MORE SASKATCHEWAN MONSTER BUCKS WITH GARDEN RIVER
OUTFITTERS
Chris Lalik’s
Saskatchewan Buck
Editor’s
Note: Chris Lalik, the riflescope and spotting-scope
manager for Bushnell, like the rest of us came to Canada
in search of his buck of a lifetime. “The reason
I decided to come on this hunt was because I’d
heard all the stories about the really-big whitetails
in Saskatchewan, and I wanted a chance to take one.”
QUESTION: Chris, when did you take
your buck?
LALIK: I took my buck on the 37th hour of being in my
stand. We had hunted for four days, and I had seen the
same buck four times. But every time I saw him, he was
running and chasing does or running other bucks off.
The first time I saw this buck, he ran through my shooting
lane, so I didn’t get a real good look at him.
The next time I saw him, he ran by my stand.
But I didn’t feel comfortable taking a shot at
a moving deer. I knew he was a big deer,
however, I wasn’t sure how big he actually was.
I could see the barrel shape of his rack, and I could
tell he had at least 4 big
points on his rack. But I didn’t see all the kickers
he had coming off his rack, until I actually took the
shot. This buck was the color of mahogany, and I’d
never seen a buck this dark in all my life.
QUESTION: Tell me
about the day you took your buck.
LALIK: I got in my stand, and as soon as I could see,
I had two yearling deer walk right by me. Although the
outdoors was still kind of dark, I could see them with
my quality optics. Next, a doe with two fawns came in,
and a spike came in and chased the doe around. Then,
I had two mature does come in and next a small 8 pointer.
The 8 pointer and the spike were still feeding, and
I noticed the two bucks were getting nervous. They started
looking up the hill ahead of them. When I looked where
they were looking, I saw a larger deer, and then, in
a few seconds, I saw antlers. The buck came down the
hill and walked through one of my shooting lanes. I
could tell he had good antlers, but I wasn’t as
sure about his rack. As he came into another opening,
I saw quite a few stickers coming off his main beam,
and I decided he was the buck I wanted. I was using
Uncle Mike’s Shooting Sticks, so I had a really
good rest. I braced my elbow on the side of my seat
and took the shot. When I fired, the buck kicked up,
his tail went way into the air, and then he ran off.
I
decided to wait for 30 minutes in my stand before I
got down to look for my buck. I went to the spot where
I thought the buck was standing when I shot, and I saw
no blood or hair. We had been cautioned by Mo not to
follow blood trails into the brush. So I made a big
circle about 50-yards away from where I thought the
buck had run. When I was about 2/3 of the way around
the area I was checking, I found a spot of blood, then
more blood and finally even more blood when I came to
a spot where the buck had stopped. I saw that the buck
had made a sharp turn to the left, so instead of going
any further, I used my binoculars. I made a turn in
the direction I thought the buck had gone, and I could
see him lying down under a spruce tree. When I got close
to the buck, I couldn’t believe how big he was.
This buck was even bigger than I thought and was the
biggest buck I’d ever taken in my life. Two and
a half weeks before, I had taken my biggest buck ever
with my bow at that time, and the deer scored 142 inches.
This buck gross scored over 150 points on Boone and
Crockett, had 9 points on one side and 7 points on the
other side.
I took this buck with a .45-caliber
CVA muzzleloader, with 3 pellets of Pyrodex and .270-grain
PowerBelt bullets. Also my CVA muzzleloader had a Bushnell
Elite 4200 2.510 X scope. I had my scope set on 2.5
X, because I knew these deer wouldn’t sit still
very long, and I’d have to be really quick to
pick them up in my scope. I’m a strong believer
that you need low magnification if you’re trying
to get a shot off quickly, and this time, my belief
really paid off for me.
After
I found my deer, and wasn’t concerned about messing
up the blood trail, I back-tracked from the deer to
my stand and walked back on the trail. When I got to
where the buck was standing, I did find hair and blood.
I learned that the buck was standing 10 feet closer
to me than I originally thought. I assumed this was
why I didn’t initially find any hair and blood
on the stand. I learned that sometimes you could locate
your bullet after it passed through a deer if it made
a good hole in the snow. I tried as hard as I could
to find the bullet, however, on this hunt, I wasn’t
able to find the bullet. But I certainly wish I had.
Check out www.bushnell.com to learn more about Bushnell’s
top-quality optics.
To learn more about Hot Hands, call Howard Communications
at (573) 898-3422 or visit www.howardcommunications.com.
For more information on Garden River Outfitters, contact
Mo Heisler at (306) 978-2307, or you can write to him
at Box 929, Martinsville, Saskatchewan, SOK-2TO.
To learn more about BPI black-powder guns, including
CVA and PowerBelt Bullets, Winchester and New Frontier
go to www.bpiguns.com.
TOMORROW: CHAD SCHEARER
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