Well, it's that time of year.  Draws are a mere 50 or so days away.  Tick Tock.  Time to consider options and start Serious planning!

I'm doing my spring bear hunt/moose spotting/fishing trip come hell or high water;  the one and only advantage of being self employed is I plan my work around my hunting.     Tomorrow after(hopefully no warp 9 wind) sighting in wife's rifle and me practicing with my 450marlin I'll be tearing down an argo and rebuilding a carb.  Soon as that's done it's onto bait barrels in my free time.

Draws I'm thinking:
Me:  Calling season bull moose, wainwright primitive deer, and if the Jan. "outside the base" season materializes I'll be crossing my fingers with my P6.
Wife:  Local doe tags and maaayyybeee a mule buck tag(P3 so it's iffy and really somewhat unlikely depending on tags alloted), possibly a cow elk tag depending on scheduling/planning.  (with her having a P5 it's a matter of scheduling our available time)

Oh, and we'll apply for turkey.  Slim to none chance but since we're P5 it's time to stop 999'ing and when it happens it happens.

You guys?  Plans?

Most likely put in for cow elk (since I can't find a legal bull) and 999 the rest.

I feel like everyone else around knows all the secret spots to hammer big deer, have grown up on the areas where they hunt, or have "in's" with local ranchers etc to access good hunting land. I've been here for 8 years but only hunting around the area for about 4 now. What I've found is I don't have the first idea where to go in the southern Alberta area. Call me naive I guess.

What I've found is I've done okay for draws locally here and then just put a bunch of time in with okay success for medium sized miles and white tails. I'm not really a trophy hunter anyways, meaning I'm very content with a freezer full to last the year. But I can't help but think alot of the time when I'm sitting and waiting for the deer to materialize that I should be spending more time sourcing out more hunting areas. Just don't know how! Google earth I guess?

One thing I should mention is I don't really have many hunting buddies here in Alberta. My family who I hunt with is in BC and we usually do pretty good in the moose department most years out there, so alot of the time it's me/myself/I hunting here in Alberta. Makes hunting/hauling anything else other than deer problematic.

should be spending more time sourcing out more hunting areas. Just don't know how! Google earth I guess?

Google earth is a great way to look at terrain.  While not like being there you can at least somewhat judge the terrain/vegetation/watercourses.  Just in case you don't know it, here's the rec. access site for crown land, tells you contact info for leaseholders and shows you where all the crown leases are(which you can compare to google earth to look for vegetation.     )  https://maps.srd.alberta.ca/RecAccess/?Viewer=RecAccess

I'd suggest to some, "online area scouting", then this spring before draws go for a drive.  You can see a lot just from the road with bino's.  Lot's of good area's, just takes some legwork.

Southern Guy I feel your moose pain.  We've been searching for a new area for 4 years.  Had a good area in 512 but it got real busy, so we went west, then north, then sw, now we're trying another area hoping to find a pocket only we are stupid enough to try to get to with the argo.  Seems everytime we think we might have found a spot either the oilpatch finds it(and builds roads), or it get's overrun with year round hunters, or there's an outfitter behind every tree.  Can get frustrating, especially since I know there's ton's of good area's, just gotta find one others have missed (and where we can get drawn). 

Google earth is a great way to look at terrain.  While not like being there you can at least somewhat judge the terrain/vegetation/watercourses.  Just in case you don't know it, here's the rec. access site for crown land, tells you contact info for leaseholders and shows you where all the crown leases are(which you can compare to google earth to look for vegetation.     )  https://maps.srd.alberta.ca/RecAccess/?Viewer=RecAccess

I'd suggest to some, "online area scouting", then this spring before draws go for a drive.  You can see a lot just from the road with bino's.  Lot's of good area's, just takes some legwork.

Southern Guy I feel your moose pain.  We've been searching for a new area for 4 years.  Had a good area in 512 but it got real busy, so we went west, then north, then sw, now we're trying another area hoping to find a pocket only we are stupid enough to try to get to with the argo.  Seems everytime we think we might have found a spot either the oilpatch finds it(and builds roads), or it get's overrun with year round hunters, or there's an outfitter behind every tree.  Can get frustrating, especially since I know there's ton's of good area's, just gotta find one others have missed (and where we can get drawn).

I think a few of us are in this dilemma with moose. The big thing is to get draws on a regular basis, we look for an area with a draw of atleast every 3rd year, this can be tough to find a quite spot with this draw regularity. Like I mentioned earlier we are going to go scout a new spot this spring here soon before the draws come out, I have two spots I want to try so hopefully we get the time to get out there and have a look.

Every 3rd year is pretty good walleyes! I will be burning another 5 points if I draw this year, need 4 to 5 in the zones we have tried so far. My Dad is discussing going this year now as well, he has not drawn a tag before and has 9 or 10 points. I've got to go have a look around this spring in some of the prairie or parkland zones, may be nice to just tag along and actually see some moose. He originally wanted to wait for the southern zones but that's a pipe dream now, it will be a 25-30 year wait.  How effective do you find scouting for moose in the spring? Or are you mostly just checking out the terrain? We always see plenty bear hunting, but come fall they never seem to be around.

When I look for a zone with a 3 year wait this garuntees us a draw every year as there are 4 of us,, my 3 boys and I that rotate our tags. When I scout I manly look at terrain, as in access and calling areas. I look for cutlines that are not grown in, not a lot of creeks to cross and lines that are not heavily travelled, even if it's spring you can still pick out the trails that get heavy traffic in the fall. We want decent access but still quiet ground. Calling spots are important as well, like meadows, salt licks, large cutline intersections, buck bush and of course moose sign as well. Most of the areas I check out I know hold moose it's more a matter of how busy it s with hunters and access.