Manitoba Monarchs Hunt: Semi-Live Field Reports 2015
NPO Pro-staffer Steve "BearMagnet" Frantz, is once again pounding pavement on his way north to hunt the Canadian province of Manitoba with black powder inline muzzleloader. Like last year, he will be blogging daily about his hunting experience. Stay tuned to the NPO facebook page and blog for semi-live field updates on this great Canadian whitetail hunt.
Welcome back to the 2015 version of Manitoba Monarchs from Wild Haven Outfitting in Grandview, Manitoba. As in the past, Steve Bearmagnet Frantz will be blogging the day by day events of the muzzleloader hunt, so log onto Natural Pursuit Outdoors daily and follow the action!
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Day 1...Light wind and light snow with temperature at 30 degrees, and first light to shoot is 8:11 AM. Six hunters this year with all shooting 50 caliber muzzleloaders. The snow continued throughout the morning, which limited visibility, and accumulated two or three inches by noon. This was both a good thing and a bad thing. Steve Frantz sat at Sawmill Stand and saw nothing. Jody Natale was at Homestead Rockpile Stand and also was blanked. Jim Rothermel was stationed in the Pop Up Blind Stand and saw 3 doe and watched a 4 point buck for over an hour. Lamar Hummel had the long walk into the Long Field and saw 3 doe at 100 yards. George Lengle was in North Bale Blind and got to see 9 doe, but all the action this morning was with Tom Luckenbach in the South Bale Blind. At first light, Tom saw two doe, then 3 more doe, followed by a nice 8 point buck at 8:45 AM. He fired at 144 yards from his CVA muzzleloader and the buck went right down. It laid there motionless for 2-3 minutes, only to get up and walk the five feet into the woods. Larry Sidlar, the outfitter, Tom and Steve returned to the site after lunch to hopefully retrieve the buck. If you remember the earlier good/bad thing about the snow, well, this was the bad thing, because the snow covered all the tracks. The three guys searched for the deer to no avail, and also hoped the hit was not a mortal shot. In Canada woods, the coyotes take care of wounded or dead deer in a matter of hours. The PM hunt was even more action, due to the snow ending, and deer moving at the end of the storm. Lamar saw nothing in the Long Field, while Jody at Bear Den Stand saw 3 doe. Steve got to see a small 6 point at 15 yards and later saw 7 doe. George was into them, having seen 18 doe and had a 7 pointer at 50 yards twice. Jim returned to the Pop Up Blind with 4 doe, 2 coyotes and a monster 300 pound plus black bear-he has nice pictures to prove it! Once again, Tom was into them with 19 doe, and while walking out at the end of the day, he got to see Mister Majestic feeding across the field with two does. The buck was a monster with huge horns, that Tom said made the deer's head look small. We hope to have close up pictures of the monster tomorrow. Stay tuned!
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| Steve 'BearMagnet' Frantz with his 2013 Canadian Blackpowder Whitetail |
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Day 1...Light wind and light snow with temperature at 30 degrees, and first light to shoot is 8:11 AM. Six hunters this year with all shooting 50 caliber muzzleloaders. The snow continued throughout the morning, which limited visibility, and accumulated two or three inches by noon. This was both a good thing and a bad thing. Steve Frantz sat at Sawmill Stand and saw nothing. Jody Natale was at Homestead Rockpile Stand and also was blanked. Jim Rothermel was stationed in the Pop Up Blind Stand and saw 3 doe and watched a 4 point buck for over an hour. Lamar Hummel had the long walk into the Long Field and saw 3 doe at 100 yards. George Lengle was in North Bale Blind and got to see 9 doe, but all the action this morning was with Tom Luckenbach in the South Bale Blind. At first light, Tom saw two doe, then 3 more doe, followed by a nice 8 point buck at 8:45 AM. He fired at 144 yards from his CVA muzzleloader and the buck went right down. It laid there motionless for 2-3 minutes, only to get up and walk the five feet into the woods. Larry Sidlar, the outfitter, Tom and Steve returned to the site after lunch to hopefully retrieve the buck. If you remember the earlier good/bad thing about the snow, well, this was the bad thing, because the snow covered all the tracks. The three guys searched for the deer to no avail, and also hoped the hit was not a mortal shot. In Canada woods, the coyotes take care of wounded or dead deer in a matter of hours. The PM hunt was even more action, due to the snow ending, and deer moving at the end of the storm. Lamar saw nothing in the Long Field, while Jody at Bear Den Stand saw 3 doe. Steve got to see a small 6 point at 15 yards and later saw 7 doe. George was into them, having seen 18 doe and had a 7 pointer at 50 yards twice. Jim returned to the Pop Up Blind with 4 doe, 2 coyotes and a monster 300 pound plus black bear-he has nice pictures to prove it! Once again, Tom was into them with 19 doe, and while walking out at the end of the day, he got to see Mister Majestic feeding across the field with two does. The buck was a monster with huge horns, that Tom said made the deer's head look small. We hope to have close up pictures of the monster tomorrow. Stay tuned!
