Brandon Huseby and I loaded up the holiday trailer October  2022, We headed east late that morning, it is about 3 hours from my place to our hunting area. We arrived late afternoon and started scouting, after seeing a few moose we knew we were in the right area. We walked into a couple places where I had scouted that spring and watched 15 bull moose in the same 3 quarters for 3 months. After no luck calling that night we decided to just scout that night in hopes of finding a rutting bull. It did not take long until we had found a small bull, he happened to be in one of the places we did not have permission. As we drove back to the campground right at dark we spotted a nice bull crossing a hayfield. He was moving quick and showed no sign of slowing down. Being too late to make a move we decided we would come back in the morning and try some calling.  After a night in a noisy campground, ( the community hall happened to be throwing a gathering) we woke to frosty crisp air. This was exciting, we decided to go check out the area that the nice bull had been cruising through. We tried calling  a few times with no answers and no sign of the nice bull. He must have just kept going through the night.  After deciding to go check out where we had seen a couple smaller bulls the night before, We found this guy laying in the swamp. We went to talk to the farmer and got permission so we decided that we would try and call him into us. We walked down a lease road that was near the bull and the field he was laying in happened to be a corn field. We could not stalk in the corn and the field next to it was a wide open pasture field. So we set our decoy up right beside the corn field. I had only been calling for about 5 minutes when I caught a glimpse of the bull heading our way, it took him what seemed like forever to come through the corn to us. After coming through the corn he stopped and was staring right at the decoy, he would not take his eyes off her. At this point he was 40 yards away! All we needed was for him to turn. Brandon had an arrow knocked and ready, soon the bull turned and took a few steps and stopped. Brandon let the arrow fly! The sound of the bow must have startled the bull and he ducked down this caused the arrow to fly directly into the bulls neck. He turned and ran about 70 yards, I cow called a couple times and the bull started to come back to us, I could not believe it. We could see the arrow in his neck and it was apparent is was a lethal shot, the blood pouring out of his neck was a sure sign. We did not want the bull to run deeper into the corn so when he stopped at 72 yards Brandon let another arrow loose and hit him directly in the heart, the bull ran 50 yards and toppled over. Now the work began, this was our first moose that we had to pack out. In our usual hunting area we either have permission to take a side by side in and get the animal or we are on crown land and it is legal to use ATV's to retrieve our animals. The weather was perfect, it was still a little cool so this helped cool the meat down. I had packed my big cooler that fit the quarters, and I could get my truck within 200 yds of the moose on a lease road. As I worked on getting the first 2 quarters ready to pack Brandon prepped the pack and truck. After 6 trips (7 to remove bones and hide) we had the moose cleaned up and in the truck. A successful day in the prairies!

It was late September and I was working in Eastern Alberta, I had been watching this group of bucks all summer. I did not have any cameras out but had been working just down the road from where they hung out. Justin decided to come out for the weekend to chase some deer around, I lightened my work load so I could join him for a couple afternoon hunts. After spotting the group of bucks on the edge of the pea field we decided to put a stalk on them. This was before we knew about putting the bucks to bed. We thought we had enough cover to get into shooting range as they were right beside a thick patch of willows. On our way in we decided to split up, I was going to go around the far side of willow patch and he was going to go in towards where they were feeding. It wasnt long after Justin went into the willows the deer spooked and started heading away from us. As soon as they hit the far side of the willow patch they looped around it and started following the edge right towards me. I took cover behind one of the bigger poplars in the patch and out of 7 deer this guy was the leader. I let the deer come towards me as long as I could and then I drew back and let the arrow fly when the deer was 7 yards away. Talk about lucky. The deer took off and I could tell he was hit good by the blood spraying everywhere. He disappeared in the next group of trees so we decided to give him some time to expire. About an hour after losing sight I went into the first group of trees, he was not hard to track as there was a steady stream of blood. We tracked him through the group of trees expecting to find the deer dead, he had went right through across the quarter. I do not know how he made it through the wide open field without us seeing him. He had crossed the quarter onto the next landowners. I did not have permission on his land yet so we went to his house and knocked on his door. He had no issues with us going to look for a wounded deer. After walking into trees the deer was not 10 yards inside them dead. The landowner then brought his side x side right out to him and after gutting him we loaded him in the box and he drove him right out to the truck. Lucky again!

