If you could live anywhere in AB, where would it be?
criteria-
within commuting distance of a fairly major population centre for work and ammenities,
somewhere you could hunt, leaving home on foot!
and within driving distance of at least 2 big game species.
Oh yeah, some bird and widlfowling would be nice too!
good shooting

Brass thief,

You'll be hard pressed to find a sport where you are NOT in driving distance of two big game species!

You'll have to define "major" populations centre. Do you mean Calgary (about a million these days), Edmonton (650,000??), or is 50,000-100,000 people also a major centre for you? I don't think we have too much in between these two categories!

Frans

I like where I live. I live in a city of 15,000...I am within a very short drive of great hunting territory(15mins) where I can hunt mule deer and whitetail and moose. If i want to drive a bit further(90 min or so) I can hunt elk, antelope, black bear.
And the varmint hunting is great. A 5 or 10 min drive puts me in some of the best gopher pastures i have ever seen. And the farmers/ranchers are more that happy to have someone keep the population in check.

I'd live in Rocky Mt House in a heartbeat. Caroline, Sundre, even Sylvan Lake would be great too.

I quite like anything along Highway 22 south of Bragg Creek, and Pincher Creek is another favorite area in AB.

Cheers,
Canuck

Well, to be truthful, if we could live anywhere in AB...it would be Grande Cache. That would be our "little slice of Heaven". Perhaps some day...sigh.

I live on an acerage a little north and east of Rocky mountain house. I can drive an hour or so to the west and hunt Bighorn sheep. It is a little farther to the south and east to hunt pronghorn. In about 15 min. I can be hunting moose, elk, mule deer white-tail deer and black bear. The duck hunting isn't bad and I have limited out on geese about ten minutes from home. Rough and spruce grouse in some years are great. No pheasent or hungarians around but I don't miss them. The fishing is pretty good too. Can't really think of anywhere I'd rather live.

Robin in Rocky , not heaven, but you can see it from here.

Thanks guys,
What about the south? Lethbridge,Fort Macleod?
Too built up? What about hunter pressure/competition?
good shooting

So Duffy, do you have Barry Baitsch for a neighbor?
I live at the center of the universe,as far as I'm concerned. Just south of the intersections of Highways 22 and 27, west of Olds. I can hunt most big Game species within less than an hour, a couple outside the back door and the economic opportunities, to support my habits, are unlimited. Now, if I just had the F'n time
When we moved to the country, one of the criteria any land had to meet was that it could justify itself economically. None of this "recreational" land, read moose pasture for us. There have been a couple of those quarters, across H 22, that sold for a million bucks. Makes me laugh on the one hand,at people's stupidity, but in the long run it means more money in the bank for me.
Grizz

I live on an acreage east of Strathmore. I can hunt Hungarian partridge, pheasant and waterfowl within walking distance. I have access to whitetailed deer, mule deer and moose with a one hour drive, and if I want to extend my driving time by a further hour east, I have access to pronghorns and an extra hour west, elk. Two hours in the appropriate direction puts me into either sharptailed grouse or ruffed grouse.

Everybody has their favourite place, and this is mine.

I live very close to Calgary, about 15 minutes to its expanding borders. I see whitetail and muledeer, and occasionally moose when I walk the dog, elk are a 10-minute drive away. It's just a matter of getting permission. ;-)

Bighorn sheep within an hour's drive, wolves and cougars too, black bears (though not in very big numbers), grizzlies (oh, shoot, we closed that hunt).

And mountains! Mountains to loose yourself in. Even in busy K-country things are pretty quiet as soon as you leave the established trails.

Now I could do with a good place to hunt coyotes! A place with not too many houses, where I could take my son, try some calling, do some hiking, just have some fun. Any suggestions?

I agree with Canuck, lots of very nice areas along HW22.


Grizz, you don't have to worry about your pension fund too much. You're living on it!

Frans