A Remote Manitoba Whitetail Hunting Experience - Whiteshell Outfitters

Located in Manitoba’s rugged Eastern Region in the beautiful Whiteshell Provincial Park, you will find Whiteshell Outfitters. Owned and operated by Mike Adey, they have been showcasing hunting black bears, whitetail deer and wolves on the Canadian Shield since 1981.

One of the most unique opportunities that Whiteshell Outfitters offers is its remote tent camp, nestled in the middle of nowhere amongst whitetails that may have never seen a human before.

This hunt is so much more than even the whitetails you are hunting. The experience of being in that beautiful terrain, the argo ride out, and spending your days and nights in this remote wilderness is worth the trip alone. Let alone the opportunity to hunt mature whitetails all the while, which ices the cake.

The Journey to Whiteshell Outfitters & Remote Whitetails

The journey begins with a simple flight to Winnipeg on Saturday, the day before your Journey begins. Once you arrive, you will enjoy a comfortable stay at one of the many hotel options around the Airport. On Sunday morning, one of the guides will pick you up at the hotel, load up all your gear, and drive you out to Whiteshell Provincial Park to meet Mike at the Whiteshell Outfitters staging area. If you are driving up for the hunt, you can arrange to meet them at their designated staging area on Sunday.

At the staging area, the crew will load your gear onto the ATVs and Argo, and the trek to camp begins. This is the part of the journey that is truly unforgettable. Quickly, once you leave town, you will get a complete understanding of how wild this region of Manitoba is. Miles of swampy trails and stunning rock outcrops merge to create a landscape mosaic-like few others.

After about a two-hour journey, you will arrive at their remote tent camp, your home away from home for the week. Although the nature of a “tent camp hunt” is considered roughing by many, I assure you once you step foot in the camp, it is anything but with every luxury from home imaginable. After settling into camp, an excellent supper will be prepared, followed by getting everything ready for the morning’s hunt and a good night's sleep.

The Camp

Whiteshell Outfitters' remote whitetail camps, including the solid wood floor, are fully insulated. They have propane heat, lights, a cook stove for the guides to prepare meals, and a whisper-quiet inverter generator to charge your devices. They are essentially soft-top cabins that can fold down for the off-season. Their whitetail camp allows you to enjoy the ruggedness of nature while remaining warm, dry, and comfortable.

The Hunt

The day starts with an early morning wake-up. Before you even leave bed, coffee and tea will be prepared, and the guides will already begin cooking breakfast. These breakfasts are hearty, and they switch them up every day to ensure their hunters don’t have to eat the same thing each morning. While you enjoy your breakfast, the guides will be busy preparing your bag lunch for the stand. These lunches will include soup, sandwiches and some snacks that will keep you full during your day in the deer woods.

Once you've eaten breakfast and are ready for the day's hunt, it’s time to load up the Argo and trek to your hunting stand. Once you've arrived at the location, the walk to the stand is typically less than 100 yards. The guide will help you haul your gear to the stand and ensure you get up and harnessed in safely. For additional safety, a radio is supplied to each hunter, and scheduled check-in times will be determined with your guide.

Once you are hunting, the guide's day doesn’t end there. Mike and his guides will spend the day scouting the area, looking for places where the bucks are the most active, ensuring you will be in the best stand location possible each day.

After your sit is complete and legal shooting light has passed, your guide will arrive shortly after to help you out of your stand and take you back into camp for supper. Much like their breakfast, Supper is always a good, hearty meal. Each day, they do a great job of changing it up to ensure you have something different to eat every night.

During supper and throughout the evening, guests and guides exchange stories from the day's hunt, discuss strategies for the next day's hunt, and share hunting stories from the past as they unwind and head to bed early to reenergize for the following day.

Whiteshell Whitetails - Whiteshell Outfitters

When asked about the whitetail deer in Whiteshell Provincial Park, Mike can shed incredible light on their patterns and behaviours. The following is some unique information about these deer from the man himself.

"Whiteshell Whitetails have unique behavioural patterns that make them more challenging and rewarding to hunt than the average deer. South-eastern Manitoba is home to the two largest subspecies of Whitetail deer in North America: Odocoileus virginianus borealis and Odocoileus virginianus dacotensis. Our average fully-grown doe weighs around 200 pounds, and we have recorded some bucks at our camp weighing close to 400 pounds!

Bucks in the Whiteshell spend most of their lives in densely wooded lowlands, where they have food, water, and shelter. They can hear any predator coming from a mile away, which not only gives them their signature dark chocolate antlers but also makes them nearly impossible to see when they aren't rutting.

These "Swamp Bucks," as we call them, come out to the higher ridge systems to chase does during the rut. We strategically place our stands in these narrow trails to catch them as they slither in and out of the swamps. Different from most regions, the deer here are most active during the mid-day with little movement in the evening. They don't have any set feeding areas because food is everywhere; they eat as they travel.

Another attractive characteristic of our elusive Whitetail is how they use the wind to avoid predators. Unlike most deer in North America, our deer often walk with the wind behind them! This allows them to see what is in front of them and smell what is coming behind them, an instinct they acquired to survive in our thick forests. Their only predator is the Timber Wolf, so we encourage all our guests to harvest one given the opportunity."

A Whitetail Hunt Like No Others

Mike and his team of guides at Whiteshell Outfitters are as good as they come. With over 40 years of experience as an outfitter, Mike has seen it all and is prepared for it all. He ensures that every detail of your hunt goes as smoothly as possible in this diverse landscape.

Couple the wealth of experience with a challenging but rewarding free-range wilderness whitetail hunt, and the ingredients are all there for an incredible and unique hunt filled with unforgettable memories—and their track record of great Whiteshell Whitetails proves just that!

To book a Whitetail Hunt with Whiteshell Outfitters, visit their website today!

A Day in the Life - Deer Hunting at Whiteshell Outfitters

Author

Keevin Erickson | Hunt Fish Consultant

Keevin Is a passionate hunter and angler with a love for filming, photography, and writing. Keevin now manages the HuntFishMB team and continues to explore the province and share his tips, techniques and stories.

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