Blake Luse
Troy White
Troy White
Kelly Wendtland
Mark Fischer
Nick Slocum
Tony Keim
Mark Ross
Lucas White
Josh Ukrainetz and Family
Giovanni Panno
Giovanni Panno
Dave Evans
What a fantastic bowhunting season we had, our best ever! This was mainly due to my incredible guide crew, but also good weather conditions and really great hunters who came prepared, in shape and ready to shoot!! Our mule deer have made a really good comeback, three mild winters in a row along with good spring moisture has made a huge difference in antler growth, body size and deer numbers. Our elk population continues to grow too even with unrelenting resident hunter pressure and the moose are doing really well with the limited draw on them for rifle hunters. Along with the healthy Whitetail population, tons of Bears, some Wolves and Cougars our area continues to be a Big Game Hunter's Paradise.
We hosted 8 mule deer bowhunters who shot 5 bucks with the 4 biggest ones all scoring over 180! Mark Ross came with 4 time repeat hunter Ricky Wood all the way from Louisiana and Mark took a wide typical 4 by 4 scoring right at 180 with guide Josh Harb. My head guide, Kyle Mudge guided another 4 time repeat hunter Nick Slocum to a 30 inch wide buck that scored 186. Then 2nd time hunter Blake Luse from Montana wasn't about to be out done by Nick so he killed a 200 inch non typical! A giant of a deer. The biggest bow killed deer of the year goes to first time but probably not the last time hunter, Kelly Wendtland, with a massive, multi tined beast of a deer scoring 206 gross non typical. It had huge, knobby 8 inch bases, crazy long 21 inch g2's, extra points, a deer of a lifetime, guided by Gerard Van Den Boogard. The other deer hunters that didn't kill all had shot opportunities. Our early season moose hunts go on at the same time as the mule deer bowhunts and we were 100% kill success, two kills for repeat hunters Tony Keim and Mark Fischer.
The other bowhunt we do is our elk and moose combo hunt and man oh man was it a huge success! We were well over 100% opportunity rate on both species for every hunter, lots of carbon was in the air. When the dust settled we ended up with 4 elk for 4 hunters and 2 moose for 4 hunters, we definitely should have been 100% kill success on both species. Troy and Lucas White drove from Ontario for the fourth time on this hunt and had a blast with both of them of course getting elk and Troy getting a nice moose. Giovanni Panno and Dave Evans were the other two guys on the hunt and Giovanni was the lucky moose killer along with both of them getting elk. Guides, Kyle, Josh, Gerard and Cody Colbourne made the hunt a huge success!
For 2018 all of our mule deer bowhunts are full, the elk and moose combo hunt is full too but we have 2 spots open for the early season moose hunt. It's not a trophy hunt and you won't see a lot of moose but you will kill one! Well, not 100% guaranteed but dang close. As I write this our first week of rifle hunts has also been 100% successful on elk and mule deer.
If you would still love to make it up here this fall 2017 we do have ONE WHITETAIL DEER RIFLE HUNT OPEN FOR NOV 15-23, these are the scheduled arrival and departure dates in Grande Prairie, Alberta. Thanksgiving is Nov 23 so you could make the departure date Nov 22 and make it home to the family in time for the big feast. We will be hunting whitetails in some new areas this fall, with some new stands and new techniques. You might even kill a deer like the giant pictured on trail camera from August, as far as we know he is still alive and we will be hunting in his area!
