Live Hunts - Alberta Mule Deer Archery Hunt - October 20

Live Hunts - Alberta Mule Deer Archery Hunt - October 20 - Day 5

Friday - October 20 - Day 5
Alberta Mule Deer Archery Hunt

Success!

Friday A.M.
This morning I decided to still-hunt down the canyon where I almost got a shot at the nice 4x5 in the creek bottom yesterday. This canyon goes for about 5-6 miles and dumps out into the South Saskatchewan River. The closer it gets to the river the deeper it gets and the more it looks like a mini grand canyon. This canyon is pretty remote and Jeff said it likely never gets bowhunted. It's some pretty steep, rough stuff. Great for growing big mulie bucks!

Dawn breaks on Day 5, beautiful as always

By about 8:15 I had still-hunted about 3/4 mile when I looked across the canyon and saw a nice buck bedded high up in a draw in the shadows. He was a nice 4x4. I worked my down to the bottom of the canyon, dropped my pack, put on my bears feet shoes and just took my bow and 1 arrow. Fortunately, there was a cut that went from the bottom of the canyon up almost to where the buck was. I was guessing that if he stayed put I would have something under a 40 yard shot. Well, just as I was getting to where I could peek over and maybe get a shot, I saw him running up near the top rim. The wind was not being very nice to me. It was swirling pretty bad, and at that time was blowing pretty much his way. Oh well.

I worked around to a big side canyon and got on top, hoping to be able to spot him down in another canyon. I was walking about 40 feet back from the top rim, trying not to spotlight myself. I was going to start from the end of this side canyon, in the hope that I could get the wind in my favor. Shortly, though, I saw some deer running from the bottom of the canyon. Apparently they had seen me. It was a nice buck and 3 does. They were pretty much in a spot that it could have been that buck I put the stalk on, and he just met up with 3 does, but I've no way to know for sure. He was a nice buck whatever the case. I marked where they ran up and over the top of a hill in the canyon, and determined to follow and see if I could get in on them.

the nice buck with the 3 does runs off after spotting me

a little shed I found

It took me about 15 minutes to get over there, but I finally got to where they had gone over, and wasn't five minutes over there when I spotted what I'm guessing was this buck. He had already spotted me. We were several hundred yards apart. He looked at me for a minute and then loped off around the corner. Not 30 seconds after that I saw a buck running up a hill way to my right. Initially I thought it was the buck I had just seen and then common sense kicked in and said no way, he couldn't have gotten there that fast. It was probably a half mile away, and sure enough, there was not 1 new buck, but 3. One was a monster, one was real nice and the 3rd was not bad either. They weren't spooked, just feeding on sagebrush. The reason they had been running is they had just ascended a very steep hill to get up to the top of this kind of rock island out in the canyon.

a great skull I found from a big buck

Since the buck I had just seen lope around the corner was closer, I decided to pursue him first. I cut over the top to try and get a view of him, and I saw a great 3x3, real wide, at the bottom of this ravine, feeding contentedly. Don't know if this was him or another buck, but he was nice. He was fairly unapproachable, though, because to get to him would require being in full view of him the whole time. I only managed to gain about 50 yards when I heard crashing below me, and 3 does took off from where I hadn't seen them, and they took the buck with them. Now I decided to try to get up there and put a stalk on the 3 buck group.

the wall on the left is what the bucks were on top of and I had to climb up to get to them

It took me about half an hour to get over there and work my way up to the top. I went a ways down from where I had seen them, because if I did that the wind would be in my favor. On the way I found a skull from a really nice buck. Anyway, I got to where I wanted to be, dropped my pack, put on my bears feet, got my bow and arrows, and went up top. When I got over a little rise I could see the little flat on top where they had been feeding, and had gone out of sight. Immediately beyond it I could see a little basin in shadow. I thought to myself that they were probably bedded in there, being as it was about 11:00 a.m. I worked my way over there, and as I got to the edge I crouched down low, knocked an arrow and got ready. Right as I was almost to the edge, I saw antlers. I immediately ducked down and lay flat. I slowly crawled on my belly back to the edge and peeked over and saw what looked like the lesser of the 3 bucks bedded down, facing me. He apparently hadn't seen me, because he wasn't acting alarmed, just chewing his cud. From that point I couldn't see the other 2 bucks.

