Mountains Don’t Lie, They Can Kill You – Jason Dyck

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Mountains Don’t Lie, They Can Kill You – Jason Dyck

We’re going to head north of the border to Manitoba, Canada to Jason Dyck. Jason is the outfitter and Owner of Extreme Outdoor Guide. Jason and I got together because I’m interested in bringing you my dream of going on a big game trip. That’s not limited to Canada and the Canadian Rockies. He has been to Africa, Turkistan and pretty much wherever he wants to go and check out where the good hunting is before he takes his clients. I’ve asked Jason to be on the show and share with us what a big game guide thinks about, who travels the globe and what type of clients make the best hunters. Jason, welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me.

When you think about hunting in Canada, what advice would you give to my readers who always dream about heading up to the Canadian Rockies and hunting big game? What do they need to bring with them?

You’ve got to bring all your gear, depending on what animal you’re hunting. Whether it’s sheep, goat, grizzly, moose or black bear, all of it got different equipment you’re going to use. If you’re on a baited hunter or if you’re on a spot and stalk hunt, things are going to be different. One of the most important things to bring is a proper attitude. You’ve got to have mental strength on a lot of these hunts, especially when you’re doing those big cheap hunts or those long day hunts. It’s being able to wake up in the morning with that same drive on the seventh day of your hunt that you did on the first day of your hunt. You’ve got to bring your A game. You’ve got to be in good condition and mentally ready. You get all of those great ingredients in there, then it’s going to make your hunt a lot more successful.

How much vertical is a guy going to do on a vertical eight each day?

How many vertical feet are you going to climb in the day you mean?

Yes.

When I was a young mountain guide, I would do thousands of feet in a day. As I’ve gotten older, I got wiser. I’ve also realized that my clients were typically little on the middle age side. They’re not as young as me and can’t climb as much as I do. The way I do it is I’ll look for animals and have a reason to climb. Instead of running up and checking the top of every mountain, it’s 2,000 to 3,000 feet in a day. It depends if you’re doing backpacks hunts or horseback hunts. With horses, you’re able to get into a lot of feet country where you can close the distance. It depends on what sheep you’re hunting if it’s stone sheep or bighorn sheep. The sheep all live in different elements. You can get pretty close to sheep with a horse. We have to maybe climb 1,000 feet with that or sometimes 500. I’ve had it where I’ve gotten above the sheep with horses. Those guys who think they’re too out of shape or getting old, it can be done.

When you think about a sheep hunt now, are you hunting stone sheep or Dall sheep?

It’s either/or stones or Dalls.

If somebody says, “I want to go hunt Dalls,” what’s that going to cost?

The average Dall sheep is probably around the $20,000 to $25,000 mark. It’s like whitetail hunting down South. You get what you pay for. The better outfitters are going to be a little more money. The newer outfitters, maybe the guys that have higher success rates might be a little less. You might get them for $15,000 to $18,000 even. A typical good reputable outfitter, you’re looking around at $22,000 to $25,000.

Is that the same for stone? Are they more expensive?

Stones are more money. Stones go anywhere from $33,000 all the way up to $50,000. It depends on the outfitter you’re going with, the reputation that outfitter has and the success rates on the sheep that he has.

I’m sitting in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. $25,000 to $50,000 are the prices of a new Ford or a new Chevy. Back in the day, I had a job, a wife and a couple of kids. I always said, “I’d sure like to go sheep hunting.” At $1,000 I put aside a year, that’s twenty years or more.

Hunting has turned into a little bit more of a rich man’s sport. Some of these hunts are expensive. I have clients who would book hunts with me that will be three to five years down the road. It’s not because I’m sold out and that’s the only piece I have available. That’s also because guys say, “Can I set up a payment plan?” They’re able to pay it off over that time. It’s not a big lump sum chunk of money at one time. These hunts get expensive. You want to do your homework. You don’t want to be going with the drug outfitters spending all that money and having a terrible time. It’s important to do your homework on that for sure.

