Hunting Opportunities around Cochrane
 

Hey, I am considering a move from northern Alberta down to Cochrane. Does anyone have any in site on the hunting opportunities in that area, or how far one would have to drive to get good ones? Is it a high pressured area from the Calgary population? I hunt deer (rifle and archery) and upland birds with my dog. Thank you!

Ghost PLUZ is right there. Whitetail hunting.

Lots of hunting opportunities depending on what you are looking for. Grouse hunting in the Kananaskis, ghost and other public lease areas are fantastic.

Deer hunting can be tougher, but good opportunity around if you can make friends with land owners, get access to lease land, or get drawn in the low odd mountain zones. The mountains make for great hunting, but game populations tend to be lower. There is sheep, elk, mule, white, bear, wolf, cougar, coyote hunting around.

Hunting pressure can be high, but same as anywhere, there are always spots that see limited hunting pressure and high reward.

Once you develop friendships, your opportunities will open up for you.

The landowners north of Cochrane get very upset by the city pressures.

But once they get to know you and you help them out every so often, you will be fine...
Conversely, if you screw up, then your muddied name travels fast.

I used to live in Calgary, I found there was tons of crown land to hunt on in within an hour to 2 (although i did travel further sometimes). I frequented Ghost which is your closest PLUZ, pretty much a hop skip and a jump from Cochrane. I personally enjoyed and had success in North Ghost (for both grouse and whitetail deer). Also lots of lease land, if you have ihunter should be able to find all the information you need, otherwise, prior to iHunter I used Alberta RecAccess https://maps.alberta.ca/RecAccess/Vi...ewer=RecAccess

I recently moved outside of Edmonton, but now on private land, however, I already do miss the close proximity of PLUZs, so you can also make yourself familiar with those https://www.alberta.ca/public-land-use-zones.aspx . Beautiful areas to hunt in, but some can prove challenging on foot. There's no shortage of hunting areas down there, get off the beaten path for some peace and quiet.

Great Hunting about an hour straight west. Lots of game to an know one ever seems to be hunting there.

I grew up in Cochrane and know it well. we do have some great game but permission isn't easy to obtain but there is also the PLUZ zones mentioned. They are getting crowded and most often i stay away from there on the weekends to maintain sanity. Better WT hunting where you are coming from so keep those connections and enjoy the diversity. Nice hunting BH Sheep within 45 min of the house, I'm just saying....