we're 18 days into the season. Anyone got anything yet?

I have to wait another few weeks but would love to see what others are doing.

feel free to share pics.

A buddy of mine from Red Deer emailed me a pic of some of his buds on opening day of rifle (S17) got a nice 6x6 bull somewhere in the SW corner of Alberta.

As of today I know of a 207-210 Mulie taken by rifle and a 225+ whitetail harvested by bow with some outfitters.

I plan on going out starting monday for my mulie with my hunt being filmed by a Mossy Oak film crew. Then the first week of October I will be off to moose camp with the boys!!

Getting really PUMPED NOW!

Some decent sheep have been taken. As for me, I haven't even bothered to jack a round into the chamber. Saw plenty of sheep, but all of the wrong sex. Came across a wonderful billy goat, but of course, without a tag, and far away from the goat hunting zones. With a bird hunting license I could have filled a limit a few times... but nothing in the freezer yet.

Frans

Just returned from the opening week for elk in the south zones, no action either. Not very many hunters out, and where we went there were none but the elk did not seem to be very active or calling much. All the rain and snow might have kept them from moving much, or the big bulls just eluded us again. I was surprised at just how dry it was before the snow, worse than I have ever seen it before. Its a good thing it is a long season, and we'll be back.

I saw a big bull (like, biiiiig) at Elk Island yesterday. He was thrashin' at the ground pretty hard. Looks like they're getting in the mood around here. Hope it picks up elsewhere.

One reason I ask the original question is that over many thousand km of driving in northern AB this summer, lots of bashin' around in the bush and a few flights in choppers/fixed-wings I've seen very few animals this year.

I think the moose were hammered pretty bad by ticks and the deer by the snow last winter (lots of naive ones around from the last few easy winters). I'm going out shortly for deer (wanted moose/elk, sigh) and I'm sort of wondering if I should get my hopes up.

Always worth a try I suppose.

Good luck all.

I just returned from a Waterfowl trip East of Red Deer, as always the hunting and outfitter's family were great; I'm looking to return later this year for a Muley / Whitetail, can't believe the pics I see of the quality of deer taken in this province... Alberta residents are lucky indeed!!!

Regards,
Craig Nolan

Going for sheep on Sunday, one of those way back places one hopes the out of the Park rams retire to, when every body and his brother harasses them. I see the mountains are white, so it's probably a good thing we have sharp shoes on the horses.
Was coming home the back way last week and saw a good sized bull moose, just west of Olds. The velvet was hanging from his antlers in long strips. Damn, no camera.
I was surprised as hell, tuesday, just north of Red deer, on the 2A to blackfalds. Right in the middle of an industrial section, there is a little elk farm, with a herd of cows. while I was giving them the eyeball, this huge bull comes tearing out of the trees and herds the cows away. Damn, no camera, again
Grizz

I got a nice fat whitetail doe last night with my trusty recurve.

the chef

Good on ya, chef!

We just returned from some sheep chasing... well, just chasing, 'cause there weren't any sheep.

Just two HUGE horse trailers on the one parking lot, some more on another, and a single fellow who rode in with four horses camped in a clearing when we got there after a long hike.

Saturday morning we hunted one basin, and he hunted the other, and we both returned to camp early afternoon, soaked and miserable.

A roaring fire to get warm and sorta dry, and then the long hike out before the snow really set in.

Cut grizzly tracks a few times, which made me all giddy, and made my visitor's knees tremble.

Frans

Nothing better than freezing yer a$$ off then finally getting warm again!!

Add 6 pigeons to that list. Over an hour spent to clean the little buggers-but going to be mouth watering for sure.

cheers

The bull moose are grunting and moving now, searching for receptive cows. Guys are seeing bulls wandering etc...
One of the guys had bull moose coming in grunting, when he was trying to call elk.

