Josh Groen 2024 Saskatchewan Whitetail Hunt
Josh Groen of Wisconsin hunts Saskatchewan Whitetail Deer with Chaparral Hunting Adventures and describes “that moment when you click off the safety”.
Talking with Josh at Camp:
You know, knowing which deer is the deer, really boils down to, for me, when you when you click that safety off and your your heart is about ready to jump out of your chest, if that doesn’t happen my suggestion would be to put the safety back on.
Almost immediately. You know I always say that as soon as that bullet hits the deer you know they’re dead. What what they do after that is is just a a function of the shock that their body is taking. In this case the deer took two and a half steps and and fell over. No struggle, nothing. You know I like, what I look for in a whitetail is a typical. I like the typicals. I don’t like the gnarly kind of mangled up racks. I like a typical. Coming here I wanted to add a a true 10-point frame that obviously had, you know, scored a little higher than my last whitetail from. I look for the symmetry and the mass. If you have those two things I think that’s what continues your journey in in white tail hunting.
At the stand site with Josh and outfitter Greg Lavoie:
Josh: Every freaking deer that came to the bait today came down here.
Greg: Well there’s a scrape right here.
Josh: Well that 10.
Greg: Was he working the scrape.
Josh: He hung around here for probably a good hour and 15 minutes and made scrapes everywhere went back in the woods came back out to the bait ate a little and then he walked down here. Didn’t you know wind me or anything. Every one of those deer came back here and they did this deal.
Greg: That’s awesome. Not the one you shot though.
Josh: He came out of the corner of the woods over there.
Greg: Cool. Well let’s go have a look at him. I’m excited to see which one it is.
Josh: There’s a little ridge back there that they all came from. This one came out in this corner and that nine came out right here, he chased him away.
Greg: Congratulations buddy. Congratulations.
Josh: From here we walked, yeah he just walked basically like this didn’t jump or anything. Walked over here and fell over. That’s my new measuring trick.
Greg: The bases yeah.
Josh: The ears right there.
Greg: He’s got hecka mass.
Josh: He’s freaking awesome.
Greg: Right on.
Josh: He might not be as old as I originally thought but he had a little bit of a swale and he’s got a big old gut.
Greg: Probably five and a half.
Josh: Shoulders dive right into his chest
Greg: Yeah I mean you’re 100 plus, but I mean those things are shooting 600 yards, so at 110.
Josh: They’re supposed to be 2800 ft per second.
Greg: And what were you, 110 yards roughly.
Josh: 103 yards to that bale.
Greg: Oh perfect.
Back at camp:
So my choice of weapon was a a muzzle loader, it’s a 45 caliber, custom, Best of the West rifle. The accuracy of these rifles these days are unbelievable and you know what was really a primitive weapon to start you know that some of these muzzle are good out to 5-600 yards, although my shot today was not that far. They they give you a good piece of mind to make a make a good humane shot.
I think the accommodations here at Chaparral Hunting, you know again, it’s like family. Everybody’s open arms you know. I’ve I’ve talked to everybody, you know their family, and they had their daughters here a couple years ago. Great great other hunters in camp. Just a family setting. Everything is neat and clean, in order, well thought out, bedrooms are comfortable, bathroom amenities, kitchen, it’s just everything you need with all the comforts of home, but then when you get out in the bush, it’s the real deal.
You know maybe some things that people do when they’re seeking out a hunt of this type, you know, I’ve got Greg’s cell phone number. I mean, I can call him any time of the day, and I typically do. You just kind of get that warm feeling when you talk to Greg and anyone in his family, any of the guides, they’re really here for the success of the hunter and, you know want to build their business around return clientele. Obviously I’m going to go home and show pictures of this deer and and my buddies are going to want to go hunting and you know Chaparral Outfitters is where I’m going to tell them to go.
I would compare hunting whitetail here at Chaparral to to much like the the family setting that I do at home. There’s more of a wilderness element here. You do spend a lot of time out in the bush and you learn a lot of things when you’re out there. You know the the deer in this area grow big because they’re smart. They’re well taken care of, obviously the terrain and everything that Greg has here is a just a great atmosphere for big deer.
A couple of whitetail bucks that Josh passed on earlier in the day:
Josh Groen’s 2024 Saskatchewan Whitetail:
