I am a Big Game Hunter, but my dad was convinced he would make me into a water fowler if he had anything to do with it. I was excited to try my hand at bird hunting, as I had never done that before. I wanted to see what my dad was so ecstatic about! It was 2003, September to be exact, he had booked a combination duck and goose hunt in Alberta Canada. It was going to be myself, my husband Brent and my dad. Brent and I had never been to Canada before, but we had yearned to go there and hunt big Alberta bucks for years. We knew that’s where the big boys lived! We were so excited to at least be in big buck country, even though we were going to be hunting for ducks and geese.
A year earlier when we booked this hunt, we talked with the outfitter about his mule deer operation, asking if there were any tags still available for the following September, so we could make it a combo hunt. At that point he was already booked for three years on his mule deer. So we thought that would be cool to at least see some mule deer in bachelor groups, since we would be there in mid September. So I packed my 12 gauge shot gun and a duffle full of gear, and we were on our way! This would be a three day hunt in the Peace River area of Alberta. We flew from Richmond Virginia, to Edmonton, then on to Grande Prairie, Alberta. We landed with high hopes of seeing waves of geese filling the sky. After a short drive to camp, we organized our gear and got settled in for the evening.
The next morning came early, we would goose hunt in the morning and come in for a big farmers breakfast, rest, then head out to the fields to duck hunt the evenings. I enjoy skeet shooting, and I had been trying to practice before the hunt, so I could make the most out of every shot. I soon discovered that duck and goose hunting is a lot different than skeet shooting. We were covered up in coffin blinds lying on the ground, I tend to be cold natured and it didn’t help that it was freezing every morning. Once the action started my mind focused on how fun it was, rather than how cold it was on that crisp September morning. We didn’t want to shoot at the high flyers; we wanted to wait until the geese committed to the decoys! We like them up close and personal. That would give me the best chance at hitting what I was aiming for. Boy was that fun watching them circle in and commit, then our guide would yell, “kill-em”!!! We’d all rise up, tear off the camo flap that was draped over our bodies, and shoot! If we all shot well, three, six, maybe nine geese would fall from the sky.
The duck hunting was just as fun, they used the MOJO decoys and those ducks were fooled every time! The best evening we had duck hunting, it seemed like thousands of ducks filled the sky. Flock after flock of ducks would dive into our set up! We were limited out in one hour! I have never seen that many ducks fall out of the sky so fast! I even got a triple that evening, we were all high fiving! It was a blast!
The second day that we were in camp, Brent and I were talking to the owner/outfitter so much about their mule deer, he couldn’t understand why we were so intent on grilling him about his mule deer operation, after all we were there to bird hunt not deer hunt! He had forgotten that one year ago when we booked the hunt, we had talked briefly about possibly mule deer hunting with him in the future. He had thought that we were bird hunter’s not big game hunters. After we expressed our interest in hunting mule deer with him, we now were on the same page; he offered us an opportunity that we could not refuse! He had explained that just two days ago, one of his mule deer client’s had cancelled last minute for this year, the stars must have been in alignment that night! He had ONE mule deer tag up for grabs, now it was up to us as to WHO is going to get it? Of course Brent wanted sooooo bad to put his name on that tag, but he knew in his heart that it was my chance to hunt this deer. Up to that point in my hunting career, I had been labeled “snake-bit” when it came to my luck on out of state hunts! The score was… deer 4, Christine 0! It was high time for me to have a solid opportunity; Brent on the other hand had been quite successful on those trips!
So without hesitation, we drove into town, bought a license and raced back to start glassing for deer. The most unbelievable thing of it all was, that Gun season had just opened the day before, things could not have been any better!
I put a stipulation on myself though. My dad had booked this hunt and I was in no way going to ditch the bird hunting for mule deer! I was not going to disrespect him. I was going to deer hunt for one afternoon, forfeit that evening’s duck hunt and try my chances at a muley! I had about four hours to get it done, but I didn’t have a rifle, all I had was my shot gun! The owner had a custom .300 win mag that he let me borrow. We stepped out the back door, set up a paper target at about 100 yards; I shot once to build my confidence with this gun, headed out and began glassing bachelor groups, hoping we would find a good buck. I was not going to be picky, with the time constraint I had put upon myself, all I really wanted was a chance at respectable 4 x 4.
We began to spot several groups of bucks at distances from 500 yards to as far as ½ mile away. We mounted the spotting scope on the truck window allowing us to identify if there was a buck worthy of stalking or not. Time was ticking and we only wanted to make a stalk if it was a buck that I would shoot. We glassed a group of deer and the outfitter noticed two bucks sporting 26” spreads. They were about ½ miles away on the back end of a canola field. Since the outfitter knew this area well; he knew we could drive around the back end of the field closing the distance keeping the wind to our advantage. We got the truck positioned closer so we could make a 1000 yard stalk. We snuck in single file keeping a hedge row of trees between us and the deer. We came to within 300 yards of this group of deer, they had dropped off into a coulee about 100 yards in front of us, all we needed was one of those 26 inchers to pop out of that coulee and I would have my shot!
We waited patiently as buck after buck eased their way out of the coulee, it was perfect. Our plan was coming together, but all we saw were scrub bucks. We waited for at least 45 minutes, eventually we abandoned this group of deer, knowing those two big bucks were either not going to show their faces that night or they had used the coulee to their advantage and just walked away out of sight, never to be seen again.
Luckily the outfitter knew of one last spot that we could try. He knew this would be do or die; we made our trek back to the truck and drove to hopefully greener pastures. At this point we had about one more hour of light. I was still very optimistic, knowing how many bucks we had seen in a small window of time. We eased ourselves into position, overlooking a huge canola field; we used a block of trees for cover, snuck to the edge and set up. I steadied his gun on a set of shooting sticks to ready myself for an opportunity. Off to my left surfaced a lone monster! He slowly grazed our way. We knew this buck was a shooter! He came to within 100 yards; I settled the crosshairs on his vitals and squeezed the trigger. He dropped like a sac of potatoes! I had just shot my first mule deer buck! After five hard years of hunting out of state, I had finally done it! We raced over to my buck and taking the first look at him I became so emotional, tears were welling up inside me and all I could do was cry, I was so elated, I fell to my knees and wept. The outfitter thought something was wrong, but I quickly exclaimed how happy I was and he understood. It is hard to describe the emotions that had overcome me. After all of those years trying so hard, I had always come up empty, I had a great sense of relief, and I was no longer jinxed! I always have a moment of silence to thank God for the animal that I have been so fortunate to take. Brent and the outfitter congratulated me with hugs and we captured the moment with pictures to last a lifetime. Now I was smiling ear to ear. As the sun began to set, the sky lit up and was a beautiful deep blue hue. We called for help to load him in the truck and head back to camp. He was 300 pounds, the biggest deer I have ever seen. His summer coat was beautiful and he sported a huge 4 x 5 rack that has an outside spread of 34 inches!
I had exceeded my expectations for this hunt; I had shot a mule deer buck that most people will drool over! I have always heard that the benchmark for muleys was 30 inches, and I had just exceeded that. I could not have been in a happier! I guess after five long years of waiting and not getting any opportunities, God graced me with the buck of my dreams. This will be a hunt I will always remember! The four hour hunt! The remaining time on our trip was great; we had a lot of meat to bring home, coolers full of ducks, geese, and mule deer steaks.
This hunt turned out to be the ultimate combo hunt that I had dreamed of. What a wonderful first trip to Canada. I now know why my dad loves to come to the beautiful Province of Alberta to hunt for ducks and geese, now that I have experienced it for myself, I’m sure this will be the start to many more adventures up north.
