OK folks, it is that time of year again…I can smell it in the air! Its that time when men are men and bears, moose and deer are extremely nervous!
If you have enjoyed a successful big-game hunt this fall, I invite you to share your story and photos right here at the Outdoors Guy Blog.
As someone once said, its time to show ’em if you got ’em..and also send in last year’s prowess if you’d like!
Please keep in mind that all photos submitted should be in a small file format. Usually less than 1/2 GB is fine.
Outdoorsguy
Here’s a photo of the great looking 8-point buck Maple took last Thursday with his bow:
Check out the fisher video courtesy of Iggy & Bob:
Hi Jeff,
Managed to call in and get a surplus tag for unit 1C, way the &%*$ up north. Travelled almost 30 hours to reach our destination north of Pickle Lake. Arrived on Sunday Sept. 23rd, set up camp and did a little scouting that afternoon. The most sign was within 300 yards of our camp where the river met the lake we were hunting on. I set up on the bank of the river and wouldn’t you know it, on the 2nd evening a cow and calf came out to cross the river. I managed to drop the cow as she exited the river on my side. My partner and I dragged her by boat back to the camp and dressed/quartered her right there. I haven’t got any pictures back, will forward them once I get them. The fishing was incredible, pickerel on jsut about every cast in some spots. Lots of grouse to keep us occupied too!!!
Already looking forward to next year’s moose hunt. Only +/- 340 sleeps to go…
was at the deer camp along with ten other guys on the weekend, had an absolute blast, so much fun being there, got a lot of work done, tons of laughs, the odd pop drank, some ATVing and shooting. Got two video clips of bears on my trail cam, and now I’m back at work hoping that I wake up tomorrow and it’s already the deer hunt.
That won’t happen so I’ll just have to wait 🙁
Finally
after years of perseverance I finally have my day to get my first moose. It all happened on Thanksgiving day October 8th, 2012 at 10:00am ! …how appropriate to get my first one on thanksgiving!
here is my story:
Sitting in one of our stands called the TAJ (named after the real one haha!) I see a moose nose come out of the bush at about 80 yards. She peeks out and looks around; looks left looks right to make sure it’s safe to come out. I slowly reach for my camera to start filming as every year I see adult moose but never a calf…Well not this year The cow decides to walk out into the open and about 3 seconds later the calf comes out behind her and walks past her on her other side. I noticed how much smaller it was and from that moment on I knew it was a calf as she walked right next to his mama and I was able to compare the noses.
At that very moment, since I was 100% sure, I reached for my 30-06; scope the calf in my cross-hairs and aimed for the vitals. It was a clean one shot kill. The calf took her last breath in less then a minute.. perfect shot! I put the gun down and started filming the cow. She, in my opinion, is standing around wondering what just happened. She does not know that I am there since I am standing in a scaffold built watch / blind that we built in 2007. Pretty sure they are used to that free standing structure overlooking the swamp by now. For about the next 4 minutes she is just standing around looking arounf wondering what happened to her calf and all of a sudden her ears start moving back and forth and she starts to get real nervous and runs in towards my stand about 30 yards and cuts into the thick bush. not thinking much of this I keep filming all of this… I am thinking wow that was great! I loose sound and site of her. Fifteen seconds or so later I start hearing bull grunts “gnaa:”gnaaa” gnaaaaa” (sp?) and I could hear moose antlers against the brush. This huge Bull appears exactly where she came out with the calf. He takes a quick look towards the calf and starts walking in the same direction as the cow. I keep filming thinking this would make a great episode of Mutual of Omaha. The Bull enters the thick stuff almost exactly where the cow had entered. I count my blessings for what I just witnessed. I just shot my first moose after all those years of hunting.
that is my chance to brag on this blog: Big game hunters Bragging Board hunting experience;
BTW opening morning Saturday, spotted a one antlered bull moose. I figure it must have been lost in a battle and I am thinking now that it was against this big bull I saw on Thanksgiving day.
what a great year to hunt moose. We are six members in our hunt gang and we stopped hunting for the week as we ar satisfied with one moose for the gang! The other gang up river harvested a calf on the Wednesday evening. What a great year on the Whanapetei River.
PS how do you attach a picture to this blog? if I am going tobrag I may as well…
Hey Dalton just resigned! Live on CTV
Who’s Dalton?
Outdoorsguy
someone just posted this on FB… newspaper clipping: “to all you hunters who kill animals for food, shame on you; you ought to go to the store and purchase the meat that was made there, where no animals were harmed”.
