Bird Dogs, Big Bucks, And Breaking New Ground. Navigating Saskatchewan`s Landscape

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When a lifelong hunter from New Brunswick relocates to Saskatchewan, the learning curve becomes a fascinating journey through Canada's diverse hunting landscapes. Dave shares his nine-year adventure adapting to prairie hunting while bringing along his east coast hunting ethic and determination.

Saskatchewan's trophy whitetail reputation comes with controversy, as we explore the lottery system that gives residents preferential access while limiting opportunities for other Canadian hunters. The sponsorship system for family members offers improved odds but still no guarantees, creating frustration for hunters wanting to experience the province's legendary deer hunting without hiring outfitters.

The conversation takes a serious turn discussing Chronic Wasting Disease management across provincial borders. With CWD now detected in 59 of Saskatchewan's 83 wildlife management zones, hunters face new regulations and ethical questions about testing, transportation, and consumption of harvested animals. We compare different provincial approaches to containing this 100% fatal deer disease and the role hunters play in management efforts.

Dave's enthusiasm peaks when sharing his expertise training German Shorthaired Pointers for pheasant hunting. From the natural instincts of backing another dog's point to the remarkable ability to track injured birds through dense cattails, his stories highlight the special partnership between hunters and their dogs. His detailed descriptions of pheasant behavior – including the surprising fact that they can run faster than they fly – provide valuable insights for anyone interested in pursuing these challenging gamebirds.

Whether discussing the prairie moose that feed in canola fields or the limitations of wildlife management funding, this conversation spans the breadth of Canadian hunting experiences with authenticity and practical knowledge. Dave's journey reminds us that adapting to new hunting environments requires both respect for traditional skills and openness to learning new approaches.

Check us out on Facebook and instagram Hunts On Outfitting, and also our YouTube page Hunts On Outfitting Podcast. Tell your hunting buddies about the podcast if you like it, Thanks!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:11):
this is hunts on outfitting podcast.
I'm your host and rookie guide,ken meyer.
I love everything hunting theoutdoors and all things
associated with it, from storiesto howos.
You'll find it here.
Welcome to the podcast.
Hey, thanks for listening tothe podcast.

(00:47):
We've got another great one foron to talk about those, but in
this episode we talk aboutpheasant hunting, bird dogs, the
impacts of CWD, moose hunting,saskatchewan whitetails and lots
more.
If you guys want to leave us areview on Apple or Spotify,
that'd be great.
If you want to reach out to us,you can on Facebook, hunts on
Outfitting or by email,huntsonoutfitting at gmailcom.

(01:11):
Before we get started, I got totell you about my magazine that
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(01:34):
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(01:55):
It's great, it's fun to look at, just sit back, relax,
especially on these cool winternights.
You're gonna enjoy it all.
Right, let's get to the podcast.
Yeah, so it's funny, dave, uh,the other weekend, so I hunt
with your and trap a bit withyounger brother Scott, and then,
uh, you were the oldest of fourand then I was going to have
you on the podcast and then Iwas like well, I've never met

(02:16):
Dave before, so I should callhim and talk a bit before what
we're going to go over.
And then we ended up talkingfor almost three hours and it
was great.
And then I got off the phonewith you.
I'm like shit, I don't knowwhat we're going to talk about
still.
But yeah, uh, well, you're aneast coaster and you moved to,
uh, saskatchewan.

Speaker 2 (02:34):
You've always been, uh, been hunting yeah,
originally new brunswick, canada, and grew up there and like,
introduced pretty young age.
Yeah, rough grouse, I guess, iswhat we started.
Mostly my dad wasn't much of adeer hunter.
We did a little deer huntingbut I kind of took that passion
on myself as I got older, had agood buddy in school that me and

(02:57):
him were all through the bushall the time and building tree
stands and stuff.
So started deer hunting 16 anduh really just kind of got more
and more into it over the years.
Um, I ended up out here inSaskatchewan the nine years now
we're going on.
Um, I always wanted like I hadguys I worked with at the mine

(03:21):
back there that uh would comeout to outputters deer hunting
stuff and just seeing the bigbucks that they shot.
So it was always something tocome out and hunt.
And then I got the opportunityto come out and work and live
here and uh, I kind of jumped onit more for the hunting than
the work and uh, yeah, so thatwas uh, nine years ago, been

(03:41):
hunting out here, seeing quite adifference as a lot of a lot of
opportunity to hunt differentanimals here too, compared to
New Brunswick.

Speaker 1 (03:49):
You shot a lot of you know you're credited of one of
our friends, dalton Patterson.
You got him into hunting.
Well, he always kind of hunteda little bit and then you were
you're quite a bit older than usand then he'd see you hunting
at his grandparents and see youcoming out with these big bucks.
And that's when he was like, oh, I'd like to go hunting deer

(04:11):
now, I think but I mean a lot ofpeople you moved to
saskatchewan.
You've shot some smasher bucksthere and you some people listen
to this might be thinking like,well, yeah, anyone can shoot a
big buck in saskatchewan.
But you proved yourself in newBrunswick first, because you got
some deer here that were noslouches as well.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Yeah, yeah, like that .
So Dalton, when he was gettinginto it, like that's when I was
really really getting into deerhunting and more and more, and I
worked for Dalton's grandfatherfor a few summers, so kind of
got an eye on the land early on.
And then when I started huntingthere Dalton was just turned 16
, I guess, when he got his firstdeer license.
So he was getting into it.

(04:49):
That year his grandfatheractually got to sit with him for
his for his first buck.
But like, yeah, that's, thatwas kind of when I was really
really getting into the deerhunting then.
So getting Dalton into it kindof ruined my spot.
He, he took it over for sure,but he, uh, he's, yeah, good,
good on him.
That day, like we went out, Ihad two bucks on camera that

(05:09):
year.
They were both pretty good deer.
So we went and sat.
He, I think he left schoolearly and uh sat the evening.
He shot his pretty quick.
We had blue, the grunt call inthis.
Uh, eight point, I'll, I'll begoing back and forcing this guy
from terms of four by four.
And uh, and it came out and Isaid, do you want to shoot it?

(05:31):
And yep, and he shot it anddropped it right in its tracks,
and so he was supposed to comewith me the next day.
I remember that, and he hecalled in sick on the hunt and,
uh, the next morning I shot theother one.
It was a.
It was a 10.5 by five.
He's kind of mad at me becausehe wasn't there.
We shot both those deer thatevening and then the next
morning.
I've had pretty good success onthat land.

(05:54):
It was a good spot back there,for sure.
I think coming out here, though, and just bringing the New
Brunswick mentality on huntingthere and the work that it took
to find good deer really helpsyou to be successful out here,
cause there are a lot of deer,but it still takes takes a lot
of work to narrow in some goodones, for sure.

Speaker 1 (06:14):
And there's a find here.
Uh, you know, for thoselistening that don't know what
it's like hunting in NewBrunswick, there's a lot of
hunting pressure here.
I don't know.
In saskatchewan, I'm guessingit's a big province, it's a lot
more spread out, but here I meanyou've got somebody breathing
on your neck, down your neckeverywhere, it seems really.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
Yeah, that was one thing I noticed for sure out
here, like there's, there'sdefinitely hunting pressure more
in the rotten rifle season solike I try and take advantage of
bow season.
There's not as much.
But uh, I was running somenumbers by the other day and I
kind of looked it up myself justto see what the difference is.
In New Brunswick you'll findyour deer are probably condensed

(06:53):
more into a couple zones,really like your high numbers.
And out here I mean there'sdeer right across the province
up north to the Boreal Forest.
You get further north there'sless deer, but you guys actually
sell like 3,000 more deerlicenses in New Brunswick than
they sell in Saskatchewan.
Yeah, that's crazy.
I think like we're limited here.

(07:15):
So Canadian residents, it's alottery system for them.
So my brothers are fortunatebecause I can sponsor them and
their odds go up quite a bit toget drawn to come out here.
I can sponsor them and theirodds go up quite a bit to get
drawn to come out here.
But uh, as a regular Canadianresident, they think like you're
like 10% odds to get luckyenough and draw a license.
So most of them, if you want tocome here.

