Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Hot weather Saskatchewan buck

I spent a good bit of time and $ getting the right gear on hand for my first ever Canadian deer hunt this year. As it turns out most of it wasn’t needed.

I rolled into camp loaded up like I was moving in. It had actually rained a good bit that afternoon so things were a bit slick as nighttime temps dipped just below freezing. The weather forecast was not in my favor as the temps were slated to stay unseasonably warm through the week with periods of high wind added in to make it even more challenging.

The morning found me in a ground blind tucked into the timber along a travel corridor connecting some big chunks of harvested ag fields. SK allows the use of bait so there was a pile of barley and some hay set up about 100 yds out. Once I got situated in the blind, killed the headlamp and cracked a window for a look outside, there was already a buck on the feed. It was still 45 minutes until legal shooting time, but he looked good in my binos.

The buck wandered off well before shooting light but there was a pretty steady parade of deer to keep things interesting. A pair of yearling bucks had a tussle right on top of the feed pile. There were some bucks with more substantial headgear crashing horns and tearing up the woods very nearby, but they stayed out of my clearing. A large 4x4 who may have been one of the combatants, came in and fed for a couple of minutes before ambling off after the does he bumped off the feed. Overall, the rut didn’t seem to be cranked up as the bucks didn’t have darkened tarsals and weren’t harassing the does with any real intent. I couldn’t blame the deer for nut rutting to hard. I had the option to shed layers of clothes and did so. They were stuck in their fat-laden bodies wrapped in a fur coat.

At approximately 1:30, the pair of fawns I’d been watching feed looked up and promptly bolted straight away into the woods. A few seconds later a buck trotted through my clearing giving me just enough time to verify he was a 5x5 before being obscured by the timber. A few seconds later he came trotting back in the opposite direction angling to me at about 90 yds. My rifle had somehow made it from my lap onto the shooting sticks and I was now watching the buck about to head back into the wood line he’d originally came from. I remember thinking about advice from the guide on the ride in that morning - “these bucks have big bodies, so the rack might not look huge by comparison”. In my quick evaluation the rack looked pretty good vs the body. The next thing I knew I was coming out of recoil and watching the buck launch straight up in the air about 8’. As soon as he landed he was gone in one leap into the bush.

I sat there for a couple minutes marveling at how fast that had all happened and wondering if I’d made the right choice. I drank some cocoa, ate a sandwich and tried to replay the events in my mind. I couldn’t remember swapping my binos for my rifle, taking off the safety or any of the things that normally lead up to a shot. The sight picture of the crosshairs on the buck’s right shoulder as he crossed the opening quartering to me and the leap straight up at the shot are all that memory captured from the time I saw him reverse course until it was over.

I got out of the blind and crunched my way across the snow to the spot where the buck had crossed the clearing. A good amount of blood was present there and a steady stream where he’d bolted into the bush. I was 10 yards into the bush when I saw him laying dead another 10 yards away. He hadn’t gone far as the bullet took out the near side lung and a good portion of liver as it crossed. The entry point was a good 10” back from where I recall the crosshairs being but he was zipping across the cut when I fired.

He turned out to be 3.5-4.5 year old buck that didn’t have the massive body that some
Canadian bucks do. He is a great buck nonetheless and he is mine. The tenderloin I ate from him a couple days later was fork tender even after pan frying! I will return to try my luck next year and will hopefully get to test my cold weather gear the next go around.

Equipment details for those that care:
Tikka T3X Stainless fluted in 30-06 w/ Zeiss Conquest V4 3-12. Norma Bondstrike 180 gr. This combo puts 3 shots into tiny little clusters and I wouldn’t be afraid to use it anywhere in North America.

Nice deer. Thanks for the write up. I hunted with Brad Fry up there years ago.

Tough to beat Saskatchewan and Alberta Whitetails!

Congratulations on an outstanding deer strosfann, I'll bet you will be flying home with a smile on your face

Alright! Congrats on a nice buck - shame you couldn't have experienced a -10 day or two.

Hell of a buck 👍👍

Congrats on a fine buck, strosfann!

Brad's YouTube show, The Canadian Guide Life, was great. Too bad he doesn't post videos anymore.

Nice job! Congrats on that great looking stud!😎

Awesome deer. Congrats.

Great buck! Congrats

Wow! What a buck!!

congrats dandy buck !

Great deer. Thanks for sharing.

Beautiful buck! Congrats! love those big Canadian deer.

Yessir he’s a fine buck!

