It was a tough year this year finding any big boys. I hunted pretty hard for about 10 days. Saw 1 that was bigger than this by a fair bit but passed on the 2nd day. Got a couple others on trail camera that were bigger as well. I think the winters have been real tough the last couple years and the older bucks have been wiped out from everything I see. I think it will be another couple years before they get back to normal. Tons of small 2.5 and 3.5 year olds out there and they need a few years to get bigger.

Here is my buck for this year. I liked the dark horns on him. Not much for a score on him but he is a great deer for a year like this I figure.

It certainly has been a tough year in Alberta for find the big guys.
Congrats, that is a good buck.

Man he looks rutted up.

Gotta love the mass of those antlers!

Weidmannsheil on a great buck!

- mike

beautiful buck in the snow

Good hunting! Congratulations

Love those Canadian whitetails!

They just look tough & mean......for a deer.

Congratulations!

Best,
Dave

helluva nice deer there

I was in Alberta for 7 days from Nov 7-14, 5th year in a row of hunting there; saw WAY less deer than in any previous year, like less than 1/2 across the board. Mule deer seemed about the same or slightly less, but whitetails were damn hard to find ... bad winterkill ?

Best Regards,
Craig Nolan

Next door here in Sask we had huge deer losses last winter. Just about everyone I've talked to agrees. The winter last year was probably the worst in recorded history. Lots of snow, early snow and very cold!! I presume Alberta was similar.
Bill

Just returned from Fort St John, BC and it was tough hunting. Saw a few small 8 pts but nothing worth pulling the trigger on.

Since it was the last week of the season the outfitter was getting worried enough that he was calling all of his outfitting buddies. All were having the same result - weak.

Nube - congrats on your success. Nice buck!

Thanks for the congrats. I found the numbers to be down slightly but the problem was that the whole upper age class has been wiped out for 2 years worth. I usually can find and pass on a handfull of bucks like the one I killed in a weeks worth of hunting and usually kill a 165" plus every year or at least see a few of them. This year all I saw were 150 and less bucks and way fewer of them and only one that maybe would have gone high 150's or low 160's. I could have shot him on the second day but passed.

A lot of my buddies hunted hard and usually kill good deer and not one had a chance at a deer over 160 this year. My taxidermist friends have very few deer in as well and hardly anything worth hanging on the wall either.
My thoughts are it is going to be tough for another year or 2 before they get old enough to be worth shooting. The fun part is that there are still a few big boys and that is what keeps you going but the chances of connecting now are way less.

Great buck! congratulations!
I've never seen a deer with so much ice on it's face! That's crazy!

Nice buck. Wow on the iced up head. It's been real crappy here in Sask also. It seems the mature bucks were pretty much eliminated the last few winters. Not a whole bunch of big deer being shot this year here too. Had 4 cams out since first week in Oct and never had a buck bigger than 160. Very unusual. Shot the biggest one I had on film. 157. So far this winter has been kind. Let's hope it continues for the deer's sake. Cheers. I'll try and get a pic up.