That would be a cold shower if you get to camp and something isn’t right. What can a person do if that ever happens? Is there any recourse at all?

Do you mean if a guy goes into a camp and has a bad experience, a bad camp?

Yes.

There are things that can be done. For example, if you’re in Alberta, you could get a hold of APOS, which is the Alberta Professional Outfitters Society. You could make a formal complaint about the outfitter. It would have to be something legit. It couldn’t be, “That outfitter had foul language or he didn’t shower.” If you showed up at a camp and he advertised, “You’re going to do a hunt using boats,” for example, and you get to that camp and there are boats there but there are leaking water. The motors don’t work and you’ve lost four or five days of hunting because the motors didn’t work. They had to wait to fly them in and the outfitter didn’t want to fly them because it costs much money or something, whatever the excuse maybe, something like that would be a bad deal.

You’re paying for a good hunt and for an outfitter to give you his best foot forward. He’d give you the best opportunity at an animal on a hunt. If he doesn’t provide that, you can make complaints. You can do things about it. Some of these outfitters will have legit problems arise. It happens everywhere you go, in life in general. Things will happen. The equipment will break down. Horses will get lame. They will die. Things happen. If a good outfitter sees that this is an unfortunate situation, they’ll correct it themselves and say, “Why don’t you come back next week? We’ll do it all over.” You can make those complaints. You don’t just take it if you buy an expensive hunt or even a $2,000 hunt. If the outfitter didn’t do his job and didn’t provide you with an honest representation of his business, do something about it. Complain. Take note of it.

You’d go and travel from Wisconsin to Colorado. You don’t have to go north of the border, but you get out there and a snowstorm hits. You make the best of it. All of a sudden, you have a flat tire. There’s a forest fire. There are gazillion things that could happen when you’re in the outfitters camp. The outfitters are going to do everything possible so you have a good hunt. You tell five people. They’re going to tell ten people that Smith’s outfitting suck. That’s going to cost their business. He understands that.

A good outfitter always relies on reputation. For my business, for example, I do mobile camps. I have handcuff hunts for big moose in Canada. I use Zodiac boats. I make my camp very moveable and affordable so that I can go to where the animals are. I’m not just going to set up on one lake and tell all my clients, “You’re all going to be hunting out of this lake and that’s it.” I’m going to go ahead of the season. I’m going to pre-scout it. I know that there are two or three good bulls there. I’ll bring in two or three good clients in. We’ll hunt for those bulls. Once I know I’ve exhausted the area and it’s no more, we’ll pack up and fly to another lake, another area where I know there are bulls. That’s what a good outfitter does. He keeps moving and bringing you to those areas where those animals are. He’s not saying, “I got his money. He’s coming anyway. We’ll make it like we’re doing our best.”

You can see a bear scat all over. You can see those footprints and moose sign everywhere and go, “I don’t know what happened.” That’s a bad excuse. You’ve got to put your every effort in. Because that’s the way we do it, we’ve had such a high success rate on our hunts. We do very well. I don’t have to spend a ton of money on marketing and try to sell my hunts. It sells itself. It’s word of mouth from clients. One bad experience and a thousand people will know about it. You’ve got to have a thousand good experiences for one person to know about it in this business. Always give them all you got.

That’s even truer in social media. Say you had a bad hunt. By the time you get back to the airport or however you were getting home, as soon as you get Wi-Fi, you’re telling your buddies, “I can’t believe it.” People know about it instantaneously.

You can’t hide anything nowadays. If you mess up and screw up a client’s hunt, you’ll know it. You’ll see it in numbers. You’re going to start losing clients. You’re not going to be an outfitter for very long.

Let’s talk about the rifle or the bow. What caliber do you prefer people coming into your camps with?