For almost 3 hours I crawled inches by inches, very slowly, around and down to my left, trying to get closer. When I first saw the buck he was probably 45 yards away, and below me. I kept constant track of his actions by peeking around and checking him out, and he just stayed there chewing his cud. Once he lay his head down to sleep for about a minute and I took that opportunity to move a little closer more quickly. One other time he looked directly away from me for about 2 minutes and I kept creeping closer as quickly as I could. There was a little rock hill in the shape of a triangle, and I was trying to get below that and I would be out of his sight. Finally, at the end of the 3 hours I had managed to get below that triangle rock and out of his sight. In that time I had moved about 20 yards. When I was out his sight, I relaxed a little and crept around the corner, and immediately saw one of the other bucks. He was bedded 15 yards away, and fortunately looking the other way, not towards me. He was totally relaxed. Fortunately the wind was blowing from them to me the whole time. I used that to my advantage since I had to go over some rocks and brush that weren't very quiet. Anyway, here I was 15 yards from this buck, and all I would have to do is draw, take 3 steps to the right to see his vitals, and shoot. This buck was bigger than the one I had seen initially. I think it was probably the 2nd biggest buck in the group. I took a few deep breaths, drew, took 3 steps to the right, and when I stepped the buck must have seen me in his peripheral vision, because he stood up in his bed and turned towards me. By this time I was already on him, aimed quickly and shot. The shot was 12 yards. The shot was fast but the flicker of the arrow looked good and it looked like I hit him near the heart, low in the chest. He grunted and bailed off his bed straight down. He was out of my sight for about 2 seconds and then I saw him running, blood absolutely spraying from the entrance wound. He started up a hill opposite behind the first buck, but only got about a third of the way up before he swayed and then tipped over backwards and fell about 40 feet over the edge into a ravine. He was on his feet about 5 seconds after the shot and only ran about 75 yards. I could see where he fell and I went down there as quickly as I could. The blood trail was absolutely incredible. There was blood sprayed for several feet to the left of where he had run, and the left side was the entrance side. I was shooting 71 pounds, Martin Jaguar, full-length Easton 3-60 ACC arrows, and 125 grain Wasp SST-Hammer broadheads. I got down the buck and had to just sit down and rest, I was so exhausted from the ordeal. He was a beautiful 4x4, my first mulie ever.

Where my coat is laying at the bottom of the photo is where the
buck was bedded, and I shot from where I'm taking the photo.
It looks pretty far in a photo, but it was only 12 yards

I spent some time admiring him, snapped a bunch of photos, then started gutting him. I killed him at about 2:15. I was finished gutting him and snapping photos by about 4:30. I marked him with my GPS and then climbed back up above the rim of the canyon and walked to my meeting place with Jeff. He picked me up at 7:30, dark, and after we went and ate a meal and drank a lot of water, we, plus one of the other guides and one other hunter, went back to pack him out. Got him caped and boned out in about an hour, then packed him back up to the truck. Back to the house a little after midnight. Tomorrow I'm just going to relax and pack in preparation for heading back to Texas. This was a great ending to a great hunt.

Trip Notes
This hunt took place in southern Alberta, Canada. We were hunting in Unit 148, about 60 miles north of Medicine Hat. Primitive Outfitting owns a house in the little town of Empress, Alberta, which is our base of operations. Primitive has access to numerous acres and different properties in not only Unit 148, but also a few others right here in this area. Jeff Lander holds the only non-resident bow tags for these few units, so if you want to hunt here, Jeff Lander is your man.

It was real nice being able to take a hot shower and sleep in a good bed every night, and have some delicious meals. All of the hunting areas are within about 60 miles of the house, so no drive is too far.

