Suppose to hunt '10 and '11 in the Peace River area and was wondering if anyone has heard any reports of how the hunters are doing.

The "Peace River" area is a huge region of both B.C. and Alberta, larger than many US states. If, you could be more specific as to the locale you wish to hunt in, someone here might be able to give you useful info.

My suggestion and I am not that keen on the "Peace" although there ARE lots of deer there, is to try to find an outfitter who has exclusive hunting agreements with some private ranches in this region. This will give you the best chance at seeing more deer and also getting a big buck, while being a LOT easier than hunting Crown Land, no matter how skilled your guide.

I would also book as late in the season as I could, this would mean hunting rutting bucks, who tend to be less nocturnal and wary. I don't hunt these as I prefer early season meat deer and have zero interest in racks on my wall.

I would also warn you, that, the weather in the late season can be just friggin' brutal and do not skimp on warm clothing, etc. You can encounter cold and snow at the beginning of the season, but, the later "rut" hunts are often so cold that you will NEED serious clothing and advice on how to stay warm.

Maybe phone the BC-MOE office in Victoria, B.C., get a list of GOs there and a copy of the current regs. synopsis and the same from Alberta and start checking various operations out. My buddy and I are tentatively planning a Peace Region Elk-Moose hunt next Sept./Oct. and in an area bounded by unhunted private ranches...he did well there a couple of years ago and saw some "hawg" Elk, big Grizz and shot a nice Moose...which provided meat for his family, his other buddies and mine!

Dewey,

I didn't realize that area was so big. Thought it was more like our 'golden triangle' here in Texas. The dates we already have set - Nov 1 thru 10. The new moon is around the 5th which, on paper, seemed like the ideal time to hunt.

Funny that you're not 'keen' on Peace. Everything I've read seemed to indicate that the Peace River areas grew giant deer. Matter of fact, that's exactly why I chose the two areas I did was because of their location to the Peace. I have a hunt planned in '10 for one ranch and another hunt for '11 at another ranch. Both are along the Peace and both are private ranches that border Crown land.

The major issue with the Peace country is that it is "cowboy" and ranch-farm country and relatively flat, open and with small rivers and tiny trees. I ain't no cowboy, I am a mountain man and I love big trees, rugged mountains, big lakes-rivers and deep snow, so, that cold, windy, flat place is sorta OK, but, it ain't the Kootenays, my favourite area of BC.

I do not care for ranch-farm deer hunting, I like to hunt Vancouver Island Columbian Blacktails best of all deer. The hunting in NE BC IS without doubt the best for non-res. hunters and that is why most of the big buck GOs are there.

I think that you are going at a good time and my only advice would be to make SURE you have appropriate cold weather gear as it can be REALLY friggin' miserable up there.

I will be heading up for deer on the 17th. Will be staying near Groundbirch and hunting the area close to there. I have heard good reports from this year so far. Just make sure you dress for cold and wind.

Have a great trip and either post some pics or PM as I'd like to hear more about your hunt.

Lots of big deer in the Peace country taken every year. I live in Peace River - trust me- I know!! It seems mulie buck populations / size are a bit low...wouldnt know it as a large mulie doe did $6500 damage to one of my guy's company truck last week.

As for NE BC, to take a big whitetail you must be hunting the farm/timber land around Dawson Creek / Ft. St. John

Its been pretty warm so far this November as the past 4-5 seasons had the begining of the month with 1-2' of snow and -20 to -30 degrees Celcius with the mid of November warming up to +10. Frustrating to hunt thats for sure - would rather it stay cold.

Bluefin, you previously hunted with Bear Paw Outfitting - right?? maybe it was someone else I remember reading posts about and they were from Texas.

I personally going out hunting tommorrow-was going to look for a bull elk but I'm leaning towards sitting in some stands/ground blinds for whitetails instead. Two buddies and I were out this past saturday and they got 2 cow elk.

Good memory! I'm to be hunting with Bear Paw in '11. For 2010 it'll be with a new outfit called Rafter DL. Found them on the Hunting Report and it looked promising so went ahead and signed up for Nov '10.
It's 90F here today so am looking forward to some cold and hunting. Don't have a deer hunt this year so am living vicariously thru others.

Just got back from northern Alberta, 9 days hunting, worst hunt I've had in 4 trips. Everyone is scratching their heads about the deer numbers. One outfitter went 2 for 12 and another 0 for 9 the same time I was there.
When I say worst hunt, I mean by the number of deer seen, never had a bad hunt. Friendliest bunch of folks I ever saw, reminds me of the folks around my hometown 30 years ago.

I just got back from a hunt up north in the Peace Country of BC. It was an excellent trip, seen a lot of deer moose and elk. Missed a couple of opportunities at two huge whitetails. Harvested a couple of nice Whiteys and a decent muley. Would have done better but there was a foot and a half of new snow that made mobility and walking through the bush very difficult.

Sevenmag,
Sorry to hear about your hunt. Long way to go for a goose egg.
Schmaus,
Congrats on your hunt. Who did you hunt with? Any pics or details?

Schmaus is a BC resident so I dont think he hunted thru an outfitter in BC.

As for deer, I have rattled in 120-140 class deer coming to the sound the past 2 weekends, but nothing big seen. I think the big guys are being nocternal right now. For the does I seen, very few if any have their rear legs stained up. Seen about a 130 class WT being dressed out on the weekend - the fat on the tenderloins was at least 2" thick and the buck had no stink to him.