In my camps, we’re doing moose hunts mostly. We combo with black bear and wolf. When I’m bringing guys into my moose hunts, I typically tell guys to try to bring around that 300 mark. The 300-caliber has always been one of my favorites. My favorite rifle that I used is the 300 Short Mag Kimber Montana. I love the gun so much I even named my daughter Kimber Montana. The 300-caliber is the one that I liked the best. It’s very versatile.

A guy told me a long time ago to bring the gun that you can shoot the best. I don’t think I’m going to go hunting for moose or a bear in Canada with .243. With a .338, it’s no question. I’ll go any place with that sucker in North America. A lot of guys get the buzz, “I’m going to Canada. I’m going out west. I’ve got to buy a new rifle.” Sometimes I don’t think that’s the smartest thing to do.

You’ve got to bring your A game with experience. If you’ve got a rifle that the caliber is big enough for moose, even if it’s 30 odd six, you have the utmost competence than a gun. I would rather have a guy come with a gun that’s maybe slightly underpowered but he’s an absolute good shot with it. Shot placement is important. I want him to be able to hit the target 100 yards or at 200 yards precisely over saying, “Here’s the .338. Smack them anywhere.” I’d rather take the lower caliber with the more precise shot.

What about rifle scopes? What magnification?

Most of my guns are outfitter with ZEISS scopes. I use the 2.5 to ten power. I like the 2.5 to ten because I can still see a fair distance. I can have the objectives. My zoom is a lot lower at 2.5. If I’ve got a bear that, all of a sudden, runs in at me or a client, they can still see it at twenty yards or something if you’ve got your scope too high powered like a lot of guys tend to do. A lot of guys on those sheep hunts will do that. They’ll come in there with that four to twenty power type stuff. All of a sudden, they’ve got a grizzly bear standing in fifteen yards and they can’t get them in the scope. They can’t find them quick enough. I like 2.5 to ten power. That’s one of my favorites. As a guide, I don’t use a scope. That’s for my clients. I use open sights when I’m guiding.

For your backup gun, do you just have open sights? 

Yeah. I’m there for backup. I’m the guide. I tell you what to shoot and stuff and not make long shots. We try not to. I like to have my .45-70, 430 grain, little stop and power. You’ve got those errors that are coming in. They’re a little pissed off. I like to be able to stop them.

A lot of people don’t use open sights. Back in the day, my first rifle was a .30-30 with open sites. I didn’t have a scope on it. It’s a little bit different. You can acquire the animal so much faster.

You’re not straight focused on one particular animal. Many times, when I’ve come upon black bears and grizzly bears, there are two or three of them together. With a scope, you’re staring straight ahead of you. You’re not concentrating on what’s on your left side or what’s on your right. With that open site, your peripheral vision is still there. You can still see everything that’s going on. You can acquire your target way faster. When you’ve got a grizzly bear that stands up or a black bear and willows in front of you at twenty yards and he decides he’s coming to charge, he’s on you in three, four seconds. You’ve got to get that gun up. I’d hate to be in the bush at that point with my scope sitting on four or five power. You’re seeing an error instead of body parts.

It’s a gruesome picture for sure. I booked with you. We talked about the rifle. I’ve got to be in shape mentally and physically. What are the things you want somebody to bring to your camp? It’s not gears. For instance, some people aren’t very happy. They should be but they’re not happy in life. Some people are off the wall and they bring a case of Jack Daniels. They wouldn’t bring that much if they floated. Every single night, you have to kick them out of their bed at 4:00.

A hunting trip is a vacation. You are taking a booking time off work or going on these hunts. Most hunters that I’ve had experienced are coming into camps excited. They’re happy to be there. You’re always going to have that one client that’s going to be miserable. There’s nothing you can do to make that guy happy. They’re coming to camp with an open mind. As much as we’re going to explain to you what to expect on that hunt, things change. We can’t stop that. Coming to camp with an open mind, you’re already going to be excited to be there. It’s having a client with the right attitude. When you come to the camp, you can be as excited. You get up in the morning. You go do your hunt on the seventh or eighth day, even the last day of your hunt that you’re chasing after that animal. If you can be as excited on that day as you were on the first day, things will be fine. You’ve got to keep that positive attitude. Many clients after two or three days get, “I haven’t seen anything. What’s going on? This isn’t working.” You start getting frustrated. When you start getting frustrated, your energy seems to be focused on that.