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Day 2
Just a quick note about our annual drive around, on the first day arrival, to refresh memories of Lamar and Tom on location of deer stands. We were having light snow, and a covey of prairie chickens numbering 7 flushed along side of the road and flew along side of the truck for about 100 yards. As we rounded another turn in the road, we drove past several large round bales of hay, and a snowy owl sat perched on top of one bale only 50 feet away. Of course, no one had their cell phones, because no service nor any cameras (who carries those today).
Day started partly cloudy with light wind and temps in low 30's. Most of the snow melted from previous day. Not too busy a morning hunt with George seeing 3 doe and the small 6 point buck at Sawmill. Jim and Lamar revisited their same stands from night before only to see the same 3 doe on each stand. Jody, Tom and Steve set up in the three stands at Britton Farm, and Jody tested his new binocs by viewing a very large buck in the binoculars, but unable to see with the naked eye or in his scope-real good binocs, Jody. The buck and two other deer crossed the field between Jody and Steve very early, and Steve never even saw the deer-too dark! Jody at River Edge saw 19 deer total with 5 buck seen (all too small), Tom on North Bale Blind saw 12 total and 2 small buck, while Steve saw 11 deer and one small four pointer.
Afternoon had Jim take a 100 yard shot at a running coyote, but missed. He also did see one doe. George was at the Bee Hive Stand and saw a blond coyote too far away and one doe. Lamar again saw 3 doe in the Across River Stand. Steve returned to the South Bale Blind and saw 15 total deer and 3 buck-see Jody for more on the buck! Tom in the North Bale Blind was pinned in his stand until total dark, because he and Jody had a royal cluster of deer between them and couldn't walk out until dark. Tom saw 35 deer and two buck, of which one was 250 yards away and was his buck he hit yesterday morning. The deer was hit high in the shoulder in no man's land. Meanwhile, Jody was in the center of the three ring circus, with deer running back and forth across the field in front of him. A high tined 4 point was chasing doe, and in the middle of the action, Tom's crippled buck entered the field about 180 yards from Jody and headed straight towards his stand. Jody saw it was crippled and a nice 8 point, but had only a narrow front to shoot at, and he waited for the distance to close. At 98 yards away, Jody put down the rangefinder and was ready to fire, when the buck laid down in the field. Now a shot was impossible, and he could only wait. Tom was watching the buck from 325 yards away and Steve from 300 yards away eagerly awaiting a kill shot from Jody. The buck never stood up and was still bedded down when darkness fell. Larry, the outfitter, had never had a stand yield what Jody watched for over two hours-Jody had seen 40 total deer tonight with four buck in the mix. It was truly a three ring circus.
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Day 3
What a heck of a hot day to deer hunt. Day opened at 34 degrees and hit 56 at 2 PM, with 30 mph winds. The night was clear for the first time in two days, and we believe the deer fed at night with bright moonlight, so we had a slow morning. Steve went to Bear Den and saw one doe and a huge eagle. Lamar took a break from the morning hunt to allow his guts to settle down. George at the Bee Hive only saw two doe. Jim, Jody and Tom went to Britton Farm with Jim in the South Bale Blind seeing a mouse. Jody in Riverside Lean On Stand saw 6 doe, 2 coyotes and a badger-WOW! Tom saw a coyote and 8 doe.
The afternoon was very sunny and hot, but yielded action for one. Lamar at the Sawmill watched 9 doe and a Y buck. George in the Elevated Box Blind at Bill's saw one mystery deer at dark. Steve was on the Backside Lean On at Bill's and saw 8 doe and one mystery deer at dark. The deer was posturing with head down at a doe and then chased the doe for 200 yards the opposite direction. Jim Rothermel in South Bale Blind at Britton saw 7 doe, one 4 pointer and one 6 pointer-too small. Meanwhile, Jody and Tom exchanged places from last year, with Jody in the Riverside Lean On and Tom in the North Bale Blind. For a recap of last year, Jody missed a monster as Tom watched as events unfolded from 300 yards away. This year, Tom got a crack at Mr. Majestic- a monster brown horned with minimum of 12 points, and the buck won again this year. Tom had seen 24 doe, before the big fella stepped out behind his stand. He admitted looking at the horns and just pulled the shot. It would not have hurt him so much, if the buck would have been just an average deer. He could barely eat supper two hours later. Jody saw 26 deer and 3 small bucks plus Mr. Majestic from 300 yards away. Tomorrow's weather is calling for showers, and we will go at it again. Anyone who says they never missed, is either a liar or doesn't hunt very much-we hunters can all relate to how Tom feels right now.
