CANADA'S BEST DEER HUNTING

Steve Broderick's Buck of a Lifetime and Anthony Messina's Biggest Buck Ever

Editor's Note: At the first of November 2003, I went to Manitoba, Canada, to hunt with John Nixon and Doug Grantham of Whitetail Outfitters, headquartered in Stonewall. On this my second trip to hunt with Whitetail Outfitters in the deserted Interlake area near Winnipeg, I had just as much fun as I did the first time. During my first trip a couple of years ago, I saw more monster bucks and met more people who had taken the biggest bucks of their lifetimes than I'd ever met before. I also saw some unbelievably big bucks on my return trip in November of 2003. I interviewed the sportsmen who had braved this wilderness area so far removed from civilization that in a week's time you wouldn't even see an airplane fly over.

Steve Broderick of Old Tappan, New Jersey, took a buck that had a B&C score of 156 points. "While I cleared snow out of my ground blind in Manitoba, a buck appeared about 15 yards from me. I raised my gun up to my shoulder and squeezed the trigger, but my muzzleloader didn't fire. I cried as the buck walked off. Then I cleaned my gun and realized snow had gotten between the bolt and the cap, which kept the bolt from closing completely and caused the gun to misfire. I cleaned the gun out, worked the action and assumed I'd missed my chance for a trophy buck. At 1:30 p.m. that same day, I stood up in my ground blind and leaned up against the tree when this same buck walked past me again about 10-yards away. As I brought my gun to my shoulder, the buck spotted me and ran into the bushes.

"Once again, I thought, 'This is the last time I'll ever see that trophy buck.' I didn't want to go back to my ground blind the second day, but my guide insisted I should. At 1:00 p.m., I looked behind me, and there was that same buck. He spotted me again, spun around and ran into the bushes before I could get off a shot. i figured this buck was gone for good, but my guides persuaded me to hunt from the same stand again the next morning. I hunted in that same stand until 9:00 a.m. before the guides moved my stand 100 yards in the direction from where the deer had come. We found a tree with three scrapes and set up the stand there, but I failed to see any deer in the afternoon.

"The next day at 1:00 p.m., I heard a buck rubbing his antlers against a tree. I used my rattling bag and my grunt call to try to call the deer. Fifteen minutes after I quit rattling, the same buck came in from my right. I had a shooting lane to my right and a shooting lane to my left with a thicket in the center. The buck looked at me when he came into my right shooting lane, then moved behind the thicket so neither of us could see each other. I picked up my rifle. When the deer came out from the right shooting lane, he began to quarter away from me. I found an opening ahead of the buck, and when he walked into that opening, I fired. Once the smoke from my gun cleared, I saw movement in the bushes and knew the buck was down. I sat in my stand for 20 minutes before going to look for the buck. As I walked toward the deer, I saw him move and took a second shot to make sure he was down. When I saw how big the buck was and how big his horns were, I began to smile and dance around, because this buck was the biggest one I'd ever taken in my life.

"This time was the third year I'd hunted with Whitetail Outfitters. On my first hunt, I missed a huge buck with my muzzleloader at 60 yards, but I did take a nice 8 pointer. The second year I didn't take a buck. But I knew there were big bucks living in this wilderness area. I believed I could take the buck of a lifetime if I came back a third year."

Why Steve Broderick Hunts With Whitetail Outfitters:
"I recommend anyone who wants a really big buck to hunt with Whitetail Outfitters. The bucks up there have heavy bodies and huge antlers, and you won't locate bucks of this size and caliber anywhere else in the U.S. or Canada. You can hunt these massive animals off the ground. Another advantage of hunting with Whitetail Outfitters is that their guides know and understand the deer that live there. If the guides hadn't insisted I continue to hunt the same buck, I would have left that region after I spooked the deer on the first day. However, they kept encouraging me to hunt the same place for the same buck until I finally took him."

Anthony Messina's Biggest Buck Ever:
Anthony Messina of Wallkill, New York took a buck that scored 147 points. According to Messina, "At 4:00 p.m. on the first day of my hunt with Whitetail Outfitters, I spotted this buck but decided he was too small to take. The next morning at 8:00 a.m. I spotted a doe. At 11:00 a.m., the same buck came down the trail by my stand, and I could see him better. So I decided to take him. The buck moved into the thick brush. I could see his head and the outline of his back, but I knew I'd have to force the shot through the brush to hit the vitals. However, because I was shooting a 300-grain bullet, I knew the bullet could break the brush and still make a lethal hit on the buck. I aimed for the chest area and fired. When I fired, the deer made two big jumps and then went down about 20-yards away.

"Last year when I hunted the Interlake area, I got on my stand and blew my grunt call. Then a huge 11-point buck stepped out of the bush about 70 yards from me. I mounted my Thompson Center Rifle, picked up the buck in the scope and fired. Because of the smoke from the black-powder rifle, I couldn't see the deer after the shot. However, I did hear him stumble and fall. I got down out of my stand, walked to the spot where I'd shot the deer, followed a blood trail for 25 yards and located him. This buck was the biggest I'd ever taken. He scored 147 points on the B & C scale and weighed 320 pounds."

Why Anthony Messina Hunts With Whitetail Outfitters:
"Whitetail Outfitters offer hunters for the biggest bucks I've ever seen in my life," Messina reports. "We have big deer in New York, but our deer don't weigh as much as these bucks do, nor will they have the antler mass that Manitoba deer do."

For more information on hunting the buck of your lifetime under extreme conditions, contact Doug Grantham or John Nixon at Whitetail Outfitters, Box 70, Stonewall, Manitoba, Canada ROC 2Z0, phone toll-free (888) 398-3459, e-mail hunt@whitetailoutfitters.ca, or visit the Web site www.whitetailoutfitters.ca.

TOMORROW: WAITING PAID OFF