What do you think the toughest hunt in Ontario is in terms of smart prey? And why?
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What do you think the toughest hunt in Ontario is in terms of smart prey? And why?
Coyote's for me here in the East...not near as many as in the west end of the province and harder than heck to hunt without dogs.
Southern Ontario, Snowshoe Hare, without Beagles.
The hardest game in Ontario is the adult Greater Snow Goose in the spring. Smartest damn bird there is, they even estimate the range of the shotgun. The will circle a spread from high above just looking for a mistake.
Coyote or Wolf for sure.
For how many there is around not too many get shot. During the shotgun hunt it sounds like world war three. Lots of gangs dogging bush pushing deer. Few coyotes get seen or shot. But you still hear them every night and tracks everywhere ya look.
Wild Boar :)
...for my dad pretty much everything from deer to snowshoe hare and waterfowl, 2 years hunting came back empty handed :/
has to be Cougars...not one shot yet.....LOL....Quote:
Originally Posted by Species8472
Southern Grouse over a pointer Fortunately most times have woodcock available to ease the frustration.
So true.Quote:
Originally Posted by MikePal
No gun shots and certainly no decent camera shots either.
Another vote for the Evil Southern Grouse. Most of them flush away when they hear your vehicle pull up to a cover. It's like they are a completely different specie from the fool's hens you can kill with a sand wedge up North.
X2. I swear they can smell rifle shells 2 miles away.Quote:
Originally Posted by SongDog
I'm sure there are tougher challenges but so far my toughest challenge personally has been calling in and shooting coyotes. I seem to have better luck shooting them when the opportunity arises while hunting something else rather than specifically targeting them. I'm sure there's something to be learned in that...
I am going to go with coyotes too, right around the house, close to the property line, on camera and at a time when we are around and we still have not seen more than a shadow of them.
Yotes for sure...but at times more than you can shoot at...
Quote:
Originally Posted by MikePal
Plenty of cougars have been shot at in Ontario. Just not the four legged kind........Quote:
Originally Posted by johny
For me, it has to be the species I just missed.
Another vote for the southern grouse, finding one is not so bad but hitting one on the wing is a different story.Quote:
[Another vote for the Evil Southern Grouse. Most of them flush away when they hear your vehicle pull up to a cover. It's like they are a completely different specie from the fool's hens you can kill with a sand wedge up North.
Yotes...........very smart
Given that I have but one coyote down in the last 3 yrs I have to say this is the most challenging hunt. Given that they are in season in Eastern Ontario 365 days a year they are cunning beyond words. If i were to do a ratio of hours spent to success it is an easy calculation.
The Evil Southern Grouse gets my vote.
Wolf....
Definitely evil southern grouse for me too!!
Lorenzo
Results so far:
Wolf/Coyote - 9
Southern Grouse - 5
Snowshoe Hare (no dog) - 1
Greater Snow Goose - 1
For myself I would say early season (first 2 weeks) mature whitetail buck with the bow. In 30 years of deer hunting I have filled my tag(s) every season except one, but I have never taken a mature buck in the early season. They don't have the hormones driving them and there is still plenty of food around. Any mature bucks I have taken where either during the rut/pre-rut or the late season bow (last 2 weeks of December) when food was scarce.
Wing shooting spruce grouse. Gotta hit them before they land in the next branch above your head.
I vote for grouse
Last day of the season for our group I was pushing a yote track and found this southern grouse. We knew this bush had only one grouse there until the yote got him. So my vote is yotes are harder to hunt.
http://i195.photobucket.com/albums/z...psappnzyvd.jpg
The trick to hunting grouse is to go out and hunt something else; Set up for Turkey and they will walk right in front of your blind....in the stand for Deer...who shows up, sounding like a hippo coming thru the bush..
The worst is when your walking out at dawn to your stand/blind and they wait till your 3' away then take off with great flourish and send your heart in to fibrillation.
See far more grouse while out hunting than I ever see yotes....:)
Southern, Southern Ontario grouse....without a dog. Hunted one for five flushes, until I finally connected on the last flush. A few 'hail mary's ' on another one I flushed 29 times in ten hunts (I got good at tracking second and third flushes), but never connected. Sorry I let that one contribute to the gene pool!
Ill give it to southern grouse 1st, then coyotes 2nd.
Also worth mentioning is the mature whitetail buck over 3.5 YO
ESG's get my vote too. Heard many flushes last fall, saw a few, and even got to the gun to my shoulder once.