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Day 4
Well we might as well throw away the weather forecast, which we printed last week, because we are probably going to be wet, wet and wet the rest of the way! However, anyone who knows the guys in our group, we will be out there hunting no matter what. The what we had all day up to 5 pm was pouring cats and dogs rain. No matter, most of the group was out there, and we saw lots of small bucks, some fighting, some chasing does, and in one case, a doe heavy in heat!
This morning in the rain, Lamar set up camp in the camper at the sawmill and saw 3 doe and 2 small buck-no shooters! He is now fully recovered from his 24 hour virus, with the help of Larry Sidlar's oldtime family recipe of garlic bits and water, two doses a day. Don't laugh, it worked, and it needed to work, because the blinds don't have toilet facilities. OK, back to Jody, George and Steve at Britton Farm. George witnessed 5 doe in North Bale Blind, Jody 3 doe in the Shooting Shack Riverside, and Steve watched a small racked buck cross the entire 500 yard field just after daylight. He also saw 4 doe.
This afternoon, Jim decided he didn't need to get wet today, and he sat this one out. Tom set up camp at Homestead Rock Pile Stand and saw 2 doe. George saw a small 4 pointer and 9 doe at Britton. Jody at Riverside also saw 9 doe and 4 small buck. Steve was in the South Bale Blind and got to see two nice buck fighting in the field for about 30 minutes. The larger one (7 pointer) was chasing a doe around the field and the two fed across the field to within 50 yards of the stand, at which time the bigger buck smelled the synthetic Code Blue and just kept circling the blind until dark. Lamar was in the action at Sawmill, with a small doe coming into heat and the bucks congregating in front of his stand from 4 pm until dark about 6:45 pm. At one time just before dark, 6 bucks were chasing the same doe, with a large brown horned shooter buck offered no shot at dusk. We are in good spirits and expect to see good action in the coming days, with onset of the rut. Stay tuned for more from Wild Haven Outfitting in Grandview, Manitoba. The food has been fantastic with Laraine and daughter Ashley chief cooks. This evening we had a full course turkey dinner, with pumpkin pie for dessert.
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Day 5
Monsoon day-heavy rain all day with 20 to 30 mph winds and temps 35-45 degrees. Tough day to hunt, but we all were out there trying to score on a nice buck. The deer are more wary with the rain and wind and today was no different, with two possible shooters just not cooperating for a good clean shot. With the bad weather, we all tried stands, which had roofs on them (either bale blinds with plywood tops, or mobile shooting shacks on running gear). Jim was also placed at the Sawmill, which has two stands on the property. If you remember, Lamar had all the action there last night, and he was back on that stand at Sawmill. Well, he needed night vision glasses this morning, because a bigger buck than last night was bedded in the field, and as early light appeared, the buck got up and walked away from Lamar, without presenting a shot. Lamar later saw 6 doe, while Jim saw nothing AM. Tom and Jody were at Britton in the two bale blinds with Jody seeing a small 8 pointer and 3 doe. Tom saw 3 doe. Steve went to the bale blind at the end of Long Field, which is 700 yards long, but nothing showed up this morn. George set up in the Pop Up Blind across from the house, and he watched 6 doe and a small buck. All of these sightings were in pouring rain, but again no shooting, but at least saw a shooter.
I wanted to send a shout out to Talia Doud's middle school class at Pine Grove Area Middle School and Tyler Frantz's 4th grade class at Palmyra Area School District. Today I saw an ermine and in the spring in the Duck Mountains of Manitoba, I saw an American Bittern. Does anyone know what these two things are in Canada, and are either of them in Pennsylvania?
This afternoon, Jim and Lamar returned to Sawmill, and this time Jim saw the large shooter Lamar saw in the AM, but only had a head shot at 130 yards in high grass, and he passed on it not being an ethical shot. Jim also saw a small buck, and Lamar saw three small bucks and 2 doe. Tom went to the Bear Den and got to see a fawn with spots and 7 doe. Jody in the Britton bale blind saw a small 4 pointer and 9 doe. George in Riverside at Britton saw 2 buck and 18 doe, but no shooters. Steve tried a 20 foot lean on open stand for the PM hunt, and would not recommend it for any future hunts under the current weather conditions. He saw 4 doe and the ermine. Future forecast is for more rain, mixed with snow showers the next two days! We will continue to persevere.
