So, who else is flirting with tag soup?

Just one day left and I'm not optimistic.

We have a subpar property in good years, and we've seen some lean times with low deer populations... But nothing like this.

A small buck came out to my dad Tues of the first week, and other than that I've seen a coyote and my bro hasn't seen a thing.

We're used to nocturnal deer, and our apple piles usually get hit 5 nights out of 7... But this season each apple pile is going 3,4 even 5 days without being hit.

And we're seeing just a couple larger hoof prints and some rubbings. Almost no little doe or fawn tracks to speak of. Just odd.

Always hopeful till last night of last day.... But it's looking grim. This'll be the 4th season in a row I haven't seen a deer.

It doesn't look good,here in WMU72 & 73,either. This whole season has been a bit of a "bust."

Likewise!!

Big bucks are down here, but recruitment of fawns looks promising. One guy with me saw 13 different antlerless deer and a couple of small bucks.

Thank god for road kill! Everything is late. Picked up a small eight freezers full good week for steelheading!!

Good amount of deer here on WMU 49. So far our group (7 hunters) has seen 3 bucks, 2 does and 4 undetermined passing through the thick stuff. Only managed to connect on one buck so far though.

Oddmott, in WMU 65, both my properties deer numbers seem well down. No bucks on one property and just a few on the other. I took a doe last week, but other than that it looks bleak here. Interestingly enough it seems other critters are down as well, racoons absent on the cams as well as coyotes and turkeys .... really has me concerned as they are both usually great hunting properties.

Is your corn down early? It has been down near me for a while and I have noticed a change in deer movement. Try bow hunting in a different WMU, you will have more opportunites.

To early to give up yet. Some if the best hunting is going to be the next two weeks. And we got are gun hunt the first of December. I am really looking forward to the rest of the month. Should be great hunting. .Stick with it guys . Dutch

I was lucky shot a nice buck this year. But compared the previous years the deer have not come out in daylight.
I did about 15 sits and only had one deer come out , and that was at 7 am during the gun hunt on the fourth day.
They are on my trail cam , and they are plentiful. I believe they are under too much pressure in my area WUM 94b.

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Originally Posted by Oddmott

Just one day left and I'm not optimistic.

We have a subpar property in good years, and we've seen some lean times with low deer populations... But nothing like this.

A small buck came out to my dad Tues of the first week, and other than that I've seen a coyote and my bro hasn't seen a thing.

We're used to nocturnal deer, and our apple piles usually get hit 5 nights out of 7... But this season each apple pile is going 3,4 even 5 days without being hit.

And we're seeing just a couple larger hoof prints and some rubbings. Almost no little doe or fawn tracks to speak of. Just odd.

Always hopeful till last night of last day.... But it's looking grim. This'll be the 4th season in a row I haven't seen a deer.

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I know the last two winters haven't been easy on deer. However fawn numbers being down might suggest a different problem. My brother thinks the selective harvest thing, may have ended up with too many bucks being culled, meaning there are not enough bucks in some areas to look after the doe herd, in spite of the fact that deer are polygamous by nature. Meanwhile, you must have timed your apples about right, or else you have no bears in your area. On the up side, there is still, a week of muzzle loading season to go.

You don't stop hunting because you grow old. You grow old because you stop hunting.
- Gun Nut

Dutch & Gun Nut,

We hunt wmu58, one of the most over-hunted, poached out, non-tagged wmus in the province. Only one gang/group of hunters I spoke with this season tagged all their deer, its crazy how many openly talk about their "camp deer" or "barn deer" that's eaten during the hunt and never accounted for.

No muzzleloader season will ever be authorized here.

WMU 49
8 guys hunted 7 days, for 1 buck and a few walking does.
Food plots, excavators, logging, seeding, fertilizing.
We must be at about $500 per pound for this deer !!

In 73 we hung 3 deer with 5 full time guys. All bucks. I personally did not shoot any. In my opinion the numbers were up from last year. This morning on my stand I had a doe go by 250 yards out with a coyote chasing her. After that three more coyotes went by. I actually called one in using a doe grunt and bleat. Not happy about that sight. There was one almost pure white and he was a behemoth.