(07:35):
You're going through anoutfitter.

Speaker 1 (07:37):
That's what I wanted.
I didn't know if you wanted toget right into that first five
minutes of the podcast, but it'sall right.
So there's a little bit of a Iguess you could say deer hunting
controversy over insaskatchewan, because I mean,
it's not there.
Everyone knows thesaskatchewan's home of the big
bucks world renowned, it's knownfor that.
You've got outfitters.
They're selling really highdollar hunts on these big bucks

(07:59):
and um.
But yeah, for like you said fora canadian resident, if you had
a friend come down just to wantto hunt with you, you said he
can't really do that.
It's got to be a family memberthat's sponsored to go.

Speaker 2 (08:10):
That's right.
So when I landed here, so whenI first moved out, I landed here
right into the rules trying tofigure out what I need to hunt,
I guess.
So instantly I look and youneed to be a Saskatchewan
resident for at least six months, so hold a license, a driver's

(08:30):
license, in Saskatchewan for sixmonths.
So I went, got that like thesecond day I was here just so I
knew I was going to get theopportunity to hunt, and uh, so
I had to miss out.
Actually, just the way mytimeline worked out, I missed
out on all bow season and I gotto start hunting rifle season.
So, like the week before rifleseason, I was technically able

(08:51):
to buy a license.
But if you're not aSaskatchewan resident, yeah,
canadian resident lottery systemor or outfitters your only
option.
So I've had my brothers out.
So, like, like I said, when Isponsor them, I think their odds
go to like 80% or something forfor them to draw a tag.

Speaker 1 (09:07):
So still not guaranteed though.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
No, it's not guaranteed.
So, like, uh, my older brother,he's put in three times.
The one time he was successfulwas COVID, so he couldn't come
out cause he would have had tohunker down for two weeks when
he went back so he couldn'treally pull it off and then he
was drawn.
He wasn't drawn the next timehe put in.

(09:29):
He actually wasn't successfulwith his 80% and then the next
time he got drawn.
So he's been out for one hunt.
And then my youngest brother,pat, he's been out twice now for
two hunts, but at both timeshe's put in.
He was successful, yeah.

Speaker 1 (09:46):
So do you think I don't know if you want to step
on any toes here and there'snothing wrong with, uh, you know
, outfitters trying to make goodliving, but do you think that
is probably?
I mean, is the deer populationlow in saskatchewan and that's
why?
Or you think the outfitters arelike well, you know, let's just
settle down on how many peoplejust come in here and hunt that
aren't going through us.

Speaker 2 (10:04):
I think that the outfitters definitely have some
say.
But like honestly, like I know,like talking to Manitoba
residents, like that at onepoint they could like Canadian
residents could just buy a tagover here and and come over.
So I'm not sure what the rulechange happened there, Like
whether it was some hard wintersand they've seen a major dip in
deer numbers and it just hasn'tgone back.

(10:25):
Like we haven't got thepopulation back to where they
want it to be, to open it up alittle more.
So I think this is the drawsystem.
They can kind of they'll openup more like more dependent now
on seems to be more dependentnow on like complaints on
farmers of crop damage and stufflike that.
So like they're seeing thenumbers coming up like crazy,
then they'll give out moreCanadian resin tags.

(10:47):
So in the lottery system, Ithink they can up their numbers
and down their numbers based offwhat they're seeing for
populations.

Speaker 1 (10:53):
Okay, yeah, Do you think that the elk compete with
the deer?
Because we were talking beforethat.
The elk population seems tohave done, would you call it
exploded there?

Speaker 2 (11:05):
In this area, so like elk and moose, is definitely so
I'm Southeast Saskatchewan,like areas with majority
farmland, right, yeah, so, butelk, like you'll see a lot of
elk along our valleys and stuff,and like since I've been here
I've noticed the numbers havegone up quite a bit, like it's
from what I'm just seeing aroundand stuff, but like so it's

(11:28):
also a lottery system.
But like I know a lot offarmers have been complaining
about the elk and like anyonebale grazing near that valley is
getting hammered by the elk.
So but the numbers like myunderstanding just talking to
guys around here like the elkpopulation was never huge till
10, 15 years ago it startedgrowing quite a bit and like now
the numbers are pretty healthyfor sure, but as far as

(11:51):
competing, like um, they'll bein the same areas, but it's like
you won't see, I don't find yousee the deer numbers as high
where there's elk okay um, likethe elk will definitely,
especially in the rut.
Like my, my cameras will dryright up as far as deer when the
elk are in rut, they kind ofget out of their way and let
them do their thing, it seems.
But elk can take over a spotpretty quick and then it kind of

(12:15):
depends on what crops thefarmers are growing to like.
I know there's one area thatI've seen a lot of elk and
farmers growing beans one yearand then the next year I was
down there scouting and lookingand like really never seen the
elk.
So they kind of move arounddepending on what, what they
have to feed on and, uh, theyseem to winter in the same areas
where the feed is like.

(12:36):
I know, like a farmer that balegrazes every year, I'll felt,
and he's getting hammered everyyear right now.
Most likely the same herd justhunkers in there for the winter.

Speaker 1 (12:46):
Yeah yeah, that can cost the farmer a lot of money.

Speaker 2 (12:52):
Yeah, yeah, for sure.
I mean the crop insurance thingis one thing, but like, and you
see now, like I've seen down atthe park, so like we have Roddy
Mountain National Park downsouth of Mead County Lake and
like they actually opened it upone winter, they opened 100 tags
up just to go in there.

(13:13):
It was like a February huntbecause the numbers were so high
and they were doing so muchdamage to the farmers' feed for
the year.
Oh, wow, yeah, you'll see oncein a while they'll take control
of it or try and take control ofit and cut the numbers down
when it's when it's getting outof control.
But it's, it can be, they canbe an issue, I guess for some
yeah, but and then so the deerpopulation.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
You know it's steady.
And then we talked before andyou said that, um, you'd
messaged uh, was it doug durhamfrom meat eater that's right and
that was on the CWD, thechronic wasting disease.
So you guys, actually you dohave a problem with it there.

Speaker 2 (13:50):
Yeah, so it's right across the province and it's
definitely heavier in certainzones.
So, like we have a programwhere you can drop off your head
, or I think it's the part ofthe spinal cord in the back of
the head, so like it's found inthe spinal cord in the back of
the head, so like it's found inthe spinal cord brain of the
deer.
So like what people do is youcan drop your head off, you can

(14:11):
test it for CWD and they'll getback to you whether it's been
positive or not.
So they go off of those numbersto uh figure out the problem
areas, I guess.
But uh, so what?
The reason I messaged Doug wasManitoba got its first case here
a few years ago and then thegovernment did a call.

(14:31):
It was during the huntingseason but they flew around and
they shot 600 deer to test themall and they came back with one
positive out of those 600.
So people kind of got irateover it and it was all over
facebook and everything.
And then, uh, so I just kind ofmessaged out just like it was

(14:51):
this the right way to do this?
And I know manitoba justdoesn't want it to get in their
province and spread across theprovince.
So that was the the goal of it.
And uh, he said when politicsget involved down there, so they
were doing the same thing there.
They tried to do a call on deerin a hot area.
So what he was saying a hotarea was like 25% of the deer

(15:11):
tested were coming back positive.
So the only way to reallycontrol a dead deer is the only
way to control it because itspreads so easily.
And so he's saying the hotareas is what they should be
doing Calls on or up the tagnumbers and stuff like that.
But the problem was using, like, your government to do the call
.
So he's saying the bestsolution is to use the hunter.

(15:33):
And that's kind of what manitobaswitched to here because they
took so much heat over that thatthey, uh, they offer I think
it's like three mule deer tagsin these zones of the border
zones oh wow yeah, where themuley were crossing them over.
So like mule deer tags in thesezones in the border zones, oh
wow yeah, where the muley werecrossing them over.
So like muleys kind of migratedacross Saskatchewan slowly and
like we had decent numbers inour zone out there in the Capel

(15:54):
Valley and then they kind ofmigrated into Manitoba.
So that's what they actuallyfound.
The positive cases was in muledeer.
So they offer three tags toanybody who wants them, but they
have to get the head tested.
Okay, uh, mandatory test.
That's just a five dollar tagso they can shoot two does in a
bucket at least what it is andthen they had to mandatory test.