For me, if the bucks are not bigger than whats on my wall, I have no problems with my nice orange sticker tags being a X-mas tree ornaments, but you guys coming up to hunt in Alberta or anywhere else in Canada might not pass on deer....buts thats your choice.

There has been some nice bucks taken as I know of a large non-typical WT taken in the Peace River area couple weeks ago- seen the pics - sweet buck.

Weather temps have been crazy warm compared to years past and IMO doenst help. I remember the rut being full swing by Nov.10-now its way later. Only a few days left here. As for me I'm trying to slip away tommorow afternoon and maybe friday morning for a WT. I think I'm going to change it up a bit for saturday and sunday morning going for a bull elk and go for whitetail in the afternoons. As for Nov30 the last day I'll decide on sunday night what I will do b/c I have that day off.

Sevenmagltd. - curoius with who you hunted with. PM me if you dont want to post it. Glad you had a good time up in Alberta....but it doesnt make it as enjoyable if you are not seeing limited if any game for sure. I know the feeling and I live here and can be out hunting big game within 10 minutes of my house.

quote:

Would have done better but there was a foot and a half of new snow that made mobility and walking through the bush very difficult.

Ahhh - just the weather I like to hunt in. Nothing like good soft, easy tracking snow. Around here, it's easy to walk a fresh or fairly fresh track and find the deer inside 1 to 1 1/2 km's.

Areas are different - this is bush/forest country.

quote:

Ahhh - just the weather I like to hunt in. Nothing like good soft, easy tracking snow. Around here, it's easy to walk a fresh or fairly fresh track and find the deer inside 1 to 1 1/2 km's.

Areas are different - this is bush/forest country.

This is how I hunt as well. It just sucked a little in some spots where the snow had drifted to waist height. Not very cool for dragging a buck back up the trail

Yup, fresh, new snow on top of hard-frozen ground, no wind, cloudy and "new moon" with about a 15*F. temp.; THAT is my idea of "perfect" deer hunting.

I've friends hunt late deer in the Ft. St. John area eaver year - and limit out NP. Pretty much all private property and need permision to hunt, which is difficult to obtain sometimes.

I hunted under the hunter/host license so didn't have much invested and I LOVE to hunt so I had a great time. If any of you guys can recommend an outfitter up in the Peace area I would sure appreciate. Would like to kill one of those Heavy Bucks before i play out. Thanks

What Outfitters went 2-12 and 0-9 in the Peace region when you were up? Just curious.

Sorry for the confusion, I was hunting north of edmonton, not the peace river area.
Talked to my buddy tonight, worst season they ever had for all in his area.

I managed to squeeze in a few days north of Ft.St John, Nov.25-27/09.
In an area my friends an I have hunted for the last 5 years, the numbers were down sharply. We would see 50+ deer/day in the fields we had permission on, and at least that much on adjoining fields.
On the fields this year, signs of deer , but zero deer seen on the land we hunt. Approx. 20 deer seen on adjoining land. I lucked out and got a muley doe and a small 4x4 muley buck for meat on the last morning. The other two guys got skunked and hunted an extra day.
On a related note, I did two trips up the Muskwa river in late Sept./early Oct.
Trip one -5days--saw 5 animals, friend's son got a cow elk, warm and windy, minimal calling.
Trip two -5 days perfect weather, elk bugling, moose grunting, we bugled in a 5X5 elk to 13yds that needed another point to be legal. He was the only animal seen on that trip.
Lots of guys in Ft.Nelson got skunked this year.

Do you have any ideas as to why this happened? As you know, we here in BC tend to consider the Muskwa and adjacent regions to be "the" hunting region of BC and "full" of game.

I hunted up around Spirit River this fall early archery. Was a very tough hunt; primarily due to some very hot weather.

Hit 90+ most days and only got into the mid 60’s (Fahrenheit) most nights. The week before it was low 30’s hi 60’s. Whitetail shut down completely during daylight and mulies bedded up very early in the unusually tall canola and stayed put till last light.

Thanks primarily to plenty of prior scouting and perseverance by Blake and Cordell Shmyr, Big Tine Adventures we got onto several nice mulies. Close but no shot on a 200”er, and finally my partner and I stuck these two guys on day 7. We were very happy and felt that under different weather circumstances we would both have very likely been able to do considerably better.

The deer we saw were massive bodied and even considering the velvet they seemed to generally have plenty of horn height and width.




These cell phone photos are of bucks we saw just beyond bow range.







This is a buck my buddies son took with a rifle in 2008



As previously noted the Peace River region is very vast and diverse so any one experence is a drop in the proverbial big bucket!

Best regards

Mike O

Darn nice deer!

I just hope to SEE something like that on my hunt. Sounds like you have hunted on this same property for a while?

Actually it was my first trip up into that general location my buddy Rick had gone up the previous year and rifle hunted bear, then later mulies with this crew was successful and very much enjoyed the trip so he talked me into giving it a try.

I'm just finishing up an article for our SCI chapter magazine and will post a link and or send it to you when its completed.

It is interesting country, vast grain fields broken up with some rough bush and river bluffs. Very game rich, we saw numerous elk, moose, bear, deer, wolf signs and tons of coyotes.

It is now on my list of places to go back to.

Best regards

Mike O