Bowsite.com

Day 2

My Clothing for this hunt

When I left my place in Ohio, it was 77 degrees. This morning in Saskatchewan was 22 and snowing. For today's hunt I was going to be sitting in the stand from dark to dark. Clothing is critical. So I wanted to outline what Sitka Gear clothing I used today; from Baselayers to outer layers.

Baselayers: Core Mid-weight Bottom, Core Lightweight Hoody
Mid layer: Fanatic Hoody
Outer-layer: Fanatic Bibs, Fanatic Jacket
Accessories: Sitka Cap, Sitka Fanatic Gloves

All day hunt

Back to the same spot as yesterday. There's a nice, mature 8 that hangs in this area and he's a shooter for me. He's got good mass plus kickers. At first light, several bucks and does started trickling by my stand. They were mostly 2,3 year old bucks. No shooters. They paid no attention to the deer coming off the field but that stopped when the big eight headed down the trail. They were visibly nervous as he approached.

I grabbed my bow and was ready. The buck made his way to the bait but he was facing me - no shot. While waiting for a better angle, the old farm road, that normally sees one truck a day, was like I-95 because of the forest fire that was now less than a mile away. A loud truck with a squeaky trailer bothered the buck. He turned and walked off. He was not startled, I'd call it 'slightly uncomfortable' but I knew he'd be back, the question was...when? I was in for a long day.

I sat in that stand for 11 hours. The only time I moved was to take a leak off the side of the stand, or stand up to stretch my legs. It's the way they hunt here and it can be tough, but it works because these deer really can move any time of the day.

I don't think I went 45 minutes before a deer came by. They were mostly bucks, but a few does were brave enough to grab a bite. When they did, the little bucks bedded nearby would appear and chase them around. The bucks were just starting to rut here. I watched a few sparring matches, lots of rubbing and even a couple scrapes. It was fun to watch.

The hours ticked by until magic time. A group of does showed, followed by a few bucks. I saw one buck rubbing and scraping about 100 yards in the brush. I couldn't glass without blowing out the deer all around my stand, but I had a feeling it was the big 8 from earlier. As he headed in I knew instantly it was game on.

The big eight I saw ten hours earlier had come back. It was almost too easy.

There really isn't much of a story except when he presented me my favorite shot angle (hard quartering) I put the arrow right in the sweet spot and it was over in seconds. Sorry, no blood trail game from this buck. Not one drop on the ground and he only went 30 yards.

Canadian Trophy Quest is a fantastic place to hunt big Canadian bucks. We guess my buck was about 250lbs on the hoof and likely a 4.5 year old. There's much bigger bucks around but the fires buggered things up this week. The farm roads are buzzing with vehicles and helicopters were flying over me all day long. I even had a CAT D6 Dozer travel the farm road I was hunting next to. That made a racket. It sounded like a German Panzer division coming down the dirt road. The deer didn't like that D6 at all.

We're getting rain tomorrow night and the crews are optimistic the fire will be completely contained. Guys coming next week should have a great hunt. Of course, my hunt was outstanding even with the forest fires!

A great hunt and a great shot put this great Saskatchewan buck down fast

Despite all that activity the deer were unfazed by the commotion. I was a bit limited to areas that were safe from the burn. A minor inconvenience compared with what Rob had to go through. He pulled dozens of stands and cameras so they didn't burn up. As if these outfitter didn't have enough working against them with all the Covid nonsense?

It was a quick hunt and I really hated tagging out early, but I wasn't gonna pass up this nice 8. I'll definitely be back. CTQ is one of my favorite places to hunt. And if you ever wanted to hunt a big mature Canada buck, Rob Nye is The Man!