I was privileged to meet and get to spend time with one of North America's most successful trophy whitetail guides last spring. We met at my outdoor video workshop in Pittsburgh at my class. The whitetail guide was Brent Mitchell of Mitchell's Outfitting, a northern Saskatchewan guide service. Brent showed me some pictures from last whitetail season. I was floored. This guy was taking more B&C bucks than anyone in North America. I had to know his secret.
Brent is a savvy guide. He didn't come about this success by accident. One of his secrets was a new scent system that used time release granules to disperse scent into the air. Brent said that mature trophy bucks will be deflected away from set-ups if they smell man-scent even once. His solution was to use 24/seven time release granules so the treestand set-ups could be hunted 4 or 5 days after sweetening up with the scent. It works and the proof is in his unparalleled success. Fifty whitetail bucks this season over 170 B&C.
I spoke to one of his guides Kelly Natomagan of Pinehouse Saskatchewan and he helped decode the secrete. This is Kelly's story in his words.
"I became aware of a new product this fall when I started a job working for Mitchell's Outfitting from Battleford Saskatchewan. My goal was to learn the art to killing giant trophy bucks from Brent. It was evident that he had mastered it from many years of trial. I would be his student.
I was born and raised on a trap line. I have spent all of my life in Northern Saskatchewan. After a few weeks on the job and I realized that these guys were trappers just like I am. The difference was that they were targeting old mature bucks and nothing else. My trapping skills made me a good guide for the Brent's outfit and my clients killed trophies every week. We guided hunters with both bow and rifle.
A new adventure was launched with my trapping skills being a foundation. I was luring bucks with 24/seven granular scent. I'm convinced that 24/seven made me a top guide with Mitchell's on my first year. When the clients were picked up from the stands after hunting for the day they had stories.
You are probably wondering what system we used. Well we know that bucks and human scent don't mix. It's no different when I trap a wolf or wolverine. If you are sloppy and leave human scent at your set you will fail every time. The 24/seven is time release so we could (bait) scent our scrapes on one day and hunt them for the next week. My clients found it hard to believe how close they were to bucks, how many bucks they saw. They came back with tales of fights, lip curls, scraping, chasing, and the stories went on and on.
This 170 incher walked in on a scent trail to the scent site that I had been putting out for some time and stopped at 35 yards, rolled his lip up and I introduced him to my photo album. Twenty minutes later there were other bucks back in front of me coming to the smell; it was hard to believe that the granules worked so well for these old bucks in the cold weather.
It was nice to know that I was doing my job as a guide by putting the bucks in front of the clients everyday when I use 24/seven like a bait pile. Instead of sprinkling a little around I would actually place a small pile of granules in a scrape and wait for results. You can't do this with liquid scent because the smell goes into the ground and not into the air. When the bucks were in rut they will stick all 4 feet into my "trap" and that was how many of them got tagged!
This is a photo of the first trophy buck I have ever shot. It was late season and the clients had gone home happy. The weather was severely cold and the only way to scent hunt was with the time release granules that wouldn't freeze. This 170 incher walked in on a scent trail to the scent site that I had been putting out for some time and stopped at 35 yards, rolled his lip up and I introduced him to my photo album. Twenty minutes later there were other bucks back in front of me coming to the smell; it was hard to believe that the granules worked so well for these old bucks in the cold weather.
I am planning to use 24/seven unscented on my trap line this winter for martin, fisher, wolfs, lynx, coyotes and mink knowing that 24/seven will amplify my trapping scents and catch me older pelts that are worth more at the fur action. I will get top prices for my catch this winter. I know that trophy bucks and old wolves are tough to fool. But now I have a plan that works".
Kelly Natomagan Northern Saskatchewan Trapper and Whitetail Guide
