Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Bowhunting drone use for recovery (after hunting actions have ceased)

Good morning all;
Since this is to no one in particular, I'll wish you all Merry Christmas and all the best in the New Year as a generic yet heart felt salutation.

Out on the coast of BC where our youngest daughter lives, the Search and Rescue folks have used drones a few times to find snow boarders who've gone out of bounds. As I recall from one news item on it, the drones are cheaper than a helicopter and can fly in some weather that it'd be unsafe to send up humans in.

That said, for anyone reading this up here in BC, since 2016 this has been the provincial opinion on drone use for hunting.

"The Province has strengthened regulations to ensure that hunters do not use flying drones to help them track wildlife, Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Steve Thomson announced today.

The Province amended the Wildlife Act hunting regulation, making it illegal for people to operate or possess a drone, or use data obtained by a drone, while on a hunting or trapping expedition. It is also now illegal for a third party to use a drone to help a hunter or trapper.

Before the change, Section 27 of the Wildlife Act made it illegal to use a helicopter to hunt in British Columbia, although the Province contended that drones were a kind of helicopter. The minimum fine for hunting with a helicopter or drone is $2,500 – although a first conviction could cost a hunter $250,000 and up to two years in jail."

That all said then, even though the good folks in Letterkenny are across the country in Ontario, for us here in BC it would be.



Again, Merry Christmas to each and every one of you and all the best in 2021.

Dwayne