The prairies of the southern Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Montana and the Dakotas are vast regions of open space and seem to be endless acres of pastures and crop lands. However, if you look closely, you will see these areas also consist of patches of tall native prairie grasslands, slough bottoms, clumps of buck brush, weed choked fence lines, farmyards and small groupings of trees. In addition, many areas of the prairies are rolling landscapes along with potholes, drainage systems and valleys. All of which provide perfect cover for whitetail deer.
IF YOU LOOK YOU WILL FIND
At first glance, it seems like prairie whitetails do not exist. However, as you start to travel down prairie roads, you will see deer trails across fields and grassy areas. While these trails are often quite narrow, they are used quite regularly by the deer and major trails will be very obvious. Typically, these trails lead to and from smaller chunks of cover and through low spots in the fields. If you walk some of these trails, you will see tracks in the mud and droppings giving further proof deer live in the area.
For the spring and summer months, whitetail deer will lay low and travel under the cover of darkness. During this time frame it is hard to spot a deer during the day as they lay out flat and can hide in next to no cover at all. However, once the rut fires up, the need to procreate over rides the need to stay concealed.
During the fall breeding season, prairie whitetails start to roam more and more along the edges of cover and in the open during the daylight hours as they search out mates. Bucks will create scrape lines and check them on a regular basis. Does will also visit these scrapes as they travel to and from their feeding and bedding areas.
When a buck picks up a hot scent, he will follow that trail nose down to the ground even if it leads him into the wide open. As bucks travel along trails, they will also use their eyes and if they see any distant does, they will often take the most direct path to get over to those does, even if it means exposing themselves in open country during daylight hours.
When a buck finds a hot doe, he will often herd her into a wide-open area such a stubble field and bed there with her. Doing so helps the buck keep the doe away from other bucks as the breeding pair are bedded well away from any normal travel routes. This remote bedding allows the buck to watch for other bucks in the distance. If another buck starts getting too close, the bedded buck will either herd the doe away or stand ground and fight the other buck.
As the rut winds down, bucks will be wanting to pack on the pounds they lost chasing does so they can endure winter. As a result, post rut bucks can often be spotted in feeding areas during daylight hours. On warmer days, they can be seen feeding in open fields late into the morning and early in the afternoons. On super cold days they often feed midday to take advantage of the warmer midday temperature.
USE YOUR EYES – SPOTTING
Given the sheer vastness of the prairies, hunting with your eyes will save you lots of steps and increase your success rate of finding deer. The key to hunting with your eyes is to find the highest hills in the area, get on top of them and start glassing for deer. By getting up high, you are able to see long distances in all directions and will be able to spot any deer as they move to and from feeding/ bedding areas and run scrape lines.
For morning hunts, it is best to be atop of your chosen vantage point well before sunrise. You don’t want to give yourself away, so on your way up the hill, try to avoid shining any lights out across the country side as you climb or drive up the hill. As well, once on top of the hill, stay low so you don’t skylight yourself.
As the sun starts to rise, start glassing the prairies below you. Move your binoculars slowly and in grid pattern to ensure you cover the entire area below you. Keep glassing until you spot a deer. Once a deer is spotted, take time to check it out. If the deer is a doe, check behind her to see if there is a buck following her. If not, make note of where she is and where it looks like she is headed. Then continue glassing, but make sure to periodically check back to this doe’s area to see if a buck is around.
If the deer is a buck, you will need to field judge him to see if he is a deer you want to pursue. At this point, you may want to use a spotting scope to ensure you get a really good look at his antlers to help make your decision. If the buck is not a shooter, keep on glassing for other deer.
While field judging prairie bucks, it is important to remember that many of these prairie bucks will have whitish colored antlers or antler tips. Those white antlers will often blend in with snow or dried prairie grasses which can give the illusion of smaller antlers. It is believed white antlers are the combination of what the deer rub their antlers on and the effects of sunlight bleaching antlers if the bucks spend lots of time bedded in short grassy areas. If the buck is a shooter, focus your attention on him. Watch him to see where he beds or until he is no longer in sight. At this point, you can figure out a plan to go after him. Before you jump into action, take note of some landmarks close to where the buck is that will help you locate the area and the deer once you move off the hilltop.
If your morning glassing session doesn’t result in a target buck sighting for you to go after, you can then head to other vantage points and keep on glassing. During these midday glassing sessions, keep looking along travel routes and along the edges of cover for bucks working scrape lines. As well, be sure to check out open fields where you may spot a buck and doe tucked away.
