Buffalo/Bison hunting in Alberta

Throttle_monkey1

Throttle_monkey1

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Hey guys, anyone know a good area where a guy can hunt wild buffalo/bison here in Alberta. I am only interested in the meat. I hear there is no hunting season for them here either.

Thanks in advance for any and all input
 
Throttle_monkey1 said:
Hey guys, anyone know a good area where a guy can hunt wild buffalo/bison here in Alberta. I am only interested in the meat. I hear there is no hunting season for them here either.

Thanks in advance for any and all input
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There was a hunting season for buffalo in Alberta howeverit was cancelled this year because of winter kill. The license was on a random draw system where 50 tags were issued to lucky hunters.
 
The draw season was in an area in the west of the province where they wanted to reduce the heard.

However in the eastern part they are sort of considered loose livestock and you can shoot them without a permit.
I know a fellow who keeps in touch with some truckers who regularly drive a route through buffalo country. When they see some near a road they contact him and if he can go for a few days he heads out to try for one.
 
We've hunted the herd west of wood buffalo park, it is wide open for hunting. It's a TB control measure as mentioned, to keep the infected Wood Buffalo herd from mixing with the clean Zama herd. Access is beyond remote and not something to consider unless you're investing a lot of effort, time, and money. There are no roads in the area so I'm curious about this trucker story, there are a couple 4x4 trails, to Fox Lake and Garden River, but they are impassible much of the year. Garden River reserve area is where most will be found that are legal to hunt. We helped a guy scout who spent more than $5000 and came up empty handed, it's not easy. They are getting harder and harder to find but I haven't looked in a couple years, at that time they seemed to be staying in Wood Buffalo Park. If you're serious I can help you get in touch with the CO who does the counts by air up there etc.

Best way is sleds in winter, you can get on the Peace River at Fort Vermillion to head out, expect a ten day trip to two week trip, and definitely have a plan B if sleds quit etc. That is genuine wilderness we used to fly the medivacs out of Garden River and it's a long way even by air from "town" over absolute nothing.
 
Also should have mentioned just buying Bison meat is going to be far cheaper. But if you're looking for an adventure, this is the way to go, be ready for extremely hard work. :)

If you've really got a hankering to just shoot a Bison, there are plenty of Bison ranches who will sell a head around Whitecourt etc.
 
track said:
There was a hunting season for buffalo in Alberta howeverit was cancelled this year because of winter kill. The license was on a random draw system where 50 tags were issued to lucky hunters.
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100 tags.

That season is west of Hwy 35 in WMU 536 & 539 only, to control population numbers and reduce vehicle collisions.
East of Hwy 35 you can go hunt them any time you want without a licence.

Wood bison in Alberta are not categorized in the same manner as other large animals such as deer, elk and moose. With one exception, they are not actually classified as "wildlife" in Alberta, nor are they controlled animals under the Wildlife Act, an Act that governs hunting in Alberta. The exception is in the northwest portion of the province. So, except for those bison that are in northwest Alberta, they can be hunted year round without licences on unoccupied crown lands. Hunting for bison is unlawful in national or provincial parks, including many Wildland Provincial Parks.

A person may hire a guide and pay fees for guiding services for hunting bison. In fact, this commonly occurs through contracted hunts with licensed outfitter/guides, particularly in areas near Wood Buffalo National Park. However, as bison are not classified as wildlife, a person need not be a licensed outfitter/guide to charge for guiding services, as would be the case when pursuing wildlife animals such as deer, elk or moose.
 
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Should have mentioned the winter road to Fox Lake is an access option too but you are still a LONG way from the Bison and anyone who knows Fox Lake knows not to park a truck in the bush near there. It is possible to drive all the way to Garden River certain times of year with a good truck as well, but again might not be much left when you return.

The bison do come as far west as Hwy 35 once in a while but it's a "you gotta be there" as in live there thing in my opinion. Still have friends in High Level and one of them wants to do the hunt this winter, I may go along again we'll see.
 
Thanks for all the advice guys!

