I got, then more ears I picked out of the cattails and weeds. A couple of times I thought I was hooped when I looked up and saw does standing and staring in my direction. As completely exposed as I was, those moments seem to always ends in snorting, stomping and white flags disappearing over the horizon. For whatever reason, the does ended up buying the “big orange rock” impersonation I was selling them and went about their business.
The slough
To be continued...
