Editor’s Note: Cody Robbins of Live 2 Hunt TV and his wife Kelsy live on a ranch in Saskatchewan, Canada, and hunt Canada and the U.S. every year.
I believe we have some of the best mule deer hunting in the world here in Canada. We have a lot of non-typical big mule deer here in Saskatchewan. The good news is: there's not very much hunting pressure on the mule deer up here. I shot the pending world record mule deer taken with a bow in 2011. This buck scored 294 points and netted 288 points. Because I didn’t take the velvet off his antlers, he couldn’t be officially scored. However, Pope and Young had a three-man panel score this buck’s rack. This buck was 17-inches bigger than the all-time world record mule deer taken with a bow.
Each year we try to take five to eight mule deer bucks on camera for our TV show Live 2 Hunt. In some years, we have taken six mule deer bucks, and only one of those bucks has been less than 200 inches Boone & Crockett. Last year our smallest mule deer buck that we harvested scored 196 B&C, and our biggest mule deer buck scored 294.
I'm often asked, “When did your wife, Kelsy, first start deer hunting?” Kelsy took her first mule deer buck that scored 193 B&C in 2007 on “Jim Shockey’s Hunting Adventures” TV show. This was the first time I ever had guided Kelsy. She took her first whitetail in 2008 – a 160 inch 5x5 whitetail buck. Since then, she’s hunted mountain goats in British Columbia and moose in Yukon and Newfoundland. She goes with me everywhere I go, and we switch off filming and hunting. I look more like a troll, and Kelsy is a very-attractive lady. I always try to put her in front of the camera, because I prefer to be behind the camera. Actually, we both hunt about 50 percent of the time when we’re hunting and filming. Kelsy has become quite an extraordinary videographer.
Kelsy and I are together 24/7. We get up at 5:00 am. We take our daughter, Berkley, to her grandparents’ house and drop her off. Then, we sit in the blind together often in -40 degree temperatures. Sometimes, the cameras don’t work. We have problems in our business like everyone does, and we’ve been able to work out every situation. We have a very special relationship. God willing, we hope to be able to continue our TV show well into the future, and we really want to have two or three more children. When I'm 65-years old, I hope Kelsy and I will be sitting around the Christmas tree talking to our children and playing with our grandchildren. We also have our cattle ranch as our spare tire in case we have a tough year with our TV show.
To learn more about hunting, check out John E. Phillips’ new eBook, “Bowhunting Deer: Mossy Oaks Pros Know Bucks and Bows.” You also can download a free Kindle app that enables you to read the book on your iPad, computer or SmartPhone.
For information on making jerky from your elk and other big game animals to provide a protein-rich snack, you can download a free book.
