Hunting whitetail deer 2018 in Alberta

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DelvinJohnston

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Just wondering what you think about no supplement whitetail deer tags. It would not have mattered if we had the supplement tag because there was not very many whitetail deer in 2018.
 
DelvinJohnston said:
Just wondering what you think about no supplement whitetail deer tags. It would not have mattered if we had the supplement tag because there was not very many whitetail deer in 2018.
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Not very many whitetail? I guess it depends where a person hunts in the province. Although whitetail numbers have slightly increased for the past three seasons, they are nowhere near the grand population between the years of 2000-2005. I'm hoping that the Alberta Government will have only one general whitetail tag, in which one animal can be tagged......either a buck or doe.....no supplemental tags! I haven't shot a doe in over 30 years, they are the producers of the population, therefore I leave them alone.
 
Where were you hunting? I was out almost every weekend 2 months before the season opened and out until the end of November and saw a huge amount of deer (Northern Alberta). Helped harvest 3 deer with friends and didnt get any for myself even though I had 3 whitetail tags.

I buy my tags every year not with the goal to fill them but with the knowledge that the money hopefully goes to conservation of our land and animals as a renwable resource... and maybe get a deer.
 
This year in the Del Bonita area we saw more whitetail farther south than we usually do, close to the Montana border where for years and years, all we saw normally were mulies. Lots more whitetail down south this year than previous ones..
 
I passed on like 20 does, 2 spikers, spooked/missed 4 good bucks before I took my buck. I didn't think there was a shortage. I like the change in no supplemental tags for certain WMUs, but I guarantee there are idiots out there that didn't know the new rules and for sure shot does when they shouldn't have.
 
Within the area I hunt there's no shortage of WT deer. There's one supp tag and it seems about right. One of the challenges in Alberta is that it is a massive area with wildly varying differences in wildlife population. (West-Central)
 
I saw a reasonable number of white-tails this year and ended up taking a small buck.
You can't really make a blanket statement about Alberta like "not very many whitetail deer" as the province a huge area and even hardcore hunters can only see a tiny portion during the hunting season. Some WMU's, including your hunting areas, may have been low but others might be doing fine or high.
Maybe you need to change up hunting grounds?
 
I own 160 acres in wmu 504 near Smoky Lake, Alberta. Last year (2017) we had over 200 sightings on our property, obviously many sightings of the same deer. We all took deer except my youngest son who passed on many 140 class bucks. This year (2018) we hunted fewer days and saw over 100 animals, many 160 class and over, we took a 140 and a 150 class buck. A friend took a small meat buck and we took 3 does with our supplemental tags, numerous moose seen but we did not have a tag, I should have mine next season. We also saw numerous other deer driving to and from my property, but without permission they were only bino deer. It depends what part of the Province you are hunting and in our case my land is landlocked, we cross a relatives land to get to it or walk up a grown in road allowance to access it. Get away from the gravel and you will see deer.
 
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There was a noticeable shortage in central AB where we hunt. I saw one doe with a single fawn all the rest were lone does and sometimes we went out 3 X before seeing deer on the property. Lots of mule deer with fawns but no tags. I was wondering if it was coyotes or perhaps cougars.Supposed to be a pair of cats in the area but that wouldn't explain the numerous mulies with babies.Not sure what to make of it.
 
It was hard to to find
You had to go to winrelm then my wild ab
The tags where gone in about 1 hr
They previously put a article in the paper for the last 2 culls they had
Not sure why they didn’t this time lots of people were were complaining about the the culls
 
bbobie said:
It was hard to to find
You had to go to winrelm then my wild ab
The tags where gone in about 1 hr
They previously put a article in the paper for the last 2 culls they had
Not sure why they didn’t this time lots of people were were complaining about the the culls
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Daaaamn well I know what I am gonna look for this year!
 
mbogo3 said:
There was a noticeable shortage in central AB where we hunt. I saw one doe with a single fawn all the rest were lone does and sometimes we went out 3 X before seeing deer on the property. Lots of mule deer with fawns but no tags. I was wondering if it was coyotes or perhaps cougars.Supposed to be a pair of cats in the area but that wouldn't explain the numerous mulies with babies.Not sure what to make of it.
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I think all of central Ab. has suffered an extreme loss of W.T. from winter-kills starting 7 or 8 yrs. ago. Where I hunted extensively (30 min east of R.D. so basically the same area as you) thru-out all my life it was not uncommon to see up to 40 head of W.T. in a mornings hunt, (of course there were 1/2 dozen head mornings as well). Not uncommon for a group of hunters to hang 1/2 dozen in a weekend back then. That was back then, now my hunting partner who still hunts the same area and knows it like the back of his hand says if you see a 1/2 dozen in a week your doing exceptionally well. Before the "winter kill-off" started my farm was inhabited by a W.T or two every year but I haven't seen a WT in five years on the place, lots & lots of Mules now ( up to 20 or so spotted most any week of the year).
 
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Usually we would see a dozen or more wt's every time we did a morning or evening sit on the place.We still got our deer but it was less leisurely than usual.Hunted the full month.
 
I think its partially due to hunters buying 3 WT tags every year and filling them every year year after year.

Doing away with the 2 supplemental in certain wmus is great imo.
 
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