Unsuccessful Moose Hunt

[Ahuntr300]

First I want to congratulate Sam and the other members that were successful! - job well done guys!

Second, I want to share our group’s report for our 15B hunt which you can see from the title was unsuccessful. We hunted the Dog River area.
As usual, we went for a good time and getting a moose would be a welcome bonus but not a must have. We got a good number of birds and enjoyed the fall foliage and outdoors, but to say that the moose hunt itself was atrocious again would be an understatement.

Huntable moose population: The report that numbers are only down 20% (recent Out of Doors Magazine article) is a big understatement in our opinion. We have hunted the area for almost 30 years, so we can see the difference of before and after. The area went from us seeing moose everywhere, and if the group worked hard, success being almost guaranteed, to totally relying on luck of seeing a moose passing by on its way to elsewhere. So, IMO, we conclude that the HUNTABLE moose population, went down way more than 20%. I would say at least 60% or more.

Hunter numbers: To say that 15B was the usual "Sea of Orange" this year would be a gross understatement. It seems that this year everyone came to 15B. Without exaggeration, every nook and cranny had a camp on. We heard that there were disputes to access to camping sites with the usual “Hey we had that spot last year- this is OUR spot! Get out!!”. We witnessed both the OPP and the MNR racing up the road I guess to look after these disputes. I would say that every camp had an average of 8 hunters, with some camps having more than 20 hunters. We counted the numbers of hunters in one small area to be to more than 50. This did not include the hunters that came to the area from local resorts. I would say without doubt that hunters outnumbered the moose by a hundredfold in the area.

15B Area: We, as many others hunt cuts and close to water areas. I believe with the decline in demand for paper, the forestry companies seem to have not been very active, resulting in very few new cuts in the area. The existing cuts for the most part are way overgrown and have closed in roads that are hard to access. The newer ones seem to be sprayed right after cutting, resulting in no new growth and the resulting poor habitat for moose.

Blocking the roads: There were a FEW good spots generally near water that had good sign, but for these the competition for access was brutal and intense. 99.9% of the hunters in the area were super nice and cordial and respected the first come first serve rule, but more than a few bad apples resorted to blocking roads and denying access to the crown land to others. We ourselves scouted a couple of good spots only to find the entrances to the roads to HUGE areas blocked 2 hours before legal time by trucks and the occupants refusing to move. We reported these to the MNR who said that they would follow up and that there is a charge for this of interfering with a legal hunt, but it seems that nothing was done about it as these continued the practice morning and night.

Our conclusion is that the MNR gave way too many tags for the area and sent a good number of moose hunters in 15B. This clearly is not sustainable as there are few spots to put all these hunters and even fewer huntable moose in the area.

Again a big congratulations to those lucky few that were successful and do not have to have tag soup like us this year.

Cheers

[Gilroy]

This was the exact same area I hunted with a group some 30 years ago and even then we experiences the same ethical hunting problems, we arrived a few days prior to opening, found a nice cut that went to a circular landing at the far end, got in there on opening day. At noon in comes a group of other guys from Toronto, actually set up between or guys and though it was OK because they hunted there the year before and after all its Crown land. Or get into another cut and there is a local overlooking a big area, not even with a gun on him and stating his gang are hunting there tomorrow.

We stayed at Gary Truck stop and restaurant on the main highway close to Lac des Mille Lacs which was great accommodation and hot showers and good restaurant.

In the two years I hunted there we did not get a Moose but there was a huntable population by the tracks and so forth.

I have always been a big fan of better management and have even suggested on here that a ANNUAL PERMIT system would be a better was to stop the hunting conflicts. Map out areas in blocks, like the Lumber Companies did in Central Ontario and lease out them for a week and only the permit holder gets to use that are. It does not have to be the entire season but the early rifle season with influx of
southern hunters.

[Sam Menard]

I’m sorry to hear about your disappointing hunt. I could tolerate not seeing moose, but being crowded out by other hunters would be very annoying. I would suggest that the lack of moose sightings was a local phenomenon as I’m hearing of pretty good success elsewhere. WMU 15B is a very large unit and there is bound to be hot and cold areas. The weather was warm last week, and the peak rut is over, so it’s possible that the moose were just hunkered down. Additionally, as old cutovers grow up, it can be more difficult to see moose. Sometimes moose just move on to greener pastures. My trail cameras tell me that there are still moose around… in my part of the unit anyway.

