Hi from Alberta, Canada

Hey All,

Really looking forward to chatting with you and learning what i can about NZ. I pretty much hunt, work and spend time with family here in AB, hunting/trapping/fishing is a way of life for me and the family and myself and son have done a few hunts in several countries where we could hunt DIY on public land (or swapped hunts with people local and hosted them over here on our land). Hoping to make it to to NZ in the coming year(s) and figured no better place to start learning that right here. I think ive read everything there is to read on the DoC's webpage, so now time to to talk with the guys/gals out doing it haha! Anyway, nice to meet you all!

Welcome CH.

Some of my friends lives in Edmonton, AB. Been trying for years to get us to move to Canada.

Im sure you'll manage to get someone on here to take you hunting. There are some real good fellas on here.

Nice meeting you.

Haha, small world! Alberta is a great place 6 months of the year…..the other 6, I dream of green grass and above zero temps lol. Nice to meet you as well!

Got my kiwi mate who has been in fort mcleod for 30yrs coming for the roar.
I had a great time when I was working over there for 2 summers.
Worked hard, played harder!
Couldn't believe the deer I could see from the road.
He frowned at me when I suggested a late night spot lighting session

Sent from my SM-A226B using Tapatalk

Welcome aboard. My wife and I went to the Calgary Stampede back in 97. Could have easily been persuaded to stay.

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Originally Posted by andyanimal31

Got my kiwi mate who has been in fort mcleod for 30yrs coming for the roar.
I had a great time when I was working over there for 2 summers.
Worked hard, played harder!
Couldn't believe the deer I could see from the road.
He frowned at me when I suggested a late night spot lighting session

Sent from my SM-A226B using Tapatalk

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HAHAHAHAHA!!!! Thats hilarious.....I tell you what, if we could night hunt here I would definitely have a few more heads on the wall lol! I actually went to University in Lethbridge in the early 2000's, so hunted those 4 years all around Ft Mcleod, Pincher Creek, etc. Was a steep learning curve for a kid who was born and raised in the Northern bush. I'll never forget the first muley doe I got an arrow into, couldnt believe I had finally managed to get to within range of something in those bald ass prairies! Now, its an annual trip to one of the few prairie zones that is still general for archery (albeit quite a ways North from the Ft Mcleod area). Were you working on a ranch for the summers here?

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Originally Posted by Rushy

Welcome aboard. My wife and I went to the Calgary Stampede back in 97. Could have easily been persuaded to stay.

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Thats a heck on an intro to Alberta lol....10 urban cowboys for every real one for that one week a year haha! Glad you enjoyed it here!

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Originally Posted by CanuckHunterAB

HAHAHAHAHA!!!! Thats hilarious.....I tell you what, if we could night hunt here I would definitely have a few more heads on the wall lol! I actually went to University in Lethbridge in the early 2000's, so hunted those 4 years all around Ft Mcleod, Pincher Creek, etc. Was a steep learning curve for a kid who was born and raised in the Northern bush. I'll never forget the first muley doe I got an arrow into, couldnt believe I had finally managed to get to within range of something in those bald ass prairies! Now, its an annual trip to one of the few prairie zones that is still general for archery (albeit quite a ways North from the Ft Mcleod area). Were you working on a ranch for the summers here?

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My mate married a fort McLeod girl, he is a gun shearer and sheperd/farm manager but managed to land a 16 mile contract fencing of the Oldman dam after it was built.
He rang me and said you better be coming to my wedding as didn't know much about fencing.
So I spent a couple of summer doing fencing with him and quite alot of pulling grain silos down and rearecting on other sites.
From there he and a a Dutch mate formed a company called westco construction.
The rest is history.
My mate has now stepped away as ceo and enjoying abit of retirement recreation.
I had an absolute ball I canada and did the stampede one year.
Beautifully summers!

Sent from my SM-A226B using Tapatalk

Oh wow!! I know of Westco, thats a long way from building fences around the Oldman Dam. Hopefully your buddy is enjoying his retirement and manages to make it over to see you sometimes haha. And yes sir, summers are unreal.....winters can be pretty unreal too, but not necessarily in a good way. Not sure if you spoke to your friend or not, but a handful of weeks ago we were between -45 and -55C across the province for a week. I like cold for coyote and wolf hunting, but that was too damn cold lol. Cheers!