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Day 6
Holy Cow it is really raining up here, and it just isn’t stopping, but it may turn to snow! We can hardly keep dry clothing and boots, but so far no one has gotten sick with a cold, however, now Jody is running, if you know what I mean. Everyone went out to hunt in the rain, so here we go with the report-it is especially good today!
Jim and Lamar tag teamed at the Sawmill, with Jim in a blind under the sawmill carriage, and Lamar in a Shooting Shack on a small field inside the bush. Jim had shot a nice 10 point buck on this stand a few years ago, but today he saw nothing. Lamar is on the hot stand right now, and it continues to show buck with a small Y buck and 3 doe. Meanwhile, Tom went into the Bear Den, but this morning was a zero. George went across the river to the cabin and also was shut out in the pouring rain. Jody and Steve went to Britton with Jody taking the Riverside Cabin, due to carrying a role of toilet paper onto the stand, if necessary. Steve ended up for the first time in the formerly very hot Bale Blind, but he only saw a doe, when he walked out to Jody with some important news. There had been no action in the field and heavy rain was falling, so Steve was scanning the edge of the woods, when a white flash caught his eye. He dropped the binoculars to see a magpie bird fly out of the woods. This can mean something is in the woods, so Steve focused on the area, and he soon was timing magpies flying in/out of the forest every two minutes. A pattern was seen, which indicated the strong possibility of a dead animal in the vicinity, because magpies feed on dead animals. He narrowed the area by watching the flight of the birds through the binocs, and since nothing was happening in the field, he moved to have a closer look with about an hour left before pickup to go back to the farm. Using marker ribbons, he lined up the blind with the last seen flight of the magpies, entered the woods, and just knelt down and watched for the congregation of the magpies.
The PM hunt started in pouring rain, again! Only now, we were down to five hunters trying to get out of the rain in bale blinds, shooting shacks, or COMBINES! Yes, George Lengle, climbed into a John Deere combine cab, taped cardboard onto the windows, opened the side window, and managed to see 3 doe just before dark. Lamar and Jim headed back to the sawmill, and Lamar again saw two buck, a Y buck and the small 8 pointer and 7 doe-lots of deer, just no shooter! Jody went into Britton in the lower field bale blind and saw 14 doe, but they were at the opposite end of the field, where we retrieved the buck. Steve hunted the back side of Bill’s, found a fresh scrape opened hours earlier, and saw 3 coyotes and 5 doe. When taking the 25 minute walk out to the pick up point, a minimum of 8 to a dozen coyotes were howling all along the trail. It might snow some tonight, but at least we got one! It’s a start! Tom’s deer was a heavy horned 11 pointer, which scored 145 gross.
Moving forward, he saw where the magpies were alighting onto branches and then dropping down to the ground. Steve knew the site probably held a dead buck, because it was where Tom had shot at the big boy! The one side of the horns stuck up in the air, and the dark brown tines and the points total of 11, told him he had found the big buck. From there to Jody to tell him of finding the lost deer, to returning to the farm and announcing the good news! Steve waited until all hunters and the outfitters family was sitting down to eat lunch. Steve, the tracker, had found another Manitoba animal shot by a fellow hunter. Both were equally happy to have retrieved the Manitoba Monarch, and Tom’s hunt had come to a pleasant end for 2015. When outfitter Larry, Tom and Steve went to retrieve the buck, magpies, ravens and a bald eagle were feeding on the carcass. The coyotes had also feasted and most of the deer was ravaged by all of the above.
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Day 7
We didn't think the weather could get worse, but then it did! This morning temp was 40 F with rain, wind out of the east for the fifth straight day, and now add FOG to the mix. At times we could not see 100 yards, and it was shown by the low number of deer seen today. Jim, Jody and Lamar, alias Lattimore, were situated in either bale blinds or the shooting shack at Britton. Fog rolled in and out of the 1000 yard long field. Jim saw what he believes was a wolf, and Jody recalculated what he saw yesterday at Britton, when Steve walked out of the woods after finding Tom's buck, a wolf was entering the woods from the field only about 100 yards apart(evidently neither Steve nor the wolf saw each other). Lamar did see and shoot a coyote in the field. We got to see a wolf carcass this morning, when Ashley Sidlar's boyfriend Derek shot a grey colored male south of the farm-the animal is a fierce looking animal when seen up close and personal. Back to the AM hunt, with George in the Sawmill blind and he saw 4 doe. Steve braved the weather in the open on the backside of the Britton Farm, where his son, Travis, had taken two nice buck, but today in the rain and fog only a coyote was seen.