Really some people actually believe that. it makes me think of when I was a kid and we hung around at the dairy farm and we invited a “city” boy to spend the weekend with us. When he saw the cows being milked he commented to my dad. My parents don’t get milk from cows they get it from the milkman. and this was way back in 1970.
quote:jeff.morrison says:
October 15, 2012 at 6:36 pm
Who’s Dalton?
Outdoorsguy
============================================
who cares
congrats Alain! A great memory burned in your bank!
And yes, unfortunately, there are some folks out there who have no clue about hunting nor where the grocery store meat comes from.
Sadly, they also happen to be the majority who speak with emotional, rather than knowledge.
I’ve never actually taken a calf moose because I never felt comfortable with it..but that’s just me and I do understand it from a conservation stand-point. The one time I could have taken a calf and didn’t..I regretted my decision.
In Quebec’s alternating moose harvest system..there is the opportunity to harvest a calf moose every year..in most Zones. Back in about the 1999 season (It was a calf & bull only year) we had hunted hard all week but no moose were seen. Then, near the end of the trip I was walking the edge of a lake when a calf moose jumped-up and stared at me less than 50 feet away.
I just stared it for a moment and put my rifle down..until I noticed that it was stumbling and walking with a strange gate. The calf had a badly broken hind leg and had a lot of trouble get through the bush. Then a minute later I caught a glimpse of the cow which had been bedded down nearby.
At that point I realized the chances of this calf making the winter would be slim so I decided I would take it. Of course then it was gone and I never ended up catching up to it.
The boys in camp agreed I should have taken that calf when I had the chance…
Outdoorsguy
Thanks Keebler it sure will be.
and yes it’s too bad… We have some employees at work that were never exposed to hunting and once explained they understand. I guess that’s what happens when they grow up in the big city without any exposure.
I just spent a week in Sudbury and it’s amazing; all the radio stations promote hunting…. and that would include North Bay and all the little towns on the way back to Ottawa. Once you reach Ottawa forget about it… except of course when our Outdoorguy gets on the air with Doc and Woody. hehehe
Alain, we also noticed the same thing while fishing up north in the spring..listening to North Bay radio station…you can certainly tell you’re no longer in Ottawa and its a nice break. Hearing fishing, hunting and ATV trail updates on the radio..now that’s cool!
Outdoorsguy
My pal ‘Maple’ has taken a nice buck during bow season and the photo is posted above..I told him to send the story in too when he gets a chance.
Lucker bugger!
Outdoorsguy
sure-shot dave, I forgot to congratulate you on the moose..nice job, now where is my steak??
Just kidding man…a nice roast would do.
Outdoorsguy
Well, not much to brag about but went up to North Bay on the Thanksgiving Friday night for the opening of Moose. We were out nice and early on Saturday morning and even woke up before the alarm, don’t think I would be much of a hunter if I didn’t do this on the first morning of a hunt. Its still a little warm up there, about 5-8 degrees during the day, but needless to say comfortable to sit which we didn’t do much of other than during the first and last hours of the day. The irony is that we didn’t see anything during that time and only heard 1 shot each morning. So we pushed and we pushed a lot. I figure I probably walked about 30 km’s this weekend and my cousin who I was with probably walked about 40-50km’s (he is a machine and any camp would love to have him for drives). We went deep into the woods where no one else would go in through cuts that we saw had signs of calves. There were times that we were virtually crawling to get through a stand of trees because the trials led us that way. In the end we saw 2 young bulls, one beautiful bull, one cow (with no calf), a 3×3 buck, and two does, not to mention a few bush chickens. A great weekend even though we couldn’t find what we were after.
Mark W said “we woke up before the alarm”
Hey man, isnt that always the way on opening morning..hehe
Mark W also said “In the end we saw 2 young bulls, one beautiful bull, one cow (with no calf)
You know if you were hunting across the river, you’d have a moose now!
Outdoorsguy
The alarm clock in our camp is called bacon frying
Well Jeff, that alternating tag system has me really thinking about it for next year.
The only trouble is wondering how many hunters go into these ZECs b/c I’m not a walker so I wouldn’t want to tramp on anyone’s toes (nor put myself in a position where I might get shot at! lol
They really need to change the system in Ontario. One of our buddies pointed out that guys are getting better at hunting calfs and if they don’t smarten up with tags… Not a good situation.
I could have shot 2 calfs a few years ago after I shot the cow, but in reality, we had enough meat and they looked big enough to survive the winter (which the locals say they did).
