Looking for a Whitetail hunt in Saskatchewan in 2015 anyone have a guide or outfitter they would recommend ,any other helpful info is also appreciated.....Sarge

Buck paradise outfitters has a good reputation-i have a friend from work who's been there twice and only has good things to say

Thanks Tim I will check the web sight .

Anyone else.

Back up

Not cheap but they are good

http://www.huntcanada.com/white-tail-hunting.php

Try norsemanoutfitters.ca Not sure what their rates are any more. Tell them rog said hi.

Little pricey compared to,some bUT excellent..
wrightway outfitters

I am leaving Sat for a week deer hunt near Pierceland, SK. I will let you know about the outfitter when I get back.

It probably won't help, but Ernie Derr was a heck of an IMCA driver from Keokuk back in the 50s, 60s, and 70s.

Thanks to all who have added their choices to this thread it will definitely help make my selection, glad I started my homework early. Markopolo Good Luck and I can't wait to hear back from you and maybe get some pics of a great Saskatchewan Buck. Thanks.....Sarge

Good luck on your hunt!

Im from Sask and I wouldnt put much hope in whitetails this year...Our numbers are at an all time low due to a number of hard hard winters.

Scott, not exactly what I wanted to hear, although I am glad you told us. Are you near Pierceland or know the area? Harley Nault is the outfitter

Thanks
Mark

Look up Todd Rawlake with True North Hunts. First class dude and offers several style hunts.

Im not that far North but can honestly say the deer population is really low. Your outfitters probably arent gonna say this. Our Gov't has greatly reduced deer tags and shortened the seasons across the province.
I know you guys pay insane amounts $$ to hunt here and would say if this is a once in a lifetime thing...I'd wait till the population spikes.

Cheers!!

Marcopolo..that doesnt mean you arent gonna see a big guy though..not all our deer died.I dont mean to be a downer and just saw you booked the hunt and are heading here Sat. Best of luck to you!!

Love these threads! This hunt is on my short bucket list!
Good luck Sgt5 !

I got an e-mail from Dan Goodenow , he is one of Jim Shockey's guys and he said the herd is down and they are thinking of not hunting their property for the next year or two, and they were going to re-evaluate at the end of this season.
I am going to re-evaluate my hunt for 2015 I might head in a different direction, my nephew shot a real good buck in South Dakota this year. I will wait to here from markopolo 50 also.

I'm originally from the Meadow Lake, SK area but now live in Alberta. I haven't hunted SK since I moved, but the deer populations are down here as well. Really tough winter on them it seems. There are still deer around, but you have less choice and those that are around are much more wary.

Seems like the Mule Deer have done a lot better around here than the Whitetails, although MD are on draw and WT aren't. I did get a small WT buck last night, but we only saw 10 WT's in a couple hours compared to 20 MD.

SS

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?

I understand from talking to guys that have a lot of experience hunting there that the winters have been the main culprit, the last few winters especially.

A few brutal winters in a row.

The herd can do it now in places, but its a low percentage thing at the moment. Much would depend on what the hunter considered a trophy. My son and I got a couple that grossed 160 and mid 150s (both netted low 150s) but we are hunting as locals in a premium area which I own and had all fall to do it. Ironically for all the time spent they were shot within minutes of each other. For a non resident I'd hang tight and hope for better times.
Picture is bit blurry and darkness caught us before we could get them together for the shot.

I just got back. LOTS of deer in the 115-130" range seen - with the biggest being around 145". There was nothing I wanted to shoot. To echo what others have said though, the numbers appear to be WAY down. I didn't see that as much last year as this year. THere were several nice deer killed out of our camp, but I never had the chance. There are still HUGE deer just like Model70Guy says but it's a percentage thing. You could go and kill the biggest deer of your life or you could go and see very few deer.

That being said look at this BEAST that was killed the day before I started. The gross score was 187", you have to see the mass to believe it, I couldn't get my hands around it until I got past the G4. The thing's spread is wider than I am.

