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Ruffed Grouse

Ruffed Grouse

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Hi CGNers,

I'm applying for a job in Wolfville. I'd appreciate any information about hunting in the area.

Below is my understanding regulation-wise of the lay of the land, along with questions. Any info beyond regulations and answers to my questions will be much appreciated. I've looked through the regulations, but have not yet read every word.

I understand that everybody can get one antlered deer tag, and has to apply for to a draw for an antlerless permit. The area around Wolfville has 3000 antlerless permits available - is that a lot? What are the odds of getting one of those antlerless permits?

I didn't pick up on whether or not there is a separate archery season...if someone had an addiction to archery hunting whitetails from the ground, would he be stuck wearing an orange coat???

I understand that extra antlerless permits are available for an area 2A on the other side from Wolfville. Is access to land easy there to obtain there? I've been known to drive 6 hours for a weekend of hunting so that's not a big issue.

The moose draw statistics look a bit intimidating - looks like available tag to hunter ratios are on the order of 20:1 or worse, depending on which hunt you apply to - how does this all work out in practice?

How much crown land is there in that part of the province? Is small game hunting generally good? I'm not much of a waterfowler, but I'm adaptable too. I'm sure there must be lots of hunting for marine-type ducks - probably lots to learn there... What about puddle ducks?

I read that bear baits have to be registered - is it easy to get a bait registered? Do people often get chances at bears while deer hunting?

What are gun attitudes like in that part of the province. Presumably folks are free of silly rules like no shooting groundhogs in rural areas that are somehow in the city limits of small towns and no use of firearms nominally over .275, etc, etc?

What's in the area for gun clubs? Is there much handgun shooting? Any good ranges over 100m?

I'm sure I'll have lots more questions if this application pans out, but for now this is a major part of what is going through my mind, and any answers or other thoughts on things a hunter/shooter potentially moving to that area should know would be much appreciated.

RG

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Hey Ruffed Grouse. I'll try and answer a few of your questions.

Wolfville is a very nice town, old style and "feel" with a young university population.

You are correst about the antlered tags, buy one anywhere, you apply for an antlerless tag each year with pretty reasonable odds (I end up with one about every second year).

Archery season opens the end of Sept., no orange required through until rifle season opens (last Friday in Oct.) then there is an extra 1 week archery only season after rifle season closes (first Sunday in Dec)

The moose draw, quite frankly, sucks. There are about 350 tags drawn each year and a lot of people entering (not sure on the odds) strangely some folks get em over and over while other folks go 20+ years without a win.

About 25% of the province is crown with the rest being small private (individuals) and large freehold (forest companies). Permission is generally not that difficult to obtain.

Small game is good, snowshoe hares, ruffed grouse and pheasants, lots of waterfowl, both marine and puddle ducks.

Bear baits have to be registered for the early season from the first week of Sept untli rifle opener for deer. It's really simple, if it's on private land you need a signed letter of permission, if on Crown, no permission required. Just drop by your local DNR office and give them GPS coordinates or mark on a map and they give you a letter. Once rifle deer opens you can take a bear in a spot that isn't a registered site. Bear populations are up quite high and it's not uncommon to see one while deer hunting. Someone got one outside Truro that dresses 550 lbs, so there's the odd big guy around.

Gun attitudes are generally pretty good, lots of rural and the urban areas haven't been really urban for a long time to develop poor attitudes.

There are quite a few ranges and clubs around, should be able to check it out online, maybe ask in the General Firearms area. I don't get out of my cave much and belong to a club in Truro, but haven't gotten out to any others:redface:. DNR also has something like 22 rifle ranges that you can book by appointment for free.

No caliber restrictions other than larger than .23 for big game, so you can't have a 223 or 22-250 out in deer season.:mad:

Good luck with your move, I'm sure you'll find NS a good place to live.

Cheers
 
buy a pistol when you get here and start shooting IPSC (just about every IPSC shooter in NS is a hunter). You need the restricted (pistol) firearms course from the Province. We have some ex-patriates from the UK shooting with us.
 
Welcome to the province (hopefully). AVVSC outside of Kentville is an excellent gun club (shotgun, rifle, handgun) and they host IPSC matches throughout the year. There are a couple of public Department of Natural Resources (DNR) ranges down the valley and a few other private clubs within easy driving distance. If you want specifics, let me know.
 
Hi,

Thanks for all the info everybody.

Tree butcher: I'll be fishing as well so sure - and anybody else - fishing info appreciated as well. It'll be nice to be somewhere where brook trout are a little less rare!

Maurice: I'm from SE Ontario originally, and have an RPAL already, so I'll be able to hit the ground running. Well sorta, I've always been a student (or research fellow, which isn't far removed financially), and with my main passion for hunting rifles the money hasn't been there yet to get into handguns. My wife (known on CGN as Spruce Grouse) is anxious to get her RPAL too, and so we'll be all over that when we manage to repatriate ourselves.

Nexgen mentioned the logging company freeholds - how does permission work for them? I'm not familiar with the term freehold. Are they basically public access with forest access roads and such?

re. tree butcher's comment about the deer hunters being pretty thick: With the longer (i.e. longer than Ontario) rifle season, I imagine that it isn't too crowded, except perhaps the first few Saturdays? When it is crowded, is it too hard to escape the crowds? Surely there are areas of crown land or the logging lease freeholds with plenty of land >1km from roads and trails where essentially nobody goes? That's been my typical Ontario forested area gun season plan - in the end I think it means the other hunters tend to push deer to me!

RG

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the freehold land is privately owned by the forest companies. Getting permission can be hit or miss and I hear that Wagner is charging for written permission for a bear bait. There are three main forestry companies in NS, but down around the Valley area you'd probably be dealing with Abitibi-Bowater.

Deer hunting crowds are big around here for the first couple of weekends then thin out and the further you get away from the roads, the more lonely you will be.
 
On the fishing side of things - Wolfville is close to some great striped bass fishing in the Minas Basin during the season. Awesome fish to catch. Also close to good rivers for shad and salmon. You won't have a hard time finding any of that out when you're there. There's only a few big rivers near Wolfville and they all have their season.
 
All good stuff to hear. I'm certainly hoping this works out! Thanks everyone for the thoughts.

[edit - Note: computer automatically logged me in as my wife. She thanks you all too.]

RG

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