Mark's blog

June 6

05-06-2013

Back from the camp after another sucessful bear season. We had 6 hunters in with everyone shooting a bear. We did go over 50% for colored bears as well. Some beautiful rugs for sure! There was a few monsters that were on camera and seen as well. I will post a few biggies that we didn't get. Wait until next year I guess!

Mark

May 17th

17-05-2013

Well just got back from the camp setting up for the bear season. The baits were already hit after being out for only a couple of days. Seen lots of deer up in the forest, which is a good thing after the long winter! I was a bit scared that I may not see to many. The boys and dad helped me put out about 10 baits and I am excited to see what's going to come in. Some of the area hasn't been hunted in a long time! I will keep you posted!

May 1st

01-05-2013

Hello everyone, very late spring conditions this year. In fact still waiting for the snow to melt so that I can start bear baiting! Still have some spots open for the May 23rd week, tell your friends. Deer are doing ok considering all the snow, thank god for wolf trappers! The thick pines help the deer get through the deep snow ans cold conditions. Hopefully start building the new garage soon! Keep you update with pics on the bear hunt.

April 4th

04-04-2013

Spring is here and finally the snow is melting! Deer had to be hardy this year, but they didn't do as bad as I figured. Lots of snow but also lots of wind, just had BIG drifts. Looking froward to the bear season and we have a week full with a couple spots that are still open. If you guys know anyone looking for a spring bear hunt, this will be a good year. I don't really run hunts unless there is enough guys, or it's not worth it for he. I am excited to get back to some of the areas we haven't hunted in a while, see what kind of bears we can get! They have had alot of time to GROW!

March 3

03-03-2013

Well I am finally moved into our new house. It was looking like spring was going to come early, but we got another blast of snow/winter. There is alot of snow this winter and I hope our deer will winter okay. The lodging is a bit of a saviour packing down the snow and giving the deer tree tops to feed on. I will depend on the rest of the winter. Looks like we are going to be doing some bear hunting this spring. We have one week and possibly two booked for May. Looking forward to it. We are going to be building our new shop this spring/summer as well. Talk with you later!

Dec 11th

11-12-2012

Well we have finished another season. It was quite the season at that. We started the season with 12 inches of snow that bend every little tree and branch down on all our trails! We had to do alot of trail trimming just to get back to baits and stands that we put up in Oct. That snow also destroyed about a third of our tent blinds that we had up. The heavy snow crushed them! We had one four wheeler burn to the ground, another crankshaft went, and one starter seize the engine. Then in the start of the second week have the garage and skinning sled burn down! You don't know how much stuff you have until you lose it all in a fire. Not good timing at all!

Anyway, I am very proud of our returning clients and some new ones, as they held out for BIG deer not just a deer! Excellent management from all. It's their deer as I tell them, one more year makes a huge difference on their head gear! Thanks for the effort! LET THEM GO, LET THEM GROW!

I will post pics here shortly!

Oct 24th

24-10-2012

Sorry again for delay! Really busy with season around the corner! Just finished final touchs to the stands and blinds. Ready for the season to begin! Only took out the one camera, had to have a look. Winter is early so far! We have almost a foot of snow! I am sure the deer will be trashing the baits now. Just a few pics to look at so far.

Aug 29th

29-08-2012

Still crazy warm up here in Canada! Harvest for the farmers is going to be early this year. We still have a few spots open for the third week. Let me know if you saw the Buckmasters show with us on it from last year. We don't get the wildlife channel up here. Seen some BIG mulie bucks around my work. May have to play hookie and try and get one. LOTS of rain around the camp, starting to get excited about the up and coming hunt!

Aug 2nd

02-08-2012

Well we are settling into our rent now, waiting for our house to be built. Cindy and myself were up at camp a couple of weeks ago and did some more work to the basement. That will be ready for this fall. Deer are in good shape with lots of rain and hot weather. I took Cindy out onto Island Lake(for all of you who know) and she out caught me in the pike fishing department. We also had water bombers landing beside us and filling to fight a fire that was not to far away. It that pretty cool having them fly just over the tree tops above us! Anyway the first Buckmaster show that we are on is Aug 22nd. Watch for yourselfs on the show. Later.

July 3rd

03-07-2012

Happy Independance Day for everyone tomorrow. We are now moved finally. Thanks for your patience. Well we only killed one bear this spring and it was a friend of mines boy, Brendan! Congrads on your first bear! Should be some monsters next year! Deer have been out in our field and are looking good! Growth looks above average. Our show should be airing on Buckmasters this Aug. Looking forward to it. We may have Rob Alcott or Bill Sawyer doing the Buckmasters Expo for us this year. So if you go to that Expo, look for our booth! Take care.