(16:14):
They've been doing that for thepast couple years just to try
and keep cwd on this side of theborder, but it's uh, it's a
hard one to control it, like somany different ideas on how to
control it, and I think, likeDoug's saying, like, basically
your call, like to shoot, shootso many in the zone and then
test them, and if you get a hotzone, like you really got to

(16:35):
knock the numbers down tocontrol it.
So it's a tough topic for a lotof people because it's where
it's found.
Like in Saskatchewan, if you'regoing to be taking your deer to
a butcher or anything like,everything has to be deboned.
They can't cut through bone andit's all deboned meat.
So not found hasn't been foundin the meat, it's found in the

(16:56):
spine and brain, right?

Speaker 1 (16:57):
so yeah, I got a little bit of facts here on it
for those wondering what we'retalking about, I guess.
So it's not CWD, known aschronic wasting disease.
So far it only seems to affectcervids, so any mammals of the
deer family.
As of right now, there is noknown treatment or cure.
It's in.
I wondered this and I looked itup.

(17:18):
So it's in the same family asBSE, mad cow disease.
Yeah, so it's a prion disease,right?
Yeah, yeah, so I kind offigured that.
Right now it's currently foundin saskatchewan, alberta, quebec
and manitoba and it's beendetected in uh 29 us states.
For saskatchewan, though, theythink that it came through uh

(17:38):
elk that were infectedunknowingly, that were released
in the province from SouthDakota in the 1980s.
Then it was first detected on aI think it was an elk farm in
1996.
And then in the wild in 2000 inSaskatchewan.
And as of 2022, in Saskatchewanit's found in 59 of the 83

(18:01):
wildlife management zones.
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (18:04):
That's pretty, that's all very accurate.
So it's like.
Also, the thing with CWD is100% fatality rate.
So it's not like EHD, whereactually like EHD looks so bad
because you've seen so many deadanimals, but actually like a
lot of them can actually surviveEHD, but with the CWD it's 100%
fatality rate.

(18:24):
So within two years of gettingit they're saying they will be
dead.
So it's.
But it can look a lot of thesame, like when you see one
that's really run down, likeI've had one doe that I'm sure,
sure had cwd, it's out of that.
Or she was 14 years old anddying because she could see all
her ribs.
She just looked very sick andit's that's what you'll see,

(18:45):
kind of the end of their life.

Speaker 1 (18:47):
They'll, they'll be very run down, but like you can
shoot a deer that you think isperfectly healthy and look good
and it can come back positiveyeah, and then they're worried
about it too, because when theanimals are infected by it and
it keeps progressing, uh,there's a lot more motor vehicle
accidents with deer and elk,and all that because the animals
are just not alert.

(19:08):
They're just not, you know,themselves.

Speaker 2 (19:10):
Yeah it would definitely be affecting their
brain at that point for sure,yeah yeah, Another interesting
thing about Saskatchewan, though.

Speaker 1 (19:17):
like we were talking you guys, so you guys don't have
deer registration there.

Speaker 2 (19:21):
No, so well, we don't have a deer registration, so
what we have is a hunter'ssurvey.
So it's.
It became mandatory here acouple years after.
Here before it wasn't mandatorybut you can do it optional.
But now, yeah, that was kind ofnew to me.
So when I was first hunting,like what are we like when you
shoot a deer?
Like you register or whatever?
And the guys like register, andthey were kind of like what are

(19:42):
you talking?
So that was definitely new tome when I moved here.
So, yeah, I think the hard partis where we just set up the
registration stations, becausethere's a lot of rural areas
You'd be driving hours to tryand find somewhere to register a
deer.
So now it's mandatory for us totake the hunter's survey, which
they use a lot of it for numbers.
So you're using the hunters whoare in the woods a lot to

(20:07):
gather pretty good data.
So then at the end youbasically say you have beers,
you've seen an increase,decrease in the population and
whatnot.
But they ask if you've beensuccessful and they review other
questions along with what youshot and everything.
And then every license you buy.
You actually have to do that.
So I even have to do it forpheasant, for sharp-tail grouse,

(20:28):
for Hungarian partridge, solike everything that I've hunted
that year I do a survey on andit's all gathered data.
I think it's good.
So like we'll get a ledger andyou can fill this ledger out
just to kind of keep track.
So if you're doing a lot of offland you can fill it out just
to keep track what days youhunted, like numbers you've seen

(20:48):
if you limited out and stufflike that, so it's what zones
you hunted, so everything'sstretched out here.
Like I hunt pheasant threehours away from home so we go
right down to the state's border, basically no-transcript good

(21:10):
to keep track of and keep trackof their numbers.
We do release a lot of birdsdown there too.
That's a big thing, forpheasant helps out a lot yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
I, uh, I got it.
I think we were talking before.
I mean, I get the idea of thosesurveys and all that, but I
think, uh, I'm going to say myopinion.
I think they're kind ofbullshit in a way, because, okay
, I I'd filled out correctly.
There's a lot of people like wehad to do it here one year for
moose season and they wanted youto say how many black bear you
saw, how many moose you saw, howmany deer you saw, right, well,

(21:39):
you've got a wildlifemanagement zone that somebody
people want to get, say, moremoose out of.
They just marked in oh, we saw,you know 50 moose this time.

Speaker 2 (21:47):
Yeah, so like you just think you want to up stuff
like that.
So like I would say that Idon't think like this is the
only data they go off.
If I'll say that because, yeah,like even last year, like
talking with one of my buddieslike where I hunt I've hunted
every year since I've been here.
Yeah, I had one of the worstdeer seasons as far as what I've
seen on my cameras and evenhunted and like just one of the

(22:10):
worst seasons I've had there.
So I was like my survey isgoing to say like yeah, I hunted
zone 34 numbers declined, forsure is what I would say.
But he's, on the other hand,he's hunting zone over, he's an
hour away from me and he's likeman, like that was like the best
year I've seen on camera, solike he's not that far away,

(22:30):
he's going off that.
And like we do the hornmeasuring night at the wildlife
and like seeing some of likereally good bucks this year
there compared to the lastcouple years.
So like it can vary that muchbetween zones, like what they're
really taking for data off thisand taking to heart I'm not
sure how much of it is, but Imean yeah.

(22:50):
So, like I don't think they'regonna be like, okay, this one
guy says that the moose numbersare crazy.
And then, like you're going tohave probably majority of them
are going to be a little morehonest, right, and like, so how
much they take to heart?
Like not going to take everysurvey and say, okay, this one
guy says, like, the deer numbersare crazy.
So then all of a sudden, youget a bunch of Canadian resident
tags and stuff.

(23:10):
So I think it's to keep trackof your success rates, um, more
so than to take your numbers andadjust your tags off of it,
right, I?

Speaker 1 (23:22):
find too.
Well, I find too that people Imean you think about it at the
end as well People are like, ohshit, I forgot to fill that out.
Uh, how many did we see?
Like I don't want to just kindof rush through and make up
numbers, but I mean, I think thebiggest thing is, you know, you
see other provinces in Canadaand in states I find a lot of
states do a good job of this yousee the biologists going out
there like, oh, we're doing thisradio collaring on on mountain

(23:43):
lion or radio collaring elk, orwe're ear tagging black bear and
this and that, and I mean Idon't, I find here anyways, we
don't see enough of that.
You just here anyways, we don'tsee enough of that.
You just can't beat boots onthe ground.

