First Impression of Hunting in GTA As An Alberta Hunter

I previously posted about my prior experiences a little bit here: Would Love to Mentor New Hunters (GTA Area) (oodmag.com)

Well, now that we are one week into small games season, thought I'd share my first impression of myself getting started in GTA :)

Diversity in vegetation. Where I lived in AB, we mostly had access to either farm land or coniferous forest. But in southern ON it seems like there's more variety in vegetation. Spruce and firs yes, but also much more leafy trees, shelterbelts, bushes, etc. I'm hoping this leads to discovery of more game habitats.

Sunday gun hunting. In AB I was mostly not concerned with Sunday hunting rules, but (at least close to GTA) there's quite a few more municipalities that doesn't allow Sunday gun hunting. I'm a bow hunter so I guess that means less crowded hunting spaces on Sundays!

Traffic. Not just as a hunter, but as a new GTA resident, I'm pretty baffled by how much traffic GTA has. Trying to get 100KM out of town at 11AM Saturday? 2 hours easy. I'm starting to accept this as just a reality.

Grey squirrels. You hardly see them when hunting in AB, but I ran into a few this weekend while on hunts. I'm excited about this because I mostly saw red squirrels in AB, which are furbearing animals, so hunting is more limited. I'm hoping to get more opportunities to harvest some squirrels this season.

Crown land. This is perhaps the biggest challenge I'm having with GTA area hunting -- there's very little, so the pockets of crown land all seem pretty busy. Comparing to my previous experience, I may just have to do less frequent, but longer, hunts, rather than casually go for a hunt after work when I feel like it.

Thanks for reading, and happy hunting!

Good report. Will be interesting to hear your thoughts as a season progresses. Very different vegetation here. You won't find hardwood forest anywhere in Alberta like we have here. I'm a couple hours South of Toronto where the soil quality is good but turns to solid clay a couple feet down (Holds moisture). The deciduous trees are huge, but you wont find many big conifers here until you head a couple hours west where the soil drainage improves. You can roll your ankle on acorns while hunting October down here. :D

As a bow only guy, I have similar thoughts on Sunday gun. My county is a No Sunday gun area and I hope that never changes.

Crown land. It sounds like you've already found some areas. It much much easier to find all the conservation areas that allow hunting these days thanks to all the data being compiled on apps. Public hunting spots were a bit less crowded before that info became so easy to find.

"Public hunting spots were a bit less crowded before that info became so easy to find."
Can definitely relate to that. But if it weren't for those maps (AB gov makes them really easy to access, I had a slightly harder time with CLUPA), I would have never gotten started, not as easily! So, mixed feelings :P

Somebody have to take you into the deep forest , to climatized for hunting in Ontario not GTA .... -:)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ab2on

I previously posted about my prior experiences a little bit here: Would Love to Mentor New Hunters (GTA Area) (oodmag.com)

Well, now that we are one week into small games season, thought I'd share my first impression of myself getting started in GTA :)

Diversity in vegetation. Where I lived in AB, we mostly had access to either farm land or coniferous forest. But in southern ON it seems like there's more variety in vegetation. Spruce and firs yes, but also much more leafy trees, shelterbelts, bushes, etc. I'm hoping this leads to discovery of more game habitats.

Sunday gun hunting. In AB I was mostly not concerned with Sunday hunting rules, but (at least close to GTA) there's quite a few more municipalities that doesn't allow Sunday gun hunting. I'm a bow hunter so I guess that means less crowded hunting spaces on Sundays!

Traffic. Not just as a hunter, but as a new GTA resident, I'm pretty baffled by how much traffic GTA has. Trying to get 100KM out of town at 11AM Saturday? 2 hours easy. I'm starting to accept this as just a reality.

Grey squirrels. You hardly see them when hunting in AB, but I ran into a few this weekend while on hunts. I'm excited about this because I mostly saw red squirrels in AB, which are furbearing animals, so hunting is more limited. I'm hoping to get more opportunities to harvest some squirrels this season.

Crown land. This is perhaps the biggest challenge I'm having with GTA area hunting -- there's very little, so the pockets of crown land all seem pretty busy. Comparing to my previous experience, I may just have to do less frequent, but longer, hunts, rather than casually go for a hunt after work when I feel like it.

Thanks for reading, and happy hunting!

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My thoughts to your post will be pretty general in respect to vegetation I would say that Ontario is vastly more diversified and the bush generally is much more beautiful especially in the fall.

We do have challenges with ash, elm and birch trees getting diseased, sure helps with the firewood situation.

Most municipalities that have a lot of Crown land do allow for Sunday hunting.

The traffic situation is bad and will only get worse, the quantity and quality of drivers in the past two decades has dropped dramatically.

If your going anywhere from the GTA any day of the week a 6am starting point is needed. In Alberta the drivers are much better and have better "road manners".

Grey squirrels and black squirrels are everywhere and even several hours north of the GTA the woods have them, along with flying squirrels.

There is plenty of Crown land especially north and mostly east of Peterborough and within a two and a half hour drive of the GTA we have Moose and Bears in decent numbers.

We are short of cotton tails, pheasants and jack rabbits that were common thirty of forty years ago but that is before the massive increase of the coyotes in the Province. The expansion of which can be attributed to City folks moving to the country and treating them like friendly pets. Anti hunters protecting them and making it hard for trappers to keep them at bay. Various pressure groups "protecting"
coyote/wolf half breeds and designating protective areas for them to multiply and cause havoc with other wildlife populations.

The biggest change you will notice on your sits will be the damp weather and amount of snow fall. In Alberta is more a dry cold and probably easier to stay warmer than here.

Almost everywhere in the South you will be hunting pressured deer, they act and behave differently so hunting methods must be adapted. They are just as huntable, but your level of work will increase to achieve consistent success. My best advice is to locate some public hunting land and invite some locals out to hunt with you, yes you will be sharing 'your' spot but the knowledge gained will pay back. I am not asking for an invite as my hunting schedule is full, but its been a strategy used a lot on this forum.

Good luck filling your tag his year, it took me about 10 years of bow hunting before I saw a deer close enough to shoot, before that it was all white flags running away.

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Originally Posted by Marker

Almost everywhere in the South you will be hunting pressured deer, they act and behave differently so hunting methods must be adapted. They are just as huntable, but your level of work will increase to achieve consistent success. My best advice is to locate some public hunting land and invite some locals out to hunt with you, yes you will be sharing 'your' spot but the knowledge gained will pay back. I am not asking for an invite as my hunting schedule is full, but its been a strategy used a lot on this forum.

Good luck filling your tag his year, it took me about 10 years of bow hunting before I saw a deer close enough to shoot, before that it was all white flags running away.

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In the Central zone the big woods as we call it he will have an even bigger problem, deer are simply not there in numbers as in the South. The food sources are spread all over the woods, acorns, beech nuts, swamp plants so locating deer is hard, they have lots of territory and thick bush to avoid hunters and they do not funnel the same way. It might have taken you 20 years to see a deer close enough to shoot. You can also add to the difficulty scale, bears, wolves, coyotes, deeper snow and yearly poaching which is pretty common in remote areas after the main gun seasons.

Not sure where You were in Alberta,but Ontario hunting versus AB hunting is a day and night.

I think you lost out big time on hunting opportunities/ species available to be harvested/potential success rate even for a semi serious hunter/heck..... even tag availability.
Hovewer-life is life,good luck in your new home.

Thanks y'all for all the input. Learning a lot of great perspectives! It's definitely been so different. I'm looking forward to being able to hunt in further north parts of this beautiful province and report back what I find :)