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Old 10-13-2018, 10:25 AM
Prairiekid Prairiekid is offline
 
Join Date: Aug 2016
Location: Rocky Mountains
Posts: 506
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Hey Guys,

Sorry it took a couple days to get back to you. Thanks for the tips. I shot a good sized doe early Friday morning, dressed it and drove back to Canmore, then cleaned it up and butchered it as soon as I arrived home. Normally I would like to hang it for a bit but being a doe and having the time to do it, I just got it done right away. I'm not your normal hunter, I don't have a 4*4 or a garage. I slept in the back of my wagon, maybe I will have a garage someday but those are freaking expensive in Canmore.

I didn't take any pictures as it was raining quite hard in 350 yesterday. I know some people would disagree but for whatever reason we name the deer we harvest, I think of it as a way of honouring it. We named this one Mitsue after the nearby lake. I shot the deer at 25 yards with a Tikka M695 25.06 I bought 15 some years ago. The deer was struggling to make me out, I am going to say it was the Firstlite pants in Cipher pattern but it did't hurt that it was still early morning, overcast and raining hard. I hesitated to go in the rain, I know it's easier to move quietly but I wasn't sure if the deer would be moving.

I decided to try to get up a bit higher and as it turned out I was walking up a road when I spotted the doe, no great story here. I will return to 350 in future seasons, I was intrigued by Swan Hills, Slave Lake and just the general area.

I am always surprised that it seems Whitetail Deer prefer to be somewhat close to roads. It seems it doesn't matter how nice the terrain, water sources and protection might be deep in the forest, the further back in you get the less deer you tend to see. I can't figure out why. I have a bit of a better idea of how to hunt the area because of your tips and also just being there and seeing it, but I don't really know how to hunt big cut blocks? Growing up it seems I remember videos of guys hunting northern Alberta and massive deer would be passing through rough cut blocks and almost swampy areas.

So 1 tag is gone, now I get to explore another zone or two!
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