British Columbia:
In BC most non Canadian residents are required to hire the services of a guide to hunt.
The first order of business I'd suggest is to see if the guide you're talking to is a member of the Guide Outfitters Association of BC.
http://www.goabc.org/If you are driving up here or are flying in and renting a vehicle and doing a bit of road time here, this is one of the BC websites for information on traveling here.
http://www.travel.bc.ca/For specific road conditions, this site is very good to know about.
http://www.drivebc.ca/Finally, even though the outfitter will be responsible for you while you hunt up here, it never hurts to know the rules and I'd recommend a quick look at this site which gives the hunting regulations for the entire province.
http://www.env.gov.bc.ca/fw/wildlife/hunting/regulations/Our hunting regulations are admittedly a bit much to read, but once you know the geographic location of your hunt, a quick read of the beginning of the regs and then the specifics for the region being hunted are pretty simple.
I'll offer that anyone having an issue with the BC regs is welcome to PM me and I'll do my best to help you with them. I'm a certified Hunter Safety Examiner here so theoretically if I can teach the regs I'm supposed to be able to interpret them as well!
Some of the standard advice I give folks coming up for a hunt.
- Ask the outfitter for references of both hunters who shot game and those who didn't. Then by all means call those folks and ask questions.
- Get in the best physical shape you possibly can as much of our part of the world can be very vertical.
- In the same vein as above, ask your outfitter what kind of shape they expect you to be in and be brutally honest with them about that.
- Practice shooting whatever tool you are bringing up here in as much as possible. In particular practice shooting from "field positions". The most common complaint my friends who guide have with visiting hunters is that they come here unprepared to shoot from anything other than perfect range type conditions. Being able to shoot well and in a timely manner from all shooting positions will often make the difference between killing an animal or going home without.
Well, that's all for now. Hopefully others will join in with good advice and thanks in advance to all who do so.
Regards,
Dwayne
