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Columbia, Yukon Terr i tory andNorthwest Terr i tor ies s ince highschool run Wi l low Creek

Outfitters based in Nanton, Alberta, alittle more than an hour's drive east ofthe Calgary airport in the foothills ofthe Rocky Mountains. Their specialtyis Dall sheep, but they have lots ofexperience in both hunting and guid-ing for deer.

"One of the good things in our guid-ing area for non-residents," Andre toldme, "is that the local residents are on adraw system for tags. Right now ittakes us three to four years to draw atag to hunt mule deer ourselves. Thisseriously limits local hunting pressureand harvest. Howevel non-residentswho hunt with an outfitter can get aguaranteed tag every >/ear. This is oneof the few places anywhere that youcan rifle-hunt muleys in the rut with-out drawing a tag.

"Hans and I agreed when westarted this part of our guiding busi-ness that we would limit the numberof bucks our clients take, so that the

continued on page 1-57

Rut-Hunting AlbertaEnter Alberta and Wil low Creek

Outfitters."In southerrr Alberta you can hunt

the rut with any legal f i rearm youchoose, be it rifle or mu zzleloader,except a hand Bnrt," Derby told me."There's no special draw for tags orany other restrictions of that nature.The rut period here coincides with theRocky Mountain West 's, wi th thebucks starting to get interested in theladies in late October and really rock-ing in another week or two."

But I 'd seen western mule deerherds hammere d by, among otherthings, uncontrolled rifle rut huntingbefore most states finally came to theirsenses. So my first question was abouttrophy qual i ty , and whether suchunrestricted seasons would eventuallylead to the same problems in Alberta.That's when I called Andre van Hilten.

Andre and his brother Hans apair of studs in their late 20s who havebeen guiding professionally in British

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The NittyWhat: Trophy mule deer hunting.Where: Western Alberta, Canada. Outfitter will pick you up at the

Calgary airport.When: Rifle season runs October 2$November 3O; bow season is

September 1 through the end of October. Sunday hunting isnot permitted in Alberta.

Firearms: Centerfire rifles and muzzleloaders are legal during gUnseason. No bows allowed in gun season. Canada allows nohandguns of any kind. Shots can range up to 4OO yards, soflatchooting rifles make sense. I used a Brown Precision ProHunter built on a Remington Model 7OO action in .3OO Win.MaB., topped with a Swarovski 2.$10x40 scope set inConetrol mounts and loaded with fiactory Remington Premierammunition featuring the lSGgrain Swift Scirocco bullet.

Gear: Topend 10x binocular is a must, and having your own spot-ting scope helps. Either a bipod or shooting sticks are mosthelpful, as is a laser rangefinder. Bringl a daypack to carryextra clothes, lunch and huntihg gear.

GrittyClothing: Layer up for below-freezing temperatures and a constant

wind. I wear Under Armour underneath for its warmth andsweat-wicking properties, ending with a layer of either GoreTex or Windstopper fleece for both quiet and its ability toblock 1O0 percent of the wind. No blaze orange is required.Warm gloves and a warm hat that covers your ears are rec-ommended. Bring a well-broken-in pair of hunting boots withan aggressive tread. Disposable heat packs, like those fromHeatMax, ale always with me.

Hunt Method: Spot-an*stalk .after accessing the area via truck orhorseback. You may walk four to six miles a day over rel*tively easy ground; the better you are able to do this, thebetter your chances at a topend buck.

Success Rate: Near 10O percent.Cost: Sixday oneolHrne mule deer only, $4,50O; twoonone,

$4,000 per hunter; oneorx)ne mule deer/whitetail combination hunt, 56,400. Hunting license/deer taB, $3OO U.S. each.

Big Muleys in Alhenta?ttinued from page 48

trophy quality would not just remainas it was when we started but hope-fully increase over time," Andre said."As locals, we have exceptional rela-t ions wi th the area's landowners,which in turn has made it possible forus to. gain permission to exclusivelyhunt some of the area's very best muledeer ranches. In the of f -season, Icowboy for many of the ranches weguide on, which helps in this regard.Unlike the U.S., Alberta law strictlyprohibi ts outf i t ters f rom leasi .gprivate land for guiding or hunting, sonurturi.g these landowner relation-ships is critical.

"As an extension of that, by havi.gexclusive permission to guide on aplace, and with the locals having towait several years before drawing tags,we can control the number of deertaken on a given prope rty," Andreadded. "Because Hans and I person-ally guide all our mule deer hunts, wemake sure our clients only shoot top-end bucks, and that we don't kill toomany off arry single property."

That personal control is a big factorin the improvement of the local deer."When we first started on our ownsix years ago, guiding for mule dee(,whitetails and black bear, the aver-age score of the muleys taken wasnot what i t is toddy," Andre said."Last yea\ for example, we had 100percent success with an average SCIscore of 169 points. This year, it is inthe mid-I7}s, and we think i t wi l lcreep up a bit more over time. Rightnow our largest bucks score in the180s, and every season we take acouple that large."