When glassing in the late afternoons, you may have time to go after a buck once spotted. However, if the sun is low on the horizon and you don’t think you will have enough time to get within shooting range of that buck before legal hunting time is over, keep watching him and while doing so set up a plan to hunt him the next day.
BUCK SPOTTED – TIME TO DEPLOY YOUR LEGS
Once you have a buck spotted to go after, it’s time to use your legs and close the distance. There will be two scenarios that can unfold. The first is if the buck is bedded down and you know exactly where he is laying. Under this scenario, you need to stalk in as close as possible and not let the buck detect you.
In order to do so, you need take the wind into consideration as you make your stalk. For the duration of the stalk, the wind should either be directly in your face or quartering away from you. You never want the wind on your back and blowing towards the deer so you may need to circle way around to get the wind in your favor.
Coming down off your vantage point and circling around can suddenly make the terrain look very different. This is where you need to look for those landmarks you had taken note of while spotting the deer to help familiarize yourself and know exactly where you are, where the buck is and where you need to stalk to.
As you stalk in on the deer, you will need to stay as low as possible so as not to be skylighted and detected by the bedded deer. This may mean having to crawl at some point or taking a lot more steps in order to swing out wide around a high spot in order to utilize some type of cover such as a drainage ditch, fence line or vegetation to stay out of sight of the deer.
As you stalk along, be aware of your surroundings. Be on the look out for other deer so you don’t accidently spook them which will likely alert the deer you are stalking. Don’t just look for entire deer. Look for antler tips, ears, or a horizontal back in a vertical grassy area. When you spot those deer, you will need to swing out wide and get around them so as to not spook them and potentially alert the deer you are stalking. I would suggest though, before trying to avoid those deer, you should take time to evaluate them to see if they might be a shooter buck. I remember a few seasons ago; my son and I were stalking one buck that we had glassed and watched bed down. During our stalk we came upon a bigger buck that we had been totally unaware of. This bigger buck was in range and totally unaware of us. Similar to the old saying “one in the hand is better than two in the bush”, my son took advantage of the situation and ended his hunt.
If all goes well, your stalk will get you into your effective shooting range of where the deer is bedded. If you run out of cover and are outside of your effective shooting range, stay put and either wait out the deer hoping it will move closer to you once it stands or use a grunt tube to quietly get his attention and have him move closer to you.
In some situations, depending on where the buck is bedded, you may or may not be able to see him. Even if you can see him, you may not be able to see enough of him for a clean and ethical shot. In this case, you can simply wait him out as eventually he will stand up to feed, switch positions or check on his doe if he bedded with one.
If the buck you have spotted isn’t bedded down and still on his feet moving, you can to anticipate where he is headed and then attempt to cut him off. In this case you need to move quickly, get way ahead of him with the intention of ambushing or intercepting him. If he doesn’t show up, slowly start to stalk back in the direction he was coming from. While doing so, be on red alert as he could be anywhere!
GEARING UP
Binoculars, spotting scopes and rangefinders play a critical role in a successful prairie buck hunt. To reduce weight and eliminate an extra optical device around my neck, I use a set of Vortex Fury HD 5000 Range Finding Binoculars which allow me to glass and quickly determine distances. For close up field judging, I will switch over to a variable power spotting scope so I can quickly find the deer on a lower power setting and then zoom right in with a higher power to assess a buck’s antlers.
As for rifles, a flat shooting gun topped with a 4- 12 variable power scope is a good idea as shots on the prairies can range anywhere from near point-blank range to in excess of 300 yards. There are a number of good rifle and caliber combinations out there. My current set up is a Savage Weather Warrior rifle chambered in .270 using 130 grain Winchester Deer Season XP bullets. By spending time on the range and using the Winchester Ballistics Calculator I zero my gun at 25 yards which allows me to hold dead on from zero out to 300 yards as the bullet trajectory peaks at 3.4 inches high at a 150 yards, zeros around the 270 mark and drops 2.2 inches at 300 yards. At 350 yards the drop is 6.8 inches and at 400 yards the drop is 12.9 inches. I personally don’t feel comfortable shooting beyond 350 yards and won’t take any shots longer than that. If conditions are extremely windy or I don’t have a solid shooting rest, I will pass on those longer shots and figure out a way to get closer or look for a better opportunity.
Although there are lots of fenceposts and a few trees on the prairies, most of these will not likely be in location to help you get a solid shooing rest when one is needed. To help ensure my crosshairs are steady when it’s time to pull the trigger, I carry a set of BOG Adrenaline Tripod Shooting Sticks . I prefer to carry a tripod over a bipod as I find the third leg provides way more support. In addition, the tripod is very light weight and so simple to set up.
