Saskatchewan 2018
Well, I just got back from Saskatchewan.... I've always wanted to give it a try so decided to go this year. In a nutshell, it was Saskatchewan 1 and me 0. I'll try to recap how it went. As you all probably know, non-residents have to hunt with a guide and the hunts are usually 6 days and you sit in a blind watching a pile of bait. I sat for 5 days from before daylight till after dark and couldn't take sitting another day, so I threw in the towel. I sat for 52 hours...it's grueling to say the least. What did I see? I saw 17 different bucks and about the same number of does and fawns and there wasn't anything remotely close to what anyone would consider a shooter. The biggest buck wouldn't have scored 130".. Most were thin horned younger bucks. I was really surprised at the lack of mass in the deer I saw. I saw 3 bucks that I'm pretty sure were 3 1/2 years old and they had no mass at all. There were 6 other hunters and only 1 buck was killed and it was mediocre 5X5...again with very little mass. It was disappointing to say the least. I doubt very much if any of the hunters that were there will be going back.
On the plus side, the food was great and the lodge was very nice... I met some great people. The outfitter worked very hard to try to get everyone a chance at a good buck, but for whatever reason it just didn't happen. This was on the edge of the farmland where the boreal forest begins...there should be some very large bucks there, but I don't know if the genetics are bad in this particular area, if the nutrition is poor, or what but with 7 hunters sitting from daylight till dark during the rut I would think one of us should have at least caught a glimpse of a big, mature buck.
This hunt did make me really appreciate what we have here in Montana... We have much bigger bucks in our area than what was seen in Saskatchewan...much more mass and just bigger all around. Like they say, The grass isn't always greener on the other side of the fence...