June 13

13-06-2012

Went with kids to camp for weekend. Took some friends with us as well. We managed to get average bear for my friends 13 year old boy. He made a perfect shot and recovered the bear in 20 yards. I will put up a pic here shortly. Sorry for delay on the hunting books, changing addresses and houses is not easy with 3 boys! 

April 27

27-04-2012

Went up to camp last weekend to check up on everything and all is good. Snow was gone and now the spring rains are here. Just working on moving from medicine hat to Langdon right now. Also went to work out the next couple of years of logging with forestery guys. Told them I want some better road closures for the area. Have to get all that destroyed timber out , no good for anything ! Starting baiting in couple days for some late bear hunters coming this year. C you later!

April 6

06-04-2012

Happy Easter everyone! We are having one final blast of winter right now. Little bit of snow coming down. It's been beautiful other than that though. Looking forward to the up coming spring bear season. I know I keep saying that, but I really mean it! Take care!

March 21

21-03-2012

The weather has turned warm again here. Looking forward to spring black bear. Always fun and exciting. Looking at moving out to calgary area, house is for sale here in Medicine Hat. We are getting more and more interest from our Canadian hunters! Not really interested in guiding someone who can come up on their own after I show them the "Honey Hole" ! Anyway take care for now, and here is a pic of everyone hard at work, except me! Ha ha. Dad with Milo and Ed.

Feb 26th

26-02-2012

Well we are starting to get a "winter". About 8 inches of snow and temps around -!5 C . If this is what we get for the winter, we will take it! Everything is pretty much the same around here. Going up in March - April to finish basement in bulk house. Looking forward to doing a little bear hunting myself this year. Need one for the lodge! Later!

Feb 7th

07-02-2012

Made it back from SCI convention in Las Vegas. Good show LOTS of booths. Not to many from Saskatchewan though. Sparked lots of interest and met some good people. Thank goodness Cindy and dad were there to help. It's a long day on your feet! Went to a few shows while we were there. Weather is still very seasonal for around here. Still good news for the deer.

Jan 22

22-01-2012

Just went through a cold snap here. Got around the minus 30 mark. Only lasted about a week and is starting to warm up again. Nice weather for our deer herds for sure. Weird year last season for the deer harvest. A very low average for horn growth! Nothing big really at all. Sure the old big one gets put down, but all in all very poor. They figure a late spring and unseasonally dry! Not much frost in the ground this year, so far. Going to the safari club expo in las vegas with Cindy. Looking forward to the holiday. No kids this time! Yeh.

Dec 30th

30-12-2011

Just got back from Whistler with Cin and the kids! Mom and Dad met us there at Todd's as well. Had great snowboarding with everyone. It snowed about 20 cm everyday. A contrast from the hunt camp as there is no snow out there. Well good for the deer so far! Going to work on the Jan 3rd. Talk to you later.

Dec 17th

17-12-2011

As you can guess, we are done for the 2011 season. The last three guys got there deer. One scored in the 165 to 166 range with the other one in high 140's for a nine. The other was a young 10 point. Talking with many other outfitters at the end of the season, and I was correct in saying that the horn size was down this year. We figure that the dry spring didn't provide the nutrition for good horn growth! Well not much you can do with that I guess. Just hope for a better season next year!

Had a good group of hunters again this year! It was a hard season for the guides though. Everyone was working hard to try and get some big deer like the 2010 season. Well if you don't get the books that we send out, give me a call. I know that some got lost in the mail again last year. Happy Holidays everyone!! Talk at you soon. 

Nov 30

30-11-2011

Just got home yesterday from the lodge. We have a little snow there but not much. The weather was mild for the most part. Talking with dad daily to see how they are making out with the last three hunters. One guy killed a big 10 point that scores around the 165's.

The season was pretty much a success but we did notice that the deer seemed to lack the normal growth in their horns. I would say at least 5 to 10 percent. We killed a few mature big bodied deer that should have had more tine length or beam length or mass! Some should have had longer brow tines! We did get 165, two 164's, 163, and a few in the 150's though. Just no monsters this season. Mind you you put 10 percent more growth on a 165 and you would have gotten deer in the 180's! Well more for next season I guess.

Cindy and myself will be attending the SCI convention in Las Vegas on Feb 1st, so come say "Hi" if you are around! Mark and Chris from BuckMasters did get two deer for the camera's. This will be airing around the July or Aug TV season. I will keep you posted at the end of the week to see how the season ended.

Sept 26 th

26-09-2011

Well put another week up at the camp. Worked hard on the basement again (looking good). Did some bear hunting in our field. Ha Ha. Ayden, Kohen, and myself put a good stalk on a bear and got within 40 yards. We got a clean miss as Ayden tried shooting the .270 maybe a little big for a 7 year old! Put out a couple of stands for the season. Have about 160 to 170 in field. Dad seen him and I have a trail pic of him. I still have it on camera and forgot to bring it home to display. I will put it up later. Here are my helpers!

