Whitetail Addict – Greg Lavoie – Outfitter
Greg sat down near the end of the busy 2025 Fall Whitetail hunt and I asked him a few questions about his addiction.
What is a Whitetail Addict?
A whitetail addict, I guess, to me means I pretty much live, eat, and breathe Whitetail Deer year round. I mean, I’m always thinking about them, but we’re always trying to find ways to find new spots and I guess I mean, just study them and try to figure them out. We never will figure them out, but it’s fun trying. That’s for sure. I guess that’s kind of what I mean by, you know, you’re hunting with a Whitetail Addict. It’s just, it’s my passion, you know, in my been my passion since I was a kid.
Can you compare a Whitetail Addict to a Whitetail Enthusiast?
So, I guess an addict typically means you’re addicted to something. So, I’m definitely addicted to to, you know, chasing and hunting and and taking people out for Whitetail Deer. That’s the difference between those. Being being addicted to something is you’re connected to it, I guess, and you can’t put it down.
What takes you beyond simply being interested in Whitetail Hunting?
Yeah. I guess part of being an addict is wanting to do it. You’re looking forward to the fall every year. Whereas some people will just, you know, they’ll go and do it for a couple weeks out of the year, whereas I’m thinking about it all the time. You know, doesn’t matter what time of year it is. I’m always thinking about ways, how can we improve this spot or you know what’s this Deer going to do? I have 50,000 pictures from my trail cam pictures on my phone. That’s not an exaggeration, I know I’m not bragging but I know every, just about every, single deer. If we’re looking at cards and “oh this looks like a new Deer”. I’ll look at it and at that second I can say no that Deer’s been there since you know. So anyway that’s part of being an addict. Your brain is always focused on that aspect. Hey some guys don’t have that addiction but they love hunting Deer so that’s the difference I guess.
What are the symptoms of a Whitetail Addict?
What are the symptoms, um I guess one of the symptoms is you wake up, and this this is no word of a lie, but it is part of my life, I guess part of our life, it is our business, but it’s not a job for me. It’s an addiction. So, you know, sometimes, like this time of year especially, the first thing I think of in the morning is, “Oh, jeez, I wonder what’s on my 25 cell cams that pop through on my phone every 12 hours.” So, I guess that’s maybe a symptom. Your brain is triggered to do that. Yeah.
What are your personal bests, by arrow, rifle and muzzle loader?
For for me, I guess size does matter, and maturity, you know. So, you know, the biggest Deer I killed with my bow wasn’t a huge scoring deer, but he was 8 and 1/2 years old. I had history on the Deer, you know, I watched him for five years. Actually passed him up the year before because I thought he was going to get bigger. I thought, “No, you know what? I’m going to give him another year.” And he went backwards. So the next year I hunted him, when he came in, I actually hesitated and I thought, you know what, we got history here. So I harvested that Deer. He wasn’t the biggest Deer I’ve ever killed, but it meant a lot to me because I watched that deer and it’s bittersweet when you harvest a Deer like that because you’re like, man, I watched that deer grow and now I can’t watch him anymore. Now the biggest deer I killed with the rifle is 185 inches. It was beautiful, bigger Whitetail. I never muzzle loaded much until this year. I actually killed a 171 inch Deer and, there again, a 9 and 1/2 year old Deer. So you know a 170 inch Deer is a beautiful Deer but a 9 and 1/2 year old 170 inch deer is a trophy. So, I guess that gives gives you a little bit of a low down on my hunt history of the Whitetail.
Were you born this way?
Well, I was definitely born into it. You know, I think I mentioned on another video that from a very young age, I was I was taken out to go hunt Whitetail Deer. As young as I can remember, we’d go out and man, when November came around, and deer season was open, we were out the door and hunting. So, I was definitely born into it and you know, shown the outdoors at a very very young age.
How does being a Whitetail Addict pay off for your clients?
