Hunting whitetail in the 412 & 417?

[jonesy88]

Hey there!

New hunter here, I am not expecting handouts or for people to tell me their secret spots. I realize I need to put the work in and learn as I go. I've been scouting the 412 & the 417. Ive seen some deer pellets & tracks, but not much. I've also made a few mistakes already with scent control but I'm learning...slowly :/ I have seen bears, one elk & one moose out there but no whitetail deer. I'm hiking in about 10kms, further? Is there any whitetail here? Do I need to go further north near Nordegg? How am I f#@king up? Thoughts? Tips?

[buckman]

Find a good vantage point over an area with deer sign, park your self and wait. Make sure the wind is right and you are not sky-lined.

Not many hunters see Elk in there so way to go on that.

[slough shark]

Hunting whitetail in the mountains is tough, it can be done but it is tough, Be off the road, hunt their food sources, they’ll probably be lower than the elk and mulies. As an FYI it’s normally easier to find whitetail in most of the rest of the province than a mountain zone with a long season close to Calgary. I’d probably focus on the least mountainy part of the zones.

[buckman]

I see plenty on Whitetails in the lower areas of the mountain zones,mostly in the valley bottoms and sidehills. The high mountains not so much,concentrate on the foothill areas.

[teberle]

I'm no expert but I did take my first whitetail last year in an area similar to where you're hunting. In the spot I hunted, there are many whitetails, but they are very "well-educated." I've never seen them in the open during the season except for during the first or last half-hour of legal light. My advice as a quasi-noob would be to find a cutblock that's starting to grow over but is still recent enough that you can see, find where the sign is (snow will help a lot with this), find a high point with some trees from which you can see where the sign is, and sit up there and wait until the absolute very end of legal light. Also, the weather we've been having recently seems not to be good for seeing them moving during legal light. When it gets colder they seem to be much more active, especially right after a snowfall. Maybe a better hunter can chime in here and either confirm that I'm right or tell me I'm full of it haha.

[KazIce]

Originally Posted by teberle

I'm no expert but I did take my first whitetail last year in an area similar to where you're hunting. In the spot I hunted, there are many whitetails, but they are very "well-educated." I've never seen them in the open during the season except for during the first or last half-hour of legal light. My advice as a quasi-noob would be to find a cutblock that's starting to grow over but is still recent enough that you can see, find where the sign is (snow will help a lot with this), find a high point with some trees from which you can see where the sign is, and sit up there and wait until the absolute very end of legal light. Also, the weather we've been having recently seems not to be good for seeing them moving during legal light. When it gets colder they seem to be much more active, especially right after a snowfall. Maybe a better hunter can chime in here and either confirm that I'm right or tell me I'm full of it haha.

He’s bang on the money here. First light and last light is everything for white tails outside of November. I have taken two bucks from 412 years ago. I don’t hunt there anymore, but my brother in law was in there a couple of weeks back and saw a decent white tail buck at last light. He was on the main road, so you don’t have to be super far off the road to find them.

15 yrs ago in 316 I hiked in the back hills all day and saw sweet f all. I was hiking back and I looked back and saw a white tail doe 400 yards down. She kept looking back. So I settled in. Doe, doe, then a buck! Harvested a nice 5x4. That’s when I learned it’s not about ground covered, but where you are.

My advice would be similar to what was said, find a good cut block or clearing and hunt it at first and last light. 412 is hunted hard so be in cover and hopefully you’ll close the deal.


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[jonesy88]

Thank you KazIce & Teberle. Great advice. I will put it into practice. A buddy of mine just bagged one in the 412, so I will keep attempting there until Nov 1st. Then I may try out in the foothill areas, as advised.

Thanks to everyone else who replied as well. I read everyone's messages. Lots of good advice.