A rainy opening weekend in September. The rain was coming down pretty hard and we had seen the elk go into this group of trees the morning of this hunt. They were in no hurry so we figured they would just go in and lay down. This was pre rut and the elk were just starting to talk. After trying the first hour to stalk in on the bull the herd caught us in the open and he rounded up a group of cows and took them out of range. Not spooked, but we figured we had blown our chances on that herd for the day, we were making our way back to the truck when I spotted 4 cows and a spike bull laying beside the creek. We were walking on the trail that they had come in on so we decided to just hit the dirt and hide for awhile. It did not take long and they started getting up and feeding around the creek. I was closer to the elk when we hid so I could see them well. This young cow fed out to 45 yards and I decided that was close enough for my first archery elk.  I pulled back without any noticing me and let loose on her. She was hit hard and ran 50 yards before we heard her crash. 

October 18th 2023 

The morning was a frosty cold morning. The elk had been hanging around all bow season after a failed attempt on 2 fighting bulls earlier in the season I was happy to connect with this bull. He was traveling alone across the field so I decided to get in front of him on the trail they had been using and lucked out and he came within 50 yards where I was hiding. The shot on the bull wasn't the greatest so we waited extra long before going after him. After bumping out of a bed early I decided to give him a few more hours. I went and got Dani out of school and we had some lunch then headed out again. The blood trail was difficult to follow with no snow on the ground. After trailing the bull about 1/2 hour we came to a thick spruce tree area and that's when Dani got my attention and said "Dad he's right there!" The bull had expired and the work began. 

Whitetail camp in the 2023 season found us west of Sundre. The first day we were out myself and Tommy both lucked out and shot our bucks. 

September 17th 2024 Antelope hunt Archery Dad and Justin drawn

We drove down to the zone Dad and Justin were drawn in Sept 17 during the day. We arrived at camp at around 3 pm. We decided to go for a scouting drive that evening. By 5 pm we were on our first stalk. I was packing the decoy and we set out after a decent buck in the middle of the section. After using the hills to close in distance to the buck we topped the hill and threw up the decoy. This was the first time either had experienced decoying antelope. I could not believe what happened next, the buck came right at us from 200 yards away. He was cautious and made his way slowly but looped around us so he was downwind, which did not seem to bother the buck he still kept coming. The buck finally hung up at about 80 yards and started to get suspicious. I got the thing on video, we were very excited seeing as this was our first stalk and seemed to work very well. Sept 18th morning we headed out to the same place we had made the first stalk. It didn’t take long to find a number of bucks in the same area. We decided to go after a buck that was off the distance after following the fenceline for under 100 yards we topped a little knoll where a buck was headed straight for us, we hit the dirt and set up the decoy, it was a very unique buck with one horn layed out sideways.  We were right on a fence line where the buck again circled and got down wind of us again. We thought we were blown but again the buck kept coming at us. He came right into 40 yards, Justin let an arrow go after I had him ranged. The arrow just caught the side of the buck and cut his hair from the front of his chest all the to its butt. The buck spooked and took off. We spent the rest of that day and following making failed stalks. The 18th  afternoon  we had poor weather wind and overcast conditions had us not seeing many bucks. The morning of the 19th we spotted a buck headed for the lease road we were on so we jumped out and dad drove the truck away. The buck came right at us up to 60 yards, Arrow flew right at the buck and hit him where we thought was good but it turned out it must have been too far forward the buck ran away we spent the rest of the day trying to make a play on the buck who ran into a whole herd of cows and laid in the middle of them.  When we thought the buck had expired we walked in the field with all the cows who did not like us in there space started running around, the buck jumped up and took off. We never saw him again. The morning of the 20th we decided to check out a new area further east. While driving down a lease road we spotted a young buck with 3 does. We decided to make a play on him and again dad took the truck and we snuck over the hill at the buck. He was young and dumb he just stood there, Justin let the arrow go and hit the buck directly in the neck. It was a perfect shot the buck did not go 50 yards and fell over. One tag filled, we took the buck back to camp and skinned him and put him in the cooler on the ice blocks. We decided to head back the next morning to hunt elk at home.