The rain and fog increased as the day went on, and the wind blew gale force at times out of the east. George returned to the Sawmill blind and saw FOG. Jim in his treestand did see four deer at dark, while Steve was at Shullman's overlooking a wheat and canola field. Lots of tracks, lots of food for the deer, but only one flash seen of a deer at dark. Lamar, who camped out at the Sawmill Shooting Shack most of the week, switched with Jody, who had camped out at the Britton stands all week. Sometimes change is good, but Lamar saw only FOG. Jody on the other hand, saw a small 4 point buck at 5 PM, and daylight was diminishing quickly. Suddenly from the far end of the field about 130 yards out he spotted a deer, grabbed his new binoculars and immediately knew it was a shooter.
He parked his backpack in the old campers sink to act as a shooting rest and took aim with his Savage ML10 muzzleloader, dropping the 240 pound 8 point with the Hornady 250 grain bullet into the bucks neck. The buck was down at close to last light on a day, when many would not have been hunting afield. We will hunt tomorrow for the last hurrah, and then head for home. Follow up for the last Manitoba Monarchs 2015 field report tomorrow. We apologize for the tardiness of yesterday's report, however we experienced internet hookup difficulties, which were beyond our control. Heck, we are in the middle of nowhere in the central prairies of Manitoba. Thanks for bearing with us!
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The Last Day Hunt
Remember when I said, the weather can't get worse-just forget I said it, because today we had rain, sleet, 2 inches of snow, temp around 32 F all day, and thick fog. The fog was so thick, that a hunter could not see through the scope more than 100 yards and sometime down to about 60 yards. Jim, Steve and Lamar stopped hunting about 20 minutes early this evening, because visibility was so poor. Jim had walked back to the farm, while Larry picked up Steve and then Lamar at the Sawmill. Just as we were driving back to the farm, the fog lifted and we could see 800 yards across the fields-that's when you know it is time to go home. We had endured 6 straight days of wind out of the east up to 45 mph and combinations of rain, sleet, ice/snow and we continued to hunt until the last hour!
This morning started with successful hunters, Tom and Jody, sleeping in, but having a long list of to do things, such as butcher the deer, freeze the meat, and preload the trucks. Lamar was at the Sawmill Shooting Shack and saw a 4 pt buck and 5 doe, while Big Jimbo Rothermel was on the western part of the farm watching 5 doe. Steve traveled to Britton one last time to see no deer, but one immature bald eagle and a grouse. George managed the fort at the Sawmill and saw/identified/killed a large male coyote at 98 yards drop dead gorgeous from his Savage ML10 250 grain Hornady.
PM hunt was anticipated to be poor, whereas the fog intensified and the snow stopped, but a biting wind took hold again. Jim, Lamar 'Lattimore' Hummel and Steve were the three dummies that ventured out and about over the hills and dales of Manitoba. Steve saw nothing except a 4 1/2 inch wolf track (a big one). Jim watched a three pointer running a doe in the field and 6 other doe. Lamar found two doe were in the field, when he crawled into the Shooting Shack, which is tucked into the edge of the field.
Thank you for following along on our adventure to the prairies of central Canada 2015. The good Lord willing, we hope to return for a ninth year in 2016. This is the first year, that Steve didn't have a shot, but the weather put us in a deep hole. If every thing had gone perfect, which we know is impossible, maybe 4 of the 6 of us could have scored on a Manitoba Monarch. As it is, Tom goes home with his first Canada buck and Jody beat him out by 1/8 inch (wider than Tom's 11 pointer). We had a fine hunt with Larry Sidlar and Laraine Mitchell and family at Wild Haven Outfitting, and you can check out their website at wildhavenoutfitting.ca. Provide feedback to Tyler of Natural Pursuit Outdoors on this blog report. I will continue to provide it from time to time, only if you enjoy hearing about our hunts. Shoot straight and have safe hunting over the next couple of months. Make new memories with family and friends in the field. Thanks! Steve 'Bearmagnet' Frantz
Day 3
What a heck of a hot day to deer hunt. Day opened at 34 degrees and hit 56 at 2 PM, with 30 mph winds. The night was clear for the first time in two days, and we believe the deer fed at night with bright moonlight, so we had a slow morning. Steve went to Bear Den and saw one doe and a huge eagle. Lamar took a break from the morning hunt to allow his guts to settle down. George at the Bee Hive only saw two doe. Jim, Jody and Tom went to Britton Farm with Jim in the South Bale Blind seeing a mouse. Jody in Riverside Lean On Stand saw 6 doe, 2 coyotes and a badger-WOW! Tom saw a coyote and 8 doe.