Keebler, the alternating tag system in QC seems to work ok..the bigger issue seems to be finding new moose territory where someone isnt set-up already. Obviously, the farther north you travel the more chance of scoping out a new spot. Going with ‘Territoire Libre’ for the first time wouldn’t be a good idea for non-residents..I would suggest either going with an outfitter or ZEC. Problem with some ZEC’s is, again, finding an area to hunt that isnt taken already.
Most ZEC’s will allow any moose party to register and head-in, and will charge them for the week but will not outline an area for them to hunt..that’s up to you.
Even after scouting for a spot each spring during trout season, our guys still never found a good enough area in our ZEC to moose hunt. Some other ZEC’s..i.e Pontiac, Rapides Des Joachins, Dumoine..etc..may work differently where they assign (& outline on a map) a specific area for each group. That is the best way to do it…then you know when you pay that there’s actually a territory for you to hunt!
Best of luck, Keeb!
Outdoorsguy
Calf or no calf! I guess that is the question. ;o0)
Well Alain, in this case you have a calf and I have none…think you’re the lucky one.
So when is dinner anyway..hehe
Outdoorsguy
lol Alain, fear not, if I see a calf, I’m shooting 🙂
OK. So I’m way behind.
It seems there are a ton of things to do around here that aren’t getting done, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t go hunting. Those less important things could wait.
The farmer said there was at least one buck in the far field most evenings. He took a picture with his cell phone and sent it to me, but the deer appeared only as a speck in the distance. I believed him anyhow.
Last Thursday evening the wind was right. A little gusty for my liking and out of the SW. I climbed into the stand for the first time this year, happy to find the racoons had not dumped on it this time. It felt good to be back. From 4 ’till 6 I just relaxed and swayed a little in the breeze, waiting, enjoying the surroundings. The sugar maple trees were in their autumn-crimson prime. I took it all in like a tonic.
As hoped, things settled down before sunset and lo and behold, the farmer was right!! Out from my left plodded a decent buck. Dang, I thought, will he make it all the way over here before dark? He still had 30 yards to poke around and poke around before he would be in range. He was definitely a decent 8 point, should I be so lucky.
That’s the hard part. My heart still pounds and my breathing quickens when a deer is close, even more so when he picks you out and stares, which he did. He was more looking at my feet than my face, but I averted my gaze anyhow. I felt my shaking would give me away.
Somehow he detected no immediate danger and sniffed his way closer. Don’t know if he was whiffing me, food, or something else, but he was tense. When he stopped, raised his head and stomped, it was too late. The arrow was on it’s way. At 27 yards I tucked it in behind his elbow. I watched him rocket out of there for 9 bounds across the field, then drop stone heavy in this tracks. No need to rush, so I sat, smiled, and gave thanks to the Powers that Be, for the 198 pounds of blessing I had received.
Not too shabby for the first hunt of the year
Nice buck Maple, congrats
Iggs, did you see a lot of sign around deer camp when you were up there last weekend??
hehe…my Dad caught 24 mice in the week they spent at our camp moose(I mean mouse) hunting..
Outdoorsguy
speaking of mice, the owner of the outpost camp where we moose hunted claimed he caught 70 mice in a pail and water trap just before we got there, I was very sceptical until we caught 9 in one night.
Saw some sign, two guys saw deer, there was a fresh scrape line already, about a half a km long on a trail we brushed out, so the deer are making territory already. The thing that really bothered me was I heard two grouse, never saw one, all weekend.
Did Bob the Butcher send you the picture of the weird animal he got on his trail cam up near our deer camp, if not I’ll send it to you. Some think it’s a fisher, some a wolverine, some a wild pig, weird looking thing and the hermit that lives up there claims that a wolverine killed his Great Dane……..whatever, I didn’t claim it, he did, I’m just repeating what he said…….
Wow, 70 mice eh..well, I’ll be bringing my pail trap up to our camp this year…we trap them in the woodshed with hopes of keeping them out of camp, but it never really works.
Hard to believe there are fresh scrapes already, but you can’t argue with deer sign..always nice to see and nearly as nice as seeing the real thing!
Iggs, I inspected those images and can say with 100% certainty that it is a fisher in the photo. Once I have Bob’s permission, I’ll will post the images above so that others can have a peak. Man, what are the chances of capturing an image like that?
Gotta love those trailcams..they are, for me, the closest thing to real hunting!!!
Outdoorsguy
that’s what I thought about the deer scrapes too, the first thing to my mind was last years scrapes, but I looked closely at them and they were fresh, no leaves and fresh earth.
As I told you, I got a great video of a fisher on my trail cam last year, I’ll see if I can send it to you
Bring it on Iggs, I even know how to upload vid footage on the Blog now..only took 2 years!
