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Hello Canadian neighbors, is anyone here familiar with the Stettler area of Alberta? I have some friends from New Zealand hoping to move to the area to work as veterinarians (large animal), and they are both avid outdoor enthusiasts. I intend to visit them at some point and the plan is to take advantage of the local hunting opportunities.

From what I can gather, it's a great area for duck hunting. It sounds like the best time is early to mid-October before everything freezes.

Are there any big game opportunities? I have no interest in shooting a moose or elk with a rifle, but would love to maybe at least get some good photographs.

Basically any advice/information on the area would be appreciated. My friends are great people and as vets will obviously come into contact with lots of farmers, so I feel like finding a pothole or two to shoot in will be easy. It's a cool opportunity for hunters from all over the world to make contacts/friends as well. I'm coming from South Carolina and my friends are from New Zealand, so between SC/NZ/AB we could swap hunts/fishing trips/etc.


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Try posting on http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/.

WARNING: There's no shortage of opinionated, ignorant hillbillies who post on this site, so you may have to sift through a lot of BS to find some nuggets of good info.

Good luck.

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Southern_hunter
I grew up not too far from Stettler. You have hunting al around the area
Pheasants to the east water foul not too far away and big game to the west toward the mountains. Cheers NC
If you want to PM me we can take it off the forum or my E-mail that is listed in profile


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southern hunter;
Good afternoon to you sir, I hope the week has treated you acceptably and this finds you well.

The second thread from the top here "Planning a Hunt in Canada" has all sorts of links - including links to Alberta government sites - that should answer a few of your questions regarding what hurdles you'll need to leap for bringing up a shotgun, hunting waterfowl as a non-resident, etc.

One thing to be aware of is that waterfowl fall under federal regulation up here, so besides a provincial hunting licence there'll be a federal hunting equivalent you'll need to pick up too.

Going off of a very foggy memory I can't recall how much bush is around Stettler so the population of moose/elk are unknown to me - sorry.

I'm not certain if they're in a goose flyway or not there either, but I do know from talking to my brother who's still on the farm back in Saskatchewan that they're pretty happy to see goose hunters come and shoot all the "winged rats" that they can carry.

Anyway sir, hopefully some of our Alberta members might be able to shed a bit more local light on the matter, but hopefully some of the sites will get you lined out and pointed in the right direction for now.

All the best to you this summer and good luck to your New Zealand friends in their new Canadian home as well.

Dwayne


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Great hunting around Stettler. They won't be disappointed. Lots of good migratory birds and big game...big whitetail and mule deer..moose.


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Originally Posted by caddis
Try posting on http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/.

WARNING: There's no shortage of opinionated, ignorant hillbillies who post on this site, so you may have to sift through a lot of BS to find some nuggets of good info.

Good luck.



Really good first post.

GFY


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Originally Posted by ingwe
Originally Posted by caddis
Try posting on http://www.outdoorsmenforum.ca/.

WARNING: There's no shortage of opinionated, ignorant hillbillies who post on this site, so you may have to sift through a lot of BS to find some nuggets of good info.

Good luck.



Really good first post.

GFY


I am a member of that forum! FWIW we are a bunch of fun loving Rednecks not ignorant hillbillies. To be honest there is a ton of good info available as well as many very good people who can provide good honest info about hunting and fishing in Alberta. As on any forum, don't ask for direction to honey holes of course.

WRT Stettler hunting opportunities there is great waterfowling in the area. Deer (Both white tail and mule deer), moose and elk are all in the area as well. Hunting them will require applying in the annual tag draws, white tails are OTC tags. Of course if you only want photos no tag required.
Stettler is also one of a few locations where there is an active program to bring back Alberta's glory days as a Ringneck Pheasant destination.
There is also a very active cowboy action shooting club there.
Your friends will be quite happy there I suspect. Stettler is also close enough to the foothills and mountains that day trips are quite easy to do with weekender trips even better.

Last edited by troutfly; 07/18/15. Reason: grammer
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Thanks for the replies, everyone. They are very, very appreciated. My friends (and I!) are extremely excited after reading your responses. They fly into Calgary tomorrow then will move on to Stettler next week, and I hope to visit in late September/early October for some waterfowling.

I'm going to now read the pinned thread at the top about hunting in Canada and will do some research.

Thanks again.

Edit: Preliminary research completed. Looks like I need a WIN # (already got one online) and a 6 day gamebird license. As a non-resident alien I will need to either get a guide or a hunter host to hunt big game, but waterfowl does not require either. My friends will also be non-resident aliens as they will not have lived in Alberta for 12 months by the time hunting season starts.

The season runs from September - December (depending on WMU). Stettler is in 206.

Next thing to research: taking guns across the border.

Last edited by southern_hunter; 07/20/15.