I notice clients will not be able to keep up with walking anymore. They’re not eating properly now because their mind is all messed up. You’ve got to stay positive and trust your guide. If you did your homework, if you found the right guide, every opportunity is going to be there for you. I tell every one of my clients, “Your best day of hunting is always your last day.” It’s not your first day. If you’ve hunted on a ten-day moose hunt, if it’s going to take us ten days to hit that moose, we’ve eliminated nine days of bad areas. On that last day, we’ve zeroed in on that out. We’ve eliminated the bad spots. Staying positive is a huge thing. If you’re coming into camp and you’re in a good mood, happy, cheery and not complaining, you’re going to have a lot happier guide and outfitter. That happy guide and outfitter will work that much harder for you, knowing that he’s got a great guy that’s there and he’s thinking positive. If you wake up in the morning and start yelling at your guide, is that guide going to bust his but for you, make your dream come true? Coming in with a good attitude is a big thing.

What’s the one thing that you used to gauge a hunter right when he comes off the plane, out of the boat, off the train, however you get to camp? You size them up quickly. You’ve seen thousands of people. You already know how they walk, what they’re doing and everything. What’s one trick that helps you decide which guy you’re going with, what type of hunter he is?

On my flying hunts, I get guides to get off the plane. When they get off the airplane, I never tell my guides who’s going to be guiding. I can tell when that guy gets off the plane if he’s going to be that client that’s going to want to get up before everybody else. He’s going to want to run out the door. He’s going to want to spend the entire day out in the field even when the time is not even good for hunting. He’s going to want to be out there. That’s the client that gets off the plane. He grabs his gear and runs to his tent. He’s like, “Where’s my tent? Where am I staying? Where’s my cabin?” He will get his gear ready. He’s coming out. He’s got his full camo on and is always there. There are rifles there and he’s all packed up. There’s that client. There’s the client who gets off the plane, stands there and watches the outfitter or the guide and starts to talk to him and joke around with him. You can see that the guy is a little more relaxed. He’s waiting for your direction, your instruction or what to do next. He’s waiting. He knows that he’s put his money and trust in you. He lets you make the decisions. He waits for you to tell him what to do next.

I can tell already, “This guy has got a lot of patience.” We’ll put him with the guy who’s going to want to go. You’re going to have patience. Guys like that typically are more demanding. You’ve got to have a guide that can handle that. You’ve got the slower moving guides but more knowledgeable. They don’t make a move without knowing what they’re doing first. You don’t climb up every mountain and go find a sheep. You go up that mountain knowing there are sheep. You do not just go and see if there are sheep up there. It’s the same concept. I choose my guides for my clients based on the way they react very much so right when they get off the plane. I can tell. You can see it. You’ve got the guy who’s smiling and you’ve got the guy who’s like, “I’m hungry.” That’s all he’s worried about. You can tell. I’ve always had good clients so I can’t complain. In my years, I’ve had to remove one client for my camp. That’s pretty good. It happened one time. Treat them the way you want to be treated.

To anybody reading who’s going to go on one of these hunts, you’ve got to do your homework. Once you pay the money, you’re in the deal. You’ve got to be able to roll with it. If you’ve done all your homework and he’s the right guy, you say, “I’ve written a check.” You’re in the deal. Once you step off that plane, be you. That’s the biggest thing I can tell people. If Jim Shockey is on the plane or Craig Boddington or Ron Spomer, it doesn’t matter. If one of those guys are on the plane, you can’t be them. You have to be yourself. That way, you’re going to have a better hunt. The good outfitter will match you with a guide. They do it very subtly, you won’t know it. All of a sudden, Jimmy Bruno’s picking up your bag and saying, “Let’s go grab a cup of coffee. Put your stuff in the cabin.” The whole process will start. My guide may have to save my life flat out. You have to have 100% trust. You can’t second guess them. You can’t do anything. If he says duck, you duck. If he says shoot, you shoot. That’s the way it has to be. If you have any other agenda or your ego is too big, park it on the plane. That’s my two cents on that. What do you think, Jason?

