I’m sure that my friends and acquaintances are tired of hearing about my Canada hunting trip by now…but this deer deserves all the respect and attention I can give him! 
This story starts back in May when I was looking for some website work to make ends meet and got hooked up with a guy named Gregg Woods in Dallas. He is a friend of Wayne Lytwyn…the owner of Cork Cliff Outfitters in Manitoba, Canada. Wayne was interested in getting a new website and wanted to trade it out for a 7 day deer hunt. Gregg hooked it up and the rest was history.
After completing the website (www.corkcliffoutfitters.net), I booked my flight to Winnipeg. After starting chemo in August and seeing how touching anything cold affected me and gave me strange side effects, I changed my dates to mid October (even though it decreased my chances of success due to the rut not taking place until the first week of November). I started out with intentions of trying an archery hunt but after talking to Wayne about my chances of scoring with archery gear and that fact that this is probably a once in a lifetime hunt, I decided to take advantage of Manitoba’s muzzleloader season. I haven't shot a deer with a rifle in 5 years or so and was kind of looking forward to kicking back in a box stand and relaxing.
I flew in to Winnipeg on the afternoon of October 17th. I got my rental car at the airport and drove 4 hours north to the thriving metropolis of Winnipegosis (pop. 600).
Some pics from Winnipegosis, Manitoba:
I found my way to the beautiful Lytwyn farm and met the family and got settled into my cabin, which is down the road from the main house.
A few pics from inside the cabin:
The first order of business was to shoot the muzzleloader. All my shots were high and left so I was glad I did. Since I had another day before I could hunt (season opened on the 19th). I gave the shooting rest until the next day.
On Sunday morning I got invited to help herd cattle from one farm to another. We took them down the main paved road. All the neighbors turned out to help. We had horses, trucks, and ATVs. It was very cool how everyone pitched in. We were done by 9:45 and I was told to report to one of the neighbors’ metal shops for “coffee”. Coffee turned out to be beer and shots. Those Canadians know how to drink!
Everyone was really friendly and wished me luck on “getting a big buck, aye”. After I had my limit of morning drinks, we went back to Wayne’s place and shot the muzzleloader some more. After a few scope adjustments I was happy.
We spent the rest of the day touring the hunting areas, looking at deer stands, and checking trail cams. Not much was moving on the cameras. But Wayne had sent me pics before I left a big buck he called “Tall Tine 9”. He had pics of him for the last two years and said he was a real brute of a mature deer.
On the morning of Day three and my first hunt, I found myself in the “fish shed” stand. It was a converted ice fishing shed set up on two big bales of alfalfa. Very cool setup overlooking a cut field and two rightaways. Deer trails criss-crossed the area and I was excited because this is where a couple nice bucks had been seen on camera and in person. I sat from 6:45 am til noon. The grand tally was 2 coyotes spotted and no deer. I did get video of a coyote pouncing on some animal (probably a mouse). Very cool.
Views from the "Fish Shed" stand:
That evening I hunted the same stand. At about 4 pm I had a huge and beautiful coyote at about 25 yards. I decided to shoot him and try to get his hide home. He looked like a wolf! Anyways…shot right over his back and scalded him with the muzzleloader. He ran off at top speed. I looked for blood and couldn’t find any. I got back in the stand very underwhelmed with my shooting abilities. About an hour later I had about a 200 lb. doe and her two fawns (about the size of 18 month old Texas deer) cross one of the rightaways and walk through the woods in front of me. They came out of the patch of woods and fed around the field for a while. I didn’t see any more deer and called it quits at dark. Beautiful area that is just loaded with ducks and geese. The noise they make in the morning when lifting off and headed to the grain fields is deafening! You can barely see the Mossy River in one of the pics above.
Day 4 I was hunting in another stand several miles from the farm on some leased property. It was thick timber with some log piles and clear cuts. I had some deer moving right at daylight. I could barely see them through the binos and they appeared to be fawns or yearlings. I called it quits around 11:30 and went into Dauphin for some shopping (about 40 miles away). Got back for the evening hunt and hunted the same stand. Saw two fawns at 6 pm and nothing else. I was starting to think that this hunt might not be so easy and that maybe I should have held out for a rut hunt.
