2024 Alberta Wapiti

Was pretty lucky to be taken out for a wapiti hunt in Alberta with some Canadian family friends this Sept. This wasn't a "guided" sorta thing, it was fully DIY on public land. Pretty sure Alberta is the only Canadian province that lets you hunt without a professional guide - you can have a friend or family member act as a "Hunter Host" instead. But faaaark me were tags expensive, being a non-resident. This year it was about $350CAD for an elk tag. I'd hate to think what that is in NZD. And you obviously don't get refunds if you don't shoot one. lol.

Anyway the hunt itself was wicked. Still bloody different to NZ though. We had it pretty flash, staying in a big RV with a generator and we each had a quadbike to putt around in. I saw whitetails, black bear, mule deer, I almost hit two moose with the quad in the dark, and heard coyotes yipping and howling at night. Didn't have any tags for all them of course... Grrr.

Heard a few bugles but only ended up with one average sized bull on the deck between all four of us. I tell ya what though, it's an eerie feeling to have an entire elk carcass disappear in under 48 hours. A trail camera snagged a pic of the culprit. Glad we never saw him. I understand why we had to hang the meat 10ft up in the air though.

If anyone wants to see a video of the whole thing, check it out on my YouTube channel. Pretty epic experience.

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I've got a 300 wsm and 200 gr projectiles ready to go at that old bruin..
Be great wondering around some different bit of bush on other side of world running into totally different animals than one is used t

I saw the video a few weeks ago. What an opportunity! Lucky you.

I’ve done the same thing with a mate who Hunter hosted me. We hunted north west of Edmonton in the foothills in pine forest with lots of seismic tracks cut through it.
Northern lights on display at night was quite spectacular. You did well to get one on public land that was pretty accessible.

My mate and I also hunted moose in Newfoundland where a non resident alien could get a over the counter tag and hunt public lands.


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Good stuff, sounds awesome.

BTW Alberta tags are about as cheap as you can get in North America for non residents. You can pay around $NZ3000 for a Wyoming non resident elk tag, and many people do.

Stunning pics. I'd love to go to Canada.

Yogi looks pretty healthy.