The remote location and hard work don't bug me as I've guided for fly in hunts in northeastern Alberta in the past. The tricky part will be getting enough time off work to do it. Sounds like it would be a blast. In the meantime I might go see if I can get some bison meat for a good price.
 
antiqueguy said:
sounds like a hunt where you use a small 4x4 of some sort maybe a tracker and a few atv's
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You've never met muskeg then, I'm afraid... :p

The tracker would be gone, and likely a couple of the quads. Winter's the time to do it, on sleds. Some fellows in an Argo tried about 3 years ago, they made it a fraction of the way there and turned around. Or, air access if you've got the $ or the friends.
 
Ardent, couldn't agree with you more, a very unforgiving countryside. From 2001-06 I was employed with a float operator out of Fort Smith. I flew a C-210 that was on contract with Parks Canada out of Fort Chip. Did quite a bit of survey work (including the Bison survey) and fire patrol over the park. East of Fort Smith there is an area called the Salt Flats. I can't remember exactly were the park border falls around there, but you might be able to access the herd from the north end of the park closer to Fort Smith. However I don't think the herd winters in that area, but I have seen Bison there.
 
I get the impression alot of that country north and west of Bonnyville/Cold Lake is just miles and miles of muskeg bog.
Went moose hunting up by Winnifred Lake, Kirby Lake area once, which is near Chip. You walk on the upper level of peat & the "ground surface" kind of vibrates like it's sitting on a bowl full of jelly all around you. Kind of weird at first.
 
If it's anything like the area I've guided in in the birch mountains it's pure slop muskeg. No way I'd tackle it in summer. I'll do some investigating to see if its possible to access from the fort smith side.

Thanks again guys.
 
Have a ball the planning's some of the best part, and yep it's serious muskeg. Aerial scouting is a good idea before hand as their range is enormous, like they could be in Calgary or Red Deer type stuff, that's a slight exaggeration but paint's the picture. Noralta's about the only game in town for reasonable light fixed wing for spotting out of Fort Vermilion these days I believe.

Hope you don't mind I take a stretched out moment to encourage you guys to bring proper magnums for rifles, I'm sure you have this in mind already given you've guided up north. Best to forget all the "30-06 good for anything" stuff on here and haul along something like a .338 Win Mag, .300 Mag and 200gr at least. I've nary seen anything as tough as a well hit, but not perfectly hit, Bison, it could save you a very, very long follow up. And following them isn't the trouble, it's hauling it back from wherever he decides to go.

Definitely not a minimalist creature rifle selection wise no matter what anyone tries to tell you on the internet! :) They're bigger than stuff in Africa that has a minimum of .375 H&H on it, and every bit as tough if they make their minds up to be and don't give up. Good hunting!
 
I was one of the lucky few to get a tag in the Alberta limited entry hunt last year and managed to harvest one on opening day. On the way home we drove highway 88 and definitely saw bison tracks crossing the highway at one point.

Given I had followed a herd for hours on snow shoes 2 days before, I'm 100% certain it was bison. Processing them is an epic task and we were still too gassed to contemplate adding another bison to our load... The unanimous decision was to drive on.
 
Ardent said:
Have a ball the planning's some of the best part, and yep it's serious muskeg. Aerial scouting is a good idea before hand as their range is enormous, like they could be in Calgary or Red Deer type stuff, that's a slight exaggeration but paint's the picture. Noralta's about the only game in town for reasonable light fixed wing for spotting out of Fort Vermilion these days I believe.

Hope you don't mind I take a stretched out moment to encourage you guys to bring proper magnums for rifles, I'm sure you have this in mind already given you've guided up north. Best to forget all the "30-06 good for anything" stuff on here and haul along something like a .338 Win Mag, .300 Mag and 200gr at least. I've nary seen anything as tough as a well hit, but not perfectly hit, Bison, it could save you a very, very long follow up. And following them isn't the trouble, it's hauling it back from wherever he decides to go.

Definitely not a minimalist creature rifle selection wise no matter what anyone tries to tell you on the internet! :) They're bigger than stuff in Africa that has a minimum of .375 H&H on it, and every bit as tough if they make their minds up to be and don't give up. Good hunting!
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id think a hit from a wide and heavy bullet would do the job .375 H&H for you magnum guys but id use my martini henry
 
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