Advice for wild boar hunting in some northern parts of Saskatchewan

[Brutus]

Well, I did get a fleeting glimpse of one of these black critters. Problem is I do not have GPS and my best guess was it was near to the Table Basin bird santuary or Waterhen Lake. With the skirting of raods to find a way in, it was pretty much impossible for myself to pinpoint this locale myself, in an area I am unfamiliar with. At wilboarsaskatchewan dot ca, one of the errors of Google Maps is at one of the recent sightings, Salinity Lake has been renamed Shannon Lake (directly opposite and near to Waka lake) now, and there is property development going on, road access to the eastern shore where all the signage is located. This is not seen from Google Maps folks. And of course the lake name is wrong. The farms up there are surprizingly large, especially so on the northern side of Highway 41, at one point IIRC, it was about 12-14 miles between farmhouses. Google Maps does not also display a few small ferry crossings also. One near Warman/Aberdeen. There is another one just pretty much due north of there too. Stopped at a relatively large farm operation called Hnidy Farms (?) just SW of Waka and I got my best tip of the day. Was told by a farmhand that he and friends had taken several wild boar just due east of Highway 20, well north of St Benedict, in this rural farming area between Waka at the SW corner and upwards to Birch Hills or thereabouts. I was poorly prepared at arriving near Shannon Lake and locals informed me the nearest rural municipality office/landowner maps were at Cudworth. This is about 70 kms from Shannon Lake ?!?!? This left me with door knocking at likely locations. Be forewarned though, lots of recent rains had left much standing water. Lots of muddy roads in low lying areas, scant helpful resources with a very low population density up there, if you have to be pulled out of a mudhole! Along with playing hop scotch with the several municipal graders that always seemed to be on the high grade road of my choice. Hours later, I ended up on Highway 3 just outside of Birch Hills. This was not in my plan at all, as I initally wished to stay more south of Highway 3. For a province famous for poor asphalt, there is lots or road construction (destruction!?) going on up here right now. Consider yourself warned.

Info for interested parties. BTW, the nearest hotels are at Waka and Warman. They are small operations fellas.
The restaraunt co-located with the gas station at Waka, corner of Highways 41 and 2 was just okay. Ate alot better food at The Red Bull at Radisson.

 

[Hunter on a Budget]

I recently started hog hunting this summer in Alberta and all I have to say is WOW! So much fun.

I don't know about areas in Saskatchewan but I go to counties that have a "boar bounty", locate a river or creek that is on crown land, and walk up the bank on a hot summer day. Went on Canada long weekend when it was about 32 degrees and the bolt actions couldn't keep up.

Reason being pigs don't sweat so they need to cool of when its hot, plus their skin gets irritated so they have to scratch themselves a lot. The trees they scratch themselves on leaves mud marks on the trunk and are located on their pathways/cutlines to their wallows. Camo and scent aren't necessary since they have poor eyesight and if they can smell 5' underground they can smell you through all those extra scents. Always walk upwind and be very quite. hehehehe.

If you need anymore tips on hunting hogs, look up Glenn Guess. He has a lot of cool techniques for shooting these porkers. Even stands by calling them out piglet squealers and deer grunt calls blown softly.