The afternoon was very sunny and hot, but yielded action for one. Lamar at the Sawmill watched 9 doe and a Y buck. George in the Elevated Box Blind at Bill's saw one mystery deer at dark. Steve was on the Backside Lean On at Bill's and saw 8 doe and one mystery deer at dark. The deer was posturing with head down at a doe and then chased the doe for 200 yards the opposite direction. Jim Rothermel in South Bale Blind at Britton saw 7 doe, one 4 pointer and one 6 pointer-too small. Meanwhile, Jody and Tom exchanged places from last year, with Jody in the Riverside Lean On and Tom in the North Bale Blind. For a recap of last year, Jody missed a monster as Tom watched as events unfolded from 300 yards away. This year, Tom got a crack at Mr. Majestic- a monster brown horned with minimum of 12 points, and the buck won again this year. Tom had seen 24 doe, before the big fella stepped out behind his stand. He admitted looking at the horns and just pulled the shot. It would not have hurt him so much, if the buck would have been just an average deer. He could barely eat supper two hours later. Jody saw 26 deer and 3 small bucks plus Mr. Majestic from 300 yards away. Tomorrow's weather is calling for showers, and we will go at it again. Anyone who says they never missed, is either a liar or doesn't hunt very much-we hunters can all relate to how Tom feels right now.
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Day 4
Well we might as well throw away the weather forecast, which we printed last week, because we are probably going to be wet, wet and wet the rest of the way! However, anyone who knows the guys in our group, we will be out there hunting no matter what. The what we had all day up to 5 pm was pouring cats and dogs rain. No matter, most of the group was out there, and we saw lots of small bucks, some fighting, some chasing does, and in one case, a doe heavy in heat!
This morning in the rain, Lamar set up camp in the camper at the sawmill and saw 3 doe and 2 small buck-no shooters! He is now fully recovered from his 24 hour virus, with the help of Larry Sidlar's oldtime family recipe of garlic bits and water, two doses a day. Don't laugh, it worked, and it needed to work, because the blinds don't have toilet facilities. OK, back to Jody, George and Steve at Britton Farm. George witnessed 5 doe in North Bale Blind, Jody 3 doe in the Shooting Shack Riverside, and Steve watched a small racked buck cross the entire 500 yard field just after daylight. He also saw 4 doe.
This afternoon, Jim decided he didn't need to get wet today, and he sat this one out. Tom set up camp at Homestead Rock Pile Stand and saw 2 doe. George saw a small 4 pointer and 9 doe at Britton. Jody at Riverside also saw 9 doe and 4 small buck. Steve was in the South Bale Blind and got to see two nice buck fighting in the field for about 30 minutes. The larger one (7 pointer) was chasing a doe around the field and the two fed across the field to within 50 yards of the stand, at which time the bigger buck smelled the synthetic Code Blue and just kept circling the blind until dark. Lamar was in the action at Sawmill, with a small doe coming into heat and the bucks congregating in front of his stand from 4 pm until dark about 6:45 pm. At one time just before dark, 6 bucks were chasing the same doe, with a large brown horned shooter buck offered no shot at dusk. We are in good spirits and expect to see good action in the coming days, with onset of the rut. Stay tuned for more from Wild Haven Outfitting in Grandview, Manitoba. The food has been fantastic with Laraine and daughter Ashley chief cooks. This evening we had a full course turkey dinner, with pumpkin pie for dessert.
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Day 5
Monsoon day-heavy rain all day with 20 to 30 mph winds and temps 35-45 degrees. Tough day to hunt, but we all were out there trying to score on a nice buck. The deer are more wary with the rain and wind and today was no different, with two possible shooters just not cooperating for a good clean shot. With the bad weather, we all tried stands, which had roofs on them (either bale blinds with plywood tops, or mobile shooting shacks on running gear). Jim was also placed at the Sawmill, which has two stands on the property. If you remember, Lamar had all the action there last night, and he was back on that stand at Sawmill. Well, he needed night vision glasses this morning, because a bigger buck than last night was bedded in the field, and as early light appeared, the buck got up and walked away from Lamar, without presenting a shot. Lamar later saw 6 doe, while Jim saw nothing AM. Tom and Jody were at Britton in the two bale blinds with Jody seeing a small 8 pointer and 3 doe. Tom saw 3 doe. Steve went to the bale blind at the end of Long Field, which is 700 yards long, but nothing showed up this morn. George set up in the Pop Up Blind across from the house, and he watched 6 doe and a small buck. All of these sightings were in pouring rain, but again no shooting, but at least saw a shooter.
I wanted to send a shout out to Talia Doud's middle school class at Pine Grove Area Middle School and Tyler Frantz's 4th grade class at Palmyra Area School District. Today I saw an ermine and in the spring in the Duck Mountains of Manitoba, I saw an American Bittern. Does anyone know what these two things are in Canada, and are either of them in Pennsylvania?
