 Hunting
in Alberta, Canada with Mike's Outfitting
General
Hunt FAQ's for all hunts:
- Do I have to put in for a draw to get my license? Will you have my license when I arrive?
- Where are you located?
- Where do I fly in to? Do you pick me up at the airport? How far a drive is it to your lodge from the airport?
- Can I drive to your area from my home in the states? What about driving
from Edmonton to save money, can I do that?
- Is it difficult to enter Canada, do I need a passport?
- Is it difficult to bring a gun to Canada?
- Can I send my clothes and weapon to you before my hunt
so I don't have to clear customs with it?
- Can I send someone else on my hunt at the last minute if I can't go?
- What are the accommodations? Do I need to bring bedding, a towel? Is
their laundry service, internet access?
- What do you provide? What don't you provide?
- What do we do with antlers, meat, hides? How do we get it home?
- Do you have a taxidermist I can leave my animal with to get mounted?
- What's the country like in your guiding area; is it a physically tough
area to hunt?
- Do you hunt private or public land?
- How do you handle a 2 on 1 guided hunt, will I simply have to wait my
turn to shoot? Why don't you just get another guide?
- Do I have to wear any blaze orange on the rifle hunts?
- Do you have a wound policy?
- Can I shoot 2 big game animals of the same species in one year in Alberta?
- What is a standard tip for my guide and the cook?
1. Do I have to put in for a draw
to get my license? Will you have my license when I arrive?
No, you don't have to put in for a draw. All of our licenses are guaranteed.
We will have your license waiting for you upon arrival as long as you have
filled out the contract and sent it back to us.
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2. Where are you located?
In Northwestern Alberta north of the city of Grande Prairie. Please refer
to the hunting area page for more detailed info. Our
hunting Area
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3. Where do I fly in to? Do you pick me up at the airport?
How far a drive is it to your lodge from the airport?
The easiest way to get to our area is to book your flights into Grande Prairie
Alberta through Uniglobe Geo Travel 780-424-8310 or you can book it yourself.
On all of our hunts we have you arrive in the evening the day before your
hunt. You will then get a shuttle or taxi to a hotel and then we will pick
you up at the hotel in the morning at 11 am. The hotel cost is your responsibility
(about $175 US funds). The best hotel choices which have a shuttle service
from the airport are:
• Holiday Inn 1-780-402-6886
• Pomeroy Inn 1-780-831-2999
• Super 8 Motel 1-780-532-8288
• Best Western 1-780-402-2378
You can stay at any hotel you can find in Grande Prairie though just make
sure to book your hotel well in advance, this is a small but booming oil
city. This overnight hotel stay gives enough time if you have a delayed
flight, you miss a connecting flight or your baggage gets lost. The bags
can be located, flown in on a later flight and delivered to your hotel.
It also gives time to sight in your gun or bow before the hunt. If your
hunt is in the middle of the season then we can usually get in a short 1/2
day hunt. If the season isn't open yet then it becomes a scouting evening.
It is just over an hour drive from Grande Prairie to the lodge.
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4. Can I drive to your area from my home in the states? What
about driving from Edmonton to save money, can I do that?
Yes you can drive right to the lodge in just a car from your home. It is
an hour and 15 minute drive from Grande Prairie, a 6 hour drive from Edmonton
and a 12 hour drive from the Montana border all on good paved roads. The
last 2 miles is a good gravel road.
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5. Is it difficult to enter Canada, do I need a passport?
It generally is not difficult to enter canada. Yes, you will need a passport.
One of the only real problems we've seen is if you've ever had any criminal
charges, even a D.U.I., you might have difficulty entering Canada and may
need to clear it up months beforehand. Visit this website for more info
www.bordercrossing.ca
It is your responsibility to make sure you will not be refused entry into
Canada though. Refusal of entry by Canada Customs and Immigration is not
sufficient reason for a refund.
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6 Is it difficult to bring a gun to Canada?
No it is not difficult to bring a gun to Canada. You will need a firearms
declaration form to clear your rifle through customs. We will send you one
as part of your deposit confirmation. There is a $30 payment at the border
to process this form.
You can also complete the online form or download it here: Non-Resident
Firearm Declaration
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7. Can I send my clothes and weapon to you before my hunt
so I don't have to clear customs with it?
No you can't really do this. The problem is that customs will treat it as
if we are buying your gear from you and give us a tax and duty bill for
the full value of all the goods.
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8. Can I send someone else on my hunt at the last minute if I
can't go?
Yes we usually don't buy the licenses until the day before the hunt starts
so it is easy to just change who is hunting.
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9. What are the accommodations? Do I need to bring bedding,
a towel? Is their laundry service, internet access?
The accommodations are in a comfortable lodge. We provide bedding, towels
and internet access if you bring a laptop computer. We don't have any laundry
service, you'll have to bring enough clothes to last the duration of your
hunt. Please click
here to refer to the hunting area page for more detailed information.
