babykong is back, a flippin 108 pounder..lol

there is still only 5% of Alberta hunting... pretty amazing... huh.. comment if u ppl??

Come fall it seems like 80% of Alberta is Hunting

I took the hunters' ed course, in Jan., and it is said that it is sol... we have so much land...our current generation is not hunting, unless our fathers and grandfathers did.. can u see this... i really do hope that u do , once u reflect

If there's only 5% of Alberta hunting I think they're all in the exact same WMU as I am always in. Sometimes there so many gunshots going off I feel like I'm in Vietnam.

Ya know what... I felt the same way when I was only allowed to scout with elnino54, it really seemed like it.....depends in the very popular area, that ur friends and others tell ya.. huh

When I was in Jr. High in the 1970's, we had Hunter's Ed and a Fishing and Fly tying course as options. For alot of kids it was a great way to learn about the outdoors. It affected alot of us positively.

A friend of mine is a school principal and I 've gone along with his kids out to one of the school programs at Alford Lake now as a way of putting something back. Kids need to learn from a trusted adult how to respect and enjoy the outdoors. Sometimes it's the parents that get them into it but if there is no parent that knows anything about the outdoors, it's probably difficult to find ways to learn.

It's too bad there isn't more emphasis placed on hunting and fishing as legitimate ways to enjoy the outdoors in Alberta Education curriculum.

5% Hunting, and last November 10% joy riding quads getting lost and making pests of themselves in the area I hunt. Of the 15 joy riders we encountered twice only 1 was sober enough to understand directions back to their vehicles...
Back to the topic. We need to get more youngsters into the field fishing and hunting. I have taken sons of friends and relatives out but after a few years they get into colledge or university and seem to forget about hunting.
Its sad that in a province so rich with hunting heritage has so small a % actively doing it.

I thought I read somewhere recently that the number of hunting licences sold in Alberta was actually UP last year - reversing a long term slide.

Can anyone confirm this?

Andrew

In the Spring issue of "The Alberta Game Warden" they have all the stats. Everything is in a upward trend as the population of Alberta is also in a upward trend. As if no one noticed.

Here are the population estimates according to " Alberta Game Warden"

Elk 32,822
Moose 141,792
WT Deer 268,724
Mule Deer 175,078
Black Bear 34,601
Antelope 18,674
Cougar 788

It would be interesting to know the wolf population in Alberta.

From my scouting trips I only saw 200,000 of those Whitetails.

I think the deer boom down where i'm at has increased hunters. Three years ago you could drive around every Thur-Sat in November and still see a few mulies in the fields along the road (on land where everyone can hunt). We didn't have deer tags as it was a 2-3yr wait for a mulie doe and 2yrs for a buck. Saw one or two other guys a day in there and most guys did not end up with a deer as theres not many whitetails in the area.

Two years ago no more deer in fields come evening, still lots along the river bottom in the corn. Saw 4-5 guys a day out. Only ran into one or two guys during the entire archery season. Saw a ton of deer!

Last year the deer were running after opening day. There was enough archery hunters in area to make all the deer skitish (3-4 a day sharing 1-1.5 sections of land).

Literally saw 15-20 guys a day come rifle season. Everyone filled all their deer tags though, no one went home hungry. Lots of guys figured they went a little overkill knocking them back.

Still tons of deer when i was out there on a unrelated mission last week. I know a lot of people who once again took up hunting thanks to the new oportunities. Probably lost a few due to the crowding last season though. At one point there were 3 deer down by three different hunters within 500 meters of each other over a 45min period (not a flock shoot). (Two guys we were with and another guy i hadn't met before).
Good to see though! We need numbers to keep the tradition alive. I'm going to find new spots for next year and pass a few of mine on for next fall.

Around Grande Cache during Elk season if you hit the right spots you can call in 5 or 6....... hunters a day. The only time I notice the 5% are at social functions.

My last reply to this is,,,,, if nobody hunted for the next five years, wildlife population wud drop in dramatic numbers ,, ... feeding for them... is being watched and maintained.. but not enuff to maintain a pure feeding area for them if this happens...(the green area is what I'm talking about)

Sorry BabyK,

- a little cryptic for me....
what are you saying ??

Andrew

....no kiddin, what does that mean in english?

The reason i think you guys see lots of guys in your WMU is probably because one of a few reasons. One its all public land so the weekend hunters find it the easiest and dont really have to scout/study the area because most of those public areas you can drive to most places with either a truck or ATV. Or it is private land but the rancher/farmer doesnt care how many people hunt on their land cause all of his cattle are in near the house during the winter so they dont have to worry about one of them gettin shot and farmers well its not like their crops are gunna get damaged that time of year.Also there are more and more ranchers/farmers not allowing hunting on their land due to lazy/unethical hunters either takin their quads or trucks and driving all over their land or just not respecting the rules set down by the rancher/farmer, and most of these hunters that are doing this are the weekend hunters. Now when i say weekend hunter i dont mean the people that only go out on weekends and hunt cause that is the only time they can, i mean the type that will do whatever it takes to shot a deer the one day they feel like goin out which means doin unethical things just to do so, just so they dont have to go out again. As if it were a burden or something.

Now where i hunt the ranchers are very strict with the hunting. The only reason we have such privelages there is beacuse my family has been hunting/camping there for 3 generations. But we do see about 5 new parked trucks there every year opening day and they are different people but most of the time a week later we never see them again because they dont know the area and just stay close to the trucks cause they havent taken the time to scout the area, so really they are weekend hunters thinkin oh this is private land there will be animals everywhere, it will be easy when it really isnt so they decide to go to the easy accesss hunting where they can just drive around.

Last year i hunted a public WMU for the first time and well i think that will be the last time too cause i just couldnt believe how many people were there driving/quading/walking or camped out there. Thats why i will do anything to ensure i am always welcome at my private place, which means reporting unethical hunters which we have seen a couple times cause the last thing we need is to blamed for something we didnt do and lose our privelages due to and idiot.

As for only 5% of albertans hunt i believe that but too bad probably 2.5% are ethical, respectable hunters.