Aug 28th

29-08-2011

Been a while since I updated this. We have been working hard on finishing the basement of of the lodge. It will give us another 3 bedrooms, another full washroom, and an entertainment room. The deer are looking healthy and seen some nice bucks! We did get a nasty plow wind that crushed down alot of trees in the one area. Call we any questions if you guys have them! Later

July 7th

07-07-2011

Hope everyone had a great weekend! Weather has been great here for the last week. Took Ayden and Kohen to the camp to do some chores! Grass was very long! Went fishing, but the fishing was slow at Chitek . We ended up at island Lake where Ayden had about 15 to 20 pound Pike to the boat and snap his line before we could get it in the boat! Good times. We are still working on the basement trying to get it done before deer hunters arrive.

Take care everyone and enjoy your summer!

May 30th

31-05-2011

Another successful bear hunt under our belt. Dad and myself have also been busy finishing the bulk house basement. Want to have that finished for the deer season. Put another three bedrooms and full bathroom in there as well! It will give us another gathering room for telling our deer stories! Ha ha . The deer are looking healthy, didn't even see any winter kills. I imagine a few sircome to the wolves. That's what makes big deer! I will post some of the bears here shortly. Have a good memorial weekend everyone!

April 27th

28-04-2011

Hello everyone! Nice to see that spring has sprung! We are currently putting our bear baits out. Had the family out to the lodge for Easter and helping mix up bear baits. For all you guys that didn't get your 2010 deer hunting booklet, let me know. I will try and get another one out to you guys.

March 14

14-03-2011

Talked with Milo to see how the weather is doing up around camp. He said that you could wear your sneakers in the forest up until end of Feb. They have about average snowfall right now, but the weather is starting to melt the snow now. Not far from spring! That's a good thing for our deer pop. I will be up there putting out minerals for the animals as soon as I can get around the forest. Those big clearcuts sure help the deer get through the winters as well. Well Mom and Dad are starting there journey home from the warmer US states. Take Care everyone!

March 9

08-03-2011

Just got back from Mexico. Had a wonderful time with the family. Our little guy Ethan got sick for the first few days but powered through it! My best part of the trip was going fishing with my family. We catch 7 barricuda which was a blast to catch. We did the best out of all the boats at the pier. Just listened to what my guide told me to do! Ha Ha. Here are a few pics!

Feb 21

20-02-2011

On the road again working. Taking the family on a trip to Mexico on Wednesday. Time to get out of this cold weather! Below average for snowfall at the camp. Lucky because southern area's are getting above average snow. The groundhog didn't see his shadow, so should be an early spring. If you are thinking about coming hunting this season, you will want to get ahold of me as we are filling up! Here is a pic to for our up in coming season. We have a few guys coming this bear season. Also a few new guys. Already ordered our beavers for bait.

Jan 20

19-01-2011

Now that the Whitetail season is done, we are now thinking about and booking for the 2011 Spring Bear hunt. We recently posted a special for groups of 4 or more, call me for more info.

Jan 16th

16-01-2011

Well its winter here in southern Alberta. Lots of snow here, it's called the Alberta Clipper. The camp didn't get any of this snow, good for the deer! Thanks for all the positive feedback to other hunters, as we are getting more inquiries. Can't wait to see  what 2011 season will bring.

Dec 24th

24-12-2010

Merry Christmas everyone! I'm at home right now with the family to enjoy the holidays. There is nothing more exciting than watching the kids getting ready for santa! Getting lots of calls for the 2011 deer hunt. The good season we had didn't hurt that matter. Hoping the continue that for the 2011 season.

Dec 5th

06-12-2010

Haven't been able to get on to update. Where do I start! The 2010 deer season turned out to be one of the best we have had for years! It was nice to have had this for the returning guys from the last season. They deserve it after last seasons. I think that the winter kill that we had in 2007 winter helped sweep the genetics and the deer are back to the old day qualitity!

We killed one deer over 200 inches which is great! Nicew to see that we have that potential to have that size of deer. We have never killed so many deer with droptines! We think that the nice winter and wet spring helped the deer grow some awsome bone! Our friend George killed a deer with a 13" droptine the size of your fist. One in a lifetime. We have some great bucks on our trail cameras and I will start a gallery just for those deer. The crazy thing is that we killed only 3 of the bucks on camera's, the rest of the deer on the camera pics are still running around out there. I will stop now and keep you updated! Brian please send me a picture of your deer so I can put it on the gallery. Later Mark

Oct 24th

25-10-2010

Forgot to update as the season is nearing. We have been baiting since mid Sept. and have the camera's out. Getting some good pic's back. I will have more shortly as we bring the camera's in. Here are a few quick one's to show the how healthy the deer are. A couple new one's showing the potential and one older deer.