November 8th we all went our separate ways to find some deer, Me, Alli and Hattie were in our rzr. After splitting up from Justin and Brayden we spotted a small buck. Alli had already decided she was going to shoot the first buck we seen. We walked up through the overgrown cut block where we found the buck staring straight at us. Alli lined up and fired but missed the buck we proceeded up to where the buck was to make sure it was a clean miss (it was) the buck ran down and stood there and looked at Hattie and the Rzr. We continued up the trail. Around the next corner we ran into a little spiker who was barely even a buck I gave Alli the choice to shoot if she wanted to, she decided the deer was too small and let him walk. This turned out to be a good decision, on our way back down the trail we rounded a corner and right on the side hill was her buck. A nice bush basket buck she slowly got out the rzr and went in front of it and got on one knee took aim and shot, The buck folded in his tracks right beside the trail. I don’t know who was more excited me or her, it was a perfect shot on the perfect first buck. 

October 4th 2024

Justin and Jenn traveled out to her zone with their trailer On October 3rd  and stayed the night while scouting around for moose the night before they noticed the deer numbers were very low. Not seeing much at all. I made my way out there on the 4th stopping at work for a few minutes on the way. Arriving at our zone 1230PM. We decided we would go for a walk into a property where I had seen lots of moose working in the area. We were not 200 yards into the place when we heard crashing through the small poplars. While we didn’t get a look at what it was we knew it was big! We continued trying to keep the wind in our face through the small clumps of trees. While crossing from one patch to another Jenn spotted the bull crossing to the left of us. We threw up the decoy and tried to call him in. The wind was to loud so the bull could not hear us. We walked in the direction of the bull when we got close to the edge of some trees we spotted the bull making his way back from where he had come from. We set up the decoy and let out a small call. As soon as the bull laid eyes on the decoy he started coming towards us. I was shaking like a leaf this was a BIG bull. After hanging up a couple times he stopped to rake some small trees, he was coming right to us. 65 yards, 50 yards, and finally at 43 yards he turned broad side. Jenn shot and hit the bull we could see the blood coming out of him. We watched the bull slowly make his way across a clearing. It had looked like someone used a can of red spray paint where the bull had walked. We gave the bull an hour and started to trail him. The first little clump of trees we came to was thick, super thick we could not see through it. I went around the left side and Justin and Jenn went around the right, As I rounded the corner I spotted the bull laying not 15 yards away, It was at the same time Justin had spotted him. Jenn tried to get another arrow in him but the trees were too thick. When the bull jumped up and took off he came right at me I had to yell at him to turn him around. We watched the bull walk away again. He went directly to a dugout, walked through the water and went back to the cover of the trees. We decided to split up after bumping the bull I went and followed his tracks and Justin and Jenn went around the trees he went in. I was just coming up on the trees he went in and spotted him in the willows, After getting Justin and Jenn's attention they came back to where I was. The bull was laying down again, he was not doing well. We decided Jenn would use the loudness of the wind to get in closer for another shot. The wind was gusty so she had to move with the gusts. It took almost an hour to get close enough to get a shot. The bull would lay his head down and pick it up like he was dozing off. The trees and under brush were thick it was hard to move without being seen. When Jenn got within 30 yards the bull stood up and as he was about to take off again she let another arrow go, We watched with the binos as the arrow hit the bull perfectly. He took off but only made it 80 yards before he wobbled and finally went over backwards. After approaching the bull we realized that this was a huge bull, we got our pictures and then the work began. We had thought we were close to the road allowance we had parked on so we decided to walk back and get the trucks and see what we had, we were close enough to the fence if we had enough slings we could pull him out without quartering and packing him out. We tied all the slings, chains, and even a dog leash and were just able to reach the bull. After dragging the bull to the road alloawance we then had to get him in the truck. Justin pulled his truck down into a ditch and we hooked my snatch block up to a ratchet strap in the box of his truck, when I tried to pull the bull up using the snatch block the side of the boxes flexed inwards. We then went back to the drawing board. We ended up pushing the bull into the truck by hand, it was all the three of us had.  

