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The Strawberry Creek Buck I must have asked Jim Rae, the owner of Trophy Quest, at least 50 questions about his outfitting business and what to expect. To my surprise, his straightforwardness and honest answers made me decide to book with him. Unfortunately, he was already booked for 2004, but took down my phone number just in case there was a cancellation. Two weeks later, my dreams came true when Jim phoned and told me I was in. The next few months I prepared for my trip to Canada. As each day passed, I could hardly contain my excitement. At last, I arrived in Edmonton and spent the night at the hotel. The next morning we left for camp, which was about an hour away. I met the rest of the hunters, and it was a day to relax and talk deer hunting. Jim talked to each one of us and told us the game plan. That night’s sleep did not come easy. The next morning, we had breakfast waiting for us and Bret, my guide, was ready to hit the trail. He had great personality and new his territory well and the deer that called it home. During the drive to my stand, Bret informed me that with the warm weather the deer likely wouldn’t be moving much. He dropped me off at my stand which was overlooking a barley field, where I later saw several does but no bucks. Bret called me before noon to see how I was doing and decided to move me to a new location. He then set me up in a creek bottom, which had good deer movement. I sat there for a couple of hours, but didn’t see a single deer. Bret called me again just after 2:00 pm. He told me he had spotted a big buck the night before and wanted to set up on him early at that location. Upon my arrival, I saw bales scattered throughout the barley field. Bret instructed me to go to a set of bales and get comfortable. He told me that the buck would likely come from the big bush adjoining the field. Time slipped away as I spotted movement at the edge of the bush about 500yds away. It was a doe, and she was followed by 11 other does. When they looked back towards the bush it happened-my binoculars revealed a big 5x5 standing at the edge. He walked towards the does which were now 300yds away. The buck’s antlers were high and outside his ears. I was really excited, but then the buck stopped and looked over his shoulder. I couldn’t believe it! A bigger buck walked out of the bush. This whitetail had the biggest antlers and body I had ever seen. As he started moving towards the other buck the tension mounted. The first buck took off running with the bigger buck chasing him. When they pulled up and looked down an old road that was close to my field, I couldn’t believe my luck as a truck was coming towards them. As the truck got closer, the pair took off running again this time towards me. Then the big buck turned and both bucks stopped as the truck disappeared down the trail. With the bigger buck now 200yds away my 308 barked. It was a direct hit and the buck only went 30yds before he collapsed. I was so excited I forgot about the rest of the deer and fumbled with the radio to call Bret. Reaching the buck, my fateful guide couldn’t believe its size. All he could muster was “Bruce you shot yourself a record book buck”. We both stood in awe at the size of the Alberta whopper. With great mass, my buck ended up scoring 180 solid inches. Thanks Trophy Quest what a great hunt. Bruce Jones |
I’ve been a whitetail hunter most of my life. My father used to take me and my two brothers to Fort Rucker Military Reserve, which was close to our home near Enterprise Alabama. There he taught us the fundamentals of hunting. Hunting was great, but the only problem was the trophy bucks were non-existant.If anyone shot a 130-class whitetail, hunters from far and wide would want to see this rare species. I had always wanted to go to Canada, and after a lot of researching and calling outfitters, I decided to check out TROPHY Quest Outfitters.