-45 to -55 huh. Global warming has really hit hard up there. Ha ha ha ha.

welcome to the forum, got a cousin in Edmonton and worked the stampede 9years ago selling crap to tourists. you will love it here can leave meat out on the hill and not worry about bears or other critters .

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Originally Posted by IamHackmeat

welcome to the forum, got a cousin in Edmonton and worked the stampede 9years ago selling crap to tourists. you will love it here can leave meat out on the hill and not worry about bears or other critters .

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Man, it’s wild how some you guys have connections to AB haha! It’s cool some of you got to experience the stampede, if nothing else it sure is an excuse to drink too many beers and pretend a guy knows how to line dance haha!

Honestly, I watched a video another member member posted of his wife’s Chamois, and they left it overnight. It’s so foreign to me, that would have been nothing but bones and a decent chance a grizz would have been sitting on it if left overnight like that in our hills. Seems like a dream for meat recovery!

Thanks man!

As an example, I arrowed this muley a bit far back near last light and left until morning. Was about 7PM when i sent the arrow, recovered at 645AM the next morning and this is what it looked like. The coyotes and a bear got on him and wasnt much left. Its always stressful to recover in a hurry lest you lose your meat.Attachment 243603

that would rip your undies. do you get a new tag or is it a case of sucks to be you ?

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Originally Posted by IamHackmeat

that would rip your undies. do you get a new tag or is it a case of sucks to be you ?

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Unfortunately its the "sucks to be you" option lol. Really the only times that a replacement tag are issued is if you shoot a diseased animal, like with a big abscess or something.....a so called poor shot leading to long recovery or poor meat storage (if the bears or whatever get the quarter bags if things aren't strung up properly overnight) is on the hunter.

Welcome. BC boy just moved to Fort Sask. I'll be hunting NZ in April.

Still trying to figure out how 'Berta hunting and draw systems work. So very different then BC. And all the Private land! Fawk me that sucks.

Love the waterfowl though.

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Originally Posted by Penguin

Welcome. BC boy just moved to Fort Sask. I'll be hunting NZ in April.

Still trying to figure out how 'Berta hunting and draw systems work. So very different then BC. And all the Private land! Fawk me that sucks.

Love the waterfowl though.

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Lmao, yeah man. Knocking on doors is a necessity here for sure. There’s some good crown land hunting to be had, but not close to you or I lol. shoot me a PM if you got any questions about the draws, can definitely help there man!

well shit.

Welcome to the forum CanuckHunterAB,

Have an aunt and her family in Calgary, she is been pestering me to visit her, maybe one of these days. It certainly is beautiful country up there. Please tell us more about your tags system and hunting on crown land for an outsider.

-Inder

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Originally Posted by IamHackmeat

well shit.

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Hahahaha, that about sums it up man.

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Originally Posted by Inder

Welcome to the forum CanuckHunterAB,

Have an aunt and her family in Calgary, she is been pestering me to visit her, maybe one of these days. It certainly is beautiful country up there. Please tell us more about your tags system and hunting on crown land for an outsider.

-Inder

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It would be well worth the visit for you, and shoot me a message if you ever do plan on coming this way. Always happy to show people around some of the hidden gems around here!

As far as tags and crown land go here, its pretty dismal for a non-resident. All big game requires a tag on crown land, much of which is over the counter......the only exceptions to that for big game are Black Bears and Cougar on private land, on private land those animals can be shot without without a tag, bag limit or season, but do require a tag for crown land hunting. The issue for non-residents is that all big game hunting by a non resident requires either a guide (which is very expensive in AB) or a hunter host who is a resident. Those are the only ways for a non-resident to hunt big game. As a resident, you can hunter host a non-resident Canadian from another province yearly, or a non-resident "alien" every 3 years. Waterfowl hunting is a different story, non-resident aliens can come hunt waterfowl basically anywhere, as it is federally regulated. Alberta is not friendly to non-resident opportunities for big game though. I have hosted a couple guys from the US, one from Australia and one from Poland over the years. Its easy to get the hunter host license, its just something that can only be done every 3 years.