Looking forward to controlled hunt and ML season. My tag is still intact.

1 doe and 2 yearlings seen in 64A, no antlerless tags. I hunted 3 days in 66A and nothing seen, tons of coyotes here though, I did not hunt hear last year but there does not seem to be that many deer.

I still have a controlled gun hunt in 86A to look forward to in a couple weeks, I hope to put some meat in the freezer but if I don't it will be ok.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Oddmott

Just one day left and I'm not optimistic.

We have a subpar property in good years, and we've seen some lean times with low deer populations... But nothing like this.

A small buck came out to my dad Tues of the first week, and other than that I've seen a coyote and my bro hasn't seen a thing.

We're used to nocturnal deer, and our apple piles usually get hit 5 nights out of 7... But this season each apple pile is going 3,4 even 5 days without being hit.

And we're seeing just a couple larger hoof prints and some rubbings. Almost no little doe or fawn tracks to speak of. Just odd.

Always hopeful till last night of last day.... But it's looking grim. This'll be the 4th season in a row I haven't seen a deer.

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Still 2 months of bow season... Lots of time to fill a tag or 2....

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

Well I will be out in WMU 65 as I could not get time off work for a proper rifle hunt. I have been duck hunting and scouting a couple areas and can only get the Thur-Sun for ML/Bow time off 3-6 Dec. So throwing all my eggs into the most promising area.

Well that is worse than my $82.00lb one lone duck last year. Feel your pain...

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Originally Posted by Horridfiber101

WMU 49
8 guys hunted 7 days, for 1 buck and a few walking does.
Food plots, excavators, logging, seeding, fertilizing.
We must be at about $500 per pound for this deer !!

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by topher

Still 2 months of bow season... Lots of time to fill a tag or 2....

Sent from my SGH-I337M using Tapatalk

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No 2 tags up here, ha ha.

WMU 62 last week. Two small spikes in camp, not much of anything else. Spotted a doe late Thursday.

Going to try out here closer to home with bow for the rest of the season.

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Originally Posted by Big Jack

In 73 we hung 3 deer with 5 full time guys. All bucks. I personally did not shoot any. In my opinion the numbers were up from last year. This morning on my stand I had a doe go by 250 yards out with a coyote chasing her. After that three more coyotes went by. I actually called one in using a doe grunt and bleat. Not happy about that sight. There was one almost pure white and he was a behemoth.

Looking forward to controlled hunt and ML season. My tag is still intact.

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Holy crap,you hit the motherlode. Most of us in the area have yet to connect. Slug guns are cleaned and put away,I have my Bow tuned and broadheads sharp. There's lots of time to put meat in the freezer,yet. We have until New Years Eve.

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Originally Posted by trimmer21

Holy crap,you hit the motherlode. Most of us in the area have yet to connect. Slug guns are cleaned and put away,I have my Bow tuned and broadheads sharp. There's lots of time to put meat in the freezer,yet. We have until New Years Eve.

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We did well but honestly I believe the increase in game is due to lower predator numbers. We hit them hard last year and we now see more fawns making it and also have noticed a sharp increase in grouse and turkey numbers as well. Obviously it was not a bad winter either so that is a big factor. I doubt this is a coincidence. Ontario needs a provincial coyote bounty and in some places a wolf bounty.

Spoke to a friend who hunts up North Bay area and they got one but couldn't believe the wolf prints and wolf crap everywhere. Very little deer sign.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Big Jack

We did well but honestly I believe the increase in game is due to lower predator numbers. We hit them hard last year and we now see more fawns making it and also have noticed a sharp increase in grouse and turkey numbers as well. Obviously it was not a bad winter either so that is a big factor. I doubt this is a coincidence. Ontario needs a provincial coyote bounty and in some places a wolf bounty.

Spoke to a friend who hunts up North Bay area and they got one but couldn't believe the wolf prints and wolf crap everywhere. Very little deer sign.

