IT was so cold my teeth even hurt. The temperature was –30F and it was way out of the comfort zone for a 21 year old Georgia boy. The slowly falling snowflakes resembled party glitter falling from the sky, but this was no party. I was sitting 25ft above the ground in a climax treestand trying to think of something warm and cozy to help pass the ever so slowly passing time. The only recreation my tired mind could find was to watch the crust of frost building bigger and bigger on Bill Jordan’s toboggan. We were hunting the Northern Saskatchewan brush country, and we had been at it for 13 straight days from daylight to dark. During that time I had reflected back on all of my lifetime of memories, from riding bikes as a kid, to my first date. I had relived every home run I had ever hit in baseball, and re-shot every deer and turkey I had ever killed up until this point. The most inconvenient thing to this reflecting was, that I had played back all of my memories of my life by the 6th day, so by now on the 13th day (excluding Sundays which in Canada is a no hunting day) I was seriously thinking about reconsidering my newly earned job as a realtree cameraman.

I stared out through the Canadian wilderness in hopes of seeing some movement. Bill and I had only seen 13 deer up to this point, and that was not for the day. It was for the whole trip, and two of these deer were those we had seen hung on the skinning pole back at camp. From our stand sight we could see around a 100 yards to the north down a shooting lane that had been cut through the thick brush. In the other directions our sight was limited to about 40 yards. The area we were hunting was littered with plenty of deer sign with scrapes, rubs, and trails all around us, but the deer were simply not moving. We had three other cameramen in camp trying to capture footage and hunts for our Realtree Outdoors television show and Monster Buck’s video series. Each of these cameramen had a hunter with them to do the shooting if a shooter buck showed himself. The hunters on the trip were Greg Olsen, a former Atlanta Braves catcher, Steve Bartkoski, former Atlanta Falcon quarterback, and Joe Drake, one our Realtree Pro-Staffers, and so far no one had gotten a shot at a good buck or even seen one for that matter.

It was now just after 12:00 noon and I quietly went for my sack lunch which consisted of four things that were all frozen harder than $5.00 worth of jaw-breakers—a moose meat sandwich, cheese crackers, a piece of carrot cake, and a five alive citrus drink. Boy oh Boy, times just don’t get any better than this. Just before I attempted to chip my tooth on my sandwich, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye---OH! God bless America, it was a deer, and a buck at that. I didn’t have to motion to Bill; he had already seen him and was going for his gun just in case it was a shooter. I got my camera focused on the buck through the thick brush and I could see it was a nice 130 class 8 point. Slowly the buck made his way closer to one of our shooting lanes. The reality of just seeing a deer was enough to almost bring a tear of joy to my eye, but this was still not the kind of buck we were looking for.

After taping the buck for several minutes I was very happy for at least having the opportunity to get some decent footage. Carefully, the buck worked his way through the maze of mangled brush as he made his exit from our area, and just before the 8point got out of sight I caught a glimpse of another rack on the other side of him. Now this buck appeared to be a lot larger than our first visitor and when he steped out into an opening he quickly confirmed my thought to be true. His gnarly rack had 9 points and a lot of mass to it. I could tell by his body size and posture that it was a mature deer and the best news of all he was heading in the same way the 8 pointer was going out. This meant if he kept coming Bill would get a 60 to 70 yard shot. I glanced over at Bill and he gave me a wink to let me know the safety was coming off. The buck looked to be in the high 140’s to low 150’s and before I knew it he was in our laps. My breathing began to increase causing my viewfinder on my camera to start to frost up. I knew it was time to earn my money, and I desperately fought off my nerves and concentrated on keeping the buck framed up and in focus while remaining steady as I possibly could. I felt good with the video I had gotten and on my signal, Bill squeezed the trigger on his Remignton 280 sending a Federal trophy bonded bullet through the brutes’ boilermaker. Within seconds I could hear the deer go down, and slowly the frozen Canadian wilderness went back to its eerie silence.

I could not believe it, after spending 13 days freezing our bottoms off, 10 minutes of one day turned everything around. It was the break we were looking for, and it was all over. We had captured what we needed. We had a television show and an awesome hunt for Monster Bucks IV. The rest of the week we shot interviews, opens, and closes for our show on TNN and even though Bill and I had a slight turn for the good. The rest of the group never got a shot or even saw a shooter buck.

In total with 4 cameras rolling all with hunters on the other side of them, we had probably 15 to 20 minutes of usable deer footage and one good kill. The total time we spent in the bush was 16 days. The result an awesome show for Realtree Outdoors, and 8 men ready for phsciatric treatment, including one 21 year old country boy from Georgia who on his first trip to Canada realized the reality of outdoor productions.

