As much as I'd like to be able to hunt whitetail in western or mid-western Canada during the latter half of November, my business and other reasons don't permit it. I am thinking anywhere from near Dryden, Ontario to Alberta. I would certainly appreciate any knowledge regarding deer hunting production in late October muzzleloader seasons through mid-November with rifle. Thank you very much. A Maine resident giving up on Maine deer hunting.

The end of October is the very best time to call in a big Saskatchewan whitetail buck and shoot it with a muzzleloader. Our muzzle loader season goes to Oct 31st. Rattling with a grunt call is most effective when the big bucks are becoming full of hormones but have no does to breed. My brother has shot quite a few nice deer this way. You will have to find an outfitter that hunts this way, most take the lazy way out and just set binds over bait.

We hunt south of Dryden, and are nonresidents.Our season ends Nov.15th We hunt as late in the season as possible to catch the rut.As above, we use 2 decoys facing each other, one doe and the other a one horned buck. The decoys really work, we grunt all the time, bringing the does and bucks out. The deer up there are the most vocal deer I have ever heard. The bucks and does circle, run around and do all kinds of funny stuff. No matter what we take the decoys out of the field and lay them down in the weeds at the end of the hunting time at evening. We have had decoys busted up when we leave them out. We also put synthectic doe pee on a small rag and pin it on our doe decoy. Remember, you cannot bring natural doe pee across the boarder. Hope this helps, Jeff

Groundtender,

Have you ruled out Anticosti Island? Relatively close by and I believe great hunting.

Mark

Mark - I've looked into Anticosti several times over the years. I always come away from it thinking there's certainly a good chance to whack a couple of deer, but probably not a very big one. I appreciate your suggestion though.