I agree 100%. You have to trust your guide. Everybody wants to be the big hunter, “I’ve killed this animal. I’ve done this. I’ve done that.” You have to be honest with your guide. If your ability is you’re only going to be able to walk two miles in a day, that’s the truth. You don’t want to look bad in front of the other hunters and tell them, “I can walk five to six miles all day long with a 60 to 80-pound pack on my back.” I’m going to match you up with a guide then that loves to take a 100-pound pack and you’ll walk twelve miles that day. If you can’t keep up, you’re ruining your own ability to hunt. The outfitter will say, “You said that you could walk seven, eight miles any day with an 80-pound pack. I’m going to set you up with Josh here, one of my guides. He goes where there is a big bull, where there’s an area. It’s probably about nine to ten miles away.” You’re going to have to push yourself a bit. If you can only walk two or three miles in a day, you can see where the problem is.

My guide is supposed to get you there. You ended up having to quit halfway through. If you had been honest with him or myself, I would have put you with my guide John who knows that there’s a bull that’s a mile away. He’s got the ability to pull bulls in right to the shoreline a lot easier. He’d maybe be a better caller. Being honest with your guide and outfitter is extremely important, especially with your physical condition. That’s going to make or break your hunt. Especially when it comes to the mountain hunting, when I’m taking guys up for goat and sheep and so forth for mountain terribly even, I always treat every client the same way. I think that they only have one opportunity to get up that mountain. 95% of my clients usually are only good for one good client. It doesn’t matter if they tell me I can climb mountains all day long. I know from experience that’s usually exaggerated. I think they’ve got one good opportunity.

That’s where we make sure that we’re not going to climb every hill and walk for days, miles and hours. We’re going to last a lot. We’re going to wait. We’re going to find that perfect opportunity to try and get you there one time to get it done. That’s what a good outfitter would do. If you push your client too hard, you’re going to wear him out. He’s not going to be able enjoy his hunt either. You’ve got to be smart in both ways. It’s being honest with your guide and the outfitters. These are very important. When I went to Kyrgyzstan, I was hunting super high elk and so forth. They asked me and I told them, “This is what I’m able to do. I finished sheep guiding for 140 days. Do you want me to go climb 15,000, 16,000 feet for Ibex? Let’s do it.” I’ve been doing this now for months so I’m in great shape. If I hadn’t been doing that, I’d tell him, “I can do it but it’s going to be in a little slower pace.” Being honest makes your success rates a lot higher.

That’s a good segue to Turkistan, Pakistan, Marco Polos and Ibex. They’re exotic. It’s an expensive hunt but a lot of people do it. Jason and I were talking about a mutual friend, Bryan Martin. He goes over there every year. He has shown me pictures where these guys are hunting. You’re in a stone hut. You’re hunting in 16,000 to 18,000 feet. There are gorgeous animals but they have wolves over there. They skewed out pretty quick. Let’s talk about that.

They’re very skittish animals. They see any sense of danger or any move. They’re a bucker for the high country. I’ve seen Ibex go from 15,000 to 18,000 feet in the blink of an eye. The altitude is high. The oxygen levels are low. You have all kinds of dangers. It’s a steep country. You’re in the middle of nowhere. You’ve got to watch your step. If you fall and break a leg, you’re in that country. It’s a challenging hunt going up there and doing those Ibex hunts, Marco Polo and so forth.

Why do people do it?