This afternoon, Jim and Lamar returned to Sawmill, and this time Jim saw the large shooter Lamar saw in the AM, but only had a head shot at 130 yards in high grass, and he passed on it not being an ethical shot. Jim also saw a small buck, and Lamar saw three small bucks and 2 doe. Tom went to the Bear Den and got to see a fawn with spots and 7 doe. Jody in the Britton bale blind saw a small 4 pointer and 9 doe. George in Riverside at Britton saw 2 buck and 18 doe, but no shooters. Steve tried a 20 foot lean on open stand for the PM hunt, and would not recommend it for any future hunts under the current weather conditions. He saw 4 doe and the ermine. Future forecast is for more rain, mixed with snow showers the next two days! We will continue to persevere.
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Day 6Holy Cow it is really raining up here, and it just isn’t stopping, but it may turn to snow! We can hardly keep dry clothing and boots, but so far no one has gotten sick with a cold, however, now Jody is running, if you know what I mean. Everyone went out to hunt in the rain, so here we go with the report-it is especially good today!
Jim and Lamar tag teamed at the Sawmill, with Jim in a blind under the sawmill carriage, and Lamar in a Shooting Shack on a small field inside the bush. Jim had shot a nice 10 point buck on this stand a few years ago, but today he saw nothing. Lamar is on the hot stand right now, and it continues to show buck with a small Y buck and 3 doe. Meanwhile, Tom went into the Bear Den, but this morning was a zero. George went across the river to the cabin and also was shut out in the pouring rain. Jody and Steve went to Britton with Jody taking the Riverside Cabin, due to carrying a role of toilet paper onto the stand, if necessary. Steve ended up for the first time in the formerly very hot Bale Blind, but he only saw a doe, when he walked out to Jody with some important news. There had been no action in the field and heavy rain was falling, so Steve was scanning the edge of the woods, when a white flash caught his eye. He dropped the binoculars to see a magpie bird fly out of the woods. This can mean something is in the woods, so Steve focused on the area, and he soon was timing magpies flying in/out of the forest every two minutes. A pattern was seen, which indicated the strong possibility of a dead animal in the vicinity, because magpies feed on dead animals. He narrowed the area by watching the flight of the birds through the binocs, and since nothing was happening in the field, he moved to have a closer look with about an hour left before pickup to go back to the farm. Using marker ribbons, he lined up the blind with the last seen flight of the magpies, entered the woods, and just knelt down and watched for the congregation of the magpies.
The PM hunt started in pouring rain, again! Only now, we were down to five hunters trying to get out of the rain in bale blinds, shooting shacks, or COMBINES! Yes, George Lengle, climbed into a John Deere combine cab, taped cardboard onto the windows, opened the side window, and managed to see 3 doe just before dark. Lamar and Jim headed back to the sawmill, and Lamar again saw two buck, a Y buck and the small 8 pointer and 7 doe-lots of deer, just no shooter! Jody went into Britton in the lower field bale blind and saw 14 doe, but they were at the opposite end of the field, where we retrieved the buck. Steve hunted the back side of Bill’s, found a fresh scrape opened hours earlier, and saw 3 coyotes and 5 doe. When taking the 25 minute walk out to the pick up point, a minimum of 8 to a dozen coyotes were howling all along the trail. It might snow some tonight, but at least we got one! It’s a start! Tom’s deer was a heavy horned 11 pointer, which scored 145 gross.
Moving forward, he saw where the magpies were alighting onto branches and then dropping down to the ground. Steve knew the site probably held a dead buck, because it was where Tom had shot at the big boy! The one side of the horns stuck up in the air, and the dark brown tines and the points total of 11, told him he had found the big buck. From there to Jody to tell him of finding the lost deer, to returning to the farm and announcing the good news! Steve waited until all hunters and the outfitters family was sitting down to eat lunch. Steve, the tracker, had found another Manitoba animal shot by a fellow hunter. Both were equally happy to have retrieved the Manitoba Monarch, and Tom’s hunt had come to a pleasant end for 2015. When outfitter Larry, Tom and Steve went to retrieve the buck, magpies, ravens and a bald eagle were feeding on the carcass. The coyotes had also feasted and most of the deer was ravaged by all of the above.