I will say though that if you find a resident host, the opportunities are pretty darn good. Most guys who've been around here for a while, and especially those of us that grew up on farms, have access to ALOT of private land in addition to the hundreds of thousands of square km of crown. In the right areas, you could hunt rifle bull elk, rifle whitetail, rifle black bear, archery moose and archery mule deer concurrently....along with bonus wolves/coyotes. The area I grew up in and still have land at, by Peace River, there is great hunting for all the above within an hour radius. The only bugger is non-resident aliens cant hunt sheep....we can hunt trophy bighorn on over the counter tags. Its a great place to live for hunting, tough place to visit without a connection to host or fairly deep pockets depending on what type of tags you have in your bag lol.

Hope that helps!

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Originally Posted by CanuckHunterAB

It would be well worth the visit for you, and shoot me a message if you ever do plan on coming this way. Always happy to show people around some of the hidden gems around here!

As far as tags and crown land go here, its pretty dismal for a non-resident. All big game requires a tag on crown land, much of which is over the counter......the only exceptions to that for big game are Black Bears and Cougar on private land, on private land those animals can be shot without without a tag, bag limit or season, but do require a tag for crown land hunting. The issue for non-residents is that all big game hunting by a non resident requires either a guide (which is very expensive in AB) or a hunter host who is a resident. Those are the only ways for a non-resident to hunt big game. As a resident, you can hunter host a non-resident Canadian from another province yearly, or a non-resident "alien" every 3 years. Waterfowl hunting is a different story, non-resident aliens can come hunt waterfowl basically anywhere, as it is federally regulated. Alberta is not friendly to non-resident opportunities for big game though. I have hosted a couple guys from the US, one from Australia and one from Poland over the years. Its easy to get the hunter host license, its just something that can only be done every 3 years.

I will say though that if you find a resident host, the opportunities are pretty darn good. Most guys who've been around here for a while, and especially those of us that grew up on farms, have access to ALOT of private land in addition to the hundreds of thousands of square km of crown. In the right areas, you could hunt rifle bull elk, rifle whitetail, rifle black bear, archery moose and archery mule deer concurrently....along with bonus wolves/coyotes. The area I grew up in and still have land at, by Peace River, there is great hunting for all the above within an hour radius. The only bugger is non-resident aliens cant hunt sheep....we can hunt trophy bighorn on over the counter tags. Its a great place to live for hunting, tough place to visit without a connection to host or fairly deep pockets depending on what type of tags you have in your bag lol.

Hope that helps!

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Thanks for the detailed info, Currently neither I have deep pockets nor I know someone who hunts there. Maybe one day. I would like a moose on my wall for sure before I kick the bucket.

Good luck for your NZ visit. Hopefully I will be there when you visit, maybe we will get time to meet for a cuppa.

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Originally Posted by Inder

Thanks for the detailed info, Currently neither I have deep pockets nor I know someone who hunts there. Maybe one day. I would like a moose on my wall for sure before I kick the bucket.

Good luck for your NZ visit. Hopefully I will be there when you visit, maybe we will get time to meet for a cuppa.

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Would be great and thank you!

Hunted Alberta last year November, had unseasonably warm weather apparently and no snow. Unfortunately I didn’t get the whitetail or elk I was after. Will be back

It was a tough year for sure. Warmest fall I remember. Definitely kept the whitetail movement a bit slower and the elk were more quiet than usual most days. Where about in the province did you hunt? And what time of year? Seemed like the further north a guy went the more “normal” the activity was.

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Originally Posted by CanuckHunterAB

It was a tough year for sure. Warmest fall I remember. Definitely kept the whitetail movement a bit slower and the elk were more quiet than usual most days. Where about in the province did you hunt? And what time of year? Seemed like the further north a guy went the more “normal” the activity was.

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I was about 2 hours north of Edmonton. As you say it really effected the whitetail movements, very frustrating driving back from the hunt each night and seeing big bucks standing on the road in front of you…

I was late November so the elk rut was over but a bit of whitetail action

Gotcha! Yeah, that can really start to aggravate a guy with them "taunting" you in the fields after dark lol. Elk are always a slog at that time of year.....depending exactly how far North you would have been on the edge of where rifle opens up for them on Sept 17, so by late November most have learned their lesson about coming out before dark, and the ones that didnt are in someones freezer lol. Hopefully the next time your back its good and cold and you can even the score with one of those nocturnal bucks lol. Cheers!