The term is a very common one in use by the staff of most of the BC "Guide-Outfitters" I have met in BC, it simply means someone who is not a "local" or a "professional" as in making their living in that industry here.
The occasional person, usually someone who really ought to find different employment, but is "challenged" in that respect, will try to use this as a pejorative and thus demonstrate his/her ignorance.
I was just out of the bush, after 5.5 MONTHS working alone without a break, except to take a 3 hr. trip to town every few weeks for supplies when I went on a "guided" horsepack hunt more than 20 years ago.
The "GO" was, supposedly, THE man in that region of BC and, from reading "J'0C" and others in "OL", etc. from 1958 onward, I was VERY excited. I had not been in base camp for two full hours, when a female staffer with an azz bigger than the average cow moose and a personality that ONLY a mother could love and that only when [bleep], called me a "dude".
My very young and REALLY polite guide was obviously just mortified by this and I just laughed and we went hunting. When, I was leaving, I made a point of giving HIM an extra tip in Canadian reddish-pink $50.00 bills and then walked on by the dou**b ag, without even a "see ya"....what goes around.....
So, not to worry, I was just trying to say that some hunters who are not "locals" might very well KNOW a lot about rifles, game and what works and how to best use it. Locals CAN be "experts", but, IME, most of the younger ones today are more "video" than "hands-on", if you get my drift?