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I know I am very late to this thread but I just got back into town. Your friend for getting land access will be the county landowner maps; access to private land (freehold or fee simple are also terms you will hear) is required and by law can not be paid for. However we have often dropped off bottles of wine to landowners who are pleasnat and reasonable. Access to public land (crown land) is quite abundant. Maptown in Calgary handles all the county maps for Alberta (as I am sure others do) http://www.maptown.com/ also research the Rumsey natural area http://www.albertaparks.ca/rumsey.aspx as I belive there are hunting and of other outdoor opportunities there.

As far as taking guns across the border I know several non-resident aliens who have gone through the process to get a PAL (Possession and Acquisition License) to expatiate the process of crossing the border although this is not required I have been by some folks that they find it helpful. http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/cfp-pcaf/index-eng.htm

The Stettler area is beautiful and quite varied.

If you need to access crown grazing leases send me a PM and I will track down the website you need for that.

If any other ideas pop into my head I will add onto this thread.

Welcome and best wishes for a successful and profitable vet practice to your friends.

All the best GRF

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The local county offices will have current landowner maps for a nominal fee. I suspect your friends will get to know quite a few farmers/ranchers in the area since you mentioned that they are veterinarians.

I live a couple hours north of Stettler. That area will be mostly mule deer (on draw for antlered and antlerless). There will be some whitetail (either sex OTC) to the north and antelope if you go south a bit. Antelope are draw as well and require a really high priority for Alberta residents. I'm not sure if tags are available for non-residents. There may be some moose in the area, but limited tags on draw. Elk are in the suffield military base south of Stettler.

Good populations of pheasant and Hungarian partridge around there. Might find some sharp tails too.

SS


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Thanks again to everyone for the replies. My friends are now in Stettler and hopefully settling in.

We are zeroing in on some dates: October 10-18. My main concern is if that will be too late. Will it be too cold by then? I know that no one can predict the weather, but if y'all tell me that everything is frozen over and the ducks are gone by mid-October then I will try to move things up a bit.

Other random thought: right now we are planning on bringing our own decoys. Is that something we should continue planning on doing, or is there a chance we could get/rent/hire/borrow some up there? Just a thought.


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Originally Posted by southern_hunter
Thanks again to everyone for the replies. My friends are now in Stettler and hopefully settling in.

We are zeroing in on some dates: October 10-18. My main concern is if that will be too late. Will it be too cold by then? I know that no one can predict the weather, but if y'all tell me that everything is frozen over and the ducks are gone by mid-October then I will try to move things up a bit.

Other random thought: right now we are planning on bringing our own decoys. Is that something we should continue planning on doing, or is there a chance we could get/rent/hire/borrow some up there? Just a thought.


As you know the weather is hard to predict, your dates should be ok, but some years things are freezing up or frozen by then. I am sure Albertans will be willing to keep you in the loop. This year has been rather dry so smaller potholes me be very dry by then.

Decoys could be purchased but as for renting, that may be challenge but area outfitters may be willing to do that. If you're pursuing geese bring your own blinds and decoys, they are considerably more expensive up here and the dollar difference may not make it worth while. If you're hunting potholes a half dozen or so mallard decoys and some 2 litre pop bottles spray painted brown will work for puddlers and for divers.

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October should be good. We may get the odd freak storm then but generally that hfs of until the end of October-beginning of November. That time of year is around when we go moose hunting early season and the muskeg isn't frozen. I can actually only remember one year where we had snow in early moose season. Lately it's been unseasonably warm.

I would bring decoys. Buying them here would likely be more expensive and I don't know anywhere that rents them. If your friends are into hunting you may want to buy a bunch for them and leave them up there. Save you hauling them the next time.


SS


ETA: Canadian thanksgiving is October 12th.

Last edited by SamSteele; 08/01/15.

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Just tried to call the local office for information about hunting in the Rumsey natural area, but it went to voicemail. Will try again tomorrow.

I feel better about the mid-October dates knowing that it typically does not freeze over before then. Will Thanksgiving be a problem?

The next step for me is to try go find the landowner maps so that I guess I can start cold calling some farmers to see how they feel about us duck hunting on their land. Never done anything like that before and really don't want to offend anyone, so I would appreciate any tips.

Starting to get pretty excited about this trip. Life is always more fun when a hunting trip is on the horizon.


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One thing to note is that migratory birds are handled federally. Upland birds and big game are provincially regulated.

Thanksgiving shouldn't be an issue, provided you aren't knocking on doors while folks have family over. Most farmers are pretty open to people hunting ducks and geese over their fields once the crops are off. It definitely helps if you are local though, so you might want your newly arrived friends to do some asking instead of randomly calling up from SC. Face to face is usually the best. You can't pay for land access up here, but a bottle or two after a good hunt helps to ensure future permission is granted. What you want to find are pea fields if you can.


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great advice Sam. Face to face is by far the best way to get permission.

for the landower map try the map town website i posted abovde

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Tickets are booked! Getting pretty excited. Just got off the phone with my buddy in Stettler and he sounds optimistic that he will have some farms lined up. He also said there are ducks everywhere. smile

Thanks again to everyone here for the advice. Next step: figure out the firearm import laws for Canada.


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