Alberta Deer Results Are Surprisingly Good

The bad winter that hit the Canadian province of Alberta two years ago was expected to be bad news for this past fall's deer season. But, surprisingly, it wasn't. In fact, the fall 1998 season was nothing short of fabulous for a lot of outfitters. Why...? It took a conversation with outfitter Scott Taylor to begin to understand why the deer in Alberta this year sported such great headgear. Seems Taylor had famed whitetail deer hunter and biologist, David Morris, hunt with him this year. While he was there, Morris aged some of the bucks in camp. What he found was that a large number of three-year-old bucks had racks scoring as high as 160 points B & C, or even higher. These racks were on deer with body sizes unusually small for such antlers. Older bucks - those that made it through the bad winter two years ago - were filled out and covered with stickers and drop tines like never before. Morris' theory is the bad winter itself two years ago may have helped create these outsize antlers by improving the herd structure and the available nutrition. He believes next year may be even better than 1998 if there is no winter kill. To be sure, there was a wild card this year that may or may not come into play next year - namely, unseasonably warm weather. It didn't seem to hamper deer movement while making it much easier for hunters to sit in stands for long hours. Some years, the extreme cold makes stand hunting almost impossible in Alberta.... Be that as it may, the province simply outdid itself in producing huge bucks this year. And make no mistake, the word is out about 1999 possibly being a good year. If you want to lock up a booking, now is the time to get moving. To help you do that, here's a quick overview of what some major outfitters took this past season and what they have on tap for next:

A good place to start is with Scott Taylor. He says several of the bucks he took this past year........(continued)