Speaker 2 (23:54):
I think with all the money that we spend on buying
hunting tags and you know ourall our licenses and donations
and this, and that that we weshould have more biologists out
there doing what they should bedoing, I just don't think
there's enough of thatpersonally that too, and like I
mean we can go on like I'mtalking about like how many ceos
we got now strung out thereacross our province and they're

(24:16):
basically complaint-driven theydon't even have time to go and
just Activation officers yeahyeah, and I think every province
is in that same boat.
We've seen such a decline inbudget for those guys that
you're not getting as much datafrom them.
So it's I don't know how it.
Boots on the ground aredefinitely good, but like you're

(24:37):
gonna have success storiesbased off every different hunter
.
There's only so many guys areactually put as much time as I
put in to shoot a deer, so likeit can look good from one person
and then the next person whogoes out for two, three times.
So like part of my survey, Iput how many days and how many
hours that I'm sitting in thestand.
So I'm probably going to lookat that and be like, okay, this

(24:57):
guy he's sitting in the standlike a long time Probably going
to have a little more accuratedata than someone who went out
three times and says the numbersare way down or way up or
whatever, right, so I'm surethere's an algorithm that they
use to try and get accurate dataout of it, but I don't know how

(25:18):
much the tags actually adjustoff the surveys.
I think they do have a good ideaof the numbers across the
province.
As far as deer and mule deerBecause our tags especially mule
deer there's a higherpopulation in certain zones and
they have a lot more tags thatare released.
But you're going to see a lotmore as far as lottery, a lot

(25:38):
more people putting in for thosezones too.
So your, your odds aren'talways higher there than they
would be in a zone with withless deer, yeah, or mule deer.
I guess you see that same innew brunswick.
As far as moose, like your,your better zones are going to
get hammered, so your odds areactually quite a bit less.
But, like they, they do have agood idea on the numbers.

(26:00):
I don't think they use them.
That's it for that, but morefor the success side of things,
how many people are successfulat the end of the year?
Yeah, the decline of theirpopulation, right?

Speaker 1 (26:10):
So yeah, it's true.
Yeah, you know, it'd be nice ifmore money was put out for
everywhere states.
I found the states is prettygood and some provinces in
canada do as well, but noteverywhere.
Everyone could do better.
It's just the fact that, like Isaid, our wildlife here is such
a great renewable resource thatdoes bring money in, either
through outfitters, ammunitionsales, licenses and all that,

(26:32):
and it just needs to be managedbetter, better, a bit better.
You know, just kept a closereye on and more biologists out
there and just making sure thatit's, you know, good for
generations to come.
But then you get politicsinvolved and, yeah, yeah, Like
we were talking.

Speaker 2 (26:48):
I was talking with my friend the other day and he was
like the, the number of thenumber we get back to
conservation of our licensesales and whatnot, it's not
enough to put into conservationand put into wildlife management
Very small fraction of what weput into it.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
Yeah, yeah, I mean, hopefully that'll improve and I
think sometimes that depends onwho's in office.
But we don't get into politicson this podcast just because I'm
sure everyone.
The reason why is I telleverybody because chances are,
if we all went to the pollstomorrow, anyone listened to
this podcast.
We're all voting the same way,so there's no need to get into
it, that's right.

(27:26):
But, dave, on another note too,so you're a bird dog guy and an
upland bird dog guy.
Why don't you tell us a bitabout?
So?
Your uncle, kevin, who I'vebeen hunting with before, showed
out he's got Brittany Spaniels,correct.

Speaker 2 (27:39):
That's right.
So, yeah, kevin, he got me intothe dog side of things for sure
, yeah, like.
So I hunted with him and hisdogs quite a few times and then
we ended up at a field trial andkind of got hooked on the
English pointer out there andshortly after that I think I
bought my first dog at 19.
I bought an English pointer andhunted with her back there her

(28:04):
whole life and when I moved outhere I really didn't know, I was
thinking nothing but deer.
When I moved out and I kind ofgot talking to some guys at work
and they were talking about thenumber of pheasants down south
and like they've done somehunting down there and how crazy
it was.
And uh, by the time I got mypointer out here she was 14, so
she was a retired dog, so Iwasn't really going to load her

(28:24):
up, take her down.
So we ended up there was a postonline.
I ended up going switching overto the german short hair
pointer and uh, he was actuallybred for show but his dad was a
hunter and stuff.
So I was just like, well,whatever, I'll get him into the
hunting.
So he lives back in the countryand he took the bird hunting
very easy and is eager to pleasejust unreal.

(28:47):
So he was an easy to train dog.
Um, I didn't do muchfine-tuning training, like I
didn't pen raise birds oranything, but I just got him out
in the bush lots.
We did a lot of spring.
We went shed hunting stuff andI was getting them around birds
that way and then just aroundhome there we would have a
pretty good population ofsharptail grouse and Hungarian.
So I got them on those.

(29:08):
And then a friend of minefollowed suit and bought a
Sherman Shorthair Pointer,another one bought a small
Munsterlander Kind of all thesame time.
They're all pretty much thesame age.
So next year we started jumpingdown south, driving down, kind
of figuring out the area.
So the first year we definitely, I'd say we struggled a bit at

(29:30):
figuring out the whole pheasanthunting thing.
It's definitely not the same aswalking through the bush for
roughies or or going after sharptail or huns here.
But we, uh, we figured over theyears.
We've been hunting them now forsix years probably, I think
what it is and like we go downnow we're pretty successful.
We know the area pretty welland the numbers can be year to
year they can change quite a bit, but likely.

(29:51):
This last year was one of thebest years we've seen for for uh
, pheasants.
But like the big success thing,there is, like I said, a lot of
they released a lot of penraised birds and that just kind
of helps maintain your wild birdpopulation and carry it over
year to year.
If you're going down, you getthree, three roosters for the
day is your limit.
So you pop three roosters andyou know those were pen raised

(30:13):
birds.
Well, you've got three wildbirds that are going to carry on
the next year.
So it's uh, it's a fun gamegoing after them.
I know you guys are justgetting started out there with
them, but yeah, thanks to yeahpart of thanks to your uncle,
your uncle kevin, there.

Speaker 1 (30:27):
Yeah, we had our first, uh, pheasant season.
Was it no, this year or lastyear?

Speaker 2 (30:32):
this year, yeah yeah, this year last I was talking to
them about it.
So that's what you're saying.
They're trying to figure outwhat zones and it's the same
here.
So the pheasant season is by alicense.
Really, they're only condensedin the southern zones.
There's no pheasant up whereI'm at.
There's no need to condense itto any zone really.

Speaker 1 (30:56):
You just open up the seasons province wide and we go
down where the pheasant are.
Basically, yes, ours is, oursis two weeks season here.
I mean we just start, yeah, sothis is the first season this
year and, um, two weeks seasonand it's uh, it's two roosters a
day.
And yeah, no, we went out.
It was fun, it was uh, it washard hunting.
Um, it was interesting, welearned a lot and uh, I'd see
why, like you see those picturesof guys out upland hunting and
all that, and they've got, likeyou know, in the back of the

(31:18):
truck.
They've got this kennel full ofupland dogs and I was like why,
why did they bring so many dogs?
They run them all at the sametime.
Is it like hounds?
Like what's up?

Speaker 2 (31:36):
And then I realized the dogs, yeah, so like, when we
go down, it's a, we do a oneday, we do one overnight or a
year.
Usually we get a big group ofguys come down, like, uh, so we
run our dogs.
We'll usually have four or fivedogs there and then we can have
a nine guys or come down withus and uh, but like, yeah, you
get the first day and so like,first day the dogs are full of
it, and then the second daythey're toned down quite a bit
and like we do a half a day,probably the second day, so you
kind of kind of watch them.

(31:56):
They'll run themselves to death.
Be like your dogs, I guess.
Like, yeah, they'll go untilyou tell them to stop.
But we uh, it's all creek bedsdown there and swooze, so like
you're trucking through cattailsand creek beds where you can
disappear, like drainage ditchesand stuff.
So it can be tough going whenyou're trying to find those
holding birds, like it's, but atthe end of the day it's a fun

(32:18):
day.
And and uh, the dogs are poopedon the way back.
We drive three hours down wherethey're just staring out the
window the whole time, and thenget there and hunt the day and
it's usually pretty quiet on theway back yeah, yeah, for the
people too, I'm guessing peopleare usually pretty tough.

Speaker 1 (32:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, I heard a rumor aboutyour first dog, this coming from
your brother that she wouldpoint birds up a tree.

Speaker 2 (32:45):
She's pointed birds.
Yeah, she was, that'simpressive.

Speaker 1 (32:47):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (32:48):
Her instinct was pretty crazy.
Like she was really really goodwith woodcock out there and
just her.
I guess her struggle was if wegot on some roughies and then
you know that they'd take offrunning.
She'd have a struggle atholding the point there but yeah
, like birds would just jump upland in a tree and stuff she's.
She's pointed apple trees withmultiple birds in them and like,

(33:10):
pretty, pretty impressed withher.
A lot of times it was it's.
Her instinct from the start wasgood and like yeah, I was 19 so
I didn't put the time into herbut I should have because of if
I did she would have.
She would have made out for anunreal dog.
She did.
She had her days where she was.
She was very good.
She'd have her struggle, dayswhere she was a little more
stubborn, but yeah, yeah she wasa pretty impressive dog for for

(33:33):
the time I had to put into her.

Speaker 1 (33:35):
Well, yeah.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:36):
I mean, that's what we were talking about before.
I find the females like I'vegot male and female, uh,
coonhounds and then beagles, andthe females, uh, I find they're
twice the hunters.
They're real good.
But the only downside is nooffense, they're like any female
.
They'll get in their littlemood, sometimes a little more
sensitive, or they just you know, they they're just, they get in

(33:57):
their moods.
They're females, I guess.
Yeah and um, yeah, that can beinteresting sometimes, but when
they want to, I they're.
I find they're much better thanthe males yeah, no, and I would
say the same.

Speaker 2 (34:08):
Like I got two males now, but like my males I got two
totally different dogs, liketheir personalities are totally
different.
So it's kind of kind of neat tosee the difference.
But like Jagger is my oldestand he, his instinct, and like
eager to please, and like he'salways looking at me for for
something he wants to do, what Iwant to do, and like that was

(34:30):
the difference between him andTess, is like my, my female
English pointer, like she, shewas like no, I'm going this way,
you can follow me, sort ofthing.
She was never looking at me,she was doing her thing and she
was good at it.
I I looked like an idiot quitea few times when she, when I
didn't trust her, wasn't withher.
But but uh, like I found withmy male Jagger's definitely his

(34:52):
instinct's a lot higher thanBoone, my poppy I guess the
poppy's two now.
But I kind of wanted to getanother dog just to learn from
Yager because he's been thatgood for me.
So we've been running themtogether.
I've been running them bothtogether for two years now and
they seem to complement eachother for how different they are

(35:14):
.
Boone's pace is just a littleslower, where Jaeger's is a
little quicker, so anything hemisses Boone can pick up on.
It's pretty awesome, I guess,when they both work out together
.
I've had a lot of double pointson Bird where Boom will back him

(35:35):
every time he points andbacking's just like his instinct
to point because Jager'spointing right, so he's not
really on the bird.
But when Jager's pointing andlike Jager will do the
patterning, like in the field,so like when we hunt pheasants,
like you really want to be goinginto the wind and Jager you
really want to be going into thewind and the aggro will do the
pattern.
He'll go 50 yards back andforth, 50 yards out one way,

(35:59):
come back and forth, and all ofa sudden you'll see him start
kind of narrowing in and likehe's getting on a bird.
So that's when I know to likecatch up to him, be on him and
stuff, and like when he throwsthat point down and boom puts it
back on him and stuff.
And it's really nice when itworks out for sure.
And it's really nice when itworks out for sure.
They just seem to complementeach other a lot and seem to
work out Like we have our daysfor sure you go down and you

(36:20):
have a rough day with them, andthen just that one point at the
end of the day makes the day alot better.
But they've been pretty gooddogs to me.
But I do see the differencebetween the female to male as
far as just natural instinct tohunt and drive.

Speaker 1 (36:34):
But I've uh had a good time with these guys for
sure yeah, and I've seen that atwell people training and stuff
too where they have like acutout silhouette of a dog
pointing and then they'll use,they'll have that pop up and
then you know the actual dogcome along like oh shit, are we
doing this?

Speaker 2 (36:50):
and like they'll, they'll point to, kind of thing
yeah, and like I didn't, Ididn't realize the backing.
I thought the backing itselfyou would have to put a lot of
training in, like exactly that,like with the pop up and stuff,
yeah, but I mean, right from apop, when we lived back on our
acreage, he, uh, like Jaeger,would put a point on anything in
the yard, like a Robin orsomething, and like boom, a pup,

(37:15):
like I would say.
At that point he was well undera year, maybe eight months, and
he was starting to back hispoints just in the yard there.
So it is a lot of instinct forthem just to do that too.
Like I said, I just thoughtthat was more something you had
to pound into them.
I didn't.
My main thing when I wasbringing a second dog in was I
didn't want him to come down andruin my first dog, right?
So like the agar puts a pointon and boom runs in and
bulldozes him over to see what'sgoing on.

(37:36):
But he does really good at thethe backing thing and not not
ruining those points, notruining the agar, yeah, yeah,
don't have to keep them so soloyou can.
I really want to just run themtogether instead of one dog at a
time, but it's.
That's the nice part about twodogs too.
If the agar is getting olderhe's six now so in the coming
years he's going to startslowing down and maybe not get

(37:57):
the full day hunt in where I cankeep going with my younger dog.

Speaker 1 (38:00):
Yeah, yeah, and then one of your other dogs.
You went on a little bit of adrive.
Uh cross border to get one ofyour dogs.

Speaker 2 (38:07):
Right, I did a little investigating there online and
trying to find another germanshort-haired pointer at that
time.
So I narrowed another guy downin minneapolis tumbleweed
outfitters is what he's calledand uh, he was breeding.
He breeds quite a bit.
He does a few litters a year.
And uh, I seem like he put apost on for his next litter and

(38:28):
like, uh, the father came from atruex kennel in north dakota
and his dad was a tank.
I was seeing videos on him.
So I'm like genetically I wasjust like, oh, I would like to
have a little bit bigger dog thesecond time, because Jagger's
leveled out at 45 pounds.
He just that's his size.
And I was like, well, you know,down in cattails and stuff,

(38:49):
it'd be nice to have a biggerdog get through those.
So I got talking to him andthen he gave me first option,
first pick of the litter.
So I couldn't really pass it up.
So I I uh picked boone.
A couple weeks in he kind oftold me to be patient and like,
look, look at the pups and seewhat they're like, personality
and stuff.
I was kind of hooked on booneright from when he was born and

(39:12):
so, yeah, I ended up going downthere.
So I worked the night shift andI got a quick nap and then
drove 10 hours to Minneapolis,uh spent the night, went and met
him in the morning and uh had agood chat with him on just a
little bit of training ideas andstuff like simple things and
and uh, he was promoting their,the uh, the Inuksuk dog food
from back east.
So I was telling him that'sactually where I was from, but
yeah, he's a, he knows the goodin the Inuksuk dog food from

(39:33):
back east.
So I was telling him that'sactually where I was from.
But yeah, he's a, he knows thegood in the Inuksuk and the high
protein and he's running dogsnon-stop and he said there's no
food that can match it for him.

Speaker 1 (39:45):
So Is he a reseller?
Because I mean, the way Inuksukworks is you don't see them in
the big box stores you know,like Walmart and Costco or
whatever a lot of it is.
They have good, trustedresellers, guys that believe in
it and actually feed it, andthen that's you put your address
in on a map and then you canfind out who's reselling it.
That you know chip to them andthen you know that's where you

(40:08):
get it from.

Speaker 2 (40:09):
Yeah, I don't know if he's a reseller or not, I just
like if he's a reseller or not,I just like he has a pallet of
food there Every time he does anorder.
He orders a pallet because he'srunning nine of his own dogs
nonstop and he'll be trainingother people's dogs.
He'll have a dozen dogs therethroughout the summer.
Oh wow, he's busy with the dogsand he yeah, he hammers through
a pallet I don't know how longand I'm talking to him.

(40:31):
He orders by the truckload.

