Steve Bartylla brings you along as he bowhunts Alberta, Canada with Northern Wilderness Outfitters

Alberta Day 2 & 3

While picking the guide’s brains, they informed me that the deer patterns were altered greatly by wolves. To throw them off, the deer would rarely use the same trail consecutive days in a row. Furthermore, they valued seeing potential danger approaching above all else. That was why they quickly surveyed the field and went dashing to the middle. From there they could see any wolves approach and flee before they became a threat. Because of all that, Northern Wilderness Outfitters has the most success setting stands covering the largest concentration of deer sign and playing the odds that the big boy will eventually choose that trail.

Using that info, that is exactly what Mike and I did. After spending the day ripping the land apart, we selected a mature tree that flanked a cut line. The 30 yard wide clearing ripped through miles and miles of wilderness before eventually ending at the alfalfa field. About 200 yards from the field, the more mature woods became a tangle of brush and evergreens. That was where we would spend our second afternoon hunting.

During our observations that afternoon, we saw 1 timber wolf, 3 coyotes, 3 shooter bucks and so many 2.5 yr olds and under that we lost count. If forced to guess, I’d say the number of different bucks feel somewhere between 20 and 30.

The next morning found us in a stand we’d put up back in the woods on the first day. An ATV trail lead away from the woods, through a thick growth of immature poplar. The point where it opened to mature woods was torn up with rubs and scrapes. After slapping in a couple mock scrapes, I hung stands that would cover the ATV trail, along with the largest concentration of buck sign. It wasn’t the best location we had found, but it offered a great way to slip in to cut deer off while returning from their morning feeding. At first light, we passed a shot opportunity at a young buck.

Getting off subject for a moment, both my experiences, along with the logs kept by the outfitters I work with have taught me that morning hunting for mature bucks is tough. That is until the last two weeks before the big boys begin chasing. At that point, it’s like someone hits a light switch and morning sightings of mature bucks are every bit as common as afternoon sightings. Until then, there is 1 or 2 mature buck sighting for every 100 sighting of immature bucks. With those odds, I place a higher importance on getting in and out without doing any damage than being in the best place. Simply put, I don’t want to educate the mature bucks that are already in bed. I believe doing so dramatically hurts my odds of taking them in the higher percentage afternoon hours.

During lunch, Lisa Price, the writer that had also been in the spring bear camp, started asking me about the new book I had just finished. She said she was interested because she has great luck seeing deer, but poor luck seeing mature bucks during all phases of season, except the rut. 

I told her that one of the greatest lessons I had learnt was that, when setting stands during the pre and post rut, it isn’t the quantity of sign that is important; It’s the quality of sign. I’d much rather set up on a faint trail, smattered with a few good rubs and large tracks, than a heavily used trail. 

Mature bucks rarely use family group trails in most areas, outside of very near and during breeding. I also told her that I broke that rule with the stand I hung yesterday. Because it was still a full month away from breeding, I was confident that I’d see a lot of deer, but doubted that I’d see a slammer. Actually, from what I’d seen, the bucks were still in their bachelor groups.

Unfortunately, I was correct. We were covered in deer from the moment we climbed into the stand until we left. We saw numerous does, fawns and young bucks, but no slammers. On the walk out, I told Mike that we had to change things up on our last day. Obviously, this technique worked extremely well for Northern Wilderness Outfitters, but it wasn’t working well for us. 

That didn’t surprise me in the least. I have long believed that, for whatever reason, some approaches work great for one hunter, but poorly for another. They had their technique down to a science, which was evident by the mid 190 inch buck that fellow hunter, Sean Coary had arrowed that night. 

Sean Coary from King Of Prussia, PA, posses with what truly is a buck of a lifetime. Amazingly, there are quite a few of them that call Northern Wilderness Outfitters’ properties home.

One look at this Alberta monster spoke volumes of the caliber of bow hunting Northern Wilderness Outfitters has to offer, along with how good they are at their job. However, I needed to go back to hunting the way I knew how. We had to find the best concentration of mature buck sign, located where we could see daylight movement, and hunt it.

With a killer meal down, we hit the bed and waited for our last day.

To book a spectacular bear, trophy whitetail, moose or elk hunt, contact Northern Wilderness Outfitters via their web page or by phone: Toll Free 866 204 8299 ext 0644
www.huntingalberta.com