Typical Day & Tactics:

Wake up early and suit up into your under layers, with your outer layers stashed in the truck or main lodge so you don’t overheat. Have a buffet-style breakfast, pack a hearty lunch and head out with your guide. Either cruise the first hour of light checking fields for deer at dawn, and for any recent overnight sign in the snow or make it to your heated box blind or ground blind before sunrise.

During the rut, the deer here have the potential to move at any hour of the day. Many spots are set up along cut lines watching well-known travel corridors bisecting large swath of timber or overlooking strategic field edges. You can often see hundreds of yards in several directions and must remain quiet, warm and vigilant as shot opportunities can come and go quickly. Pre-range all of your likely shooting areas where you expect to see deer, fight the urge to use your binoculars and judge any bucks through your rifle scope instead. If it has a big frame and carries its mass, you will likely be pleasantly surprised with ground growth as these can be massive bodied deer.

Expect to hunt dark to dark each day until you are successful, and encounter other species such as moose, coyotes and the occasional wolves. Expect to mainly hunt from a stand or blind, but some vehicle assisted spot & stalk may also occur. You will spend more time in a vehicle if you are hoping to combine with moose. Return back to the lodge after dark and enjoy a lovely dinner and hunting stories from the day with the other guides and hunters in camp. Call it a night and repeat!

Landscape & Climate:

This is a remote forest fringe type habitat where some of the northernmost agricultural fields mix and give way to the expansive boreal. Most fields will be planted with grains or alfalfa, as well as fallow pastures. The landscape is dotted with marshy sloughs and small river valleys creating the dense “buck brush” these deer love to inhabit. Forests here are normally either mainly poplar stands, but some areas can be dominated by spruce and jack pine. The topography is generally flat, with some rolling hills and occasional ravines.

The terrain is not challenging, it’s the climate that can pick away at you. Remaining warm so that you stay comfortable and focused is where the emphasis lies. Most November hunts see at least some snow on the ground, and ideally, temperatures are below the freezing mark. The colder the weather, the more the deer feed and move midday. So being mentally and physically prepared to sit all day in sub-zero weather is the name of the game. For detailed weather data, Wikipedia is an excellent resource for historic weather trends found in the “Climate” section available for any city worldwide.

Meals & Accommodations:

Repeat clients have all commented on the quality of the food and lodgings. Two full-time staff attend to our hunter’s gourmet needs providing warm buffet-style breakfasts with all the fixings early each morning. Lunches are usually packed for the day after breakfast, including an array of different sandwiches, freshly baked cookies, brownies or muffins, candy bars, bottled water, and juices as well as fruit. Dinner is an ever-changing chef-inspired menu with meal feature items such as steaks, rack of ribs, lamb chops, grilled salmon, turkey dinners, beef or chicken fajitas and much more.

The lodge has a large main common building with a big dining hall, bathrooms, a lounge area, wifi, and bar. Many of the hunters leave their bulky over-layers here to overnight. Hunter’s all have nice personal cabins, usually with only one or two hunters per cabin. These cabins have separate bedrooms, complete bathrooms, heating and electricity, cell phone service, TV’s, couches and complete kitchens.

Key Equipment Suggestions:

For this hunt, cold weather gear and an intelligent series of layers can mean the difference between a memorable vs miserable day in the Canadian deer woods. This hunt requires a more detailed equipment list. Cold weather gear to keep you warm all day is most essential. Warm hat, mitts, fleece neck-warmer/balaclava, cold weather boots, boot blankets or a heater body suit with air-activated heater packs or heated insoles are certainly recommended. Other basic gear includes a day pack, rifle, 8-10x binoculars, quality rangefinder, headlamp, and a good camera.