Cannot figure out the public land and WMUs

jmichelin84

jmichelin84

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 100%
60   0   0
Location
Big Land, nL
Hello all, I have been in Alberta since June, I'm an Alberta resident and want to go on my first rifle white tail deer hunt, I have 2 questions.
1) can anyone point me in the direction of some public lands within 5 hours of Edmonton area that has a good population of animals?

2) anyone willing to take a novice in Alberta tag along?

I can buy your license, some ammo, hell food n gas if asked, I have my own truck and a cheapo tent if a stay over is required, I have my gear and just needing someone to teach me about the setup in Alberta.
If you're willing to let me tag along, please me6me or if you can give me some information or learnin on how it works here, I'd welcome it, thanks for reading y'all
 
jmichelin84 said:
I'll have to look into that, thanks
Click to expand...

Squidxm has the best solution for you. It is a foolproof app. There is a yearly cost associated with it but you get all of the info you need, including seasons for each WMU, PIN numbers for private lots, overlays of crown land, conservation areas, etc etc........incredibly valuable tool.

Their support has been stellar as well.
 
Pretty much every county office has landowner maps available, I like paper copies myself, so I buy new copies every year, for the area that I hunt.
 
As mentioned ihunter is what I use, it is subscription based to be able to see the crown land option and your able to see private property… it also gives you a free trial to explore all that before committing to the full subscription
 
jmichelin84 said:
I have to ask, WMU 507, is there road access? And is there any back roads I can use to drive my truck and watch over a meadow??
Click to expand...

If you want to be sitting in the truck, and waiting, you are like to have a crappy season. Just sayin'. A lot of the deer have that figured out, in the easy access places.

On the other hand, if you are willing to walk a few hills back into the sticks, and get the hells off the road access, you will probably have a lot of success!

When I lived in Edmonton, I never got to the point where I felt the need to knock on doors or make phone calls, as there was a LOT of open country within easy reach. Add together the Crown land, Ag leases, and the buck-for-wildlife properties, and you had a lot of decent choices.

Got a quad? Head up into the area of Vega, cross the ferry, and go north until you hit the gate. The boonies there goes all the way up to Slave Lake, and West to Swan Hills. East is bounded by the river. Go West of Swan hills and you have a chuck of dirt that stops around Valleyview. Go west of Valleyiew, and you have about until Grande Cache, before you hit civilization again. That's all within your 5 hour drive easily.

Use as many different mapping apps as you can manage, to check areas and cross compare the imagery dates. Google Earth, Yahoo maps, etc. Pretty sure there are at least a dozen readily available and free.

Paper Municipality maps are really good too, as they will usually show any recent changes of ownership, as well as where the actual bridges are, rather than just that there is a road allowance though the place. Road Allowance=/=Road!
 
trevj said:
If you want to be sitting in the truck, and waiting, you are like to have a crappy season. Just sayin'. A lot of the deer have that figured out, in the easy access places.

On the other hand, if you are willing to walk a few hills back into the sticks, and get the hells off the road access, you will probably have a lot of success!

When I lived in Edmonton, I never got to the point where I felt the need to knock on doors or make phone calls, as there was a LOT of open country within easy reach. Add together the Crown land, Ag leases, and the buck-for-wildlife properties, and you had a lot of decent choices.

Got a quad? Head up into the area of Vega, cross the ferry, and go north until you hit the gate. The boonies there goes all the way up to Slave Lake, and West to Swan Hills. East is bounded by the river. Go West of Swan hills and you have a chuck of dirt that stops around Valleyview. Go west of Valleyiew, and you have about until Grande Cache, before you hit civilization again. That's all within your 5 hour drive easily.

Use as many different mapping apps as you can manage, to check areas and cross compare the imagery dates. Google Earth, Yahoo maps, etc. Pretty sure there are at least a dozen readily available and free.

Paper Municipality maps are really good too, as they will usually show any recent changes of ownership, as well as where the actual bridges are, rather than just that there is a road allowance though the place. Road Allowance=/=Road!
Click to expand...

I downloaded the eye Hunter app and yeah I'm just thinking about getting to a area in truck and then hoofing it from there, sadly not enough room for a quad.
I am going up to Grand Prairie Monday so I might have to take a look and see how it is honestly if it's a boreal area and it's wide open I might have to just take a look up there but I think I'll check around White Court area
 
There is also grazing lease to check out. Theres some good hunting around Edmonton on grazing leases.
Check out the provincial map to see what there is:
https://www.alberta.ca/accessing-provincial-grazing-reserves.aspx#raimt

Note there is conditions posted for every lease. Typically its foot access only, leave gates closed etc. The lease holders cannot deny access but you have to notify them prior. Sometimes they try to deny access based on illegitimate reasons. You can always contact the lease managers if you have issue.
 
jmichelin84 said:
I downloaded the eye Hunter app and yeah I'm just thinking about getting to a area in truck and then hoofing it from there, sadly not enough room for a quad.
I am going up to Grand Prairie Monday so I might have to take a look and see how it is honestly if it's a boreal area and it's wide open I might have to just take a look up there but I think I'll check around White Court area
Click to expand...

Too bad no quad. It really does open up a HUGE amount of country. Even so, if you hit a decent patch of cut lines among the oil field roads, you can still do really well.

Seen enough moose hauled out of the back country by old Honda Trikes, to know that you don't need a tractor sized quad to make it work. Having a trailer that you can load you gear in to and haul into the boonies, is pretty damn handy too. I had a flat deck trailer made out of an old boat trailer, that was licensed, so I could haul the quad (350 Big Bear Yammy) out on it, and strap down anything I wanted to haul in or out of the boonies behind the quad with it, from wherever the easiest road access was.

A lot of the country that does have roads, esp. that I know (knew?) of, between Vega and Slave Lake, is supposed to be closed to vehicle traffic, but not closed to off road vehicles, so it makes it really a long haul in and out on foot.
 
GP and whitcourt both have more crown land than you could wander in a lifetime of wandering lol. Find some cutlines near farm land and you'll probably find a deer or two
 
Alberta has green and white zones.
"Generally", the green zone is crown land that you are free to go hunting in but will have varying conditions in regards to WMU, resource operators, etc.
2013-esrd-operations-regions-gree-area-map.png
 
Thank you all, I'm thinking of the grazing leases, but will probably go for around white Court area, I was up there today and had 7 deer rubbing on my truck just before daylight when I took a nap hahah, and 4 moose road kill, makes me sad to see any animals killed like that
 
stubblejumper said:
Pretty much every county office has landowner maps available, I like paper copies myself, so I buy new copies every year, for the area that I hunt.
Click to expand...

Most RM's only update landowner maps every 3-4 years so buying paper annually is wasting your $. When a new updated map is available the RM's that are on iHunter put out the new maps for subscription.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom