Biggar
Buck of the Year
by Steve Ostapiw
1/06 Biggar, Saskachewan, Canada
I was first introduced to hunting when I was around 8 yrs old
by my dad who was in need of a couple of good kids to push bush
around where I grew up North Battleford,Sask,Canada.
I shot my first deer at the age of 13. I have shot a number of
really nice whitetails and mule deer in my 35 years of life. The
biggest whitetail was around 135 typical and the biggest mule
was around the 190 non-typical.
Some really nice deer in Saskachewan,Canada as I'm sure you've
all heard of the Hanson Buck which just so happened to shot
a mere 8 miles east of where I shot my deer.
I work for CNR as a conductor and also own my own construction/renovation
business so I'm kept real busy with that and I really have to
struggle to make time to hunt and fish.I also enjoy hunting
upland game birds and fishing for Walleye and Pike.
So about the story, I had been hunting for 3 weeks and had shot
3 mule deer does for meat. I had seen a couple nice Whitetail
buckks but so had everyone else so there was an aweful lot of
preasure from other hunters so the bucks were becoming pretty
wild.
I went out on Dec.1/05 by myself and decided to head north and
west(an area that I'm not that familar with) I was going to keep
drving until I filled my tag because there was only a couple of
days left in the season and I was getting sick of all the hunters.I
was in my truck driving down a grid road at 9:00 am when I saw
a whitetail doe standing in a slough bottom.I decided I as going
to tag out on a doe so I kept driving until I was out of site
from her. I parked my truck, left it running so as to try to draw
attn. away from the sound of my footsteps(we just had a fresh
skiff of snow the night before) I loaded my Parker Hale 30-06
and headed towards her. I crossed a fence and walked over a small
hill, I couldn't see the doe but 350 yards away there he was standing
broadside looking at me.I raised my gun to my shoulder and scoped
him for a good 10 seconds(which felt like eternity)to make sure
it wasn't a mule deer then sqeezed the trigger. I heard that ever
satisfing "WHOMP" so I knew that I had hit him. He ran
for about 200 yards and dropped.I had hit him through the bottom
of his lungs so I was rather pleased with myself at that distance.
The walk back to my my truck was more like the hundred yard dash.
Once I got back to my truck my foot was shaking so bad, I couldn't
step on the gas pedal.once I settled down a little,I gutted and
went back to Biggar (where I call home) and picked a freind of
mine to come out and help me load him.
When Igot back to town with him in my truck ,I had alot of people
stopping to take a look at him. I took him to big buck night in
Biggar on the Saturday after the season closed and won biggest
buck which got me a free head /shoulder mount. so to say the least
I'm very proud and feel very lucky to have been at the right place
at the right time.
I will continue to hunt ,although I don't know if I will ever
see another like this guy in my scope again. But here's hoping!!!!!
Thanks for all the great stories guys and gals.
Keep shooting' straight, Steve
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