A hunter fan-turned-hunter in Nova Scotia is looking for an agent.
Hunter fan, Ian Cote, said he’s looking for someone to be an agent for his online game, “Hunter Hunter,” which has more than 1 million registered users.
Cote is a Canadian-born, Nova Scotia native.
He says he got into the hobby by playing World of Warcraft and then, when he was a teenager, became a professional hunter.
“I just got into it at an age when I didn’t think I could do it and I think the more I thought about it, the more my life changed,” he said.
“At the same time, I was in school, so I got really busy and I was kind of spending most of my time at home.”
Cote, who is originally from New Brunswick, says he has been hunting since he was 10.
He said he had a lot of trouble finding work as a hunter and even had to sell his hunting license.
“It was frustrating because I was really good at it and was a good hunter, and then when I got to university, I really got really good,” he recalled.
Cotes first hunting job was as a professional in 2005, when his grandfather was the head of the New Brunswick Fish and Game Department.
He started out as a scout, but quickly found his passion for hunting.
“Hunting is a big part of the Canadian culture, and it’s a very big part in New Brunswick,” he explained.
“We’ve got great hunting tradition in New Brunswickers, so there are hunters that have been here for thousands of years.”
When he got to Nova Scotia, he decided to branch out and pursue hunting professionally.
Cotes first job was in 2009, when the company he was hired to work for, Cote Enterprises, was looking for a hunter agent.
He had never done a hunting job before, so he decided it was time to do something different.
“The opportunity to work on my own was really, really appealing to me,” he recalls.
“My wife and I really wanted to try to make this our full-time career, and we felt that this was something we really wanted.”
In 2010, Cotes began hunting a few different animals, including deer and moose.
He also started to teach himself to hunt.
“That was when I really started to really learn about hunting,” he says.
“When you’re a beginner, you don’t know where to begin and how to get better, so it was really exciting for me to go hunting and teach myself everything I know about it.”
Cotes says he was able to work his way up to a hunting supervisor, which he said allowed him to work with a larger group of hunters.
“This supervisor is very important, because he really helps me make sure I’m doing the right thing,” he added.
Comes with a $10,000 to $15,000 hunting license, and has a $40,000 annual salary.
Cites hobbies include deer hunting, hunting in remote locations and hunting with a bow and arrow.
He is also an avid outdoorsman and has taken a trip to Yellowstone National Park.