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10. What do you provide? What don't you provide?
We provide all your meals, accommodations, transportation and field care
of trophies once we pick you up from the hotel in Grande Prairie. We do
provide some soft drinks/pop and snacks but liquor is not provided. We will
stop at a store for you to purchase additional amounts of pop, snacks and
any liquor on your way to the lodge.
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11. What do we do with antlers, meat, hides? How do we get
it home?
The easiest, least expensive and least risky way to bring any of it home
is as extra baggage on your flight home. On antlers and capes we put garden
hose around the antler tips, clean, dry and then tape up the skull plate
and we freeze the cape. All the items then go in a thick cardboard box or
plastic bin. Cost of the extra bags will vary with each airline but they
generally charge $50 to $100 per extra bag. It can also be left here with
a Canadian taxidermist but it is very expensive to get mounted then sent
to your home, often twice as much as what you would pay at home. If you
plan on keeping the meat, then all meat processing costs are your responsibility,
approx. $150 for deer up to $500 for a whole moose. If you choose not to
take the meat for yourself it will be donated to our local landowners or
needy families at no cost to you. Frozen meat can also be taken as extra
baggage. We have plastic bins or coolers available for $10 a bin or $30
a cooler. Meat CANNOT be shipped to you later. We have tried and have not
been able to locate a reliable way to do it.
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12. Do you have a taxidermist I can leave my animal with
to get mounted?
Yes we do, but Canadian taxidermists are not cheap and neither is the shipping.
Usually we recommend taking your antlers, cape, hides and meat home with
you as extra baggage.
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13. What's the country like in your guiding area; is it a
physically tough area to hunt?
It is a mix of 50% open flat farm fields and 50% thick woods, small creeks
and big river valleys. Most of our hunts can be done by someone who is not
very physically fit. The only hunts where higher physical fitness will give
you a better chance for success is the mule deer bowhunts and the elk hunts
with rifle or bow.
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14. Do you hunt private or public land?
Both but when we say private land in Canada it doesn't mean that we have
exclusive access to the land and by public it doesn't mean that it is crowded
with hunters. It is actually illegal in Alberta to pay a landowner for hunting
access. We simply ask a landowner for access and he says yes or no, 90%
say yes and we end up with hundreds of thousands of acres of land to hunt.
We may be the only ones hunting a piece of land it or it may have several
people hunting it. On much of the public land we see less people than the
private areas.
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15. How do you handle a 2 on 1 guided hunt, will I simply have
to wait my turn to shoot? Why don't you just get another guide?
The 2 on 1 guided hunts usually work just fine with enough opportunities
for both hunters to get their animals. We can typically split up the 2 hunters.
For example, one person may be sitting a field edge and the other with the
guide, or on spot and stalk bowhunts one hunter watches the animals escape
route and the other does the stalking. The main reason we do most of our
hunts 2 hunters to 1 guide is because it is difficult to find great guides
who have the private land access that we need. We have found that one excellent
guide can do a better job than just getting a somewhat unqualified one to
take one hunter. Wages, vehicles, fuel and food are all much higher than
practically anywhere in the United States too, it isn't cheap to get a guide.
Since all the guides work as a team as soon as one animal is down the 2
hunters will get split up and the hunts quickly become one on one guided
anyway. If it is a big concern for you, you can get a separate guide for
$2000 a hunt.
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16. Do I have to wear any blaze orange on the rifle hunts?
No there is no blaze orange requirement and it really isn't necessary but
if you feel more comfortable with it on you are welcome to bring it.
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17. Do you have a wound policy?
Yes we do. For the baited bear hunts the policy is that drawing blood counts
as a kill. Since you have 2 bear licenses you can kill or wound a maximum
of 2 bears total. On all the other hunts you are allowed a maximum of 2
wounds per species. That means that if you draw blood on 2 animals and we
can't find either one of them then your hunt for that species is over. Of
course we always make every effort to recover any wounded animals and we
don't encourage unethical shots.
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18. Can I shoot 2 big game animals of the same species in one year
in Alberta?
Generally No. We have had this question come up in regards to a hunter
buying one mule deer hunt with us and buying another mule deer hunt with
another outfitter expecting to kill 2 Alberta mule deer in the same year.
You can't do this. You can only buy one license per species per year. In
certain areas of Alberta, one black bear license allows you to harvest 2
black bears, a wolf /coyote license is unlimited kills, but you'll need
good luck getting just one wolf. All other licenses are for one animal only.
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19. What is a standard tip for my guide and the cook?
A standard total tip amount for a hard working guide and cook is 5% to 10%
of the hunt cost. This would be split ¾ to the guide and ¼
to the cook. Tipping is entirely at your discretion and any amount is greatly
appreciated.
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our mailing list to receive our hunt reports and notices of discounted cancellation
hunts
Call Mike to book your next Alberta
hunting adventure
1-780-864-3770
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