I just returned from a week long elk hunt in the mountains near Grande Cache. Way too many bears. We saw a total of 9 (including one grizz that would probably go 450-500 lbs). Wolves, deer, a couple moose...but not hide nor hair of an elk. Talked to a few other hunters in that area. They were as unlucky as we were. The snow we had on the second day sure made it muddy...fun, fun, fun.
Oh well, my cow elk tag is good until the end of Nov. Maybe better luck later.

Well,
I'm just back from a quick antelope hunt in Oyen area (boss called when I was on my way to area). Found a decent buck after being in the WMU for 10 mins. I've already got it cut and wrapped and into the freezer and taxidermist has hide and is caping. Just finished frying up a nice tenderlion steak for supper.

Some days a plan just works out.

A 48-50" bull moose walked right by the plant site this A.M. On the prowl searching for cows.

Great to hear Demonical. I got my draw for the whitecourt area this year. We're leaving this Sat. I think we'll hunt some cutlines for a day or two and if we don't get much action we'll float down the river. What does the river look like now? Is it running fast? Sure is nice to have some eyes and ears up there to give a report.

cheers

Which WMU? 346, 348, 349?

If you are talking the McLeod R, it is extremely low. The Athabasca R is also very low.

Guys are seeing bull moose pretty much every day and we've seen 5 black bears the last 2 days on the way to/from work, so bring a bear tag(s).

Moose are moving.

My "on the way to work survey" (through Elk Island) resulted in two bulls standing off with a cow right next to them. Not exactly huntable but nice to see.

unfortunately, no moose for me this year

Copidosoma how big were those bulls?

certainly not trophies (by any stretch) but they had big bodies (I can't really judge weight, sort of a rookie). Good for the freezer though.

We're going to 507 on the Athabaska. I have a bear tag, although I doubt I'd stick one unless it was a big'un.

Just returned from wmu 359 and was shocked at the low game numbers.In previous years,it was normal to see elk and moose every day as well as 50 to 100 deer daily.In six days,four of us saw a total of three cow moose,one bull moose,no elk and probably thirty deer.Every hunter that we talked to was having the same problem.We talked to some local landowners who told us that last winter was extremely hard on game due to very deep snow.The amazing part was that the number of tags was not reduced accordingly.Anyone drawing antlerless mule deer was still issued three tags,and plenty of antlered moose and antlerless elk tags were still issued,despite the big reduction in game numbers..

Well, we're off-leaving in about an hour. Grizz I'll hang out the truck window and wave on the way by. Good luck everybody, hopefully the recurve will do the trick.

the chef

I just got back from a pronghorn hunt in 150. I never fired a shot. That may seem like bad news but I had the best antelope hunt ever. My daughter has been along on pronghorn hunts with me since she was about 5. And this trip she had the trophy antelope tag. Here she is with her first trophy buck. We were both pretty excited and happy.



Robin in Rocky

Great story duffy!

Tonight I called out a small bull. He came out about 10 minutes before dark. It was good.

Ok...details please. What caliber/rifle did she use, distance of the shot, and how long did it take to get the smile off her face?
Congrats! A fine trophy

She doesn't do a whole lot of shooting so I got her out to the range a week ago and she shot real well on "bulls-eye" targets. I had made up a couple cardboard antelope targets (with no aiming point on them) and set them out at 100 and 150 meters. She put 4 bullets into the "kill zone" on both of them.

She was shooting the Rem. 788 in .243 in the pic and sitting using the bypod on the gun.

We had seen some antelope crossing the road ahead of us just over a bit of a rise. She went off ino the field 100 meters and sat down to wait while I drove ahead to attract the antelope's attention. I got out past them and walked slowly into the pasture to gently move them toward her. It worked out and they ran over the hill and stopped to look at her from about 120 meters. When the buck took a couple steps away from the does she let him have a 100 gr. Fed. premium Nosler part. in the chest. He didn't go 25 meters before tipping over.

We were east of Brooks near Jenner AB.

Robin in Rocky