Advice appreciated on Grand Prarie elk hunting

[Highlander44]

Hi all,
Wanting a change of scenery, and to check out a new place to hunt elk. Grand Prarie 2017 harvest report got my attention, and sounds like there are a lot of elk there. Used to hunting the Porcupine’s and wondering if the Grand Prarie area is any better for the crowds? Any advice would be appreciated.
Mike

[DRE75]

Lots of pressure in the area, if you don't have a solid plan and some land to work it's not going to be easy.

[Norwest Alta]

Seems to me that what once was a sure thing isn’t so sure anymore.

[obsessed1]

They are here. But for every Elk you find there will be 12 hunters trying to get it.

[st99]

The best advice I can give you, is to hunt as close as possible to home. Scout it year round. Put up some trail cam, go regularly to hike all over the area. Get familiar with every trail, every bedding area and every feeding area. The more you know your hunting area, the higher your success will be.

[husky7mm]

Grande Prairie is a big town now, thousands of hunters live here and thousands come up to hunt. Private land permission is hard to come by due to the population explosion. There is a lot of pressure, this goes on for over 3 mths straight. To put it blunt its over exploited. The hunting has degraded. Since you look at stats I would fiind the closest place to home that has crown land and elk are being killed and do like st99 says. Focus on it, learn it better then everyone else does. Learn what the elk are doing as the season goes on. Learn where they come from and go Learn how the time of yr and weather change what they are doing. You cant do this as a traveling hunter 1 week of the yr.

[bucksman]

Husky, you're correct about population, but the harvest reports really F*ed us. Every thread on here asking about places to hunt someone always makes a point of saying check the harvest reports. Unfortunately that has backfired on us. Don't see as many people from down south after Nov. 1, wonder why that is.......

[Okotok]

Originally Posted by bucksman

Husky, you're correct about population, but the harvest reports really F*ed us. Every thread on here asking about places to hunt someone always makes a point of saying check the harvest reports. Unfortunately that has backfired on us. Don't see as many people from down south after Nov. 1, wonder why that is.......

The Hutterites at the Grandview colony are pretty friendly to hunters. They'll also haul it, butcher it etc. if you want. I have some friends that go every year to hunt on their land.

[husky7mm]

Originally Posted by bucksman

Husky, you're correct about population, but the harvest reports really F*ed us. Every thread on here asking about places to hunt someone always makes a point of saying check the harvest reports. Unfortunately that has backfired on us. Don't see as many people from down south after Nov. 1, wonder why that is.......

I see a lot of people after nov first, hunting late season leh moose and cow elk. They drive up from down south and camp at the first place they hit crown land at. I guess they didn’t realize that there were already 11 other camps there prior, they may have only missed the last group by days or hours. I just dont get it???
I dont want my hunt to be luck, I want it to be up to me. Repetition, learning the area and dialing it in are key. Scout year around, figure out the patterns, where they go, where they came from. How the season and weather affect things.
You can not figure this out from a 5 day hunt once per year.
Would be for sure nice if the seasons down south started earlier....

[husky7mm]

Originally Posted by Okotok

The Hutterites at the Grandview colony are pretty friendly to hunters. They'll also haul it, butcher it etc. if you want. I have some friends that go every year to hunt on their land.

Is that not by bear lake? West of GP?

[Highlander44]

Originally Posted by Okotok

The Hutterites at the Grandview colony are pretty friendly to hunters. They'll also haul it, butcher it etc. if you want. I have some friends that go every year to hunt on their land.

Thank you for some advice Okotok- very hard to get on forums these days.

[Torkdiesel]

Originally Posted by Highlander44

Thank you for some advice Okotok- very hard to get on forums these days.

Make sure you actually go talk to them, don’t assume you can hunt their land because they’re Hutterites.
Very few people are allowed to hunt their land now, lots think they can, and lots are wrong. Unless you actually talk to the boss you may end up in court.

[TUFFBUFF]

Originally Posted by Okotok

The Hutterites at the Grandview colony are pretty friendly to hunters. They'll also haul it, butcher it etc. if you want. I have some friends that go every year to hunt on their land.

They are located in the middle of the zone - no elk in there elk are around the edges of the zone.
They are good about waterfowl I understand, but that's the last place id hunt elk cause I'd be wasting my time.
You guys from down south must have crappy hunting cause it ain't magical here for the last 2-3 years, mind u haven't been out as much as I used to either.

[35 whelen]

I've been hunting close to Grand Prairie for 12 years now, in the area I hunt some years are better than others depends where the crops are, the deer herds are definitely getting worse, hunting pressure has been getting worse don't know where to tell you to go but I wouldn't say Grand Prairie area

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

[pikeman06]

Get out early or its just a crap shoot anymore in my opinion. Elk hunting in alberta lately seems to last a couple years in one area and they get shot out or burnt out or the wolves pass thru and mess it up. Even out east my way thought it was an elk hunters paradise for a couple years but I guess you can only bump them around so much and they break up into small herds on the private land then they pretty much turn into nocturnal animals where you might catch a lazy one in the open on his way back to bed down in the morning. Just my 2 cents but its really changed in the elk department in my eyes. Maybe the athabasca area I hear but not much positive from the g.p area especially if you want a hawg.

[husky7mm]

Originally Posted by Highlander44

Thank you for some advice Okotok- very hard to get on forums these days.

Its not good advise but it is free. As far as I know its like Tuffbuff says. No elk there.... not much cover... not many wt deer either. Tonnes of ducks and geese.
There has been a lot of good adice shared , it just might not be what you were hoping for. Not many folks these days are going to tell people were the elk are. They might tell you were they were or where they use to hunt them. Even if you get PM’s its really nothing to bet the farm on....

Do like I told you and you will be the one putting up the stats.