For Alabama hunters
Hunting in Canada from Alabama
You have some of the longest deer seasons in the country. You have never had a moose season at all.
Alabama deer hunting is a way of life, and the seasons here are famously long. But the animals we hunt are simply not part of the Alabama menu. There has never been a moose season in the state and there never will be, and there is no wild elk herd to draw for either. For antlers of that class, an Alabama hunter has always had to leave home.
We run guided moose, elk and bighorn hunts in Alberta's Rockies on guaranteed outfitter allocations. No lottery, no points, no closed season to wait out. You book a date and you hunt. It is a short trip: Birmingham and Huntsville are a one-stop from Calgary, Atlanta has a year-round nonstop that is a drivable option, and our camp near Nordegg is about three and a half hours from the airport.
Hunting moose from Alabama
There is no wild moose in Alabama, full stop. The climate and the country are wrong for it, so unlike your whitetail there is no home season to build a career around. That actually makes the Alberta hunt a clean proposition: you were never going to hunt one in state, so the only question is when you go north.
Our Alberta moose is a genuine mountain wilderness hunt. Bulls average better than fifty inches, we run a small number of one-on-one rut hunts a season, and the tag rides with the booking through our provincial allocation. It is $15,500 to $17,500 in USD plus Alberta's 5% GST for ten days, archery, muzzleloader or rifle. See the moose hunt page and the moose cost guide.
Elk and bighorn: not an Alabama animal
Alabama has no wild elk herd and no bighorn sheep. Both have always meant traveling out of the Deep South entirely, and for most hunters that trip never gets planned.
We hunt both in Alberta. Our elk rut hunt is $9,500 for ten days of bugling bulls, and the later migration hunt is $7,500 for six days. Bighorn is the premier tag on the continent at $45,000 to $100,000, and the rule holds everywhere: in every US state that even has bighorn, a tag is a once-in-a-lifetime lottery win or decades of preference points. Guaranteed-allocation bighorn does not exist in the Lower 48. See elk and bighorn sheep.
What we hunt in Alberta
Everything on this page runs out of one operation: our horseback backcountry camp in Alberta's Rockies near Nordegg, in country where motorized vehicles are prohibited and access is by horse and on foot. We hold provincial allocations for the species below, which is what lets us hand you a tag with the hunt instead of sending you into a draw.
- Moose: premium mountain bulls averaging better than fifty inches, one-on-one, $15,500 to $17,500 in USD plus GST.
- Elk: a $9,500 ten-day rut hunt for bugling bulls, or a $7,500 six-day migration hunt.
- Bighorn sheep: the premier tag on the continent, $45,000 to $100,000, on a guaranteed allocation.
- Mule and whitetail deer: the November rut, $6,500, 130 to 170 class.
- Black bear: baited hunts, $2,500 to $5,000 CAD, the most affordable guided big game in Canada.
- Wolf: a free add-on with any booked hunt, unlimited harvest, CITES permit to export.
Getting here from Alabama
From Birmingham or Huntsville it is an easy one-stop to Calgary. If you would rather fly nonstop, Atlanta has a year-round WestJet nonstop to Calgary and is a reasonable drive from north Alabama. Either way you land in the mountains' time zone and our camp near Nordegg is about three and a half hours by road, the same drive whether you fly into Calgary or Edmonton.
Bringing your own rifle is the same for every US hunter regardless of state: the RCMP Non-Resident Firearm Declaration and a flat CAD $25 at the border for non-restricted rifles and shotguns. We walk every hunter through it. See bringing firearms into Canada.
What our hunts cost from Alabama
Here is what our hunts cost from Alabama, in plain USD. These are our own published rates, and the figure below is the guided hunt only. Licences and tags, Alberta's 5% GST, your airfare, tips for guides and camp staff, and any taxidermy or export sit on top of it. For the full stack on any species, follow the cost guides.
| Our Alberta hunt | Price | Length |
|---|---|---|
| Elk, migration | $7,500 USD | 6 days |
| Elk, rut | $9,500 USD | 10 days |
| Mule or whitetail deer | $6,500 USD | November rut |
| Moose, rut one-on-one | $15,500 - $17,500 USD + GST | 10 days |
| Bighorn sheep | $45,000 - $100,000 USD | Backcountry camps |
| Black bear | $2,500 - $5,000 CAD | Baited |
| Wolf | Free add-on | With any booked hunt |
For the full itemised breakdown by species, see the moose cost guide, the elk cost guide and the other cost guides.
Bringing your rifle across the border
This part is the same for every US hunter, whatever state you leave from. You fill out the RCMP Non-Resident Firearm Declaration, form 5589, pay a flat CAD $25 at the border, and have it witnessed by a border officer. That declaration acts as a temporary licence for the length of your trip and lets you buy ammunition here. It covers non-restricted rifles and shotguns, the sporting long guns you hunt with. Leave any handguns at home, and note the five-round magazine cap on semi-automatic centre-fire long guns.
We walk every hunter through the paperwork before you travel, so nothing at the border is a surprise. See bringing firearms into Canada for the full walkthrough, and do you need a guide in Canada for why the outfitter is the access, not an add-on.
Common questions
Q. Can I hunt moose in Alabama?
No. There has never been a wild moose season in Alabama and the state has no moose to hunt. Our Alberta moose hunts carry the tag through an outfitter allocation with no draw, so a bull is a booking away instead of a lifelong impossibility at home.
Q. Do I need a guide to hunt in Canada as an Alabama resident?
Yes. In Alberta a non-resident hunts big game either with a licensed outfitter-guide or an unpaid resident hunter host, and as an American your tag comes through the outfitter's allocation rather than a draw. We hold the allocations for the species we hunt.
Q. Does Alabama have elk hunting?
No, there is no wild elk herd in Alabama. Our Alberta elk hunts are free-range mountain hunts, $9,500 for the ten-day rut or $7,500 for six days on the migration, with the tag included through our allocation.
Q. How do I get from Alabama to your Alberta hunts?
One-stop from Birmingham or Huntsville, or a year-round nonstop from Atlanta if you would rather drive to the bigger airport. From Calgary our camp near Nordegg is about three and a half hours by road.
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