First trip to Saskatchewan, looking for advice

Vol1975 said:

Was in Ontario couple years back. We been hunting up their for years. Been about 10 years ago and my 70 year old dad got a ticket for walking back to the truck after dark with the gun loaded and not in a carting case. He argued with the mounts that he wasn't walking back to the truck with the amount of wolves he has seen over the years hunting. Heck if I recall we seen more wolves that year than we ever seen. Ended up not hunting that spot again. We were outside of Dryden a fair bit.
Anyway that's what he told us and what the locals told use how they do it with a cheap gun sock for a carting case.

How the mount found us is the most curios. Heck u don't even hear a shot let alone see other hunters where we were at.

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Update: encased and unloaded per their law.

Interesting!! I know Manitoba does not have such a law, just can't fire outside of legal daylight hours.
That's definitely province specific.

One last thing about border crossing. If you're driving, clean out your truck top to bottom looking for anything that resembles a cartridge. Under your seats and cracks and crevices. They can be rough about loose ammo that wasnt declared. Even 22 rimfire cases will get slant eye looks. If you're flying make sure if you're using a bag you take to the range as a carry on that its washed well. I set off one of those auto sniffer stations with a bag I regularly used at the bench rest at home. When they started digging there was a loaded 22 round jammed down into a seam at the bottom. After several hours of questions, stern looks and invasive searching I was denied entry and sent home. I was glad to go too. I wanted to go all Jason Bourne on them but decided against that plan since the U.S. has a pretty easy extradition treaty with Oh Canada. Figgered I'd better save my Ninjy skills for someone that needed ninjying. Learn to speak Canadian by clipping your vowels short. Learn that "ya" has many uses. Ya can be yes, or it can mean you. I.E. Ya, da deer've bean aboot but ive not seeeen any shootin books. Translates to ...yes, the deer have been around but i didnt see any shooter bucks. Or...did ya havta take de udder flight cuz the wetter was bat? Trans: did you have to take the other flight because the weather was bad? Or...did ya dey goo bat from dat stan der. Trans: did your day go bad from that stand over there. They say Canada like Con a daah.

Read the laws and understand. Read what these guys have posted. Learn from our experiences and yours will be pleasant. To be honest if you go in with all the proper paper work it will been fine. Just follow the laws. Their rules their country. You are just a guest.


As a mount told my 70 year old dad you ain't in Dixie.

Here's some reading on requirements for bringing firearms into Canada. I would also familiarize myself with bringing them back into the US from Canada. Again, your outfitter should be able to help you with this.

Import and Export a Firearm or Weapon into Canada
Firearm Users Visiting Canada
Bringing Firearms Into Canada

take 1-2 warm shirts and have small pockets sewn in the back inside over kidneys and put hand warmers in them in the morning. Put another in front pockets. Really works well.

i spent 8 yrs in Saskbush on a ranch in the fall and hunting the 5 week rifle deer season. a lot of good advice has been given, but i don't agree that the mickey mouse boots are the warmest. i experimented with 2 other guys one week, we all had the same size boots and would put one type on one foot and a different on the other foot every day. we all agreed the mickey boots were the coldest with the big pac boots being the warmest. i used the big boot blankets over them when it was very cold.
the subject of cleaning the inside of your bolt has been mentioned and with good reason, i've seen several guys rifles not fire when sighting in and it was only around zero. place your rifle and ammo in a freezer at least over night to find out 2 things. will the gun fire and will it hit where it's supposed to. most blame their gun impacting a different spot on the baggage handlers, and yes, they take great pride in handling gun cases with the utmost gorilla tactics, but the true cause of the scope being off is the temperatures. and it's not the scope but gun just changes POI when it gets cold.

hesse said:

If you're in a box blind I would take a mr. Buddy propane heater. It is totally different sitting in cold weather then it is moving in cold weather

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I live and hunt in Saskatchewan, nipawin, a good bit north of where the op is hunting. Absolutely you need to decide if you plan on sitting and waiting all day or walking around. The same weather and clothes can see you get so cold you start to get reeeaaallly sleepy and stop caring about anything or have me drenched in sweat (walking through snow makes it more work as well). I don't actually have any under armour or anything like that but think it'd be a good idea. The worst is when you walk a good ways to where you're waiting spot it, work up a sweat, and then just sit still, only with wet clothes under your jacket. Very cold very fast.

bobeng said:

I never expected to see so many well informed Saskatchewan hunters and a lot of good advice. I would add that getting off the well traveled areas is also a plus, as often there can be more and one hunting team in a field.

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As a sask hunter, I suspect there's way more hunters here per capita than most places in North America. It's a province of barely a million people in an area larger than Texas, it's a lot more rural/small town than most provinces and states, and to be honest, probably due to long distances and few people, there isn't as much to do as many other places. The town where I live is an outdoorsmans paradise but if you're not into that it is a crushingly boring place to live at times.

Any chance your booked with Spirit Creek Outfitters?

Some little bits of advise from my experience living here: I won't recommend any particular brands or anything like that, I never use anything fancy or expensive and I've always been fine. Your two greatest concerns should be your hands and feet. They get cold faster than anything else on you by far (ears too I guess but keeping those covered doesn't take much though/is pretty hard to screw up).

Hands - when it's really cold, wear mitts, not gloves. Gloves are not enough and they're not even any more handy. The kind of gloves that might be warm enough to do the job are also going to by necessity be thick enough that you'll need to take them off to pull a trigger, no different than a mitt, not as warm tho.

Feet. If there was a single piece of hunting equipment, we're talking guns, ammo, clothing, knives and such, all of it, that I would say you absolutely cannot get away with using if it's not good, no cheaping out, no compromising, it's your footwear. The most important piece of winter clothing you'll buy is your boots. Lousy jacket? Cram enough sweaters and long underwear underneath it and you'll be fine (I have in fact done this and been fine). Mitts arent warm enough? It's not ideal but you can cram your hands into your pockets or even right under your shirt against your body for a bit if you find you're in trouble. Again, I have done this in unprepared moments, you'll really grit your teeth when your ice fingers touch your warm torso. But if your feet start to freeze you're out of luck, no tricks, it's just over, you need to just be done for the day and get somewhere warm. Make a point of buying boots a size larger than you wear so you can comfortably wear big wool socks in them.