Interactive Deer Hunting with Paul Bambar

My first trip to Alberta, the fabled land of giant bucks, ended without my tag being filled. I saw a few big bucks during the week, but not a real “Gagger”. Trouble was, my guide liked to hunt from his truck, listening to Paul Harvey on the radio. Power hunting was what he called it, and he was very successful at it. This is not my cup of tea, and I can honestly say he is still the only guide I ever really didn’t have a good time with; although this would prove to be far from the only time I was unsuccessful on a guided hunt. I returned the next year, letting my outfitter know that I wanted to be in the woods all day, get out of the truck in the dark of pre-dawn and return after the sun had set. My guide for the week and I would take his truck as far it could go, then climb on his 4-wheeler and take logging roads into the middle of no-where. I saw wolves, fisher, martin, coyote, moose, fox and whitetail deer. Our routine was I would sit morning and afternoon, and Wally would meet me for a lunch in the forest at mid-day. 16″ of fresh powdery snow fell one night and all through the morning giving me a good feeling about my chances. I saw a nice 10 point that morning, but still not what I was looking for.

Wally grabbed me about 11am as the snow stopped. We went to a different spot and walked off into the forest. We happened upon a scrape the size of a bathtub opened right down to bare dirt, obviously about as fresh as a scrape gets. We stood right in that scrape as Wally pulled out a pair of antlers and started to bang them together. This was over 25 years ago, before this was an everyday event on every TV in America with an outdoor channel. I had heard of Texans doing this, but just rolled my eyes thinking “yea sure, this is going to scare everything within a mile away”. Before he had even finished his first rattling sequence, a giant 12 point buck comes charging full speed at us, powdered snow flying around it like some wraith in a horror movie. I shot him at 20 feet like a PH would shoot a charging cape buffalo in Africa, and he skidded to a stop; dead; right at our feet. I have been addicted to calling deer ever since.

Kevin C Paulson
Founder and CEO
HuntingLife.com
http://www.HuntingLife.com

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