Well despite this being an Africa hunting forum and it was a lifetime dream to hunt there not only once, but twice, I find that all the animals that mean the most to me were taken right here in my home province of Saskatchewan. And more than a few were taken on family property as well.
When I was a kid, nobody in my family (on either side) hunted except my dad. And he only hunted local whitetails and go on an annual moose hunting trip 5 hours north with his buddies. Also he only hunted with his old Savage 99 and knew nothing about bowhunting. So when I decided that I wanted to get into it at the age of 20, I had to figure it out on my own. It took me 3 years of making mistakes and learning a little more each time I went out, but in the fall of 1992 it finally came together for me. That afternoon I had decided to sit on an upside down 5-gallon pail in one of our empty grain bins. After a couple of hours I was getting too cold and decided to leave. Thankfully I peeked out the door before I walked out and saw a buck about thirty yards away coming down the trail. I quickly backed up, sat back down on my bucket, drew my old second hand PSE and waited. About 5 seconds later he stepped into my view and at 11 yards I shot my first big game animal with archery equipment.
Ten years later I moved to Moose Jaw for work. It’s farther west than where I grew up and in much of the surrounding area mule deer are the predominant species. To hunt them with a firearm we need to be drawn and it usually takes 3-5 years. However you can buy an over the counter archery tag every year. So I decided that I’d better get this figured out. Took me about 6 years but I finally got pretty good at it and in 2008 I killed my first archery mulie.
In 1998 I was living in Wynyard and hunted whitetails around the Quill Lakes. Up until that point I had never shot a big whitetail buck but one late afternoon after work I spotted one and made a success stalk on my first big buck.
In 2010 I was having a pretty tough whitetail season and was down to one of the last days. I had my 10 year old stepson with me and hoped to get one with him. We’d had an unsuccessful morning and while we were at my parents having lunch he begged me to let him try rattling when we went back out. I didn’t think it would work as it was the first week of December but he wanted to try so bad that I gave in. Two minutes into our second setup a nice buck came running in and before the boy knew what was happening I shot it. The poor kid was so jacked up he couldn’t talk or stand up! He was so proud of himself that it’s still one of my favourite trophies and hunting memories.
Two years after that, his mother and I parted ways. And although I still got to spend time with him, his father wouldn’t let me take him hunting anymore. Sadly that was also the year he turned 12 and could start hunting but his father wasn’t really as interested in getting him out as I was. Finally 6 years later when he turned 18 he didn’t need his dad’s permission anymore and I brought him out to our property and he managed to kill his first buck on the first day.
In 2016 I started getting pics on my property of a big whitetail. In 2017 I laid eyes on him in the muzzleloader season, but I hadn’t planned on hunting that day and had no gun. Dedicated the rest of the season to getting him but during the only daylight appearance he made that season I was back at the farm butchering a hamburger cow! In 2018 I booked the entire rifle season off and at 3pm opening day, there he was. My biggest whitetail buck to date.
My wife started hunting in 2017 and in her first 3 years killed a whitetail buck each season out of the blind. In 2020 she got drawn for mulies and had to learn what it was like stalking around the hills through the snow. After a few days of mistakes and missed shots we found a nice buck who was scent trailing a hot doe. It took us a half mile of stalking to catch up with him but I got her steady on the sticks and she made a perfect shot. Then it was a half mile back to the truck to get the sleigh, half mile back to the deer and another half mile dragging him back to the truck. And it was freezing out! Second pic is one of our many rest breaks. Was dark by the time we got him to the truck!
In 2023 she got drawn for moose. Being from Newfoundland and her father, uncles and brothers were all moose hunters, she always wanted to get one too. Sadly in 2022 her dad passed away before she could draw a tag. The next year she did. She had one of her Dad’s jackets on for good luck and it worked! We shed a few tears thinking about him while we admired her bull.
2021 was my 40th year of hunting so I decided to dust off my old .30-30 that I shot my first 3 deer with as a kid and dedicate the season to the gun that got me started. Got a pretty buck too.
Finally my 2014 bull moose. The largest big game animal I’ve ever killed and the most impressive trophy in my collection.