Speaker 1 (40:34):
Yeah, yeah, oh it is.
It's great stuff.
I mean, you see so many peoplewith working dogs and stuff
feeding it, and obviously it'snot by mistake, it does work.

Speaker 2 (40:45):
Yeah, no, I've used it with my dogs and especially
when you're hunting thosepheasant hunts and you're down
there all day and they'rerunning hard.
There's a good recovery havingall that protein for them.
So yeah they definitely love itat the end of the day.

Speaker 1 (41:00):
Yeah, so I mean, with all the pheasants that you guys
are running, it's when I thinkof Saskatchewan and you know
I've been down there and workedthrough a lot of it Uh, you know
, you see the and all that Doyou guys have a big presence of
pheasants forever down there.

Speaker 2 (41:16):
We have a small presence, I would say, as far as
public land.
It's hard to find a lot ofpublic land down here.
It's all farmland, a lot ofprivate land.
We got the SaskatchewanWildlife Federation group.
It's a non-profit by huntersfor hunters that people will

(41:37):
donate land to and the wildlifeitself will buy land off farmers
and try and keep it original.
There'll be lots of bush on andstuff.
So down there there's not a lotof bush and stuff so you're not
seeing as much Saskatchewanwildlife land as you are.
Ducks Unlimited has some landdown there for public use and

(41:57):
there is one quarter that we goon.
It's pheasants forever.
So there's a small presencethere but it's built for good
cover for them and good feed forpheasants.
So, like we go there, it'susually got lots of birds but
it's a tough one to hunt withdogs.
Not a lot of holding birdsthere.
They're mostly feeding in thetrees and stuff.
So they're kind of a bird.

(42:18):
Once one takes off, they alltake off, but there is a bit of
pheasants forever.
I don't know if it's actuallyactive right now, but they do
have land here that we can use.

Speaker 1 (42:29):
So if anyone listening to this is part of
Pheasants Forever, Saskatchewanneeds a little help.

Speaker 2 (42:39):
Yeah, it'd be nice to see some more of that land down
there.
For sure that can help thebirds out because in any drought
year a lot of their cover getsmowed down for baling.
The farmers have a hard year toget feed.
They'll bail up their cattailsfor the cows so it's kind of
tough on those years for thebirds.
But they've definitely had acouple of good years here
recently and there is a piece ofwildlife land there that we

(43:01):
hunt.
That's really good for them.
They hold the cattails andthere's enough tree cover and
stuff like that for them.
So they do have a bit of landlike that.
A lot more duck limited than Ithought would be down there and
it kind of stays the same.
Like farmers can bail some ofthe duck limited but most of
their sloughs kind of stayoriginal and help out the birds
A little more pheasants foreverwould be nice to have a presence

(43:24):
down there.

Speaker 1 (43:25):
Yeah, because you guys, like when I said, when I
think of Saskatchewan and beingthere, I think that there would
be really prime pheasant habitat, especially guys you know are
on the border of, uh, thedakotas and that's that's known
as, like, the pheasant mecca ofthe world, and I just, yeah, you
think that pheasants foreverwould do uh, yeah, have a bit
more of a presence there.
I do know that ducks unlimitedand delta waterfowl yeah, they

(43:47):
do a lot there.
In that I found this out lastnight the delta waterfowl dinner
is that, um, about 70 percentof of the ducks in North America
at one point or another willnest or go through the prairie
pothole region.
So that was crazy.

Speaker 2 (44:04):
That's a high number, yeah, yeah, for like waterfowl
here.
Like I said, that's notsomething I've dove into yet.
I kind of take on a lot whenI'm deer hunting and pheasant
hunting, yeah, but like we'lldrive down south, that I've dove
into yet.
I kind of take on a lot whenI'm deer hunting and pheasant
hunting, but we'll drive downsouth and you'll have fields
that just look like they're snowcovered with some snow geese.
There is an insane number thatcomes through here, like spring

(44:25):
and fall get wild.
We do have a spring snow gooseseason so you can actually get
out early for them when they'recoming up through, but when you
get the migration going on itit's non-stop birds flying like
a lot of geese, mallard and, uh,the sandhill cranes the other
one that was new to me when Icome out here that, oh yeah,
they're a pretty neat bird, yeahyeah, yeah, I find those

(44:47):
interests I do plan on.

Speaker 1 (44:49):
You said you may have some leads.
I want to have an outfitter onto talk about them because, uh,
the rip by the sky, I'minterested in learning more
about the cranes.
It's uh, it's unique.

Speaker 2 (44:57):
I like unique hunting yeah, it's definitely a hunt
that I'm I'm gonna have to dohere sooner than later, because
it's it's quite a bird when yousee those things stand out in
the field like they're huge,yeah and uh, it doesn't sound
like they're as hard to decoy instuff like that, like when
you're trying to bring them in.
But when you really find wherethey're landing is the main
thing.
They do a lot of scouting forthat.

(45:18):
You can't just kind of randomlyset up and bring them in.
It seems if you hit the fieldsthat they're going to feed in
and stuff, you do pretty wellyeah.

Speaker 1 (45:28):
Then we talked before too.
I mean, you really found adifference in you know you have
pheasant loads for your shotgunout there that you use, like
it's not just, oh, we'll usenumber six, you know, lead,
whatever good to go, but youreally do find that the actual,
the boxes pheasant load, thatmakes quite a difference.

Speaker 2 (45:48):
Yeah, like I started using that Like when we first
went down, never really paid asmuch attention to it and like if
you're hunting the du, like Isaid we were, we're gonna do
steel load notes, but it's uh.
There's a couple loads that weuse, like one of my friends got
me on.
One is kent's super fast leadand then the super pheasant
winchester, like they're a heavylead and like when you get in

(46:09):
the prairies, I guess like it'swindy all the time.
So if you can cut some of thatwind out on these birds it seems
to make a big difference.
You're knocking them down alittle further out too and kind
of help you at the end of theday.
But we definitely know there'squite a difference when we're
using a better load, for sure.

Speaker 1 (46:26):
Yeah, it helps greatly, I know I didn't know
much about it.
It's like when we went out withyour Uncle Kev and your brother
Scott this year and yourbrother Scott this year, he was
like oh, we got got to havepheasant loads.
I was looking for pheasantloads, could I have them?
Dave was talking about them.
I was like what?
I didn't know anything about it.
And then I just got number six,you know lead, whatever.
But um, yeah, then I gotlooking into it a bit more.

Speaker 2 (46:49):
I'm like okay, yeah, no, it's.
It's like your specific's wild,like pheasants are a big bird
like compared to even like thesharpies out here are a little
bigger than the roughies, andlike those pheasants like yeah,
we get three-pound pheasants,we're shooting like little
heavier loads nice, becausewe've run into it so many times.
Like where you wing a bird andthat thing hits the ground

(47:10):
running and it's gone.
And like without dogs, like I'vehad jagger he's pretty amazing
at it actually like for a wingedbird or injured bird, uh, hunt
them down and finding them, likewe've we've been in areas six
flu cattails and like friend ofmine shot one and it looked like
it buckled dead bird and likewe get over there and we're

(47:32):
looking like jagger just keepsturning and ripping into the
middle of the slew and I waslike yeah, you're get out here
like dead bird, we're trying tofind this bird and like he just
keeps wanting to go into it likewe couldn't find the bird.
So I see you guys keep runningaround, I'm gonna follow him
into the middle of the slew, Iguess.
And so I followed him like 200yards in the middle of the slew.
He found this bird dead undersome cattails and like pheasants

(47:54):
like I followed this group andthey do.
Pheasant fact Friday and theyput one out which kind of blew
my mind.
But they can actually runfaster than they can fly.

Speaker 1 (48:04):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (48:04):
Yeah, so when you see a pheasant like one thing like
we were terrible at when we werefirst went down, like you put a
pheasant, like one thing likewe were terrible at when we were
first went down, like you, youput a pheasant up and if you
missed it, you'd watch the thinggo land.
300 yards away you're like,okay, I seen where it landed.
But like by the time you getthere, that thing hit that thing
.
It hits the ground running andit's about 10 miles away by the
time you get to where it landed.