Some pics of the Big Timber stand area:
On day 5 Wayne put me back in the Fish Shed stand where I hunted at first. He thought I stood my best chance there due to the trail cam pics from the last two years. I only saw the same doe and fawns from the first day. Nothing else. My feet were cold as hell and I had enough hand warmers going to draw attention from NASA satellites. Called it quits around noon and went back to the cabin for coffee and breakfast.
This is where the story gets interesting. Wayne is a member of a group called the Cossacks. They reenact different military and cultural traditions from the country of Ukraine where his family is from. The president of their group had passed away unexpectedly and they had an emergency meeting to plan the funeral. Due to the fact that Wayne wasn’t going to be available to pick me up after the evening hunt, he wanted to put me in a stand nearby that was easy to get to so I could ride the Polaris ATV to the stand and Logan (Wayne’s son) could get to me if I needed something.
This stand was right near Lake Winnipegosis (24th largest natural lake in the world….or something like that). The stand was in thick timber with just a 50-70 yard shot in three different directions. I found a fresh scrape walking in to the stand (my first real proof that there were actually antlered animals in the area!). When I climbed into the stand and got settled for the evening hunt I just had “that feeling” that I was in the right place. Even though Wayne had only put me here out of convenience, I somehow knew that my plan was going to come together. Here’s the view from the stand. Not much to look at except trees! Also some pics of the nearby lake.
The wind was good and in my face and I felt like I was bowhunting due to the close proximity of the deer trails, the scrape, and the thick woods. At about 5:30 I had yet another big doe and two fawns walk through the area. The fawns were at the base of my stand sniffing around and looking up at me. I made a soft clucking sound and they jumped about 5 feet in the air. Very cool. They all walked off slowly, feeding on clover that was growing on the trail. It started getting pretty dark around 7:00 and I started thinking that this hunt was going to be another “buckless” encounter. But something came over me and I closed my eyes and said a quick prayer, thanking God for giving me the opportunity to be in Canada and get a break from work, all the doctor appointments, and the chemotherapy, etc.
And then out of nowhere a picture of my Dad popped into my mind. He passed away from colon cancer over two years ago. Anyway…I’m having this vision of my dad and I sitting in the deer stand on our last hunt together in Kerrville. I have felt tremendous guilt over that hunt. I didn’t know he was dying at the time. A young buck stepped out (2.5 year old 8 pt.) and he reached for his rifle. I told him that we had to pass on it due to the lease rules and because the deer was too young to shoot. It would have been my dad’s first buck ever and I missed a golden opportunity (especially since we lost the lease after that season) to share a special moment with my Dad before he died.
Anyway….back to Canada. I called on my Dad to send a buck my way. I told him I was sorry for not letting him shoot that buck in Kerrville and I wanted to get one for him now. I then decided that shooting light would soon be gone and I needed to pack my stuff up in the next 3-5 minutes. Just as I was looking at my watch one more time, I heard a stick crack out in front of me in the thick timber where two trails intersect. I could barely make out the huge form of a deer standing there in the only opening.
I slowly picked up the binos and just about yelled out loud in surprise. There was a huge-bodied buck standing there about 60 yards away and he looked to be a nice one with good mass. I picked up the muzzleloader and put the scope on him. It was too dark to rough score or even tell how many points. I thought he might be a short-tined ten pt. that Wayne had multiple pics of. The sun had set and he was silhouetted good. When I decided to shoot, the deer decided to show me his butt. A few seconds later he turned around and was now almost facing me straight ahead. I thought for a second about trying to put the .50 caliber sabot in his chest but thought better of it and took my eye from the scope. I said a quick prayer asking God to give me a good shot if this was the deer I was supposed to shoot. I got back on the scope and pretty much had a heart attack right on the spot. There was a second buck standing to the side and slightly behind the first buck. It was like he had materialized out of thin air. He dwarfed the other buck in body size and antlers and best of all was standing perfectly broadside! I quickly cocked the hammer, put the crosshairs right on his heart (I assumed I was gonna hit a little high at 60 yards) and squeezed the trigger.
The gun belched a foot of red flame and then the smoke floated up in the cold air. I couldn’t see anything at all. I heard what sounded like two Caterpillar front end loaders knocking down trees and running off to my left. I was shaking so bad that I couldn’t even work the safety on the gun or unzip my backpack to look for the radio to call Wayne or Logan. I sat there for a few minutes trying to compose myself and kept seeing the image of that big deer right before I shot him. I finally decided to get out of the stand, do a quick search for blood, and get out of the area and wait.