Here is some pic's from the bridge building that we had to do to get to some of the baits. I have quite the story for this one! Here is the start!Midway!

And three hours later, DONE!!!

Sept 19th

19-09-2010

Sorry for the delay in updating the blog, REALLY busy here! We just finished our first week of bird hunting. Alex, Mike, Dave, and Mark did good shot lots of birds. We had one tough day where the birds didn't show up?! Did get a few. Around Leoville and the lodge we received 4 inches of rain in a couple of days. LOTS of water lying around here, feel bad for the farmers! We had to walk or use ATV's to get into the fiel ds to hunt. We have some hunters coming on Wed. let you know what's happening. Dad started putting up stands. Look at the bird dog we got as well!

Aug 23

23-08-2010

Sitting here in the airport waiting to catch my next plane to toronto. Dad and myself just finished the Expo for Buckmasters in Montgomery and had a very good response with our booth. Lots of interest and got to see some long past friends. We also got a very good support crew to help us with our booth. Thanks again  Bill, Rob, Jim,Ken and Dole. We also got to revisit our friends from the Buckmasters TV show Jackie, Mark, and Elliot. Here are a few pics from the show.

July 29

29-07-2010

Hello everyone, back from our family holidays and ended up back at work in Saskatchewan. Oh well at least the holidays were priceless! I will return your calls I have missed. Sorry didn't have alot of good cell service or internet. Perfect! Here are some pics.

The kids talked us into the 75 feet swing.  Of course Mom had to go if they did.

July 4th

05-07-2010

Happy Fourth of July to everyone! Hope you are enjoying sometime with your families! I'm still working down in Estevan, SK. Going to be home with my family come Wednesday to celebrate Kohen's 5th Birthday. We are going on a family vaction after that for 12 days, so I won't be around until the end of July. Life's to short to be working all the time! Here is our growing little guy Ethan!

June 24th

24-06-2010

Just got back from the hunting camp with the kids. Had a great time! Happy beladed Fathers day everyone! Here are some pics from our weekend.

Fishing was a bit slow, but we caught a few!

It was hard to get the kids away from their busy schedule, but I managed!

June 6th

06-06-2010

Well I'm down in southern Saskatchewan working right now. It hasn't stopped raining here. I'm hoping our deer plots are growing with all the rain they are getting up there as well. Here are just a few pics from last year!

May 30

31-05-2010

Well Billy and Kelby were the only bear hunters we had for the spring season. The weather was hot and the bears were holding a bit tight. The guys did see bears and both scored with their bows! Congrads guys!

May 10th

10-05-2010

Just got back from camp. Weather was beautiful and snow is long gone. Trees are turning green and grass is starting to grow. Topped up the baits with the kids, Cindy, and dad. Baits were hit hard! Planted alpha alpha in the field at the lodge. Lots of deer running around feeding off the new green grasses. Put out minerals and salts for wildlife. Here are some pics from the camp.

May1

01-05-2010

Talked with Milo and he is staying positive along with this family. Thanks for all you who shared your condolences with him. Talked to dad and he started baiting for the guys coming this season. We received some late snow and it is muddier than hell up here! I will post some pics from baiting here soon. I am going up to camp in about a week. Later.

April 22

21-04-2010

For all you who were trying to get ahold of me, I am back at home after beening in Disneyland with my family. I have some unforunte news to share with you guys that know Milo our guide and friend. Elaine (Milo's wife) lost her battle with a brain tomber and has pasted on. We are very sorry for Milo and family's loss. All of you who know Milo, know he's a very strong man and is trying to stay positive on such a negative situation. All our thoughts and prayers go out to him and his family!

April 10th

11-04-2010

I am currently writing this from a hotel room in Swift Current SK. Working right now and itching to get up North to have some fun and see what is going on up their. Looks like Billy and a friend are coming bear hunting at the end of May. We had a few big bears we seen last season and didnt get , may try for them. Should be a year BIGGER!

I would like to also try some new area that we havent hunted before. I will put baits at both places and see whats on the cameras and go from there! I will post some pics from the scouting cameras later.

New Web site

08-02-2010

We still have openings for the 2010 Whitetail deer season. The Nov 8th until Nov 13th is full. We have openings in Nov 15th -20th and Nov 22 - 27th.

We have been a little busy with our new baby boy Ethan Mark Schumlick. Looks like we are not going to have a shortage of future guides! The snow is melting up here in the North. (Not much to melt this winter). The deer are looking healthy and we are looking forward to a good deer season this fall!

Just got pics from Dad who was up at camp. There is no snow left up there right now. Great news to our deer herds. I think we shouldn't have any problems getting through the swamps this year!