Cutovers can be moose magnets due to abundance of lush nutritious foods. Sometimes an area with many cutovers in proximity to each other can force moose to congregate in relatively smaller areas where good shelter still exits. Cutovers also provide good visibility and access which hunters favour, hence the human congestion. It’s that concentration of hunters that makes me avoid cutovers. For that a reason, I prefer to hunt difficult to access locations such as remote beaver ponds, old burns, grassy swales, and marshy shorelines of water bodies.

It’s interesting to note that many hunters have purchased side-by-sides. For certain that they are comfortable to ride, but they don’t work so well on narrow trails. I know a guy that just bought one and I don’t think that he ever got out of it all week!

Anyway, I suggest that you process what you observed during the hunt and make some adaptations for next year. Try not to get too discouraged.

[deermedo]

17 days on the South Bay Area of lake Nipigon not a single recent track. I have hunted this area before when I lived in Nipigon but this trip was unbelievable.

[Matt86]

We had a very slow hunt opening of rifle in 15b, heard few bulls and cows, manage to call in a small bull on Tuesday morning,
We only seen 1 fresh track in 7 days there, But I know the area and if we were there in bow season with the right weather is it stupid with moose, come rifle it is like they don't exist.
The weather and timing of rifle season I believe has a lot to do with lack of sightings and tracks, If rifle opened a week earlier would greatly increase everyone's harvest percentage

[Gilroy]

We had a very slow hunt opening of rifle in 15b, heard few bulls and cows, manage to call in a small bull on Tuesday morning,
We only seen 1 fresh track in 7 days there, But I know the area and if we were there in bow season with the right weather is it stupid with moose, come rifle it is like they don't exist.
The weather and timing of rifle season I believe has a lot to do with lack of sightings and tracks, If rifle opened a week earlier would greatly increase everyone's harvest percentage

I think its pretty common knowledge that the rifle season is kept purposely late every year to cut down on the harvest numbers, the rut in most places is over. IMHO

[Matt86]

I think its pretty common knowledge that the rifle season is kept purposely late every year to cut down on the harvest numbers, the rut in most places is over. IMHO

100 percent and that is the reason people aren't seeing moose. It isn't a moose population problem we have in most areas. Its a when we can hunt problem, only been about 10 years most units got pushed back another week

[Sam Menard]

I can’t ever see the gun season being pushed back. The MNR is trying really hard to protect those big mature bulls which are very vulnerable to calling techniques during the peak rut.

It wasn’t that long ago when the MNR thought that the archery hunt wasn’t a big deal as there were few hunters and success was low. Now archery hunting is big and hunter skill and technology has greatly improved. Success rate’s have creeped up and lots of big bulls are getting harvested.

I can foresee more restrictions being imposed as a result.

[Matt86]

I can’t ever see the gun season being pushed back. The MNR is trying really hard to protect those big mature bulls which are very vulnerable to calling techniques during the peak rut.

It wasn’t that long ago when the MNR thought that the archery hunt wasn’t a big deal as there were few hunters and success was low. Now archery hunting is big and hunter skill and technology has greatly improved. Success rate’s have creeped up and lots of big bulls are getting harvested.

I can foresee more restrictions being imposed as a result.

For sure, In my opinion I would like to see less tags and hunt in a better time period for the shear experience of hunting moose in the rut and say in 15b get a tag every 8 years myself then every 4. I know that is defiantly not a popular opinion but once you experience calling multiple bulls a day some times its hard to hunt any other way. Or have a rack size minimum like a lot of places but here in Ontario people shoot cows thinking they are calf's so be hard to the majority of the population be told has to have x amount of points on the brows or x wide.

[gbk]

I can’t ever see the gun season being pushed back. The MNR is trying really hard to protect those big mature bulls which are very vulnerable to calling techniques during the peak rut.

It wasn’t that long ago when the MNR thought that the archery hunt wasn’t a big deal as there were few hunters and success was low. Now archery hunting is big and hunter skill and technology has greatly improved. Success rate’s have creeped up and lots of big bulls are getting harvested.

I can foresee more restrictions being imposed as a result.

No challenging Sam-and i may sound clueless, why it is so important to"spare"big mature old bulls?

After all ,if there is no 5.5-8.5-10.5 year old bulls around,the mating will be done by a somewhat younger bulls.
Maybe i am missing something.
Thank You