Seems evil southern grouse are coming on strong:
Current standings:
Evil Southern Grouse - 10
Coyote/Wolf - 10
Snowshoe Hare (no dog) - 1
Greater Snow Goose - 1
Mature Whitetail Buck - 1
Have never hunted them but know some who do, including a trapper.
wont "debate" or vote whether X is a whole lot smarter than Y. Am sure both/all are.
My vote by far goes to the Timber Wolf
More than smart, more than wily or elusive. Try hunting something with all those qualities in 6 feet of snow, when it's -40 before windchill. Try to stay still, and have to be wary of touching gun metal.
Bears are are super smart and wary to. Doubt they'll get many votes because only a few still hunt them.There's more than just that in determing the hardest, or which is the most challenging. It's kind of like asking which taste better. Roast beef or roast beef and gravy.
Coyotes are not that tough to hunt, depending on the method used , with hounds over 38 years of hunting them , we literally have shot hundreds of them , there are groups that have shot way more than we have.
However, calling them is a different matter , but depending on the season they can still quite easily be hunted and shot.
Don't be so modest ! .....thousands .....We shot hundreds and I have not hunted with you guys in 10 plus years !Quote:
Originally Posted by jaycee
Glen
The poll is badly skewed because there are far more responses from the Fair Weather Bird Hunters, far fewer hardy souls know the challenges of going out in Feb and trying to hunt a coyote:)Quote:
Originally Posted by Species8472
Not sure about Skewed Mike because there's more SW Ontario hunters vs N Ont replying.
Ive never tried hunting bear still hunting. Have tried that with WTs and it's far more challenging than sitting in a tree. Does that make a wily old Buck or Bruin any less "smart"? Suspect if hunting Bear over bait from tree stands was "illegal", thus forcing everyone to still hunt them or call them, there'd be a few votes for them as well.
The most difficult game for me would be a big mature whitetail buck....partly because I don't have the patience to wait for one as any deer that presents a shot is a trophy in my books :) and they are pretty tough to come across
Surprised no one mentioned European Hares. I haven't hunted them in years but I remember going out with my dad and they were always quite the challenge.
Never intended it to be accurate - no fun in that :D. Just a relatively non-controversial topic to help pass the time until turkey and trout open.Quote:
Originally Posted by MikePal
Like these guys (and believe it or not these are the evil southern variety):Quote:
Originally Posted by MikePal
http://i1363.photobucket.com/albums/...psyprhm47i.jpg
http://i1363.photobucket.com/albums/...pspp33gazk.jpg
A far better than typical season for me last fall. Mostly due to crazy numbers and an injury that forced me to hunt small game for many hours that usually would have been allocated to the deer bow season (hunting was not the problem it was the potential recovery of a large animal that was the issue).
Wolf...everyone complains about them, blame them for population declines of species most people hunt. They are by far the most difficult and get a bad rap as a competitor as they are a better hunter than we are.
Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk
Given that gravy is in fact a food group this is not working for me JBen. Anyone serving roast beef without gravy should be shunned as outcasts!Quote:
Originally Posted by JBen
Sorry, I know I have sidetracked from the OP but I couldn't resist this one. I LOVE gravy!
Grouse in southern Ontario.
coyote
late season geese
early season jack rabbit
Snowshoes without dogs
Mature buck 3.5 years plus.
Wolf and Bear , --- "hoofing it" ; not over bait !
Never went out to hunt wolves, I shot 2 while moose hunting before tags and while grouse hunting ran into 5 that were within 25 yards on other side of creek. They must of been young as they just stood around looking at me and I had no gun. Went back to get bro and shotgun and sure enough all 5 still there. Only wish I had my camera.
From my experience a mature whitetail buck is hard to get in bow range to on a consistent basis, everything else has come much easier for me.
The toughest game in Ontario? The Leafs think its hockey.
The Habs have proven hockey's the toughest game in Quebec....
Definitely crow. Smartest birds to hunt. Known to memorize faces and vehicles. You may be able to fool them once, but you won't ever again. They can see the shine on a shotgun barrel, important to use shadows when hunting them.
For me it has to be a mature buck reason being there increadible senses...followed by european hares / jacks like finding a needle in a haystack most of the time..
Im with moose tracks on this one, me and buddy or two started hunting crows thinking how hard can it be right, boy were we ever schooled the hard way! we did manage 3 and a bunch of missed shots on out second outing.