I started packing up my stuff. As soon as I put on my headlamp and stood up to climb down the ladder, I heard a deer get up and take off running and crashing through the timber. I was sick to my stomach. I knew I had made a bad shot on the buck and had just jumped him up with the noise that I made in the stand.
I sat for a while longer and quietly climbed down. I knew I should have got out of there but I couldn’t stand it. I went to the trail intersection where the deer had been standing. I did a quick search for blood and couldn’t find any. My heart sank and I started the long walk back to the 4-wheeler. To make matters worse, when I got into a nearby alfalfa field after leaving the thick timber, I saw several deer including a big buck standing out there. One of the deer blew at me and they all took off running. I figured it was the buck that I had just missed or wounded.
Logan called me on the radio as I was walking out and I told him I would meet him on the road at the end of the field on the 4-wheeler. I told him what happened and he wanted to go home, get the ATV trailer, and go back and get the deer. I told him I’d feel better if we waited a few hours since I didn’t find blood. We decided to wait for his dad to get home from Dauphin. The three of us ended up back in the woods around 10:30 that night. I was trying to be optimistic but had that sinking feeling that all hunters know.
We got to the crime scene and started looking for blood. We circled the area. A few minutes later one of my frantic prayers were answered when Logan yelled out, “Here’s blood!”. Wayne and I quickly joined him and started following a decent blood trail. My first thought was “brisket shot”. And then Wayne said, “Holy Smokes. Lookie here, aye!”. He had found a huge puddle of bright red blood with bubbles in it. He patted me on the back and said, “We’ll find this deer. He didn’t go far.” I felt a lot better and got busy tracking. We eventually got the trail straightened out after Logan and I followed it the wrong way (the deer had initially ran to the left with the other buck and then came back through the same way to the right of the stand in the complete opposite direction). Wayne found another huge puddle where the deer had rested against a tree. Pieces of lung matter were in the puddle. We quickened the pace and could follow the blood trail without bending over and slowing down to look. I was so excited I was about to start jumping up and down and squealing like a little girl.
And then Logan yelled out, “Here he is!” All we could see was this huge body at first. My initial thought was, “Holy crap. I shot one of Wayne’s Belgian draft horses”. Then we got up to him and saw the rack.
Wayne and Logan yelled out at the same time, “TALL TINE NINE!” I dropped to my knees and put my hands on him. I think I had a little something in my eyes. Probably ice or rain or something. I put my hands on that beautiful rack and just sat there and grinned for a few minutes. I couldn’t believe it. The old boy was in another area from where we thought he was. I knew right away that it was destiny for me to somehow travel to Canada (I trip I would never be able to afford under normal circumstances) and kill a buck like this. I know my Dad and my Father were with me and made this happen.
We tried dragging the buck out to the truck and didn’t make it too far. We were getting whooped just trying to move him 5 feet or so. The three of us took turns dragging and relieving each other. It was only about 100 yards to the truck but it felt like a mile by the time we got there. We looked like 3 monkeys humping a football trying to get him into the truck. We got back to the farm and took pics and got him hung up with the tractor to dress him out. Put him on the 300 lb. scale and he pegged it out. We guesstimated him at 325 based on the scale marker.
We had a heck of celebration at Wayne's house that night. I had a great time. Ended up riding the Polaris back to the cabin (from what I'm told).
I finished out the week with a little duck and goose hunting.
Also did some varmint calling but the rain and wind hurt us on that. I flew back into Houston late Sunday night and went right back to work on Monday morning. Hard to come back to the big city after a week in hunting heaven!
Well enough words. I’ll let the pics tell the rest of the story. Wayne is supposed to be shipping me the rack, cape, some of the meat, and one of my ducks. I hope it gets hear soon! Buck Wild (Joe Jasek) is gonna be doing the pedestal mount for me. I can’t wait.
Look what the muzzleloader did to him...and we recovered the sabot under his hide on the off shoulder. No pass through. What a hoss.
Look at that fat:
Makes me look skinny!
