Four years ago while moose hunting in Northern Alberta, I had two velvet antlered whitetail bucks cruise by me at a mere seven yards. We had been calling moose and these two bachelors just happened by .
The moose hunting that year was slow, so my guide and I spent lots of time gabbing.
I mentioned it would be so cool to be able to hunt whitetails in Velvet and that my home place's season started well after the antlers were hardened and cleaned of the magical velvet.
Freddy said that he had a friend farther north who could help me do just that if I wanted.
So in 2017 I found myself sitting in tree stands at the edge of the last farming community in far northern Alberta. Conditions were ideal that year and despite having twenty different bucks inside of 20 yards, I never pulled my bow back.
Vowing to return and hunt those velvet racked bucks again I left my home in SE Minnesota 12 days ago, flew to Edmonton and then the next day drove 400 more Kilometers north.
The area is sparsley populated. The farmers either raise beef cattle or grow hay for those that do . They are the very last farmers before you enter endless woods both to the East and to the North.
My outfitters are a husband and wife team of retired educators. They began bear guiding thirty years ago. They no longer guide for bears and instead focus on both moose hunts with rifle and also whitetails in November also with rifle.
They have just a small number of early season bow tags. I found my self this year in camp with a husband and wife team of modern bow shooters. in 2017 I was the only hunter in their camp for the seven day hunt.
In Alberta, you can not hunt over food plots planted for the sole purpose of killing an animal. You are only allowed to hunt over regular ag fields. The only planted crops are alfalfa and oats. In a normal year the cutting, raking and baling takes place in late July or very early August. When you arrive you see the lush second growth of alfalfa that pulls the animals out of the bush. Usually the fields have hundreds if not thousands of round bales sitting waiting to be collected.
I was forewarned that was not the case this year. Six weeks of constant rain had prevented the farmers from cutting and raking much less baling. Some of the fields we would hunt near this year had waist high grass, and alfalfa still standing. I was also told to be prepared for mosquito hell. To top things off, two days before I was to arrive a hail storm like nothing anyone had ever seen blew through. The hail so severe it literally knocked ducks out of the sky. Bob and Jocelyn's Friend and assistant guide picked up twenty six dead green wing teal laying in the road and ditches near by!
But being an optimist at heart I was excited to spend the next seven days in a tree some where.
the picture below in one of the spots I put in 20 hours or so on stand.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48678442553_3b647197de.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2haxK3i)charles stand (https://flic.kr/p/2haxK3i) by jgilmer2010 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/51550276@N08/), on Flickr
This field was the exception to the rule . Since it was so small they were able to get it cut just before my arrival. You can see the outer rows are just starting to green up again . I hunted this spot because two respectable bucks had been sighted in the field during day light hours. I had only one buck come in with a doe during my time there. A small six point at 8 yards which I elected to just watch. On one of my morning sits, I was treated to a white wolf crossing the field only to return ninety minutes later and stop and stand broadside to me thirty yards away!
Getting skunked can get old. I had several sits both am and pm where I saw zero deer!
Finally on the evening on day 5 we tried a new spot for me.
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48678780101_ed23e0c093.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2hazto6)killing stand (https://flic.kr/p/2hazto6) by jgilmer2010 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/51550276@N08/), on Flickr
This is just a tiny portion of a huge field. The outer rows were cut and raked my second day in camp and by day five the outer rows were starting to attract deer. The stand sits in a low swale of Aspens twenty five yards south of the fields edge. This creates a funnel for deer feeding east or west along the northern edge.
With a field as large as this is, it really takes an good eye to spot and set up near the best field entry spots. Trusting your outfitter to know this is paramount. On this field a lot of deer were exiting the bush and entering the field from the NE corner which is visible in the attached photo
Seeing only does that I night, I felt I just had to sit the rest of the hunt there in the hope that a true Alberta cranker would appear. I had a very close call climbing down that night. Almost at the bottom , I turned my head and one of the ends of a tree peg caught me in the corner of my left and dominant eye. At first I thought I had done some serious damage to myself. But upon close inspection, I missed the eye ball and only caught edge of the socket. Whew!
The next night a few does with fawns were in the field when a massive ten point buck came into the field from the NE corner just liked we had hoped. Seeing a 175+ buck in velvet was awe inspiring to say the least. He fed heavily in the new alfalfa for twenty minutes or so. I was enjoying watching him in my Bino's. As he started to feed to the South rather the desired direction of West, I decided I had nothing to lose by throwing a few social grunts his way. Each time his head would jerk up and he would stare my way! but he had some where he wanted to go and there was no changing his mind that night. Wow what a buck I though over and over and over!
The next and last night of the hunt found me back again in the little island of trees. There was no question of hunting elsewhere. The wind this night was also more in my favor as it was straight out of the
East and lightly blowing in my face.
A doe and fawn were the first in the field. A spike buck who's body color was gray matching his velvet came out next only to harass the doe for the next fifteen moments or so. Then a red forky buck who's velvet was red matching his coat came next. the two bucks engaged in some light sparring with the grey spike clearly being the more aggressive of the two.
Soon I audibly heard a deer walking thru the thick brush and a doe stepped out directly North of me on the very edge of the funnel . The red buck trotted over to check her out and was rewarded with a hoof on his neck . The little buck literally jumped to avoid her second strike and ended up directly below me. Seeing that, the grey spike ran over with his ears laid back flat. The doe spun and ran down field and now the spike and forked buck are sparring right under me!