As you can tell from the updates each day, this area has lots of deer and a large percentage of mature mulie bucks. In fact, sometimes it was kind of frustrating with all the deer, because it's that many more eyes to watch as you're trying to make a stalk. I'd rather have that problem than not many deer, though! I saw mature bucks every day, including some real bombers that would approach or go more than Boone & Crockett minimum. The deer up here are huge in body as well. My buck was probably close to 300 pounds.

The country here really varies from high desert plains, down to draws and serious canyons. My hunt encompassed all the different terrain in this area. These deer are fairly nomadic. They travel basically the same areas every day, but will use different trails a lot and so that makes it tough to pin them down for a good blind ambush, but keep at it long enough and it will happen. We started doing some still-hunting towards the end of this hunt, and as it turns out it worked great. Lot more intense and the terrain was rougher, but I couldn't be happier with the result. I'll definitely be back here hunting mulies again when I can.

Primitive Outfitting
Primitive Outfitting has 4 hunters in camp this week. All of them have seen numerous deer and some great bucks. There has been one miss and several times where the stalk was perfect and the wind switched and the deer bailed out. Every hunter has been within shooting range of good bucks this week. So far mine is the only kill this week, but they've still got all today to take one, and they've really been closing in the last 2 days or so. I expect at least one more buck to hit the ground today.

Jeff Lander knows his mulie hunting, and it's obvious in the way he sets up spots for his hunters to hunt. His specialty is bowhunting, and he is a hardcore hunter himself who shoots selfbows. He knows how to get his hunters close to the game. I wholeheartedly recommend this outfit and will be back to hunt again when I can.

For Primitive Outfitting, this mule deer area is a recent aquisition. Their specialty for several years now has been whitetail hunts in the famous Edmonton Bow Zone in Alberta. They have great success on huge bucks up there. Check out their web site if you're interested in that or their mulie hunts.

Primitive Outfitting web site

Equipment
This section is to tell you about some equipment that I use extensively on my different hunts and highly recommend. I'm not a paid representative of any hunting product manufacturer, so these are honest-to-goodness reviews of quality equipment. In case you're interested in trying out some of this equipment for yourself, I've made links to places on the Internet where you can buy them at good prices. Just click on the photo or the name of the product.

Bausch & Lomb® 7x42 Binoculars	I've had a pair of B&L 7x42 Discoverer's for 5 years and have given them a real beating in a large variety of climates and conditions. I am very impressed with their overall quality. Compared side by side with Swarovski Binoculars in the field, the only noticeable difference was the price. They will cost you about $500 less than Swarovski's.
Garmin® GPS 12	Buying a Garmin GPS 12 was one of the best purchases I ever made. It has so many uses, and is so easy to use. In unfamiliar hunting areas, just mark your vehicle, hunt anywhere you want, and at the end of the day, get back to your vehicle with no problem. It's also great for marking downed animals to return to later. My GPS goes with me on EVERY hunting outing.
Wasp Hammer SST 125 Gr. Broadheads	I've used probably 10 different makes and models of broadheads in the last 10 years. The Wasp SST Hammer is the best Fixed, Replaceable blade broadhead I've ever used. I used to use Thunderheads, and took several animals with them. On a friends recommendation, however, I tried the Wasp. That was 2 years and a dozen or so animals ago, and I haven't tried another broadhead since. The Wasp has given me better blood trails, by far, than any of the other heads I've tried. They are tough, penetrate well (complete pass-throughs on all but one animal) and fly great. What more could you ask?
Double Bull Titan I.C.E. Blind	There is no question that hunting from my Titan blind has made my success rate as a bowhunter much higher. The Predator Deception pattern fairly melts into the brush. I've shot animals less than 5 yards from the blind. Also the best thing for Turkey Bowhunters since the Box Call. Light, very portable, strong, and conceals movement very well. Great for increasing the amount of time you spend in the woods.
Olympus D-450 Zoom Digital Camera	If you're interested in getting a very high-quality Digital Camera, the Olympus D-450 or one of it's successors is a great choice. I've had my D-450 for about 3 years now, and have taken all of the photos for all my Live Hunts with this camera. It's not cheap, but this is one instance where you definitely get what you pay for. I highly recommend this camera.

e-mail Joshua Flournoy

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