Abracadabra the Saskatchewan Whitetail Buck

Featured in Texas Trophy Hunter's Magazine

By P. Rowan Smith

This amazing hunt started when my attorney friend invited me to go with him to hunt Whitetail deer in northern Saskatchewan, Canada with Great Grey Outfitters. I made a decision that proved to be a very good one.

We arrived in Saskatoon, Canada on Saturday Nov. 15, 2003. We were met at the hotel the next morning by Guides from Great Grey Outfitters. We arrived at the Lodge on Sunday afternoon and began seeing pictures of some monster bucks that had been taken the week before we arrived. The biggest one scored 204 Gross Boone & Crockett.

After visiting with the owners Wayne & Susan Schigol, we were pretty pumped up about the quality of deer they had been seeing the week before. Several hunters who remained in camp from the previous weeks hunt were holding out for bucks they had seen that scored over 180 B&C. As you could guess I went to bed that night feeling pretty good about starting out the next day.

The first day of the hunt my friend Mike and I were assigned to Kevin, a young guide in his mid twenties who began preparing to take us to an area that was about 10 miles from the main camp. After leaving the camp we were told that this area was pretty good for sighting some large bucks. It was still dark as we rode down the highway to the areas where we would then be transported by a four-wheeler into the forest. We were ready to hunt. We had our heavy gear on, backpacks full with everything we needed to hunt in the 6 degree weather. Our guide was pretty confident about what we would see, then all of a sudden we heard a loud thumping noise. You guessed it a flat tire. Well, we thought we would lose a few minutes, but could still make it to the blind before daylight. That went out the window when we discovered that the wheel would not come off due to the rust that had accumulated from salting the roads.

We finally broke it loose as the sun was rising. To say the least we were disappointed, but the thing that went through my mind was that this is a real bad omen for the days to come. That first day turned out to be a slow hunt.

Back at camp that night we were told that we would be going to a new area that had been seldom hunted and was a 45 minute ride from the camp. When we got to the hunting area Kevin took Mike first on the four-wheeler to his blind while I waited. After a few minutes Kevin returned and took me on a narrow road only passable by a four-wheeler to an area of thick forest. I would be hunting from a ground blind in a cut over area.

It was about 7:30 a.m. very cold (approx. 0 degrees) and dark when I entered the blind as my guide drove off. After about thirty minutes it started to get light. At this point I could not see very well due to the snow and shadows. I waited about five minutes then decided to raise my gun and scope the area. I also wanted to get a feel of how the rest for the gun would work in the window of the blind. My scope was on 4 power as suggested by Wayne. As I looked ahead over the area to my amazement I saw a good buck standing there. I watched as the buck would throw his head up. I zoomed the scope to 12 power and could see that the deer had some width and had some pretty good mass.

Every time he would raise up, his dark horns would be silhouetted against the dark green fur tree and would cause me trouble in seeing the antlers clearly. At one point I could see a drop tine and another time some kickers on his left side. I remembered the rule that Great Grey has about shooting a buck that scored less than 150 points, where there was an additional kill fee of $1,000. I wanted to be sure that this buck would pass the test. After I saw the drop tine I decided that this deer would score more than 150 and somewhere around 170, but I could not make out the rest of the antlers. I knew he was a mature buck and I decided to take the shot.

The deer was standing broadside to me so it was an easy shot. I placed the crosshairs on the deer's shoulder and squeezed the trigger. Nothing happened. The safety was on. I was so nervous that I caught myself flinching. The deer still stood there under the tree. I unlocked the trigger and told myself to calm down. I took several deep breaths, fired and saw the deer drop under the tree. To my amazement I felt relieved. I sat there for at least 45 minutes seeing the deer laying on the ground. While I was waiting I could see through my scope the antlers sticking up out of the grass where it fell. I started thinking that maybe this deer was wider than I first thought. I decided it was time to approach the deer.

I left the blind and started walking to the deer. As I approached I could see the enormous bodysize of this animal. This deer was almost twice the size of the deer I have killed in South Texas. I then saw what this deer had on top and then I noticed two drop tines on the left main beam. This deer had everything, drop tines, split brow tines, points going everywhere and it had plenty of mass. In total he had twenty three points.

I had never seen such a deer in all my thirty years of hunting let alone it was now laying at my feet. I took several video shots with my camera and thanked the Lord for such a beautiful animal.

As I waited for my guide to return, I decided to return to the warmth of the blind. I heard Kevin on the four-wheeler coming down the trail. As he approached he went close to where the deer laid. He looked at me then the deer several times trying to decide which way to go first. We were told not to talk when entering or leaving the deer blind. When he drove up to the blind, he was smiling from ear to ear as he said in a whisper... "that's a big ----ing deer". Without saying anything else, we loaded the deer in the trailer he pulled behind the four-wheeler.

By the time we left the area and got back to the truck I new that this deer was special. Kevin put the four-wheeler with the deer in the trailer on the truck and we drove back to the Lodge. When we drove up Wayne had seen us coming with the deer. He hurried to see what we had brought into the camp. I could see that Wayne was very excited about this deer. It was getting obvious that I was a little conservative on my score. Wayne started putting his hands all over the antlers while telling me and the others who had gathered around that this buck was one of the biggest he had ever seen killed since he started outfitting and that this deer would score well over 200 B&C.

As you can imagine, that night we celebrated. I shared this story with Wayne and Susan and we decided to name the buck Abracadabra, at the first moment nothing was there and then abracadabra the deer was standing right in front of me.

Here it was the second day of the hunt and I had a bruiser of a buck weighing over 310lbs. The next day they scored the deer to find that it measured 225 2/8 B&C. By the end of the season this buck would become the largest whitetail taken this year by a non-resident hunter in Canada.

Needless to say this was one of the finest hunting moments anyone could have. To me, this deer is a gift from God.

 

Rowan Smith
17336 W. Little York Rd.
Houston , Texas 77084
Phone: 281-550-7111 ext. 102
Fax: 281-550-1941

 

Outfitter:
Great Grey Outfitters Ltd.
Box 239 Meath Park,
SK. S0J-1T0
Tel: (306) 426-2772
E-mail: ggo@sasktel.net