Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada Saskatchewan Derr Hunt 2015

If you're not already booked I'd hold back. Deer are way down. I'd put my attention to higher percentage hunts until things straighten out.

Some will depend on what you consider to be a big deer though.

My Saskatchewan deer hunt:

Went with Harley Nault, Martineau River Outfitters. Really cold the whole week and took a nice 8 pointer, or 10 if you count the 2 stickers off the G2.

Nice accommodations as we stayed at Harley's house. His wife did all the cooking and was real good. He has a quonset hut building that is finished and insulated and the cement floor was heated. We dressed into our hunting clothes out there and was a good gathering area for days end before supper.

I did see lots of deer and two days I saw 8 or 9 different bucks, passing on them. On day 5, Friday I saw a nice buck with a high rack. I knew he wasn't wide but he was heavy. I watched him in a big barley stubble field to my left for a few minutes then he disappeared into the bush. Three hours later he was in a different field to my right. He worked down a brush line freshening a scrape then back into the bush. I could only get a look at his left side and at 200 yards I couldn't see his right side very good. Then a couple does pop out to my left and a small buck in the field. Wasn't long before the big boy pops out and I get a look at his right side. He had something going on and there and he was a little closer so I shot. He went right down and turns out I hit him in the neck. Not where I had aimed but better to be lucky than good sometimes.

Would I go back? Not right away as Harley is going to shut down his main camp where we stayed, which is at his house. I don't want to pay that much for a deer hunt, which was $5200 US each year. Lots of opportunities in the states for that kind of money, and not have to go through customs and all that BS. Plus on the way home we had to spend a night in Minneapolis as a flight got delayed coming out of Edmonton.

He has two other camps farther north which he had 5-6 at each camp. He isn't cheap but I went on recommendations, and with that friend. He has been there a few times before so I figured it would be a good hunt.

Overall everything went fine with the hunt and outfitter. It was a four - five hour drive from Edmonton. Harley doesn't have a web site but a search will give info and phone #.

Pic of my buck.

Happy you had a good hunt. Big bodies on those things, eh?

Yes their deer do have huge bodies. His neck was very big also but that was the rut. A buddy shot one the first day and they had it cut up before we got in that night, but they told him it was 300# live weight. They don't gut in the field and they don't even want you out of the blind. When we shot we stayed in the blind and texted them they came out and picked up the deer whole.

I had a gentleman ask me about my hunting garb and other details so:
Yes it is King of the Mountain wool. I wore one pair of Darn Tough wool socks, heavy Minus 33 wool underwear, wool pants, Woolrich wool long sleeve shirt, KOM wool shirt/jac, KOM Hillbilly wool bibs, and the KOM Standmaster coat, which has a liner in it also. For boots I just had 400 gram thinsulate Danner leather boot but used Ice Breaker boot blankets. I used KOM wool mittens. Inside my mittens and boot blankets I used hand warmers which lasted about 8 hours. My shirt pocket over my heart I used a larger hand warmer, and those hand warmers worked great.

We did hunt in ground or elevated blinds but they were not heated. I did take a propane heater but I only used it one time, and that was the first day in an elevated plastic blind. I thought I could leave a window open but it wasn't very airtight and with snow and wind coming in the window, I finally shut the window. Then I was a little leary about using the propane, and with the window closed, I was fine. It did get to 0 to 5 above Fahrenheit/-15 to -20 celsius each night, warming very little through the day.

We did get a sack lunch and I took a small thermos for coffee. They had bottled water and I took one every day. By the time I was ready for lunch or water, they were all frozen. Lettuce on a sandwich is pretty crisp when frozen!! Coffee stayed warm so that was all I drank through the day.

Harley Nault is located near Pierceland, Saskatchewan

Mark

The heaters are indeed nice but they create their own set of problems - particularly with condensation, that's why I don't like to use them.

I certainly hope SK (and all of CA) get some milder winters in the foreseeable future. It's a lot of money to pay some of these outfits to not have the trophy quality one expects to see.

Yep ^^^^^

5k is a BUNCH to shoot a deer.

It is. But it's a heck of a lot cheaper than buying enough property to be able to manage it to hunt deer like they grow in Canada.

Passport, yes 5K is a lot to pay and especially for me, for just a shop rat, but I figured it would be a good chance to go with some great friends and possibly shoot a lot bigger deer than I have seen here in Michigan in 40+ years. Had fun and one guy saw an honest 160" deer, but he had shot a 180 two years ago at the same place. He was one of the two that did not shoot a deer out of the six of us.

Like I said earlier, that kind of money in the states would go a long way for a nice deer hunt also.

Mark

Yes $5000.00 to shoot a deer sounds expensive , but I have a friend who takes off 7 weeks a year here in Pa. to archery hunt deer , bear hunt , and then rifle hunt deer.
Let's say he makes $1000.00 a week, we often make more much more he is out 7 grand and in that 7 weeks bills still have to be paid and in our line of work you don't work you don't get paid, and when all is said and done he might get a 120 lb buck and maybe a doe or 2 for $7000.00 +
For me I figure take off a week or so spend 5K = savings.

Just saying.......Sarge

The old," The difference between men, and boys, is the price of their toys".

I'm in the middle of a hunt right now in Sask. There have been some 150s seen by the group, but most of these guys are looking for 170+. A 187" was killed Sunday and it's absolutely huge. There are still some huge deer around where I'm at but no doubt the numbers are less than years past in some areas and nearly gone in others. The best I've seen halfway through is a 145" 10 pointer.

I knew that going into it but it still represents a FAR better chance of me getting a trophy than at home. I've seen maybe 2 145" deer in GA in 35y of hunting. There was a 170" deer killed 5 miles from my hunting property this year in GA but someone wins the lottery every week too.

I'll give more of a report after the hunt is over.

Stay at it - and stay warm.
Good luck!

It was minus -31 celsuis when I got to the stand this morning A wee bit chilly. I'll admit, I had to run the heater. I'm off to bed, hoping for a Thanksgiving buck!

Good luck!

There are definitely less big deer around...I harvested this one just north of Meadow Lake in the forest. If I was forced to a pay an outfitter, I'd hold off for a few years.

But, he got to hunt 7 freakin weeks, too. There is worth to a challenge.

I don't know how much of a challenge a 120Lb buck presents , but I know Dec. 15 he will be bitch'n about needing money.

My thoughts exactly, I'd love to return to Canada for a whitetail hunt but I'm thinking the herd could produce trophies if it just had two or three consecutive mild winters.

Why are the numbers and sizes down so much? Disease? Winters? Subsistence hunts?