The two bucks went back to feeding and moved off to my right. Suddenly another red colored buck with red velvet antlers steps out from the very spot the doe had before him. I always try to be standing on stand and my bow is always in my hand. So I was ready to shoot if need be.
At twenty yards I really had no desire to shoot this buck. I still had forty minutes or so of shooting light. I so wanted that massive ten point to reappear. This new buck was feeding and moving towards me at the same time. Now at fifteen yards, then at ten yards. I reminded my self that I have never shot at much less killed a buck in velvet. When the buck was at nine yards he turned broadside, looked the other way and even opened up his sweet spot behind the shoulder.
My hill country bobcat came to life and my arrow zipped thru him and stuck in the dirt on the other side of him. He made no reaction at the shot other than bolt forward. He ran 40 yards, turned hard to his left and was gone into the thick bush. I thought, did my arrow really zip thru like that? So I lowered my bow, climbed down and went to look at my arrow. Standing on the ground 9 yards from it I could see it was painted bright red from stem to stern . YEAH!
I walked over to where he darted into the bush and found a single blood drop. Marking that spot I then walked out to the road to meet Bob. When we returned one hour or so later, we had a hell of a time finding the 2nd drop of blood. I knew the shot was perfect and that he was laying some where close by. We found five more drops of blood in thirty yards and then Bob said " there's your buck".
He has an unusual point coming out below the right brow , and his right ear is half gone due to being frozen off. Or so we think that is what caused that. How does anything live in the woods at minus 30 for weeks at a time.?
After cleaning him up a bit we took the standard hero photo's back at camp. Nothing like killing a great deer the last 40 minutes of the last day of one's hunt. And if that was not enough, the northern lights came out to mark the end of a remarkable day .
Here is my velvet trophy
(https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/48678966292_e3350d0e1f.jpg) (https://flic.kr/p/2haAqJh)velvet buck (https://flic.kr/p/2haAqJh) by jgilmer2010 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/51550276@N08/), on Flickr
Congratulations to you Jim... :thumbsup:
Congratulations on a Beautiful Trophy, Jim!!
A well told tale as well!!
Very cool story. I live in B.C., the next province to the west and on a similar latitude to where you were for your trip. In fact how you describe the terrain and such is like looking out the window. I am glad that you were able to fulfill a dream in our fine country.
Beautiful, thanks for sharing. :archer:
Congrats Jim, great hunt!
David
Awesome story! And a heck of a buck!
Beautiful buck! Congratulations!!
Great writing, looking forward to your hunts at home this year as always
Congratulations, Jim. Thanks for giving us an early taste of your whitetail adventures. Good luck back in Minnesota, as well.
Congrats! That is awesome!
That's a very pretty buck! I went out scouting tonight and had a nice 9 pt in velvet walk right under my tree so I was thinking about you. Someday I'd like to get one in velvet too, they look so cool. Too bad it will be all gone by next weekend!
Good stuff..... congrats :thumbsup:
He's beautiful Jim, congratulations! You're off to a fantastic start for the fall. I hope it continues for you, but either way look forward to the stories.
That's awesome! Beautiful buck!
Congrats on a great velvet buck! Looking forward to your season back in Minn.
Well done, Jim. You are a good storyteller as well.
Very nice...Congrats!...
Way to go sir! Beautiful animal and some fine story telling! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Great story. Congrats on your successful hunt despite tough conditions. Thanks for sharing. :thumbsup:
Congrats Jim on a very handsome velvet buck, a true trophy!!!!!
Well told story!!!!
Now time for some SE Minnesota Whitetails :goldtooth:
Congrats Jim. I look forward to hearing about the rest of your season
Very nice. Thanks for sharing with us. :clapper:
Great deer!
That is awesome. I would love to do that hunt. I think I better look into it.
Wow, fantastic! Way to go!
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Outstanding :clapper:
Outstanding Buck! I absolutely love Alberta and hope to go back soon. Congratulations on your Velvet trophy.
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Congratulations Jim on a fine buck! Great story as well. That brings back some memories for me. I was in Saskatchewan back in 1984. I didn't make it that far north though. I hope the rest of your hunting season is just as successful.
-Leonard-
Cogradulation on an Alberta White Tail,
The season opened up here Aug 25th and I just came back from four days up there in a stand.
I saw several nice bucks like that over four days.
Great work on getting that deer!
Gordon
Way to go Jim!!!!
:clapper:nice work Jim
That's great!
Tim B
Great story and great work
:thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Congratulations on a fine critter.
You done good....really good!
Congratulations on a real fine buck!
Maybe you can explain something to me - why a velvet buck? What is the allure of taking a buck in velvet when if you wait another month it will be burnished bone? I guess I am a little slow, but I just don't get it. Why velvet?
I hope to get out west to chase mule deer and my target time is AFTER they loose the velvet. Is there something "special" about a velet buck that I am just missing?
Again, congratulations on a great buck.
Best Regards,
JMC
Congratulations! I enjoyed your well told story.
Very nice buck in velvet. The trees look like hardwoods, and the terrain pretty flat, was that what you remember. Is it normal for bucks to still be in velvet in Sept. that far north?
A great trip by all accounts, Jim, and you never once whined about the mosquitoes! That buck has a unique rack..a story-teller .