Manitoba's Extreme Whitetails with Whitetail Outfitters
Christopher Muise's Rite of Passage
Editor's Note: I've hunted with Doug Grantham and John Nixon of Whitetail
Outfitters, headquartered in Stonewall, Manitoba, Canada several different
times. Each time I've enjoyed being with them and having some of the
most-exciting adventures of my life, while visiting their outpost camps,
hearing the hunters' stories and seeing the deer that the hunters have
taken. Life doesn't get any better than hunting virgin bucks that never have
seen or smelled a hunter during the rut. To make the hunt even more
tantalizing, many of these bucks will be in the 150+ class range and never
have heard a grunt call or rattling antlers. There's a rite of passage that
occurs when a boy goes on his first man hunt. Ever since the first man
crawled out from under a rock and allowed a youngster to be a part of his
hunt, the event always has been special - not only for the boy but also for
all the men on the hunt. By having a boy in camp, each man has the
opportunity to remember his first hunt and the accompanying thrill and
excitement he's felt when he's taken his first deer. Therefore, although the
hunt appears to be primarily for the boy, it's as much for the men who take
the boy with them. This week you'll see why the first hunt is not only
special for the boy taking part in it but also for the men who go with him.
Thirteen-year-old Christopher Messina of Wallkill, New York, kept an 80
average in school this past year, so that he could make his first deer hunt
with Whitetail Outfitters with his dad, Anthony.
Question: Christopher, what did you think about the ride into camp?
Messina: It was insane. It was a great adventure. We started going out
through a field that was very bumpy. Then we flew down a road on the ATV and
finally reached the trails, which were very wet and muddy. But we had the
most fun on those trails. The ATVs would go down into the holes and pull
right back up out of them. In some holes we went through, the headlights of
the ATV were under the water. We all thought we probably would fall off the
ATVs, but we didn't. The ride to the camp from the dirt road took about 2 or
2-1/2 hours, and that ride was a great part of the hunting experience. When
I saw that we only had a tarp roof over our camp, I didn't hardly sleep at
all the first night. However, by the second night, I was so worn out I had
no trouble sleeping. At night, I could hear the timber wolves howling, and I
was wondering what other animals might be out in the woods.
Question: Tell me about your hunt, Christopher.
Messina: On the first morning of the hunt, our guide, Lennie, dropped us off
at the stand. My dad helped me climb into my tree stand and get settled.
Then he got into his tree stand close to me. Snow was falling when we
reached our stands. Once we climbed into our stands, the snow really picked
up. We'd only been in our stands for a short while when we heard a big
crack. My dad started blowing his grunt call. The snow fell even harder. We
didn't see anything. My dad suggested we go ahead and eat our lunches
because he thought the deer would be bedded-down in that heavy snow.
After we finished our lunches, the snow let up. I looked to my right and
spotted a buck with 6- to 7-inch-long big spikes. Then the snow started
coming down hard again. After we heard another crack, my dad called with his
grunt call once more. I was kinda napping, but when I looked up, I looked
over to the spot where my dad was looking. A big buck was moving through the
area, with his head down and hitting the trees with his antlers. I was
pointing at the buck like crazy because my dad hadn't spotted him. Finally
my dad saw the buck and gave me a thumbs-up, which meant it was o.k. for me
to take him. I lifted the gun, aimed for behind the deer's shoulder and
wham, I fired. I hit the deer in his lungs, and the buck ran about 75 yards
and fell over. When the bullet hit him, I saw the buck buckle. Once he fell,
I was thinking, "Oh, my gosh!" My dad told me, "I saw him buckle, but his
tail went up instead of coming down. So, you may have hit him, or, you may
have missed him. I'm going to look for blood where you've shot at the buck.
You stay in your stand."
I was watching the spot where I'd shot the deer as my dad climbed out of the
tree. I yelled, "I see blood. I see blood." Dad went over to where the blood
was and discovered a bloody place in the snow about 1-foot long by 1-foot
wide. My dad tracked down the deer and yelled back to me that I'd gotten a
nice 10-pointer. I thought he was joking, but when he helped me get down out
of the tree, he took me over to the first blood spot we'd seen. He made me
blood-track the deer. As I tracked, the blood trail picked up really heavy.
I could see on the sides of the trees where the buck had brushed against the
trees and left blood on them. Once we reached the deer, Dad said, "You
count the points, if you think I'm lying about your buck being a 10 point."
I counted the points. When I knew for sure it was a 10-point buck, I started
shaking and said, "Oh, my gosh!" I was so excited and shaking so badly
because that was the first buck I'd ever taken, and it was a 10 pointer. We
hung my orange hat on the spot where the deer was laying, went back to our
tree stands and gathered-up all our gear. We walked to camp. When Lennie
returned, he asked why we'd come back to camp so early. My dad told him,
"Christopher started getting cold, and so, we returned to camp." Next my dad
added, "Christopher got cold after he shot his 10-pointer because he didn't
have anything else to do." Well, Lennie got very happy. We gutted the deer,
loaded it up on the ATV and headed back to camp. That was the first time I'd
ever really watched a deer being field dressed. When I went with my dad and
saw other people field dressing a deer, I'd often would get weak in the
knees. However, it was very different when it was my buck people were field
dressing. When I took that deer, my dad was so happy that we high-fived each
other and hugged. This hunt was my first time to go out of the U.S., the
place where I took my first deer ever, this first time I'd ever been this
far out in the woods in a wilderness-type setting, and I'd been on a man
hunt. In the past, when my dad went hunting in the Adirondacks, my sister,
my mother and my grandmother all would be there. My dad and my mother would
go out hunting. But, on this hunt, there were only guys. All the men here at
camp treated me really good, and they were all excited about my taking my
first deer - and such a massive one at that.
Initially I'd thought the hunt would be much colder and maybe even boring.
But this hunt with Whitetail Outfitters wasn't at all. We saw all kinds of
animals, including squirrels. I got to hear the timber wolves howling and
the coyotes yipping.
Question: Christopher, what you will remember most about the hunt?
Messina: I know for sure it will be bringing that blackpowder rifle up,
looking through the scope, seeing the buck and squeezing the trigger. I'm
been dreaming about that over and over again.
For more information about hunting with Manitoba's Whitetail Outfitters,
write Box 70, Stonewall, Manitoba, R0C 2Z0, call (888) 398-3459, visit
www.whitetailoutfitters.ca, or email hunt@whitetailoutfitters.ca.
Tomorrow: Through the Eyes of a Dad
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