Rougft GampWhen I think of trophy mule deer

hunting, I think of a wall-tent camp setat a relatively high elevation, trying tostay warm at night in below-fueezingtemperatures and cooking on aColeman stove. There's none of that onthis hunt. Mule deer hunters stay inthe superbly comfortable Changi^gSeasons Bed and Breakfast in down-town Nanton, sleeping in comfortablebeds, showering in a real shower andeat ing a big breakfast and supperwhile packing along a sack lunch forthe day's hunt. If you choose to huntboth muleys and whitetai ls on acombination hunt, you'll stay in therancher's home.

My hunt was conducted out ofAndre's t ruck, though on some

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hunts, horses may be used to accessareas located far off the road. "Wecan do i t anv wav a c l ient is mostcomfortable,"- Andie said. "We like tostart hunting from the truck, whichis, of course, the most comfortablebut also al lows us to cover moreground in a given day. But if we'renot seeing what we l ike f rorn thetruck, being able to saddle up oPensup a lot of new country to look at."

l€t's Go HuntingThe morning broke crisp and clea{,

the air temperature a tad below freez-ing and the wind blowing steadily fromthe northwest at about 15 mph. Here onthe plains, you can expect the wind tobe a constant companion, makingwind-blocking clothing essential.

Accompanied by Bi l l Owen, avideographer sent along to film thehunt for a 2006 segment of the "Gore-Tex Outdoors" television show Andreand I left the truck and hiked a quar-ter-mile to a deep cut in the rollingprairie. "I saw a couple of really nicebucks here while scouting just beforethe season," Andre said as we set upand began to glass. Broken patches ofsnow made picking up the deer alittle difficult. but bv the time the sunpeeked over the hor izon, we hadspotted several, including a couple ofmedium bucks harassing smal lgroups of does.

After a couple of hours, we hadn'tseen anything we liked, so we slid uPthe draw to look over some new coun-trv. And iust like that, we found one.-The

buck was trailing four does, andhis ta l l , heavy ant lers made himworthy of a second look. "That's defi-nitelv a top-end buck for this area,"Andie saih after looking him overthrough his spotter. "Not the biggestbuck we have, but one that's hard topass up."

Say no more. We were off in pursuittrailing the deer as they made theirway out of sight in the rimrock-stud-ded south slope of the carryon wall. Wepicked up their tracks in the snow andmoved as quickly as we dared, glass-ing down into the canyon and alongthe rims. After a quarter-mile we hadnot found them again - somethingthat always perplexes me when hunt-ing mule deer. I mean, the country isrelatively open, and you'd think thatwith no place to hide, the dee{, well,couldn't. But they always do.

After a couple of minutes, I spotted alone buck in the carryon bottom, but aquick check with the 10x42 showedthat it was not the one we were look-ing for. But thery like magic, there he

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was, also in the canyon bottom butwithout his little harem.

As the buck moved alo ng, wemade our own move, sl ipping andsliding down the canyon face, doingour best to use the rocks and willowsfor cover. The buck, obviously frus-trated that none of the dges had beenreceptive to his amorous advances,cl imbed a short way up the otherside before stoppi .g in a patch ofwillows and beating the snot out ofone particular bush.

"Now's our chance," Andre hissed."When he rakes the bush, he can't seeus, so let's go!"

We positioned ourselves so that wewere coming up from the buck's blindside, and his determination to thrashthat wi l low al lowed us to close thegap. At 250 yards, we stopped, and Itook a sitting position, using a set ofStoney Point shooting sticks to get arock-solid shooting rest. Bil l got hiscamera set up on the tr ipod andbegan filming, and when everythingwas just r ight, I turned the scope'spower up to 10X, f l ipped of f thesafety and squeezed the trigger. Whenthe .30-cal iber, 180 -grain Swif tScirocco bullet from the Remingtonfactory load hit the buck, he droppedin his tracks.

Less than four hours into i t , myAlberta mule deer hunt was over.

And r,vhat a dandv buck he is. Withheavy antlers and good, deep forks,the buck scores r ight at 776 SCIpoints. As Andre said, he's typical ofthe trophy quality they're finding fortheir clients. I have hunted mule deerfor a long time, and while I have beenfortunate enough to take a handful oftrue monsters over the years, I knowhow dif f icult i t is to f ind a buck ofth is qual i ty in most areas today.Making it even more enjoyable wasthe fact that I was able to break outmy pet .300 Winchester Magnum andexperience the joy of hunting the rutwith a r i f le without having to waityears to draw a tag or spending hugedollars on a private landowner tag inthe states.

We spent the next couple of daysf in ishing up the f i lmi .g work anddriving around, looking at the huntingarea and checking out the deer. Hardas it might be to believe, I saw severalbucks as good as the one I shot and acouple that were better. What I sawhere has me bel ieving that when i tcomes to mule deer hunting, southernAlberta is coming on l ike a f re ighttrain. It won't be long before the rest ofthe hunting world is hip to what thearea has to offer./il

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