Thanks for tagging along! If you're interested in booking a hunt with Cork Cliff Outfitters for next year, contact Wayne Lytwyn through the website. www.corkcliffoutfitters.net
This story starts back in May when I was looking for some website work to make ends meet and got hooked up with a guy named Gregg Woods in Dallas. He is a friend of Wayne Lytwyn…the owner of Cork Cliff Outfitters in Manitoba, Canada. Wayne was interested in getting a new website and wanted to trade it out for a 7 day deer hunt. Gregg hooked it up and the rest was history.
After completing the website (www.corkcliffoutfitters.net), I booked my flight to Winnipeg. After starting chemo in August and seeing how touching anything cold affected me and gave me strange side effects, I changed my dates to mid October (even though it decreased my chances of success due to the rut not taking place until the first week of November). I started out with intentions of trying an archery hunt but after talking to Wayne about my chances of scoring with archery gear and that fact that this is probably a once in a lifetime hunt, I decided to take advantage of Manitoba’s muzzleloader season. I haven't shot a deer with a rifle in 5 years or so and was kind of looking forward to kicking back in a box stand and relaxing.
I flew in to Winnipeg on the afternoon of October 17th. I got my rental car at the airport and drove 4 hours north to the thriving metropolis of Winnipegosis (pop. 600).
Some pics from Winnipegosis, Manitoba:
I found my way to the beautiful Lytwyn farm and met the family and got settled into my cabin, which is down the road from the main house.
A few pics from inside the cabin:
The first order of business was to shoot the muzzleloader. All my shots were high and left so I was glad I did. Since I had another day before I could hunt (season opened on the 19th). I gave the shooting rest until the next day.
On Sunday morning I got invited to help herd cattle from one farm to another. We took them down the main paved road. All the neighbors turned out to help. We had horses, trucks, and ATVs. It was very cool how everyone pitched in. We were done by 9:45 and I was told to report to one of the neighbors’ metal shops for “coffee”. Coffee turned out to be beer and shots. Those Canadians know how to drink!
Everyone was really friendly and wished me luck on “getting a big buck, aye”. After I had my limit of morning drinks, we went back to Wayne’s place and shot the muzzleloader some more. After a few scope adjustments I was happy. We spent the rest of the day touring the hunting areas, looking at deer stands, and checking trail cams. Not much was moving on the cameras. But Wayne had sent me pics before I left a big buck he called “Tall Tine 9”. He had pics of him for the last two years and said he was a real brute of a mature deer.
On the morning of Day three and my first hunt, I found myself in the “fish shed” stand. It was a converted ice fishing shed set up on two big bales of alfalfa. Very cool setup overlooking a cut field and two rightaways. Deer trails criss-crossed the area and I was excited because this is where a couple nice bucks had been seen on camera and in person. I sat from 6:45 am til noon. The grand tally was 2 coyotes spotted and no deer. I did get video of a coyote pouncing on some animal (probably a mouse). Very cool.
Views from the "Fish Shed" stand:
That evening I hunted the same stand. At about 4 pm I had a huge and beautiful coyote at about 25 yards. I decided to shoot him and try to get his hide home. He looked like a wolf! Anyways…shot right over his back and scalded him with the muzzleloader. He ran off at top speed. I looked for blood and couldn’t find any. I got back in the stand very underwhelmed with my shooting abilities. About an hour later I had about a 200 lb. doe and her two fawns (about the size of 18 month old Texas deer) cross one of the rightaways and walk through the woods in front of me. They came out of the patch of woods and fed around the field for a while. I didn’t see any more deer and called it quits at dark. Beautiful area that is just loaded with ducks and geese. The noise they make in the morning when lifting off and headed to the grain fields is deafening! You can barely see the Mossy River in one of the pics above.
Day 4 I was hunting in another stand several miles from the farm on some leased property. It was thick timber with some log piles and clear cuts. I had some deer moving right at daylight. I could barely see them through the binos and they appeared to be fawns or yearlings. I called it quits around 11:30 and went into Dauphin for some shopping (about 40 miles away). Got back for the evening hunt and hunted the same stand. Saw two fawns at 6 pm and nothing else. I was starting to think that this hunt might not be so easy and that maybe I should have held out for a rut hunt.