I do it for the adventure. I’m an adventurer when it comes to hunting. I love seeing new countries and new places and experiencing how other guides do it around the world, their food and culture. Shooting the animals is a bonus to me. I’ve been on hunts where I haven’t killed an animal. I’ve been on one hunt where I never killed an animal. I’ve been pretty lucky. For me, it’s all about the adventure. It’s the experience.

How is it in those rock hunts at 15,000, 16,000 feet?

It’s cold, wet and damp. They’re pretty good. A lot of those places, they’ll heat it with coal. You don’t have running water. What they do is they make a big hut. It’s going to be made of stone or whatnot. They’ll have old paint and they’re filled with water. I have a fire going on the outside. It’s almost like building a sauna. They call it a sweat shower. It’s hot and humid in there. The water is pouring off. You’re sweating. It’s a great experience. Those guys work hard out there. It seems like those guys will walk miles to find sticks and come back and lay it to keep you warm. It’s primitive but it’s cool. It’s a great experience.

Some places have horses or whatever they call it. Donkeys are small horses. Do you ride those?

Yes. They are small horses. They almost seem like a pony. The first time I got on one of them, I thought I was going to break it. I’m not a very big guy. I’m 198 pounds. I felt like I was way oversized for that horse. Those horses would probably destroy the horses we use up here in the mountains. We were guiding up for sheep and stuff in DC or Yukon. They’re sure-footed, tough little creatures. They’re fearless. They go anywhere. If you’re riding at the edge of a cliff that’s straight down, you know if that horse slips, you’re dead. There’s no question about it. These horses walk along as if it’s no big deal. This is every day at work.

You get your long glass, Vortex, Swarovski. Pick your poison. How does that stay so it doesn’t fog?

It’s good optics. They don’t fog on you. I put covers on mine over my eyepiece on both ends. I’ve never had much of a fogging issue. I used cheaper optics. Once I switched over to the good stuff, I never had that problem too much.

I’m thinking of the altitude to a flat coldness. Sometimes clouds come in all of a sudden. I didn’t know. I’ve never had any problem with the optics I have. I’m thinking about 15,000, 17,000 feet. I’ve never hunted that high. I’ve hunted at 13,000 feet when I was sheep hunting.

You carry lens cloth with you. It’s going to happen. You’re going to get wet and that fogging on the inside. Sometimes you’ve got to give it a quick wipe. You always carry those little optics cleaners. I always have them attached to my vital case. You wear glasses and I wear glasses. That’s probably the biggest pain in the butt. Everything fogs up. You’ve got sweat coming up from underneath you and cold on the outside. Your glasses are all fogged up. Your trophy ram is standing there and you can’t see a thing. It’s the most frustrating thing in the world.

Since this is a whitetail show, do you ever hunt whitetails? Do you ever guide for whitetails in Canada?

I guide whitetails and mule deer. We’ve got fantastic whitetail and mule deer hunting in Canada. I live in Manitoba but I guide in the Alberta area. East River area is where I’ve done a lot of guiding for whitetails and mule deer. Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba are always known as three big provinces for big whitetails. It’s depending on what kind of whitetail you’re looking for or what problems you would go to. Saskatchewan got those more of a spindly but wide and tall hind whitetail. Alberta got heavy bases and heavy beams and non-typical, a lot of stickers and points sticking out type whitetails. When you come to Manitoba, you’ve got a little bit of both. It almost seems like Manitoba should have been in between the other two provinces. It’s a mix. We get a lot of everything, but we get a lot of non-typical whitetails as well. Canada got fantastic whitetails.

A lot of people go up there, especially my readers. Do you guide in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta?

It’s typically more just Alberta for the big whitetail.

Do you drive them? Do you sit in a stand? How do you hunt up?

