Spruce Woods Revisited As mature whitetails often do, this buck materialized seemingly out of nowhere. One minute the snowy Manitoba meadow behind me was empty, but the next time I eased around for a look there stood a mahogany-racked 10-point buck! The buck was traveling along the edge of the grassy clearing and was just about to slip into a stand of poplars about 50 yards away when I first saw him. I was sitting down with my Prairie Panther longbow hanging on the spruce limb in front of me, and I let the buck get some cover between us before easing to a standing position, grabbing my bow, and sending a soft grunt in the buck's direction. The results weren't long in coming. Following the buck's advance was not difficult given the fact that his coat was a dark-chocolate color and his surroundings of snow and poplar trunks were nearly all white. In a matter of seconds the tall 5x5 stalked into a small opening at 21 yards and ghosted to a halt while looking for the challenger he had heard grunting moments before. Unfortunately, while the buck carried a good rack with tall points and a spread of perhaps 17 inches, he had the slightly built antlers of a young deer so I elected to pass on this opportunity. As the 130-class buck lost interest and melted away I resumed my vigil for the Canadian buck that I had come to see: huge body; massive, gnarly antlers; and the multi-tined, non-typical rack so common in these Northwood's giants. I was hunting with Darren Hendry and Jay Balbon of Spruce Woods Outfitters, which is located an hour and change west of Manitoba's capital city of Winnipeg. The Spruce Woods area is a mix of dense stands of spruce and tamarack, vast groves of poplars, small oak ridges, and grain and alfalfa fields situated along the Assiniboine River. To say that this is exceptional whitetail habitat would be a gross understatement! Spruce Woods Outfitters hunts both public and private land in the area, and what an area for big deer it is. The provincial record-typical buck, scoring 197 inches, was taken on a piece of private ground bordering the quarter section of land where Darren's lodge sits, and non-typical bucks in the mid-200-inch range have been harvested in Spruce Woods Provincial Park and Provincial Forest. Those are world-class deer! Regular readers of this column might remember a recent edition called "the Poplar Buck," which was written after my last visit to Spruce Woods. In fact, I rattled in that giant non-typical that was trailing an 8-foot poplar tree from the very same stand and across the very same meadow as mentioned in the opening story of this column. Obviously, with two years elapsed I wasn't really expecting the same giant buck to come charging in, but stickbow shooters are eternal optimists and dreamers anyway! Darren and Jay were sure the 190-class buck with matching drop tines had never been harvested, so at their invitation I headed north for another go at the big buck - hopefully with a more favorable outcome this time! Having just returned from a week of dawn 'til dusk sitting in cold, snowy stands I can report that the big one eluded me again this fall. But I can also report that I am even more enamored with the Spruce Woods area and hope to retun in the future for the chance to chase the big bucks that call this region home. Spruce Woods Outfitters runs an exceptional operation, which is based out of Darren's log-sided lodge in the heart of trophy deer country. Well-placed stands dot both public and private land within half an hour or so of the lodge, and all-day vigils are the rule so comfortable lodging and great meals are a necessity to keep hunters fueled up from day to day. Spruce Woods Outfitters spares no expense when it comes to the latter, hiring professional chef Dennis Hewitt of Beausejour, Manitoba, and I can honestly say that the cuisine alone is worth the price of admission! Of course, the huge Canadian bucks are the real reason for heading north in the first place, but the last week of October 2003 was a little slow in this regard despite cold and snowy conditions. Michigan bowhunter Kip Hummer arrowed his largest buck ever on the very first morning of the hunt after calling in the 120-class eight-pointer. I saw two good bucks during my week-long hunt, but they were not responding well to calling or rattling so I never had a chance to take the giant I was after with one of my longbows. But there's always next year!
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