Some pics of the Big Timber stand area:
On day 5 Wayne put me back in the Fish Shed stand where I hunted at first. He thought I stood my best chance there due to the trail cam pics from the last two years. I only saw the same doe and fawns from the first day. Nothing else. My feet were cold as hell and I had enough hand warmers going to draw attention from NASA satellites. Called it quits around noon and went back to the cabin for coffee and breakfast.
This is where the story gets interesting. Wayne is a member of a group called the Cossacks. They reenact different military and cultural traditions from the country of Ukraine where his family is from. The president of their group had passed away unexpectedly and they had an emergency meeting to plan the funeral. Due to the fact that Wayne wasn’t going to be available to pick me up after the evening hunt, he wanted to put me in a stand nearby that was easy to get to so I could ride the Polaris ATV to the stand and Logan (Wayne’s son) could get to me if I needed something.
This stand was right near Lake Winnipegosis (24th largest natural lake in the world….or something like that). The stand was in thick timber with just a 50-70 yard shot in three different directions. I found a fresh scrape walking in to the stand (my first real proof that there were actually antlered animals in the area!). When I climbed into the stand and got settled for the evening hunt I just had “that feeling” that I was in the right place. Even though Wayne had only put me here out of convenience, I somehow knew that my plan was going to come together. Here’s the view from the stand. Not much to look at except trees! Also some pics of the nearby lake.
The wind was good and in my face and I felt like I was bowhunting due to the close proximity of the deer trails, the scrape, and the thick woods. At about 5:30 I had yet another big doe and two fawns walk through the area. The fawns were at the base of my stand sniffing around and looking up at me. I made a soft clucking sound and they jumped about 5 feet in the air. Very cool. They all walked off slowly, feeding on clover that was growing on the trail. It started getting pretty dark around 7:00 and I started thinking that this hunt was going to be another “buckless” encounter. But something came over me and I closed my eyes and said a quick prayer, thanking God for giving me the opportunity to be in Canada and get a break from work, all the doctor appointments, and the chemotherapy, etc.
And then out of nowhere a picture of my Dad popped into my mind. He passed away from colon cancer over two years ago. Anyway…I’m having this vision of my dad and I sitting in the deer stand on our last hunt together in Kerrville. I have felt tremendous guilt over that hunt. I didn’t know he was dying at the time. A young buck stepped out (2.5 year old 8 pt.) and he reached for his rifle. I told him that we had to pass on it due to the lease rules and because the deer was too young to shoot. It would have been my dad’s first buck ever and I missed a golden opportunity (especially since we lost the lease after that season) to share a special moment with my Dad before he died.
Anyway….back to Canada. I called on my Dad to send a buck my way. I told him I was sorry for not letting him shoot that buck in Kerrville and I wanted to get one for him now. I then decided that shooting light would soon be gone and I needed to pack my stuff up in the next 3-5 minutes. Just as I was looking at my watch one more time, I heard a stick crack out in front of me in the thick timber where two trails intersect. I could barely make out the huge form of a deer standing there in the only opening.
I slowly picked up the binos and just about yelled out loud in surprise. There was a huge-bodied buck standing there about 60 yards away and he looked to be a nice one with good mass. I picked up the muzzleloader and put the scope on him. It was too dark to rough score or even tell how many points. I thought he might be a short-tined ten pt. that Wayne had multiple pics of. The sun had set and he was silhouetted good. When I decided to shoot, the deer decided to show me his butt. A few seconds later he turned around and was now almost facing me straight ahead. I thought for a second about trying to put the .50 caliber sabot in his chest but thought better of it and took my eye from the scope. I said a quick prayer asking God to give me a good shot if this was the deer I was supposed to shoot. I got back on the scope and pretty much had a heart attack right on the spot. There was a second buck standing to the side and slightly behind the first buck. It was like he had materialized out of thin air. He dwarfed the other buck in body size and antlers and best of all was standing perfectly broadside! I quickly cocked the hammer, put the crosshairs right on his heart (I assumed I was gonna hit a little high at 60 yards) and squeezed the trigger.
The gun belched a foot of red flame and then the smoke floated up in the cold air. I couldn’t see anything at all. I heard what sounded like two Caterpillar front end loaders knocking down trees and running off to my left. I was shaking so bad that I couldn’t even work the safety on the gun or unzip my backpack to look for the radio to call Wayne or Logan. I sat there for a few minutes trying to compose myself and kept seeing the image of that big deer right before I shot him. I finally decided to get out of the stand, do a quick search for blood, and get out of the area and wait.
