North of the Border?

Brian Tiffany · Post by **Brian Tiffany** » Mon Jan 13, 2014 9:03 pm

I'm in the planning phase of a late Sept. early Oct. upland hunt to Saskatchewan and or Manitoba. I have plenty of dog power and really don't desire a guided hunt. I really don't care for living out of a motel and keeping dogs on the truck all the time while on these type of hunts, so I'm searching for a suitable cabin or house to rent in the southern end of the province. If anyone has any contacts or helpful advise it would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Brian

AlbertaChessie · Post by **AlbertaChessie** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 9:54 am

How long are you looking to 'rent' a house? Sept-Oct is oil rig time in western Canada. More specifically Alberta and Saskatchewan.....motels and houses are booked solid. Motels are your best bet.

Also, where are you from? What kind of dogs are you running? Early October up this way often can mean -25 Celsius....are your dogs god to go in that kind of cold? in 12 inches of snow?

You will be hunting private land, so I would make some efforts to acquire permission well before September first. We tend to get a little short tempered come combining time.

Brian Tiffany · Post by **Brian Tiffany** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 10:59 am

Will be hunting for no more then 2 weeks. I've hunted northern North Dakota before as late as Dec. so I'm not overly concerned about the weather. I'm looking at area's probably no more then 100 miles into Southern Saskatchewan & Manitoba, so I wouldn't have expected a typical fall to be that extreme in late Sept. ? A group of guys I know has hunted that area in years past and have experienced good hunting/dog weather with little issue finding good ground to hunt. Unfortunately for me, those guys are doctors & lawyers with deep pockets. Not only did they bounce around a bit, they also stayed in bed & breakfast type places that are probably out of my price range for 2 weeks.

Brian Tiffany · Post by **Brian Tiffany** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 11:06 am

To be a bit more specific, I'm looking to go no further north then the Regina SA. area, and east from there perhaps back into southern Manitoba.

AlbertaChessie · Post by **AlbertaChessie** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 11:14 am

Brian Tiffany wrote:Will be hunting for no more then 2 weeks. I've hunted northern North Dakota before as late as Dec. so I'm not overly concerned about the weather. I'm looking at area's probably no more then 100 miles into Southern Saskatchewan & Manitoba, so I wouldn't have expected a typical fall to be that extreme in late Sept. ? A group of guys I know has hunted that area in years past and have experienced good hunting/dog weather with little issue finding good ground to hunt. Unfortunately for me, those guys are doctors & lawyers with deep pockets. Not only did they bounce around a bit, they also stayed in bed & breakfast type places that are probably out of my price range for 2 weeks.

Chances are you will get weather somewhere in the area of 5 - 10 degrees Celsius. BUT, ive been in many instances where it has frozen over night.

As far as your friends having deep pockets.....makes no difference. Paying land owners up here is the way it should be, illegal. I had an American charged two years ago after I denied him permission (because I was shooting my land the next morning) only to have him offer to 'help me out with some spending cash'.....he was hauled off by the fish cops. I wouldn't even consider offering cash for land. Up here in canada that's a MASSIVE turnoff to us landowners and really is the main reason why the Saskatchewan and Alberta hunting and farming community is pushing for guided only hunts when speaking about americans.

AlbertaChessie · Post by **AlbertaChessie** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 11:16 am

Brian Tiffany wrote:To be a bit more specific, I'm looking to go no further north then the Regina SA. area, and east from there perhaps back into southern Manitoba.

If you want to get into combo hunts I would go west from regina and into alberta. Its a WELL known fact the two best provinces for multi species hunting, especially waterfowl, are alberta and sask.

I could point you in the right direction for staying in alberta, but in sask I don't have any leads for you. Again, that will be prime time for the oil rigs and most places will be slammed with reservations.

Brian Tiffany · Post by **Brian Tiffany** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 11:31 am

Thanks for the kind offer but I doubt I'll venture that far north and I'm really only interested in upland birds on this trip. As far as my friends having deep pockets, I was simply referring to they're ability to stay at hotels etc that are largely out of my price range. Being a retired firefighter my budget is a bit tighter.

Thanks Again,

Brian

aulrich · Post by **aulrich** » Tue Jan 14, 2014 12:29 pm

I left Manitoba 20+ years ago and never hunted southern Saskatchewan, but as a rule, most of the provincial parks and a lot of the larger bodies of water will have a cabin resort or two. Back in the day most provincial parks were huntable in Manitoba, but I can't say for sure now.

Pastor Brown · Post by **Pastor Brown** » Tue Jan 28, 2014 12:57 am

This is off post ..

But does it really get that cold in December??