Nov 9th Justin, Jen, The girls and Dani decided to take the rzr up the road and see if they could find Dani a deer. Not 3 kms up the road Justin spotted a whitetail buck in the swamp. They stacked hunting packs and coats up and Dani laid down in the road and took a shot. The buck didn’t move, Justin told her to shoot again, again the buck did not move. She adjusted her rest and fired again. This time the buck kicked and Justin knew he was hit. They gave the buck an ½ hour before going down to find him. The buck was dead in the middle of the swamp, Chad brought his quad down and pulled the buck up to the logging road. Dani’s second deer a 3x3 whitetail. She was happy and so was everyone else. 

Dani Mule Deer Draw

Dani and I woke up the morning of November 22 at 4:00 in the morning to get us on the road by 4:30. The drive out east was uneventful, few foggy patches but clear sailing otherwise. The weather was supposed to turn that night with a big snowstorm set to hit the area by the next morning.  We had the option to stay the night if needed to and packed accordingly. Our drive was about 3.5 hours until we were in the zone she was drawn in. Justin and Jen had been out the weekend prior and told us they had seen a giant in an area I was familiar with, they had one chance this buck but foggy conditions made it not happen. We figured the buck wouldn’t travel too far as he had about 12 does with him. When we were getting close to area, I gave the landowner a call to make sure it was ok we went in after the buck, he said go right ahead. We drove to the area where Justin and Jenn had seen him and lucky us, he was laying in some willows about 500 yards off the road. It was -22 degrees Celsius. The wind was directly out of the west which was perfect as there was a small knoll big enough to hide behind while we walked out into the field. The biggest risk was the number of deer with the buck we had to make sure none of the does spotted us. After using the small hill as cover, we snuck up around the side of hill. My plan was to throw Dani’s pack down and have her lay down and get a good rest but the grass on top of the hill was too tall, so I decided to hold my arm out on my knee. She got set up and comfortable right as the buck stood up Dani shot the buck went right down didn’t even leave his bed. We watched the buck for a couple minutes when it got back up again, the buck was making his way for a stubble field, so Dani got set up again and shot again dropping the buck for the second time. He did not get up again. We walked back to the truck where I called the landowner again to see if we could drive into the stubble field to retrieve her buck, he was happy to let us. While I thought the deer was a typical 4x4 I was in shock when I walked up, and he had 2 extras. This was a giant deer that we had drove 3.5 hours for and had him down within ½ hour of being in the area, talk about luck!

November 10th I decided I wanted to go check out some fields on whitetail ridge so I took the rzr and walked into the fields, it was a foggy frosty morning. I walked in on a small buck cruising around for does. On my way back to camp I found a 4x4 chasing a doe near the ranch gates, I was going to pass him up but his was wider then his ears and looked decent, I shot and he ran away into some thicker spruce trees I wasn’t sure if hit him or not. I went up to where he was and there was hair everywhere. I heard him crashing throught the thick spruce trees so went to catch up t him where he was struggling to get up the hill. I shot again and he dropped.