Hey guys,
I hunted Sask. last year with some great results. You guys have a gorgeous province with a multitude of animals, me and my father each harvested 120 class four pointers.

What my question is, is I am heading back over this out-of-province season and am looking for any tips as to how you guys hunt specifically for big'uns. I know "you can find them anywhere" but we were specifically doing a lot of deer drives and walking/pushing hedge rows, but we did not see anything much larger than 4 point/120''.
We will be hunting in and around leader sask. and the sandhills just east of leader.

Have any of you hunted this area, and what would you recommend for specifically looking for 140'' + bucks?
thanks for any tips.


On a side note, would any of you Sask. residents be interested in a BC mule deer hunt swap for a nice whitetail hunt in upcoming years?

Only hunted mulie's & antelope in the sand hill's area. However I have seen some good whitetails while chasing the others. The key with open terrain is get off the beaten path, anywhere a truck can drive will have been hammered by the time you hunt in the end of Nov. I would lookto such places asthe river hills, deep coulee's/ravines that are not easily accessible and just walk em slowly withyour nose into the wind. Look for funnels or draws that channel the deer out of these saddles to the feeding areas for setting up in those low light times. Pushing can be effective in ravines, fenceline, slough bottoms,etc. If you have the man power have a pushers in the cover, someone skirting the upper ridges or edges slightly behind the pusher progress and then of course someone on the end portion to intercept them flushing foward. I am not a huge fan of shooting at running deer but many are taken this way.

Unfortunately I really don't hunt the south for whitetails so can't offer you much guidance. Good Luck

Thanks Skeeter. Have you ever heard of Checkerboard Hill? its about 10 minutes West of leader, and there are always numerous impressive mulies along the breaks in that area, dont see many whitetails there though. What would you think about hunting the Sand hills themselves, or, as I said above the breaks right along the river?
When you say the truck-accessible areas would have been hit hard, I presume you mean most of the big bucks will have been taken from easy areas by then, because we still say an abundance of deer doing mostly drives/pushes.

PS. Where in Sask do you hunt whitetails, as I am considering heading north for next years whitetail hunt.

thanks again for the advice

Yeah the river breaks or hills would be a good bet, really anywhere that takes effort to hunt. What I meant by hammered means pressured big bucks don't stick around where they get a parade of traffic each day...so if your looking for something big look in off the wall places. This province is chaulked full of deer, so it doesn't suprise me that you still found them in the heavier traffic areas but ifyou don't find what your looking for in these places then start branching out to the path less travelled is all I am saying. As hunting season dwindles on here the deer get pretty wise to the program, often a slight change can make a difference.

Never heard of checkboard hill!! Hunted more in the Sand Hills, south of leader though and again not for whitetails ever.

I hunt mostly the forest fringe areas (area that butts up to theforest zones) but also have been spending a lot of time in theSMZ (Shotgun/ML/Bow Zone)near home the past few years.

Cool, Im looking forward to Sask more and more every day. Finally got some snow here in BC today and some some nice mules, didnt get a shot though.

Is Meadow Lake area productive as well? I have heard the more North you go in Sask, the bigger they get, but if Meadow Lake and such areas are so popular through word of mouth I bet the pressure is ridiculous.

Where I have been seeing Mulies in and around leader, would large whitetail bucks take up home in similar rougher areas, or no?

Thanks again

Yes meadow lake area is good hunting, I wouldn't say it see's more pressure than other areas though. As far as the farther north you go the bigger the bucks...that simply isn't true! We have an abundance of deer and with that comes opportunities to harvest good bucks. Some areas have a higher % of larger animals just based on more seclusion, habitat, population, etc. However while a clichethere are good bucks all over the province, just need to find them and gain access to the land.

Yes whitetails will take up the same space but if there is an abundance of mulie's theytend toget pressured off the area. Typically in areas with good populations of both species of deer you will find pockets of mostly 1 type over the other but areas where neither areprecedenttheywill co-exist. You just need to find the does, once you find whitetail does you should find bucks, even though you'll most likely be hunting post rut they tend to not stray to far from the ladies as the next estrus cycle isn't to far off. In post rut I like to pay a lot of attention to food as this when the bucks put on the feed bag, so once you find bedding areas locate quality food sources and get somewhere back in the transition from bed to food. The deeper the better as these deer have seen activity in the way of rifle hunters for all of November (as mulie draw is on the first 2 weeks and whitetail is on the following 3 - so a total of 4 weeks before you arrive they have seen traffic, boots and shots!)

Thanks again Skeeter.
What kinds of things do bucks feed on in the prairies during that time of year (nov 21-26). Do they eat the old cut fields or something else. Also, would you recommend using aeriels/topos to find major funnels, or maybe just hunt the lay of the land around the south sask river etc?

Any other tips? I am really pushin it to take a week off for this hunt, so I wanna hunt really hard and atleast see some big guys if not take one.
Thanks again.

They like hay/grass(natural or planted)this time of year, cereal. peasor canola cropsand if you can find winter wheat or fall rye they will be on that like flies on you know what!!! You'llknow these two when you see them as theyareusually all that is left this time of year that has the colour green associated with it.They will also eat brows if that is what the area offers.

If you can find current stuff they sure don't hurt. Along the river even the old stuff should have some value but I certainly wouldn't spend a bunch of cake buying them. Try searching on Toporama or google search the area you might find some useful info for nothing. Personally I think nothing beats your eye's, so I would be looking for lay of the land stuff then walk to find sign or indicators of deer movements. The other option is talking with locals or farmers, they often know the score and can be very helpful. Not all arebut it don't take much out of your day to stop and chat either.

Do you / have you ever hunted over a bait?
Here in BC it is illegal to bait anything - so I dont know how effective this is or can be, but have heard that sometimes residents bait with apples etc.
Skeeter or others - is it in fact legal to bait in Sask?
Also, do you consider it ethical, or for that matter would it eeven work without having the deer being fed on a continual basis for a long time to get them to know the feed is in fact there?
Just curious, otherwise ill need to find a way to find winter wheat while im down there

I have hunted over bait. Yes it is legal here. It can be very effective but isn't really required in the farmland areas as they have lots of food sources to choose from.

Yes I think it is ethical, just another technique that a hunter can chose to employ. To meit isn't thatdifferentfrom sitting on alfalfa or crop field waiting in ambush. Certainly no different thana food plot! Neither of this are natural, all are man made/developed.Contrary to some opinions baiting is anything but the easy way out, it is time consuming, costly and requires scouting/knowledge to produce good results. Just like rattling, calling and scents it is a technique that if done in the proper location can be effective, but in no way is it magic or a gaurantee.

Their is no use baiting unless you can establish it prior to hunting. A week isn't enough time to make it worth the effort and expense. Apples are rarily used for bait here, it usually consists of alfalfa bail and cereal crops (such as oats or barely). Some use chick peas, canola screening or sweet feeds as well. Salt is also used to establish and keep deer patterned to the site.