I live in North Dakota, & it's usually not that cold here. Though it was -5 January 1st

roaniecowpony · Post by **roaniecowpony** » Tue Jan 28, 2014 7:22 am

Is buying or renting a small travel trailer in the cards? Some trailers can be had for dirt cheap and sold for what you paid for it later.

coveydogs · Post by **coveydogs** » Tue Jan 28, 2014 12:55 pm

We did a trip to Saskatchewan two years ago. Great fun, we hunted both upland and waterfowl. If you are just going for upland you might have a short trip. Be sure to check the regs, for non-Canadians there are season limits. Last year the season limit for Sharp-tailed Grouse was 4 and Hungarian Partridge was 16.
http://www.environment.gov.sk.ca/Defaul ... 3883e8b8e2
Check out page 44.

We had to individually band each bird we shot. Waterfowl is another story and incredibly fun.

As far as finding land to hunt on, maybe we got lucky, but I was totally blown away by how great Canadian farmers were about letting you have access to their land. I have not see anything like it in the states. We had a fellow drive us around for half a day and show us a bunch of places on his land we should hunt, and people often would let us know of family members we could contact in other areas.

We camped, and it was a bit cold, if you have a camper it is the way to go so you can move around a bit and have heat.

Great hunting and great people, only complaint was that the non-resident limits were pretty restrictive. Of course if you have our luck, be respectful, treat their property well and clean up after yourself to not ruin it for me when I go back.

AlbertaChessie · Post by **AlbertaChessie** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 12:09 pm

Pastor Brown wrote:This is off post ..

But does it really get that cold in December??

I live in North Dakota, & it's usually not that cold here. Though it was -5 January 1st

Oh yes. I wont exaggerate because we do get the privilege of hunting birds in some warm weather too depending on the year. But to give an example....this past season in late October we were at bird camp for 6 days working the dogs. Wednesday through Friday it was sunny, dry, and we were planning hunts for the weekend that were looking like we would be in the -10 Celsius range. We woke up Saturday morning, hauled our rears out of bed in the trailers, only to experience -22 Celsius and a foot of snow

3 years ago I took a B & C whitetail in the middle of November under sunny skies and not a flake of snow on the ground. Fast forward to this year at the same time and we had 5 foot snow drifts on the driveway to our camp and -36 Celsius.

At the end of December over xmas we had a cold snap of -55 Celsius outside my front door in Millet Alberta.

North Dakota is Hawaii compared to much of the prairie provinces.

AlbertaChessie · Post by **AlbertaChessie** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 12:17 pm

coveydogs wrote:We did a trip to Saskatchewan two years ago. Great fun, we hunted both upland and waterfowl. If you are just going for upland you might have a short trip. Be sure to check the regs, for non-Canadians there are season limits. Last year the season limit for Sharp-tailed Grouse was 4 and Hungarian Partridge was 16.
http://www.environment.gov.sk.ca/Defaul ... 3883e8b8e2
Check out page 44.

We had to individually band each bird we shot. Waterfowl is another story and incredibly fun.

As far as finding land to hunt on, maybe we got lucky, but I was totally blown away by how great Canadian farmers were about letting you have access to their land. I have not see anything like it in the states. We had a fellow drive us around for half a day and show us a bunch of places on his land we should hunt, and people often would let us know of family members we could contact in other areas.

We camped, and it was a bit cold, if you have a camper it is the way to go so you can move around a bit and have heat.

Great hunting and great people, only complaint was that the non-resident limits were pretty restrictive. Of course if you have our luck, be respectful, treat their property well and clean up after yourself to not ruin it for me when I go back.

Depends on the area for upland. Sask is typically more diverse as far as exotics like pheasants and such. Numbers do follow a pretty specific peak and valley trend for sure. I think a lot of the popularity surrounding upland down in the states is because they are easier to locate due to the habitat 'pockets' being more defined. Meaning urban sprawl and rural population densities. Up here, and where one hunts, you will often find farm houses being miles apart and in turn thousands of acres for birds to hide with no real 'honey hole' to identify. My nearest neighbor where my camp is located is 2 miles from me with nothing but fields in between.

And no you didn't get lucky within regards to friendliness and hospitality. Its the way we are up here, and with paid access still illegal it should stay that way. My comment about harvest time was more in jest, however if you want to be denied permission catching a guy on his combine late at night is the way to do it. lol

Waterfowling up here is a whole other world compared to in the states. Taking a limit of 16 ducks, 16 dark geese and 25 white geese is routinely done by us residents in 2 hours out in the blind.

Cicada · Post by **Cicada** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 3:51 pm

Am I reading the regs. right; Pheasants are for Residents only?

Grant

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