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Could you tellus about thus bounty thy have .as I don't think there are any government bounties at all in Ontario. There may be local contests but I don't think there are any bounty ..I would like to hear more about this ...Dutch

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Originally Posted by dutchhunter

Could you tellus about thus bounty thy have .as I don't think there are any government bounties at all in Ontario. There may be local contests but I don't think there are any bounty ..I would like to hear more about this ...Dutch

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I'm thinking that with the "they got one" remark, he meant they got a deer, despite all the predator sign.

I could be wrong though.

I'm definitely jumping on the coyote cull bandwagon. Joining a couple forum members to learn some of the ropes and get a good idea of what gear is/isn't required before I go blowing my wad on crap i don't need.

Pulled an 8 pointer out of the bush in 64A last week. Half a kilometer pull through the woods sucked. It's a nice buck but not the big boy I was after that's hanging around. Seen quite a bit of activity and my apples disappeared like clockwork. Lot's of tracks of varying sizes and other signs of activity. Got some good pictures as well. They're in there, just gotta get to the thickest, nastiest spot you can find and get them out.

And the 'yotes are everywhere. Time to thin them out a bit me thinks.

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Originally Posted by Oddmott

I'm definitely jumping on the coyote cull bandwagon. Joining a couple forum members to learn some of the ropes and get a good idea of what gear is/isn't required before I go blowing my wad on crap i don't need.

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Good idea to get together with other hunters. You don't need a lot of stuff. With a small caliber,high-speed rifle,(.223-.270) a couple of calls and your lunch,your good to go. Dress warm,you'll be doing a lot of sitting....unless the other guys use the "newbie" for dogging.LOL

WMU 73
Pulled in my driveway right at 1/2 hour after dusk on the 14th to find 2 antlerless drinking from a puddle.
Probably doe an this years fawn but equal in size?

Who taught them to read the regs?

got skunked in WMU49... bounced a moose while cutting across a swamp, a few of the guys in camp got grouse/rabbit, but very meager sign, saw only 1 doe on sunday. LOTS of wolf tracks and scat though

I put in 51 hours over 9 full/partial days in the "big woods" of 63 A. Saw the flash of a tail while still hunting one day - my only "sighting", although I did hear deer running through the woods on at least two other occasions. This despite knowing the ~750 acre chunk of Crown Land very well, year round scouting, 6 trail cameras for months, etc.

The preparation did pay off when one of the group connected on a mature doe, but the overall amount of sign (droppings, rubs, scrapes, etc.) was minimal. Large portions of the area had basically no sign with small "clusters" of decent sign where the deer were (in small numbers).

Hunting in this area has been like this since around ~2009. We simply don't have the deer population to expect daily sightings/excitement. Hard winters, predation, too many antlerless tags in the "boom years" a decade ago, etc. have resulted in the low (but stable) population we have seen since then. Tough hunting - you have to be prepared to connect on the one shooting opportunity you get each season it seems.

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Originally Posted by racer55

WMU 73
Pulled in my driveway right at 1/2 hour after dusk on the 14th to find 2 antlerless drinking from a puddle.
Probably doe an this years fawn but equal in size?

Who taught them to read the regs?

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Probably,the same woman that taught them to read the highway signs. LOL

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dutchhunter

Could you tellus about thus bounty thy have .as I don't think there are any government bounties at all in Ontario. There may be local contests but I don't think there are any bounty ..I would like to hear more about this ...Dutch

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As in they got one deer. No provincial bounty but one for predators is needed.

Many Ontario Counties tried the "bounty" thing many years ago and it just wasn't a viable project for a couple of reasons,mostly,the optics were terrible,a PR disaster. The bunny-huggers had a field day with it affecting votes. In and of itself,it was a project killer. Hunters,being our own worst enemies at the best of times,didn't help by shooting a handful of Coyotes in townships that didn't have a bounty and driving them halfway across the province to townships that did. Once those townships realized they were paying for others,they shut down their bounties pretty quick. We'll not see bounties offered anytime soon.

I could be mistaken but i also thought i saw a place in brantford that had a bounty on coyote. That was just 2 years ago .

I think it was 25 bucks a yote.