Public lands

Welcome aboard! Given BC is only 94% crown (public) land I can immediately empathise with your struggle and frustration at not immediately locating easy hunting within a few hours of the largest city in western Canada.

On a more serious note, Canada, let alone BC is big, 2-3 hours and you haven't gone anywhere yet. Make it 12-24hrs, or a plane or boat ride, and you're getting in the game. You've found yourself in one of the top few best places on earth for hunting here in BC, but you're going to have to work a lot harder and spend a lot more time at it. Many here including myself have struck out for years on species before finally connecting. Good luck, and keep up the positivity. :)
 
^ Angus I was waiting for you to tell him to go to Fort Nelson

Sometimes I think you are in league with the mosquitos

Drive up a radio controlled road basically anywhere in BC and voila you are on crown land. I do this daily for work and have seen an unbelievable amount of game in the NE and North Central areas of the province this summer...

When I lived on Southern VI access was a dream compared to Southern Alberta where I hunt now...
 
Back home can you hunt wherever you please? Just walk on someone's private property and harvest whatever you like? There is lots of public land available too. Maybe join your local Angler's and Hunter's Association and meet some like minded locals. Or learn to use the internet for research instead on just complaining
 
I will echo what Ardent posted....... I lived briefly in the lower mainland...... The amount of people there that own 4x4 vehicles and slap browning stickers on them and rush to the woods for 2 weeks a year is crazy..... I have never seen anything like it..

I admittedly, have never held a tag in BC, but when I was there, I could not believe the amount of people that expected to "get into the wild" less than 100 km from home......

In the province that offers the best hunting of any province in Canada, it astounded me that people would spend that level of coin on hunting gear and 4x4 trucks, yet nothing on land or an outfitter to actually hunt........ Or to even spend the lowly gas fee to get out of the city.....

I am not professing that Ontario is better than BC for hunting, but what I can tell you is that the low effort Hunter would do much better here than there....... Just by knocking on doors or buying a cheap tract of land.....
 
I totally understand your frustration. Crown land near any city is hard to come by and if you do find some, it is likely being used. I know a few places that are crown land that guys have posted off and blocked the roads and won't let anyone near it. There was a documentary about that sort of behavior in Quebec (http://ici.radio-canada.ca/tele/enq...rre-bois-chasse-territoire-intimidation-foret).
Clear maps of crown land are hard to get ahold of, different municipalities have different bylaws regarding discharging firearms, etc.,etc. It could worse though.....

with a little work and a bit of kindness you can have access to hunting some can only dream of.
Good luck! !
 
Best thread ever


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About a third of BC hunters reside in the Lower Mainland.

They aren't all hunting on private land, but they don't all sleep in their LML every night, either.
 
well I guess I can thank the Lord for what he has provided for us here in SE MB, actually it was a part of the decision to buy this place! In 2 mins we are into crown land and a great hunting area, 10 mins in another direction the same thing, and a third direction were into a vast forest with in 15 mins and a forth direction with in 20 mins. We have not failed to fill the freezer, but it has been close at times, the last day of the season, during some slack times. Part of the reason to be "lucky" is the amount of time that can be spent hunting and not travelling to and from like some unfortunate folks have to do!
 
My back yard,my archery target, a guest.
There is an in town limits archery deer season here.
Fortunately for this guy, I don't hunt with a bow.;)
Lots of crown land(close) up in my neck of the woods.
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My back yard,my archery target, a guest.
There is an in town limits archery deer season here.
Fortunately for this guy, I don't hunt with a bow.;)
Lots of crown land(close) up in my neck of the woods.

he would so be dinner here. (assuming the season started) i would take him with my cross bow.
 
Two things you need to do:

1- head further north for good hunting......

2- start knocking on doors, politely asking for permission and offering to exchange some work for hunting land......

You live in Canada's second biggest metropolis....... Expecting to hunt nearby is a pipe dream.....

Brad is right this time

I would Head up Squamish or past Whistler up to Mount Currie Lots of Crownland some pretty good bear and deer hunting it is still in your back yard or jump on a ferry and head down the sunshine coast or Vancouver island
For migratory birds the Okanogan or Kootenays lots of farm land but Migratory birds taste much better than the homesteaders you get on the coast
put sum work in to it and opportunities will open up
you live in a City and have to travel I don't think it will go over very well hunting in Stanley Park
Once you get out of the lower mainland it's a piece a cake finding places to hunt
 
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I was a new immigrant once, 20 years ago.
Worked my a$$ off, and saved some pennies.
Bought my quarter section land, some 12 hours drive away. Neighbouring Crown land on 3 sides, 30,000 acres of it.
Beautiful! It's doable.
 
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