Below is an excerpt from my feature article entitled “Buck Mountain Trophy Whitetails” which appears in the current issue of Outdoor Sportsman Magazine..
This ‘father & son’ piece is a personal one for me and a story I thought many of you hunters out there could relate to:
Buck Mountain Trophy Whitetails – Outdoor Sportsman (April/May issue)
The pursuit of white-tailed deer, for me, has always been a family affair; as I hail from a long line of accomplished Morrison deer hunters. My grandfather Alfred, I am told, was one of the best in the business. He would regularly guide hunters from Montreal and the United States on his homestead Quebec’s Laurentian mountains and at his hunt camp nestled at the foot of (appropriately named) ‘Buck Mountain’.
Although I never got the opportunity to know granddad personally, my father has shared enough of his deer hunting tales and prowess; I feel I know him well and probably even take after the man in many ways.
My father Rathwell certainly took after his old man, I’m happy to say, and began sharing his ‘inherited’ love of deer hunting with me at the tender age of 13. The year was 1980 when I was first immersed in the mountain deer hunt lifestyle- much like a Border collie pup surrounded in a camp full of experienced old dogs!
It was intimidating, to say the least, but I paid close attention and observed how my father and uncles pursued these wily old mountain deer – whitetails often described as too difficult to hunt.
I learned quickly and even managed to bag a buck on the very first season. It was a fine 8-pointer which I harvested with a single shot from granddad’s trusty old Winchester 30-30 Model 94. The same rifle Dad had taken his first buck with many years earlier and granddad before him. As if destiny the mountain family tradition was born!
As year’s passed, I continued to study the inner-workings of Quebec’s trophy mountain deer, while still hunting out of my grandfather’s buck mountain camp. In 1983 I faced my first beginner’s mistake, when an enormous 240 pound 12-pointer strolled out to me at a scant 70 feet. The buck was so huge and dark in colour I mistook it for a moose, and never even raised my rifle. Fortunately my uncle – Alfred junior – was there to show me how it’s done.
I learned a good lesson from that missed opportunity, and came back the following year to capitalize on a wide 11-point buck that dressed 213-pounds. With my confidence building, my family continued to take trophy-sized whitetail bucks at granddad’s camp. But we never talked about it much in an attempt to keep our good fortune a secret.
By 1996, 16 years of hunting with my father culminated in my ultimate moment of family mountain magic, when a one-of-a-kind 8.5 year-old whitetail made the mistake of getting too close. The beautiful 13-point animal I harvested that year called ‘old toothless’ became a BTR Provincial record at 141 4/8”, and remains Quebec’s number 1 in the Typical category.
Old toothless, by the way, was not my father’s first brush with record book history; as the province’s All-time Number 1 whitetail – known as the Hotel Buck – was chased out by Dad and taken by his friend Arthur Dobie in 1959. My father actually displayed the mount for many years at his hotel in Arundel, Quebec. That magnificent animal netted a whopping 207 5/8” Boone & Crockett – a record which still stands today; some 50 years later.
The family deer hunting tradition continued for my Dad and I through the new millennium and who would have thought his personal best deer would come after nearly 60 years of climbing the hills. In 2003, he bagged a beautiful 218 pound 11-pointer with an impressive 22” spread – a magnificent animal we are all extremely proud of. After that year, my father and I fell into what one might describe as a big buck rut, a condition which lasted 5 years.
Although we had the opportunity to take several smaller animals in that time, we chose to hold-out for something more noteworthy, something to properly rekindle the spark of that old mountain family tradition, and a run-of-the-mill whitetail just would not do.
After nearly 30 years of hunting together, and five long years of passing-up on lesser bucks, my Dad and I finally came together again in a big way. The mountain family magic had returned for one very special day we spent together in the fabled mountains of Quebec with our good friend Jim Bindon.
This year we headed to the nearby woods of Fairmont Kenauk in Montebello; where the stands of mature hardwoods and mountain peaks beckon. While pursuing the elusive whitetail trophy, setting is often considered universal; but as my father and I have discovered over the years, there’s just something unique about the mountains and crisp, cool northern air to set the stage for the another family deer hunt.
Each year we try our best to recreate the mountain family tradition and magic of taking big animals together. Although we’re not always successful as far as a trophy bucks go, after 3 decades of climbing the majestic Laurentian Mountains side-by-side, I’d say we have the magic part already sewn up!
For the rest of the story, pick up a copy of Outdoor Sportsman Magazine available at finer news stands across Canada!
Outdoorsguy