Steve Bartylla
Bowhunting Alberta for Whitetails with Northern Wilderness Outfitters Alberta Day 4 By the size of the track, along with the rate of snowfall, a true slammer buck came through and worked the mock scrape less than a half hour before our arrival. Of course, since we were in stand 30 minutes before shooting light, it was still well before a shot could occur. This only reinforced my belief that morning hunting before the tail end of prerut is difficult, at best. The morning hunt was uneventful. After being picked up by Larry, Mike and I went to prep a buck sign stand. One section of field edge was tore up with high rubs. During our observations, we also spotted a large bodied animal in that area. Because of a lack of suitable trees, I pulled out the Double Bull blind. The options were to either place it alone the edge of the field, blending it in with branches and Cover System limbs, or put it right out in the field. As odd as it may sound, the field was an obvious choice for me. I believe that the element of surprise is what scares more deer away from blinds than anything else. A blind really isn’t that threatening. However, if a deer rounds a tree and suddenly sees it at less than fifty yards it can startle them. As a deer approaches the edge of a field, its senses are on full alert. That makes it very hard to hide a blind just inside the wood line. To further complicate matters, they most often don’t see it until they are less than 30 yards away. That kind of sudden, startling encounter tends to send them running. You are almost always better off to either place it further back in the woods, brushing it in well, or right out in the open field. In the field, a blind set 30 yards or more from the edge and it will be seen from over fifty yards away. In that case, the deer has a chance to calmly survey it and determine if it is a threat or not. Due to its lack of movement and non-aggressive stature, deer most often dismiss it as being harmless. That’s why I placed it behind a strategically located round bale, 30 yards from the edge of the woods. In this case, I used the bale to help provide cover. If one hadn’t been present, I would have placed it there anyway. The round bale did make me feel better, though. I decided to shoot only Rocky Mountain’s Snyper 100s this season. Though they have performed perfectly for me. They, as with many expandables, open upon impacting shoot through mesh. Because of that, I removed the mesh from the windows on 3 sides of the blind, resulting in an appearance of unnatural black holes for windows. The round bale helped to hide some of these. To further distract from the blind, I would place my RoboCoy decoy out about fifty yards further into the field. It was my hope that the decoy would draw the deer’s attention away from the blind. After covering the top of the blind with snow, we were ready for the coming afternoon hunt. Returning to camp, I had the pleasure of photographing the monster buck that Pennsylvania hunter, Sean Coary drilled the afternoon before. One of the beautiful parts of hunting with Northern Wilderness Outfitters is that at any moment a true buck of a lifetime can come saunter by. Many times, it’s a buck that has never been seen by man and has no concept of what hunting even is. After a few shots and showers out of the way, we headed for the blind. Due to the comparative lack of overall deer sign, I didn’t expect to see a lot of deer. My hope was to see the right one. Though the numbers didn’t compare to the afternoons before, we did have 6 does and 3 fawns mill around the Double Bull, never suspecting anything out of the ordinary. One of my favorite aspects of blind hunting is that it’s always a rush to be within spitting distance of unsuspecting deer at eye level. About 15 minutes before dark, I saw the antlers making their way through the saplings. The mainframe 10, with several stickers shooting off from its long, massive tines, would easily go in the mid 160ies or above. This was the buck I was after! Whispering to Mike not to move, I waited for the monster whitetail to spot the decoy placed behind the blind. Hidden by the angle, the buck dropped his head and began pawing through the 18 inches of snow cover, exposing the alfalfa that was hidden below. After swinging his body around to a broadside position and dropping his head to feed, I began to make my move. Already in position, I slowly raised my bow no more than 3 inches before the slammer’s head snapped up and he began starring a hole through me. With just enough time to realize I needed to be at full draw already to take this animal, two powerful bounds removed him from my life. Because of the lack of shoot through mesh, it had somehow caught some form of reflection caused by me raising the bow. Mike was slightly less than pleased. Because of the angle, the round bale had blocked his view of the magnificent buck, never providing him so much as a glimpse. I couldn’t help but start laughing. The thrill of such a close encounter, as well as the knowledge that if I had been able to use the mesh that the buck would have been mine, had my adrenaline and satisfaction high. With Mike’s animated response, I couldn’t help but lapse into a laughing fit. Before long, Mike joined in. Our quiet laughing fit and whispers ended swiftly as I pointed down the edge of the field. The monster, not overly spooked by our encounter, had once again emerged 60 yards farther down. This time, Mike had a clear view. Spotting the decoy, he walked straight out to make eye contact. As he did, another buck in high 120ies to low 130ies emerged. He was close enough to shoot, but just not quite big enough. Unfortunately, time was now slipping away way fast. It was already to dark to ethically take anything more than a 25 yard shot. Even as he threw his ears back and began stiff legging his way to the decoy, I knew that the big boy wasn’t to be mine. As he closed the distance, I lifted the black curtain that prevented us from becoming silhouettes and spared the RoboCoy a true butt whipping. Returning to camp, as they watched the footage, some of the guides expressed frustration for me that I wasn’t able to take the buck. I explained to them that I have been lucky to take a good number of trophies. The thrill in it for me isn’t to kill an animal. The thrill is having encounters like this. I was at least 95% as satisfied with the experience as I would have been if I’d taken him. Throw in the fact that I had never seen so many bucks in any other 2-week period of time, and this has been a complete blast. All in all, I can’t wait to get back there next fall. In between, I’ll be doing another spring bear hunt with them. Simply put, Northern Wilderness Outfitters provide a magical place for hunters. From the accommodations, to the food, guides and animals, it’s first class all the way! 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
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