So, I think being being a Whitetail Addict pays off for my clients simply because I have a passion for it. I’m obviously addicted to it and that pays off for our guys that come here simply because I’m doing that for them, you know. Obviously I don’t hunt in my lease, but all the work that I do, all the work that my guides do, up to the start of the season, is for the people that are coming here. And you know, you can see it in the season we just had. It’s our seventh season here. It’s the best by far that we’ve had. Leaps and bounds. We’ve killed old mature bucks. Our average score is 10 points higher than it was last year. We’ve only killed one deer that was three and 1/2 years old. The rest were over five and 1/2 all the way up to 10. So that’s where it pays off for the people that are coming here with us.
What are a few things about Whitetail you could only learn over time?
Aging, when looking at a Deer, on cell cam trail cam pictures, you really have to learn to look at them because things look different. Things sometimes look bigger or they look you know, I think that’s something that your eye becomes accustomed to, being able to tell, is that Deer four and 1/2, three and 1/2, or is he six and 1/2? That makes a big difference as to which Deer are we going to hunt, which stands are we going to hunt. Okay, I got, you know, I have a 7 and 1/2 year old Deer over here. Yeah, he doesn’t, he might not make the minimum, but he’s an old Deer, so you know, we might go after that Deer. I think that’s, you know, that’s something that you learn. Aging number one. Scoring a Deer off a trail cam picture. That’s tough, but your eyes just become accustomed to, yeah, that’s what he is, within reason. I mean, you’re not not going to nail down the score, but that’s something that you learn over time, I guess. Patterns of a Whitetail Deer. I mean, like I just mentioned, we’re never going to figure out the Whitetail Deer, but we we’re going to try and we’re going to keep trying.
Are you jealous when a client knocks down a big Whitetail?
Not even a little bit. When a client kills, when a client harvests a mature Whitetail Deer that we’ve been hunting, it’s emotional for me when I go there, you know, especially when you can see the the excitement in the person’s eyes when you pull in there and they’re, you know, they’re excited about it. This year it was a 17-year-old gentleman that came to Saskatchewan the first time with his dad and his uncle and he wrote me a little note when he got home and it was, I printed it off. It’s in my office. You know, he’s 17 years old and he killed a beautiful Whitetail. It was a 7 and 1/2 year old Deer. What he wrote me, what he said in in a nutshell, he said, “when you pulled in and the smile on your face, it made me feel like I was hunting with family” and the kid had just been here for two days, you know. So, not even a little bit do I get jealous when when somebody shoots a big Deer. That was 150 inch Deer for the 17-year-old kid from Pennsylvania. So, he was so excited and so happy. And then when he seen my excitement, it made his experience even better.
What is “rehearsing the shot” about?
Yeah. So, I like to tell people, you know, when you’re going to a spot for the first time, it’s a stand or a blind or whatever it is, and you know, you get some Deer coming to the bait, normally it’s your doe’s and your fawns that come first. I always like to tell people to, and this is what I do personally anyway. So, I like to say, you know, rehearse. So, you know, a doe comes to the bait, you’re in a blind, have your shooting sticks there, put your rifle up there, and put your crosshairs on the Deer. Of course, leave on the safety, so you don’t have a wreck. But, just rehearse that, you know, when that Deer of a lifetime walks in, you’re ready for it and it’s not like you’re fumbling around and if you’re in a tree stand, you know, just rehearse. Make sure you’re not going to shoot something, or ruin your opportunity, when the opportunity knocks.
In 2 days, when the season ends, is it time to relax?
Yeah. No, once everybody’s gone, after our grueling six week season, wow, that’s six weeks of people. Our season starts way before that. Um, no, definitely not. We can’t quite put our feet up yet. We got to clean everything up, take everything down. Gear up for next year. I’ve got to, you know, make sure everybody’s on board for next year, which is, as of right now, it looks like we’re in good shape that way. But, no, we got to clean everything up. Uh, you know, tie up all the loose ends and, you know, around Christmas time, we’ll be able to take a breather.
Any other signs of your obsession?
Yeah. Shelly and I got tattoos, by the way. Houdini tattoos. Shelly got one the same but hers is smaller within a feather.
Once last time, any symptoms?
Yeah. Little obsessed, maybe. But yeah, getting a Deer tattooed on your arm I guess maybe is symptom of a Whitetail addict. Yeah. So, it’s just so much fun, you know, chasing these majestic animals. It’s a good time.