Bottom line for me: I had a great time but I believe it will take several milder winters to let the deer heard recover before I will return.

Nice deer.

Mainly winters. Predation is very bad also. Mismanagement is normal here too. But, it's why we have these giant deer. Only the very strongest make it. This winter so far though is just what the doctor ordered. Next year will be better if the winter continues like it has.

I'm going to play odd man out here....and without questioning any one else's judgment. But I would not sit around waiting through good cycles and bad up there.

Life has a way of sneaking by and there are a million things that pop up, conspiring to eat into hunting time.

A Canadian giant is a rare animal to get a shot at in good cycles and bad. Killing one is rarely accomplished in a single, carefully calculated trip no matter how desperately we wish it.The overwhelming majority who go up there will never even see one,let alone kill it.Killing a buck like the one in Buzz's photo is akin to hitting the lottery for a couple of million dollars.

Even in Canada,where there a lot more of those kinds of deer, there are still not a lot of them.

What gives you the best odds of success is not simply up-cycle deer numbers,but your personal investment in time and effort. You go there not to see bunches of deer but a single very special one that you can kill. You can stay home, waiting for better population cycles,but you can't kill one if you aren't there.

The most important thing is to simply go....be there...regardless of the cycles. Every hunt you make increases the odds that you will bump into one.

Very good points you make. If you can swing it, go! If it a one time thing, then perhaps you look to increase your odds, but life does have a way of throwing us curves!

Sound Logic !

The trouble with the logic is its a big old world and there are other opportunities that are hot now. Most people's time and resources are limited, and for every trip that is taken there is another one that got passed up. Its sort of like fishing. You can go anytime and the big one might happen. Or, you can go where they are biting, when they are biting and fish for what is biting. Its easier to work with it than fight it.

I feel bad for guys who pay top dollar to freeze their ass off and look at dinkers, and the outfitters sure aren't going to warn them. On the other hand I'd like to see guys come up and hammer up the bears. We're crawling with them now.

M70: That's true.too....there are other options.

Me, if things look bad in Sask I would be looking in Manitoba or Alberta as alternatives....but I would be going if I could.

Alberta and Manitoba got hit hard too. Parts of Manitoba were changed to bucks only and there is talk of closures. There were recommendations of closures in Saskatchewan, but the G-men are so addicted to the revenue that they wouldn't hear of it. I talk to resident hunters that never even see a deer most days. There are pockets of good populations, and deer can be concentrated on good baits but it isn't good. The age classes of bucks that produce the trophies die first on bad winters. Next its the fawns and then the unborn fawns get reabsorbed. Right now there is a near absence of fawns of the year, and a shortage of trophy age bucks. Even if a old buck makes it through, being stressed during the winter will affect his antler growth the next year. Its going to be like the 70s if things don't shape up.

A new warm trip in Namibia, or a hunting/girl watching trip in Argentina would be a better use of funds for those with options. Me, I'll just leave my hale bales where they can find them and hope for the best. Field where they were growth works well.

We've already got enough snow for good snowmobiling, which is about a month earlier than was normal for many years. Throw a late spring on that and we'll have anther wreck.

Lots of good points made by many on this thread and this is one that I agree with fully. Sure there are STILL huge deer in Sask but there are other places you can go in the states that are many hot opportunities here.

M70 I do hear that things are not good in Northern Alberta,where I have hunted there...not good the past 2-3 years from what I hear.

I am glad I hunted Central Canada when I did!

Has anyone seen a picture of a buck with good mass (like in good years) taken in Canada since 2012, including outfitter websites?

I Think this fits the category
.

This winter is shaping up to be exactly what these deer need. Minimal amounts of snow and warm temps. All week it has been hovering around the melting point. If we had a lot of snow that would be bad, but that isn't the case. We are ahead of the last two winters by 4-6 weeks. Now granted, it will take a couple or three of these, but hey, it's a start. And don't kid yourself, along the way there will be some hogs shot. Mother nature has smiled upon us by giving us these genetically gifted deer.
Cheers.