2018 antlerless deer quotas

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Originally Posted by bellerivercrossbowhunter

Yep not my first hunting season... lol

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So what is your concern about the number of deer tags available?

I know that the number of deer in SW Ontario is much lower than it was 10 years ago, the population has taken a number of hits and the availability of tags has to take that into account, including the number of people allowed to hunt in a controlled hunt.

I actually know of a few controlled hunt gangs that will not have a hunt this year due to the population drop and wanting to bring the numbers back up.

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Originally Posted by huntnmachine

Not sure what that's all about..........another MNR mystery

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Well I'm not sure if there should be any antlerless tags given out in unit 47 because the herd has not recovered from those bad winter's a couple years ago.

My theory. They want to eradicate deer so the moose population comes back, like they did to unit 21 with moose eradication to get the caribou back. ;) Remember only 1 bull tag for the whole unit.

I applied for an antlerless tag, but I won't likely fill it unless we see a pile of deer.

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Originally Posted by Fox

So what is your concern about the number of deer tags available?

I know that the number of deer in SW Ontario is much lower than it was 10 years ago, the population has taken a number of hits and the availability of tags has to take that into account, including the number of people allowed to hunt in a controlled hunt.

I actually know of a few controlled hunt gangs that will not have a hunt this year due to the population drop and wanting to bring the numbers back up.

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You'd have to know what the holding capacity or herd sustainability level is for the WMU before you can say deer numbers are to high or to low. Ten years back it was way out of whack here (66a) and the MNR had huge cull to get the numbers down.

The MNR says they are just about right now but hunters say the population is low.

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Originally Posted by cramadog2

Well I'm not sure if there should be any antlerless tags given out in unit 47 because the herd has not recovered from those bad winter's a couple years ago.

My theory. They want to eradicate deer so the moose population comes back, like they did to unit 21 with moose eradication to get the caribou back. ;) Remember only 1 bull tag for the whole unit.

I applied for an antlerless tag, but I won't likely fill it unless we see a pile of deer.

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The number of antlerless tags in 47 has dropped from 6,600 in the glory days of 8-10 years ago, down to 4,000 in the last couple years. However our large camp of 18 hunters has not noticed any difference; we still get more antlerless tags than we know what to do with. The only difference now is the deer are not there.

Yes I agree, our camp is also in 47, and we too have not used all the doe tags available for the last 5 years. No problem before that.

Our camp is in #49 and has not recovered from the big kill off 4 years ago. We haven't allowed does to be shot in our camp since that winter.

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Originally Posted by Fox

So what is your concern about the number of deer tags available?

I know that the number of deer in SW Ontario is much lower than it was 10 years ago, the population has taken a number of hits and the availability of tags has to take that into account, including the number of people allowed to hunt in a controlled hunt.

I actually know of a few controlled hunt gangs that will not have a hunt this year due to the population drop and wanting to bring the numbers back up.

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In 92B where I hunt the deer numbers are up big time. I would like to see additional seals for antlerless archery only. I miss the good old days where I could bow hunt for a doe then hunt the controlled hunt for a mature buck. :)

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Originally Posted by MikePal

You'd have to know what the holding capacity or herd sustainability level is for the WMU before you can say deer numbers are to high or to low. Ten years back it was way out of whack here (66a) and the MNR had huge cull to get the numbers down.

The MNR says they are just about right now but hunters say the population is low.

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I would agree that the numbers are pretty good right now compared to what they should be, little crop damage, not too many car accidents and a stable population, even around long winters like we had last year.

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Originally Posted by bellerivercrossbowhunter

In 92B where I hunt the deer numbers are up big time. I would like to see additional seals for antlerless archery only. I miss the good old days where I could bow hunt for a doe then hunt the controlled hunt for a mature buck. :)

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The WMU I speak of is 86, they are not all the same, 86 has a very low population compared to the mid 2000s.

I do remember a time when you did not get a doe tag 100% of the time in SW Ontario. I was not hunting at the time but my dad was not successful every year. In the 80s the deer numbers were so low that you could hunt a week and not cut a track, again, not my time but my dads. You have the other extreme though, back in the 40s grandpa's gang would shoot a ton of deer, heavy game poles.

I think we need that proper balance, but additional tags are a very new thing, something that only came about in the middle 2000s.

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Originally Posted by bellerivercrossbowhunter

In 92B where I hunt the deer numbers are up big time. I would like to see additional seals for antlerless archery only. I miss the good old days where I could bow hunt for a doe then hunt the controlled hunt for a mature buck. :)

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I agree....it's been a long time since I hunted in Oct..would love to see a separate Bow/Doe tag.

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Originally Posted by MikePal

I agree....it's been a long time since I hunted in Oct..would love to see a separate Bow/Doe tag.

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They have them down in SW Ontario is most places, we don't have that sort of population up our way though.

We could always do an up state new york hunt, may even be cheaper than Ontario, ha ha.