Harder than you Think

[DoubleCam]

Well, the family of 5 went up north to Valley View in hopes of filling 4 calf moose tags, a few white-tail and maaaaybe an elk. Well, its harder than you think. Typically down in southern Alberta the lease holders are honest and tell you how it is before you go in. Up there, isnt the case.. either they have a stock pile of cattle in the fields or its just garbage hunting. We later found out that we were in the "Dead Zone" by a pair of hunters from Calgary. So we were forced to look elsewhere for area to hunt, seeing as we had planned the hunt for a huge chunk of lease land from several different land owners.
We hunted hard, and harder, and harder... walked miles and miles, drove and scouted... knocked on doors... seen tons of game but none that we could even put a scope on. The typical answer was this, " Nope, no hunting.. got friends coming with tags ".
Brother had a small herd of elk cross in front of him in a meadow 70 yards away but the bull wasnt legal. Dad had a 150 class white tail 50 yards but had no shot... this was the typical day. We seen calves but all on private property...
It wasnt until the last 2 days that my cousin, brother and I ventured into some crown land... right off the river full of benches and poplar/aspen and moose country seeing alot of sign!! The last morning, it was a blizzar out and I KNEW something was going to happen.. and it did.. my cousin blaine missed a 180" one antler bull!!! So thats a gross 360" bull elk... it was sad... but it happens.
For future hunters traveling to 360 make sure you have permission and do MORE homework than we did... we were there a week and only got onto game the last day that we could legally hunt.
Seen a wack of game though! Just mainly private land.

Cheers

[honda450]

North of Valleyview is a pretty large area why hunt private land?

[Eyeswideshut]

Ya its been hit and miss around the area between GP and VV. I am also seeing a lot more no trespassing/no hunting signs up in the last couple of years.

[TBark]

There will likely not be many hunters venturing up to 360 with undersubscribed calf tags in the future.
Not only are hunters returning home with a sour taste in their mouths,
when the arial surveys are done, they will reflect what others have seen, few moose. I'm running 8 trail cams over 5 - 6 sq miles in that area and I'm getting more wolf on camera than cow'n calf moose.

TBark

[DoubleCam]

There will likely not be many hunters venturing up to 360 with undersubscribed calf tags in the future.
Not only are hunters returning home with a sour taste in their mouths,
when the arial surveys are done, they will reflect what others have seen, few moose. I'm running 8 trail cams over 5 - 6 sq miles in that area and I'm getting more wolf on camera than cow'n calf moose.

TBark

Yah.. we seen a great number of moose! 2 bulls, about about 10 cows and 2 calfs. 4 wolves as well.
Its not that it is a bad area, at all.
BUT the moose population is not as high as what it was said to be AND the moose arent in typical moose area.

I would sum up the area which we hunted in was about 20 miles total and it is completely ELK and WHITETAIL. We also seen some bear, and grizzly tracks.

Its a good area and we will most likely be back again!!

** PS also seen a 210" WT in the back of a truck on the way home!! Look for that pic!!

[TBark]

Were you guys more in the Slave Lake part of 360, or Valleyview east ?
The grizz are moving in from the east out of Swan Hills, wolves too.
I'm heading up on Tues the 18th, will be splitting my hunt between 360 and my mule buck draw in the south Peace.
I'll try for that nice WT buck I have on camera first in 360.
I will try to rattle him in, and I will also have the 360 calf moose tag, was considdering not even picking up that tag, because of not seeing any calves this fall, but you never know. General elk tag still also.

TBark