I started packing up my stuff. As soon as I put on my headlamp and stood up to climb down the ladder, I heard a deer get up and take off running and crashing through the timber. I was sick to my stomach. I knew I had made a bad shot on the buck and had just jumped him up with the noise that I made in the stand.
I sat for a while longer and quietly climbed down. I knew I should have got out of there but I couldn’t stand it. I went to the trail intersection where the deer had been standing. I did a quick search for blood and couldn’t find any. My heart sank and I started the long walk back to the 4-wheeler. To make matters worse, when I got into a nearby alfalfa field after leaving the thick timber, I saw several deer including a big buck standing out there. One of the deer blew at me and they all took off running. I figured it was the buck that I had just missed or wounded.
Logan called me on the radio as I was walking out and I told him I would meet him on the road at the end of the field on the 4-wheeler. I told him what happened and he wanted to go home, get the ATV trailer, and go back and get the deer. I told him I’d feel better if we waited a few hours since I didn’t find blood. We decided to wait for his dad to get home from Dauphin. The three of us ended up back in the woods around 10:30 that night. I was trying to be optimistic but had that sinking feeling that all hunters know.
We got to the crime scene and started looking for blood. We circled the area. A few minutes later one of my frantic prayers were answered when Logan yelled out, “Here’s blood!”. Wayne and I quickly joined him and started following a decent blood trail. My first thought was “brisket shot”. And then Wayne said, “Holy Smokes. Lookie here, aye!”. He had found a huge puddle of bright red blood with bubbles in it. He patted me on the back and said, “We’ll find this deer. He didn’t go far.” I felt a lot better and got busy tracking. We eventually got the trail straightened out after Logan and I followed it the wrong way (the deer had initially ran to the left with the other buck and then came back through the same way to the right of the stand in the complete opposite direction). Wayne found another huge puddle where the deer had rested against a tree. Pieces of lung matter were in the puddle. We quickened the pace and could follow the blood trail without bending over and slowing down to look. I was so excited I was about to start jumping up and down and squealing like a little girl.
And then Logan yelled out, “Here he is!” All we could see was this huge body at first. My initial thought was, “Holy crap. I shot one of Wayne’s Belgian draft horses”. Then we got up to him and saw the rack.
Wayne and Logan yelled out at the same time, “TALL TINE NINE!” I dropped to my knees and put my hands on him. I think I had a little something in my eyes. Probably ice or rain or something. I put my hands on that beautiful rack and just sat there and grinned for a few minutes. I couldn’t believe it. The old boy was in another area from where we thought he was. I knew right away that it was destiny for me to somehow travel to Canada (I trip I would never be able to afford under normal circumstances) and kill a buck like this. I know my Dad and my Father were with me and made this happen.
We tried dragging the buck out to the truck and didn’t make it too far. We were getting whooped just trying to move him 5 feet or so. The three of us took turns dragging and relieving each other. It was only about 100 yards to the truck but it felt like a mile by the time we got there. We looked like 3 monkeys humping a football trying to get him into the truck. We got back to the farm and took pics and got him hung up with the tractor to dress him out. Put him on the 300 lb. scale and he pegged it out. We guesstimated him at 325 based on the scale marker.
We had a heck of celebration at Wayne's house that night. I had a great time. Ended up riding the Polaris back to the cabin (from what I'm told).
I finished out the week with a little duck and goose hunting.
Also did some varmint calling but the rain and wind hurt us on that. I flew back into Houston late Sunday night and went right back to work on Monday morning. Hard to come back to the big city after a week in hunting heaven!
Well enough words. I’ll let the pics tell the rest of the story. Wayne is supposed to be shipping me the rack, cape, some of the meat, and one of my ducks. I hope it gets hear soon! Buck Wild (Joe Jasek) is gonna be doing the pedestal mount for me. I can’t wait.
Look what the muzzleloader did to him...and we recovered the sabot under his hide on the off shoulder. No pass through. What a hoss.
Look at that fat:
Makes me look skinny!
Thanks for tagging along! If you're interested in booking a hunt with Cork Cliff Outfitters for next year, contact Wayne Lytwyn through the website. www.corkcliffoutfitters.net
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