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Day 7We didn't think the weather could get worse, but then it did! This morning temp was 40 F with rain, wind out of the east for the fifth straight day, and now add FOG to the mix. At times we could not see 100 yards, and it was shown by the low number of deer seen today. Jim, Jody and Lamar, alias Lattimore, were situated in either bale blinds or the shooting shack at Britton. Fog rolled in and out of the 1000 yard long field. Jim saw what he believes was a wolf, and Jody recalculated what he saw yesterday at Britton, when Steve walked out of the woods after finding Tom's buck, a wolf was entering the woods from the field only about 100 yards apart(evidently neither Steve nor the wolf saw each other). Lamar did see and shoot a coyote in the field. We got to see a wolf carcass this morning, when Ashley Sidlar's boyfriend Derek shot a grey colored male south of the farm-the animal is a fierce looking animal when seen up close and personal. Back to the AM hunt, with George in the Sawmill blind and he saw 4 doe. Steve braved the weather in the open on the backside of the Britton Farm, where his son, Travis, had taken two nice buck, but today in the rain and fog only a coyote was seen.
The rain and fog increased as the day went on, and the wind blew gale force at times out of the east. George returned to the Sawmill blind and saw FOG. Jim in his treestand did see four deer at dark, while Steve was at Shullman's overlooking a wheat and canola field. Lots of tracks, lots of food for the deer, but only one flash seen of a deer at dark. Lamar, who camped out at the Sawmill Shooting Shack most of the week, switched with Jody, who had camped out at the Britton stands all week. Sometimes change is good, but Lamar saw only FOG. Jody on the other hand, saw a small 4 point buck at 5 PM, and daylight was diminishing quickly. Suddenly from the far end of the field about 130 yards out he spotted a deer, grabbed his new binoculars and immediately knew it was a shooter.
He parked his backpack in the old campers sink to act as a shooting rest and took aim with his Savage ML10 muzzleloader, dropping the 240 pound 8 point with the Hornady 250 grain bullet into the bucks neck. The buck was down at close to last light on a day, when many would not have been hunting afield. We will hunt tomorrow for the last hurrah, and then head for home. Follow up for the last Manitoba Monarchs 2015 field report tomorrow. We apologize for the tardiness of yesterday's report, however we experienced internet hookup difficulties, which were beyond our control. Heck, we are in the middle of nowhere in the central prairies of Manitoba. Thanks for bearing with us!
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The Last Day Hunt
Remember when I said, the weather can't get worse-just forget I said it, because today we had rain, sleet, 2 inches of snow, temp around 32 F all day, and thick fog. The fog was so thick, that a hunter could not see through the scope more than 100 yards and sometime down to about 60 yards. Jim, Steve and Lamar stopped hunting about 20 minutes early this evening, because visibility was so poor. Jim had walked back to the farm, while Larry picked up Steve and then Lamar at the Sawmill. Just as we were driving back to the farm, the fog lifted and we could see 800 yards across the fields-that's when you know it is time to go home. We had endured 6 straight days of wind out of the east up to 45 mph and combinations of rain, sleet, ice/snow and we continued to hunt until the last hour!
This morning started with successful hunters, Tom and Jody, sleeping in, but having a long list of to do things, such as butcher the deer, freeze the meat, and preload the trucks. Lamar was at the Sawmill Shooting Shack and saw a 4 pt buck and 5 doe, while Big Jimbo Rothermel was on the western part of the farm watching 5 doe. Steve traveled to Britton one last time to see no deer, but one immature bald eagle and a grouse. George managed the fort at the Sawmill and saw/identified/killed a large male coyote at 98 yards drop dead gorgeous from his Savage ML10 250 grain Hornady.
PM hunt was anticipated to be poor, whereas the fog intensified and the snow stopped, but a biting wind took hold again. Jim, Lamar 'Lattimore' Hummel and Steve were the three dummies that ventured out and about over the hills and dales of Manitoba. Steve saw nothing except a 4 1/2 inch wolf track (a big one). Jim watched a three pointer running a doe in the field and 6 other doe. Lamar found two doe were in the field, when he crawled into the Shooting Shack, which is tucked into the edge of the field.
Thank you for following along on our adventure to the prairies of central Canada 2015. The good Lord willing, we hope to return for a ninth year in 2016. This is the first year, that Steve didn't have a shot, but the weather put us in a deep hole. If every thing had gone perfect, which we know is impossible, maybe 4 of the 6 of us could have scored on a Manitoba Monarch. As it is, Tom goes home with his first Canada buck and Jody beat him out by 1/8 inch (wider than Tom's 11 pointer). We had a fine hunt with Larry Sidlar and Laraine Mitchell and family at Wild Haven Outfitting, and you can check out their website at wildhavenoutfitting.ca. Provide feedback to Tyler of Natural Pursuit Outdoors on this blog report. I will continue to provide it from time to time, only if you enjoy hearing about our hunts. Shoot straight and have safe hunting over the next couple of months. Make new memories with family and friends in the field. Thanks! Steve 'Bearmagnet' Frantz
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