I was in the lobby of the Saskatoon Inn when the Shockey outfit dropped off a group of hunters this past season. They were not a happy group because the had zilch, nada.
But last season no one was seeing mature bucks because of the bad previous winter. I think his group of hunters possibly had unreasonable expectations because of his celebrity status.
The source of griping probably comes from his writing "no way to determine how the deer are doing." Which is sort of my bitch about any and all outfitters, of course they know exactly if they have had a harder winter, and if the wolves have been in the area all winter, etc. They don't tell you because no one would book.
We as hunters need to try to pay a lot of attention to previous weather conditions, did the winter start a month early, were the deep snow and temperatures extremely cold for long periods of time, was the spring thaw and green up later than usual?
This quote is from Shockey web link
"QUOTE FROM SHOCKEY'S 7TH PARAGRAPH:
But again, the number and quality of the bucks sighted will come down to what effect the previous winter had on the deer population, what the weather has done in the weeks and months prior to the November hunting season (the colder the better) and what it is doing that particular week. What the hunter sees will also depend on whether there are wolves in the area. Unfortunately we have no way of predicting where and when wolves will show up or the results of a bad winter; no way to determine how the deer are doing, other than putting hunters on stand and awaiting the results of the season