Speaker 1 (48:23):
Right, yeah, yeah, we learned they're a quick bird.

Speaker 2 (48:26):
They're a quick bird, they're a tough bird, like when
you, when you wing them, it'sreally nice to have a dog to
find them, because you'rehunting in pretty thick cover.
So if they can get in there andget hunkered down in something,
they're pretty tough to findyeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (48:39):
No, we learned about that, about how fast it can go,
because we'd have some, we'd goout, they'd fly up and land.
We're like sweet land, yourbrother just take off in a you
know mad sprint.
He's like over here.
He's over here and you'd neversee it again.

Speaker 2 (48:51):
It's no, it's a good way to tire yourself out really
quick.
But um, no, and like with dogs,like the hard thing is like
you're hunting holding birds,you're looking for that bird
that's sitting tight and notbusting like you can.
It can be frustrating some daysbecause you get out there and
like you get some skittish birdsthey're busting up 100 yards
away from you, like you'reseeing birds flying everywhere

(49:11):
and you're like what is going on?
Like you can't get on anything,and then all of a sudden you
just get that one holding birdand that's what you're after
with with dogs yeah it's notfrustrating once you figure out
what you're actually doing, butlike you think you're doing
something wrong.
But just not all birds are likethat and if they're up feeding
and stuff, they're not going tobe, they're not going to be
holding.
They'll be pretty skittish andonce if they're in a group, when

(49:34):
one of them takes off, they'relikely all gone pretty quick
yeah yeah.

Speaker 1 (49:39):
So I mean, what are the other kind of birds that you
guys hunt out there?
You guys got some unique, uh,critters that aren't all over
north america.
I guess you get.
What is the sharp tail grossthe Hungarian, do you?

Speaker 2 (49:50):
have any chuckers?
Hungarian partridge no, chucker, the Hungarian's a smaller one.
There would be a lot like achucker, small like that.
But they're a fun bird.
They're really explosive butthey're in big groups.
They're so tough to when theybust up to try and narrow in on
one of them and get a shot off.
So I've got a couple of them,but I usually target the sharpie

(50:12):
where, where I live, like theycan be in.
They can be in good numbers andthey'll hold.
Sometimes they can be skittishas well.
But um, there is roughies too.
Like we all go after roughieslate season, so like the, the
sharpie and hungarian seasonends like november 15th, I think
it is okay so like, even we godown for pheasant, we we get
into sharpie and hunt.

(50:33):
So it's kind of nicer goingearlier and you kind of got all
three birds you can go after.
So you're going to get the huntsharpie and pheasant and after
the 15th it's pheasant onlyright till January 1st, and that
season is the same as theroughy up here.
So like, up here if I'm goingto hunt late, it'll be, it'll be
straight roughies and usuallyif you get in along creeks and

(50:53):
bush and stuff like that, youcan find quite a few of them.
Yeah, they get a pretty healthynumber.
So that's our, that's ourupland here, I think.
Up north I think you can getinto ptarmigan, but I've never
been up that far.
Okay, yes, dave.

Speaker 1 (51:06):
So switching things up a bit because I'm curious,
but learning all thesimilarities and differences
between east coast hunting and,you know, at west um moose, so
you've been on a successfulmoose hunt here in new brunswick
in the east.
Uh, yeah, it's real differenthunting in saskatchewan, isn't
it?

Speaker 2 (51:25):
way different.
Yeah, so moose in our area myunderstanding kind of moved in
here, um, I'm gonna say five toten years before I moved out
here, so it's kind of a newhunting season to most around
here.
But, um, it's also a lotterysystem so I was successful when
we, when I first moved here, thelottery system goes like you

(51:48):
build status, starts d, c, b, a,then goes super a.
Your odds go up quite a bitwhen you hit this super a, okay,
and then after 10 years ofsuper, able to go to the legacy
pool and like when you getlegacy you're pretty much
guaranteed a tag.
Um, but when I first got here,the way they worked, their
system is, you started outraiding a pool and then went

(52:08):
super a and I think the purposeof it was to try and get more
people into hunting, get thembetter odds of being successful
quick and and uh, new hunterslike kids and stuff were getting
better chances at getting oneof these tags.
So I drew my moose tag fouryears in out here, four years of

(52:29):
putting in for the lotterywhich I put in out there for 12,
and I went as the second gun onone hunt out there.
But but uh, yeah, it was quitea bit different for me.
So, like the deer or the moosepopulation here is pretty good.
Like my mom come out one timeand I remember we drove from one
town to the next and I thinkwe've seen eight moves, but it's

(52:49):
good.
The difference is like it'sit's prairie, so it's they don't
have as much bush to hide in, Iguess, but like when they're
out, yeah, you can see a lot ofmoose.
So when I uh the area washunting deers, I've seen really
good moose numbers.
The first couple years I washere like I had some pretty
awesome trail camera pictures ofthe moose fighting in front of

(53:09):
my camera and so I knew therewas moose in there and it kind
of butts up to some wildlifelands.
I was like three quarters ofwildlife land with a couple of
quarters of private that I wason and, uh, I kind of set my
cameras up, put all my time intomoose that year and the?
Uh, the bull went up again.
So I sat total of three days.

(53:30):
Uh, the bull went up again.
So I sat a total of three daysmorning, evening and a little
warmer days.
So the third day and evening Iwent back in and started calling
At this point.
I called eight different bullsin three days.
So when you get a condensedpiece of bush, that's where
they're going to be hunkeredinto.
So especially during the rut,they kind of seem to all migrate

(53:52):
into one chunk of bush and theythey're going to be hunkered
into right and so especiallyduring the rut, they kind of
seem to all migrate into onechunk of bush and they'll sit
tight in there.
Like our deer bow seasons willrun right through, right through
moose season.
So like I've been in my standand had cows blotting right
beside me and a couple bullswalking around while I'm sitting
there waiting for a deer.
So it's uh kind of neat thatway where you're hunting right
in the middle moose season.

(54:12):
But my moose season here was twoweeks.
I had actually for the firstpart of the season there's
actually a late season too, Iforget the dates for that but
another two weeks for a lateseason, but during the right two
weeks.
And yeah, I called this bull inthird day and I kind of
regretted not hunting with mybull because he came right
across the front he's 25 yardsright in front of me and I shot

(54:35):
him on the third day.
So like kind of neat thing withall of it is just how condensed
they are, how high thepopulation to look, but they're
just so condensed in one littlepiece of bush, right, so be more
spread out in New Brunswick.
Uh, I mean, call them for threedays.
You're hoping for that one mooseto come out out there.
Right, so be more spread out innew brunswick.
Uh, I mean, call them for threedays, you're hoping for that
one moose to come out out there.
Right, so you're, you're kindof not, you're not condensing

(54:56):
your population of moose rightinto one little piece of bush.
So it's, it's neat that way andI guess my season out there
like we were hammering three dayseason then, so it was it was
tougher to try and get one inthere and be successful there,
but it's pretty, pretty neat thedifference in in hunting there
to here as far as moose, likeit's, but it seemed a lot easier

(55:19):
where you're at in saskatchewan, right, I mean, when we think
of moose hunting here, you'rethinking of bogs, swamps, water,
real hard time getting them outusing argos and just putting
your back through your atv orquad in saskatchewan through
hell, but out there it's alittle drier yeah, it's like I
think you still want like a goodwet area as far as like some

(55:43):
sloughs for like them feedingand stuff through the summer.
So like one guy that year fromwork took me to, he's like, oh,
you gotta come back to my dad'sland.
He's like, dave, there's somany moose there.
And like I was like, okay, well, it's a pretty dry year.
So we got back there and I wascalling, calling, like getting
nothing, no response, nothingwas around.
Like we went for a quick walkand like all the sloughs in his

(56:05):
bush were like dried right out.
There was.
There was really no watersource there for him at all.
So and he's like I swear lastyear like you could have just
come in here and pick the moose,like it was like there were
cattle, I believe, yeah, butlike we couldn't even find a
track.
So I think like, was it driedup?
That year they kind of moved towhere it was a little bit wetter
.
So you still want a bit ofwater source for sure for them.