There are several different ways. It depends on the whitetail you’re hunting. It’s like what the guys do down south. Every whitetail is different. If I pick a whitetail on a 40-acre east, it would be hard to find. Typically, you spend a couple of days maybe driving around in a truck. Let’s say you’ve got permissions on private land to hunt. That combines 14,000, 15,000 acres, which is typically what one guide should have in an area to hunt. You don’t have a big area. You’ll drive around. You have the client with. You’ll spot the deer from the road, they will be maybe across a field. You’ll stop and see him. You get out and glass him with your optic vinyls or telescope. You get a feel for how the client wants what he’s looking for. Once you’ve established where those deer are, a lot of times we’ll move in. If it’s mule deer, we’ll do it in the canola fields. We’ll spot and stalk.

A lot of our mule deer hunts I do is a spot and stalk. We’re using trucks to get around. We’re not road hunting by any means. We’re covering the ground. We’ll find those deer. Where are they moving? We’ll start to pattern them. We start to move in on them. If we know that a deer is moving from one field to another field or from a valley up into a field and we’re seeing them at the same time all the time coming in, same time of day, we’ll set up a stand or a box blind. They get the client in there early in the morning and have them sit there all day if needed to be. The deer are unpredictable. There are several different ways to do it. We use ATVs as well. Sometimes it’s strictly walking in the valleys glassing all day. It looks like a spot and stalk type of deal. There are several different ways to do it. It’s a good time. There are a lot of deer. You could see a lot of deer in a day.

What class of deer are you talking about? Are they 140s, 150s or 160s?

In every animal that I’ve ever hunted, focus in the eye of the beholder. If you pull the trigger, it means that that’s the animal you wanted. With whitetails, we try to tell guys, “Don’t shoot anything less than 150.” You shouldn’t have to if it’s anything less than 150. Let’s go for those good mature bucks. We’re trying to do the 150 and up in there. We probably average them in around 160.

Have you ever called and rattled for these bucks?

Yeah. It’s calling and rattling. It’s got to be the right time of year, right situation and trying not to do it a lot. I don’t know every client’s abilities like if they’re in a blind. Especially if I’ve got them in a blind on their own, I’d rather have them sit there quietly and wait rather than calling them. There’s always a time and place for that. When you get those tough bucks, sometimes we’ll put up scents and even decoys. We don’t use decoys up in Canada, not nearly as much as we see the bowhunters in the south too. There’s a time and place for it. It works.

It all works in the right time and place. One day, they’re patterned firecrackers under decoys. In the next three days, it’s like, “What happened? Where did the deer go?” That’s the nice part about whitetail. It’s hard to figure them out. Some guys do extremely well. My friend, Garrett Roe, with Heads Up Decoy, if you haven’t tried his, they’re neat because you can move in on deer. With this decoy, it’s on your bow or rifle. He said some interesting hunts. He’ll get right up on a buck. He’d get a doe lockdown. He’ll grunt or something and they’ll come on glued.

I can’t tell you how many times you’re hunting a specific buck and you’re going after him. You can see him there. He’s a 167. You’ve seen him all day long and know that he’s there and then a 190 runs in or a 180. That’s the exciting part of hunting. You never know what’s going to show up all of a sudden, especially in whitetail hunting. I find that with whitetail, more than almost any other animals, you never know. Bear hunting is in the same situation. Those whitetails, you never know who’s going to show up. Those whitetails are traveling during that right time of year. They’re on a rut and they’re ripping. They cover a lot of distance. You never know what’s going to show up. It’s a very exciting time of the year.

I’d sure like to have you back. I’ll wait to get some feedback from my readers. If you like this, give me a shout at [email protected]. We’ll get Jason back because I’ve enjoyed hunting in North America. I’d sure like you to at least have a couple of hunts north of the border. The people, food and the deer are great. In my situation, the hunting has been fantastic. Jason, thank you so much for being a guest on this show.

Thank you very much for having me. I appreciate it. It’s a lot of fun. I look forward to hopefully doing it again.

I look forward to it also.

important links:

• Extreme Outdoor Guide
• Alberta Professional Outfitters Society
• ZEISS
• Heads Up Decoy
• [email protected]