Heck of a buck! Congrats!

Very nice and congrats!

Last time I hunted out of Carrot River, warmest day was -20°! Kinda be careful what you ask for! Lol!

Nice buck - congrats! That Bondstrike ammo is great in my 300 mag as well..

Beautiful animal. Congratulations!

Congratulations !!!

Really, really glad for you.

Great Buck and detailed story. Do you know what he weighed? He sure looks big compared to the bucks in the south

We didn’t put a scale or a tape to him. Judging by past bucks I’d guess 180-190 dressed.

strosfan;
Good morning and Happy Thanksgiving - weekend at least still right? I hope all in your world are warm, well and dry today.

Thanks for sharing the hunt and hearty congratulations on the Saskatchewan buck, it's a dandy.

With apologies to all who've read this before, but my then new bride shot her first Saskatchewan buck 41 seasons back out of a bit of a "crow's nest" of Canola straw we'd pushed together.

It was a balmy -38 C with a howling wind and when she shot it, she stood up and let me know she was going to hike back over the little hill to get the pickup and she'd meet me at the deer, as she needed some heat and needed it sooner than later.

Anyways sir, we've had a warmer than usual fall out west here too, but it's easier on the animals and the woodpile, so we'll take it with a smile even though it does mean our late season whitetail haven't been moving much at all.

All the best to you all.

Dwayne

Fantastic, congratulations!

Well he sure looks pretty big to me! If we grew ‘em like that here I’d still be toting “serious” rifles like your ‘06 instead of my 6mm and 6.5 (Grendel) popguns.

Congrats!

Looks impressive from here!
Congrats

phenominal appraisal of a wonderful saskatchewan hunt,have been on 12 in that province yrars ago on indian reserves thru someone tightly associated with them.as i have had some issues with a disabled older dependent child. but have in the last few years given up on hunting over bait.i have zero issue with those that do.there are a couple outfitters in alberta that i hunted each once and enjoyed they are my new choices,also have a brother in law who has uncles who own 4000 acres in missouri on the border of iowa,they lease 3000 to hunting groups and let family hunt the other 100o.all major farmland interspersed with large wooded sections.i am very fortunate to have access to this trophy class hunting.have also been lucky along with persistance to have harvested many bucks between 158 and mid 190's boone and crockett.but the over 180 class totaled 4 over 35 years.i am a senior citizen now and do alberta every 3 years dependent on previous winters weather and snowfall.i will tell you this for fact.in the 1990's canada was not over hunted and the buck hunting trophys scored on average 20 to to a little higher in scoring average if you pasy on smaller bucks.sadly except for a few occasions is has reduced dramatically in rack size average.but those body sizes have me returning every so often.largest body dressed out buck i ever shot in canada was a 9 point that scored 184.weight dressed 370 lbs.anyway hunting on many continents over the years for many species,moose,whitetail and grizz and brown bear have been the most rewarding and at times most exhilarating and terrorizing few seconds to minutes you could ever experience with your clothes on.sorry for rambling on but i was thrilled with this gentlemans hunt.now if you really want ass pucker so tight you could not get a needle in it save your monet and hunt africa and cape buffalo and lion.the only ever hunt that puckered me was a wounded grizz in alaska that the guide and i and my very nervous friend had to track in alders and brush you could not see 3 feet in front of you.guide went 1st and trusted me enough to flank him 2 feet behind off to his right,my nervous friend behind and instructed to not shoot unless the bear got behind us and going away.well we got to about 30 ft and could smell him and were now crawling forward.kept crawling 2 to 3 feet at a time,the guide a little lower than me as i am on overwatch as stated.at about 12 feet hell broke loose as he roared ans chargeg straight at my guide john.we both fired twice at this ball of fury.john was shooting a 458 lott with 400 grain woodleighs,i had my 416 remington custom built winchester shooting 350 grain barnes triple shocks.john hit him twice and i hit him once.he died about 8 ft away.anyway i apologize for rambling and you can kill any bear with less caliber,all i know is once he was dead i was shaking like a leaf.john was a tremendous guide and we communicate every year since.as far as my friend he gave up grizz and brown bear hunting.good hunting and god bless my brethren quality brothers who still love our heritage and what is left that is good about america.sadly not much.

also please forgive spelling errors,not me but in need of a new keyboard.

also please forgive spelling errors,not me but in need of a new keyboard.

Tag

Congrats on a fine buck!

Ron

Great buck, and so lucky you didn't really need all of the cold weather gear. CONGRATS