(56:26):
But like, yeah, exactly whatyou said.
Like out there you're, you'rekind of looking for that bog or
something like that they'regoing to be in all the time.
It wouldn't be that way herebut they do.
They do still like some watersource for sure.
So, like, this land is wildlifeland that I was on and there's
some good sized sloughs in therethat hold quite a bit of water.
So kind of knew they would bein there and uh, I didn't know

(56:47):
they were gonna be in there, thethat I had.
There was a lot of youngerbulls that I called out, but the
one I shot he was a prettymature bull and I was happy
shooting him for sure.
But I've seen some bulls outhere, like just in my travels to
work and stuff that were kindof below your mind in the
prairies.

Speaker 1 (57:07):
Oh really, it must be weird seeing them in, uh like
for us here anyways, in farmer'sfields yeah, it's a totally
different habitat for them, butlike they're, you got a
grain-fed moose out.

Speaker 2 (57:17):
Here is what it is.
Like, yeah, and uh, like thethe different crops, like you
can, you'll see them in thecanola at some point, like when
they.
I think when the canola flowersout, there'll be quite a sugar
content, okay, in them.
So, like even the deer, you'llsee the deer and the canola and
moose and then, like they kindof move on to different seeds.
But uh, main thing, like anyalfalfa farmer late in the year,

(57:38):
like there was a, there was afield south of my place where I
lived in the country and and uh,in the late season, like I've
seen groups of eight moose outin that field.
Like that for late season.
Like, yeah, they'll, they'lldefinitely be grouped up in
those small pieces of bush, butlike there was a lot more bush
along the valley, like they'llbe spread out quite a bit more

(57:58):
there.
But the southern part here inthe 34 where I am, it's majority
farmland there's a few littlevalleys and and uh, but like
you'll see them pretty condensedin the small pieces of bush.
So, yeah, you can be, you canbe successful here for moose and
you can be a little bit thickhere.
I find I know like a lot ofguys hunt moose out there.
First thing comes out when youcall it.

Speaker 1 (58:18):
Yeah, you're probably going to take it right yeah, it
seems to be what the way itgoes, just uh, yeah, you never
know.
And everyone seems to be kindof in the same areas too.
I guess I mean, yeah, there'scompetition definitely.
I think the two-week season too, like I was kind of in the same
areas too, I guess I meanthere's competition definitely.

Speaker 2 (58:33):
I think the two-week season too.
I was kind of like, holy,that's going to be, I would say,
easy.
But the way it was, when youhave a two-week season, not
everybody's just like okay, Igot to get out there the day
before with my setup andeverything.
Not as many people were thateager to get out because you got
that much more time to to shoota moose.

(58:54):
So yeah and then if you don'tget in the early season, you got
a late season.
You can try this late season.
To me I wouldn't say it wasn'tan option, but like I wanted to
get it during the rut and do thecalling thing and stuff, like
you get in the late season,you're just kind of looking for
for thatose.

Speaker 1 (59:09):
Yeah, yeah, no, it's definitely neat.
You guys don't have any wildturkeys out there yet, do you?
No, no?

Speaker 2 (59:15):
So like that's something they're actually
trying to get, Like my friendCody's on the wildlife, like he
was talking about it.
So the wild turkey's kind ofthe same as the pheasant, it's
not something you can justpen-raise and release, right,
yeah, right.

(59:35):
And so it's something that wegot to look into with Turkey
Federation to try and trap somelive ones and bring here.
Manitoba actually does havewild turkey and there's like
kind of flops over from thesouthern part of Manitoba.
You got turkeys and then youcome over here and we get the
pheasant on the southern side ofthe province.
But it is something they'relooking into trying to get get
put in here.
I'm not sure how it will work,but it'd be neat to see.
Like I was kind of one thing Imissed out on a new Brunswick,

(59:56):
that kind of that all came inafter I moved out here, so I
never got the opportunity to togo after the Turkey yet, yeah,
but uh, and yeah, the Manitobato Turkey, like it's.
It's the same as our pheasant.
It's for residents only, solike non-resident can't come
over and get a tag, or I don'tknow if they do outfitter sport,
I don't think they do.

(01:00:16):
I think it's just same as thethe pheasant here.
It's for Saskatchewan residentsonly Kind of limited.
It's kind of kind of sucks forguys in the province.
Like I live so close to theborder.
A lot of my buddies are inManitoba but can't come over and
go pheasant hunting with us.
Right, yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:00:36):
But the Manitoba you're saying you're looking at
moving.
It's a little easier to getyour non-resident deer tag there
is it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:42):
Yeah, Canadian residents can actually buy
over-the-counter deer tags inManitoba Secrets out there's a
lot of people like friends ofmine like that have people come.
They come from quebec, theycome from all over the place
because they can buy over thecounter deer tags and hunt over
there yeah, well, how do youfind the deer population?

Speaker 1 (01:01:02):
is there, both mule deer and in whitetail?

Speaker 2 (01:01:07):
the mule deer is not as much like the mule deer Like
it's it's definitely heavierlike Western Saskatchewan than
it is here.
So like Manitoba side it's kindof just getting there and with
the CWD and them open up threetags I don't think it's going to
get very far.
But they do have muleys thatwill travel the Valley on their

(01:01:27):
side.
Deer population like they havea pretty healthy population
still.
Like even though they have thecanadian resident tag, a lot of
people hunt them and stuff likethere's guys that I work with
that shoot good deer every yearand see lots and I wouldn't be
much different than what I'mhunting really right yeah, um,
further east mantle, I'm notsure like this.

(01:01:48):
That's like these guys arepretty close to the Saskatchewan
side too, but yeah, it's allthe same terrain, really A lot
of farmland and stuff like that,so it can be pretty good Like I
drove through the valley therein the winter and like there
would be 400 or 500 deer intheir valley throughout the
winter.

Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
Oh, wow.

Speaker 2 (01:02:06):
Yeah, they all winter down there, but it's's same
here.
Like you're gonna have themcondensed in certain areas in
the winter when they're feeding.

Speaker 1 (01:02:14):
But yeah, it's, it's interesting, just yeah, finding
the differences, not, you know,not even canada and just other
places in the world you thinkabout, you know somebody from,
say, maine if they go outhunting in colorado.
Or you know, you're from newbrunswick, you're going hunting
in saskatchewan and just yeah,just seeing few similarities, a
lot of differences and it'sinteresting just adapting to

(01:02:35):
hunting sometimes the sameanimals, but just in completely
different climates yeah, I don'tthink like it's like the deer
population.

Speaker 2 (01:02:43):
Here's the difference .
But as far as hunting, likethere's still still a lot of
guys that shoot small bucks.
There's still a lot of guysthat road hunt, there's like
it's that's all the same, shootsmall bucks.
There's still a lot of guysthat road hunt.
There's like it's that's allthe same as New Brunswick.
Like you have so many of theguys that like put in the time
to try and shoot a big deer, butlike not necessarily the case
that you know you have lots outhere.
But there's guys that are justas happy shooting the smaller

(01:03:04):
buck.
They want the meat and they'redoing the sausage making in the
fall and it's more about themeat to them.
So it's it's not all thatdifferent as far as like hunting
mentality, I guess, but thedeer population would be the big
difference.

Speaker 1 (01:03:20):
Yeah, yeah Well absolutely.
Yeah, dave, you know I can'tthank you enough for coming on
the podcast.
I hope to have you on again,and we're going to get this time
coming on.
I just want to talk sort ofbroadly about, uh, you know, the
different kinds of hunting andall that.
Next time, though, I'm thinkingwe'll get into some more
specific deer hunting storiesthat you have.

Speaker 2 (01:03:37):
Yeah, I definitely have a.
I have a few good ones, forsure I'll I'll keep her next
time.
No thanks for having me, Ken,Appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:53):
Good chat, chat.
Yep, you bet.
Thanks.
All right, guys.
Thanks for listening in.
Until next time, shoot straight, vote right, keep your lines
tight and we'll see you nexttime.