REALITY
When one watches a Realtree Outdoor production, whether it is an episode on Realtree Outdoors or on one of our video’s, it is natural to assume that there are critters under every tree in the areas we hunt, and that getting awesome footage comes easy to us. This assumption is far from the truth, however. Sure every now and then things come together in a fairly easy manner. On the particular trip I talked about earlier, it took 16 days of hunting to produce a quality television show. We have also had a few trips where in three days; we would have burned enough videotape to produce two television shows. But in reality it would blow most people’s mind if they knew how much time and effort is put into just one of our productions, much less a whole show season. Hours upon hours and days on end we spend in the field freezing or sweating our bottoms off trying to produce the most quality outdoor entertainment possible. It is true that every place we hunt has great potential, but potential does not mean it is canned or a slam-dunk. The word “potential” means so much when your hunting big game or trying to hunt record class animals. For instance, you can’t kill a monster buck in a particular area if there are no monster bucks living in the area your hunting—this is a very simple equation, and is the one we live by.

David Blanton is the executive producer at Realtree and one of his main jobs is to constantly research areas in North America for quality hunting. Obviously big whitetails are his number one focus. Once David has convinced himself that a particular area or outfitter might have the “potential” we are looking for, we will then go on what we call a feeler hunt just to check everything out. When one of these hunts pans out it can be outstanding. A good example of one that did is up in northeast Montana on the Milk River. David had been talking to good friend David Morris, who is co-owner of North American Whitetail Magazine, and he had expressed to David Blanton how it would be in our best interest to check out this part of the country for our videos. So taking a chance David set up a hunt with some local farmers, and an outfitter who had some property that they would allow us hunt on, and when our hunt started that year in late October we all were simply amazed at all the big bucks that we saw. We went on to video David Morris taking a 150-class 10 point and Bill Jordan missing one of the biggest deer he has ever seen. The Milk River in Montana to this day is still continuing to produce awesome hunts and bucks for the Realtree cameras. This was one of those feeler hunts that turned out to be a success, and by now through the exposure on our videos and television show it is all hunters’ dream to have an opportunity to hunt there. These successful hunts are the ones that show up on the productions, but it is the not so successful hunts that do not. So what the viewers see is the highlights and the good times of one particular hunt.

Looking for a quality hunt
Hunting across North America for whitetails, the biggest thing that I have realized is that a trophy buck is always relative to where you are hunting. I grew up and was introduced to deer hunting in the state of Georgia. Through my years as a hunter I have had the chance to take some good bucks in the Peach State, but comparing other parts of North America to my southern hunting ground would be like comparing apples to oranges. Certain areas across North America can offer different potential, as far as trophy whitetails are concerned. For instance, a Georgia hunter who has shot plenty of 120 inch 8 pointers, and still dreaming of shooting a 150 class deer is no different than a Texas hunter who has taken several 150 class bucks and is hoping for a 180 class deer. A local Kansas hunter might not even bring up his binoculars to look at a buck that most Pennsylvania hunters would give their left arm to shoot. Again, a trophy deer is always relative to where you are hunting and this is why an outdoorsman who is looking for his dream buck should be aware of where this deer could possibly be living.

In our productions we try to show viewers not only the deer in a particular area, but also the geography and how to attack it in a hunting situation. Not everyone would enjoy sitting in a shooting house in South Texas with the hot sun glaring down looking down a long sendero in hopes of seeing a whopper buck. Likewise, some hunters could not fathom hunting Canada. Sitting daylight to dark in sub zero temperatures could drive a lot of whitetail enthusiast to the nut house. So, far all these reasons if you are looking for a hunt of lifetime, the proper research should be done to ensure a quality hunt. Do not ever take anything for granted or any leaf unturned. Always know exactly what you are looking for in a hunt. Not only what kind of buck that might satisfy your desires, but also the conditions and the environment that you would like to hunt him in.

One thing to remember and not lose focus on is that a mature whitetail buck is one of the most elusive and wary of all big game animals. There is never a guarantee when hunting under fair chase conditions. All you can ever do is try and put yourself in an area that holds candidates that suit your fancy. From there on out it is all in the hands of you, Mother Nature, and a little luck.

Until then rest assured that we here at Realtree Outdoor productions will continue to research and try to find the best Monster bucks hot spots all across North America. Where ever your dreams and thoughts of big bucks takes you, we wish you the best always.