Just want to start out saying I’m sure there are reputable outfits in Canada, but I’m posting this in hopes to save another guy from the same experience. I’m an experienced hunter hunter who yearly does a couple trips in the mountains being successful, and hunts whitetail very regularly. I may not be the best hunter, but I know my way in the woods. I’ll also add that I’ll never go to Canada again, and even with getting a deer this is far from me just whining about it.
My dad and I booked a hunt in Sask through an agent (who I’ll get to later) to hunt with a First Nation outfit. We were primarily after mule deer, and had the option to take a whitetail if it presented itself. To start off when we arrived, our guide wanted us to pay him everything immediately. I didn’t think it was a big deal until he told us that his previous hunter didn’t want to pay him for his entire hunt due to the experience, and how the guide acted. We immediately got cold feet over it then, but he said he wouldn’t take us out if we didn’t. He then said we were on a 5 day hunt, which we then had to show him our contract was a 7 day hunt. He reluctantly agreed, but then told our agent we showed up with 3 guys instead of two, which the agent never shared with us. The agents name is Ricky Trips and I highly suggest to stay away from any trips he sells. The whole week all we did was hunt from the truck, which they use to just bump deer all week in a sort of awful deer drive. Our only real shot “opportunities” were on deer running 300-509 yards away, which we didn’t even for ethical reasons. They then want you to shoot from the vehicle, even when you are unaware of your surroundings. Our guide pawned us off to another guy as the week advanced because of the lack of any deer we saw. This new guide routinely showed up late, up to over an hour. He’d drive us around high, drive on foot traffic only land, jump roads to chase deer, and tell us many violations he does just in a single year. The whole experience was nothing remotely close to hunting, and all it is is a shooting gallery to chase antler inches.
I could go on and on about the experience but what really set it off was what happened following me shooting my buck. Things were every slow all week as I said, and I hadn’t seen a buck on land we could hunt yet going into day 4, so the opportunity presented itself and I took a 140ish 4 point. I was extremely happy with my deer, actually stalked it from the ground, and it being my first muley I was excited. My guide was pissed I shot it though, didn’t want me to tag it, and said we should leave it to get a bigger one. For three days he then left it hung up after I gutted it, and said he doesn’t want it processed/tagged. For the rest of the hunt I bothered him about it, until I basically forced him to let me cut it up and de bone it to cross. My dad then shot a buck that was close to 160 on the last day and even then he said the same thing. Two other outfits even encouraged us to do this, along with our original guide. Then I learn that many of the big muley bucks they shoot are spotlighted at night, and once again none of it is really hunting. What’s the point of a 180-200 inch buck if you shoot him at midnight with a spotlight in his face, and he doesn’t even feel threatened. I’ll never get why some guys get off on that.
Throughout this experience our agent continued to lie about it, saying all fall his trips were at 100%. Then he said some camps were 2 for 6, or some guys leave early because the guides never show. Keep in mind this hunt was 5k with nothing included. We then learned 20 outfits work this area all taking 5-10 hunters a year. Do the math and that’s suppose to be 50 5 and 1/2 year muley bucks at the worst in this area to provide the numbers they say. Once again, all a lie. Our agent even continued saying he’d get us with another guy for only 2k who’s on deer? He then added that our guide got a 170 inch buck while we were with him?? Catching him in another lie. Again and again, more lies and money. He finally said that he could get us a deal on a hunt in Montana on limited entry tags, and being familiar with the MT draw I called him on his crap and he basically hung up on me.
All in all, I will only hunt in the states now and keep doing this on my own. I’ve been successful elk hunting wnd whitetail hunting on my own, and feel dumb as can be for being scammed into this. I’ll also never hunt Canada again with the insane cost of just everything up there, and then US border agents telling us they hear this same story all of the time. And finally I couldn’t believe how unethical and crappy everything was, it was all about inches and nothing more. Most of these things are illegal and aren’t tolerated in the states, and I get it’s a different country, but I’ll never go back. Keep your hard earned money guys, and hunt hard.
My dad and I booked a hunt in Sask through an agent (who I’ll get to later) to hunt with a First Nation outfit. We were primarily after mule deer, and had the option to take a whitetail if it presented itself. To start off when we arrived, our guide wanted us to pay him everything immediately. I didn’t think it was a big deal until he told us that his previous hunter didn’t want to pay him for his entire hunt due to the experience, and how the guide acted. We immediately got cold feet over it then, but he said he wouldn’t take us out if we didn’t. He then said we were on a 5 day hunt, which we then had to show him our contract was a 7 day hunt. He reluctantly agreed, but then told our agent we showed up with 3 guys instead of two, which the agent never shared with us. The agents name is Ricky Trips and I highly suggest to stay away from any trips he sells. The whole week all we did was hunt from the truck, which they use to just bump deer all week in a sort of awful deer drive. Our only real shot “opportunities” were on deer running 300-509 yards away, which we didn’t even for ethical reasons. They then want you to shoot from the vehicle, even when you are unaware of your surroundings. Our guide pawned us off to another guy as the week advanced because of the lack of any deer we saw. This new guide routinely showed up late, up to over an hour. He’d drive us around high, drive on foot traffic only land, jump roads to chase deer, and tell us many violations he does just in a single year. The whole experience was nothing remotely close to hunting, and all it is is a shooting gallery to chase antler inches.
I could go on and on about the experience but what really set it off was what happened following me shooting my buck. Things were every slow all week as I said, and I hadn’t seen a buck on land we could hunt yet going into day 4, so the opportunity presented itself and I took a 140ish 4 point. I was extremely happy with my deer, actually stalked it from the ground, and it being my first muley I was excited. My guide was pissed I shot it though, didn’t want me to tag it, and said we should leave it to get a bigger one. For three days he then left it hung up after I gutted it, and said he doesn’t want it processed/tagged. For the rest of the hunt I bothered him about it, until I basically forced him to let me cut it up and de bone it to cross. My dad then shot a buck that was close to 160 on the last day and even then he said the same thing. Two other outfits even encouraged us to do this, along with our original guide. Then I learn that many of the big muley bucks they shoot are spotlighted at night, and once again none of it is really hunting. What’s the point of a 180-200 inch buck if you shoot him at midnight with a spotlight in his face, and he doesn’t even feel threatened. I’ll never get why some guys get off on that.
Throughout this experience our agent continued to lie about it, saying all fall his trips were at 100%. Then he said some camps were 2 for 6, or some guys leave early because the guides never show. Keep in mind this hunt was 5k with nothing included. We then learned 20 outfits work this area all taking 5-10 hunters a year. Do the math and that’s suppose to be 50 5 and 1/2 year muley bucks at the worst in this area to provide the numbers they say. Once again, all a lie. Our agent even continued saying he’d get us with another guy for only 2k who’s on deer? He then added that our guide got a 170 inch buck while we were with him?? Catching him in another lie. Again and again, more lies and money. He finally said that he could get us a deal on a hunt in Montana on limited entry tags, and being familiar with the MT draw I called him on his crap and he basically hung up on me.
All in all, I will only hunt in the states now and keep doing this on my own. I’ve been successful elk hunting wnd whitetail hunting on my own, and feel dumb as can be for being scammed into this. I’ll also never hunt Canada again with the insane cost of just everything up there, and then US border agents telling us they hear this same story all of the time. And finally I couldn’t believe how unethical and crappy everything was, it was all about inches and nothing more. Most of these things are illegal and aren’t tolerated in the states, and I get it’s a different country, but I’ll never go back. Keep your hard earned money guys, and hunt hard.
. Unless it is on a REZ which the OP states they hunted with a "Fist Nations" outfit. Fancy word for REZ