I think fishers are really neat..and excellent hunters too.
I remember the time at hunt camp one winter…we use to go there for New Year’s every year. Anyhow, one night we went out to woodshed to get a few more sticks for the fire when we met a fisher in there face to face! He was confused and tried to find a way out, till he realized we were blocking the door..so he headed straight at us at a high speed..hehe
My buddy hopped out of the way so fast, he jumped right out of his slippers!! Man, we still laugh about that!
It was a terrible snowstorm that night and I truly believe the fisher was looking for shelter from the storm..or looking for mice I suppose.
Outdoorsguy
along with my many other animals on my Mutual of Omaha wall of fame at the cottage is a fisher
so I know what they look like up close, and I had one run up to within 30 yards of me when I was in a deer stand, but that picture from Bob doesn’t show a tail, and the tail is as long as the body, and the face is weird too
Just got back, no moose, no fresh sign to speak of either, but we did miss a bear we pushed out on Tuesday. We could only take calves and the moose just weren’t in our general area but we still had a blast. Lots of deer sign but only saw one 4 pointer which we believe the hound got onto after our push on Thursday. Took a 6 month old beagle up just to walk with us during the push to get used to rifle shots etc and on the way back to camp he just up and started and you could hear him go for 20 minutes. He came back shortly after and not really sure what he was on but at 6 months old my money is he’s a rippe with a good tongue. Good week, lots of food, lots of BS and a moose would just have been bonus.
Jeff, once you try calf you may never pass one up again. Great stories guys!
johan
where were you moose hunting?
I have a new beagle that is deer hunting with us this year, she seems really ready to go, I put her directly on deer at the cottage, on a leash of course because the cottage is in Quebec, and she’ll just about rip your arm off, She is about 5 months old and I’m pretty sure she is ready to run on her own. If not our veteran beagle will run with her for a chase or two and show her the ropes. I hesitate to run the two together because the veteran gets very competitive and runs too long, so she’ll run one chase a day until the Wednesday and if she isn’t tonguing, we’ll run them as a pair on Thursday
well got home about a hour ago… kids unloaded everthing (almost feels like a guided hunt) a apprentice hunter seen a bull on monday but the hunter she was with never seen it (50 yards ) we now wonder why he has never shot a deer or a moose LOL one of the group members shot a small bull on thursday, daughter saw a bull on friday and we say a huge bull in the camp swamp on friday as well massive bull (never fails we shoot the small bulls and the big bull come out almost like they send a lamb to the slaughter and then they come out and play. not much in the way of deer sign but i saw a doe . all in all a good hunt with lots of fun…. ps We ate like kings last night tenderloin wrapped in bacon and potatoes and onions on the bbq …
Welcome back johan and Chessy…sounds like you guys had a good time!
Johan trust me, I made the mistake that time of allowing my emotions of clauding common-sense, and have not done it again since! Nice that you guys saw good deer sign..that’s promising.
Chessy, sounds like Bullwinkle is doing ok up in the Park! Did you at least get some pics of the giant bull in the camp swamp?? Man, bacon wrapped tenderloin….me likey!
Must be nice to have the kids wait on you hand and foot..hehe
Outdoorsguy
Iggy, we go to a bud’s deer camp north of 7, an hour or so from Kaladar. We used to go north of Parry Sound but the camp guy was a dick and getting worse so we bailed and stuck closer to home. Not as many moose but they are there if you catch it right. Last year we pushed a cow and a bull but could’t fill the bull tag, No tags and this year and the next camp over got a bull and saw another bull and cow but that’s the way it goes. Our hunt is relaxed to say the least.
Turns out there was a cow moose close to 401 and 416 merge and the cops and mnr thought it best to shoot it before it caused problems on the 401. Makes me think it’s okayfor me to kill one if it ventures into my woods, you know, to be safe.
No i did not see the bull the daughter and i were tracking a cow and a calf that we never did get to see . once the rain went away moose and deer tracks all over… the amount of logging in the park and by us is crazy. Deer and moose should be good for the next 5 years in our area , lots of new growth. and new draw roads. deer season 3 weeks away. And yes tenderloin in bacon has become a camp ritual with our animals we take 5 lbs up just to be on the safe side for it 🙂
CHESSY SAID:::::a apprentice hunter seen a bull on monday but the hunter she was with never seen it (50 yards)
sounds to me like the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree hehehe
😉
welcome home ches
its good to be home … and counting the days to go back north for the deer…
chessy, do you hunt out of the same camp during the deer season? For some reason I thought you hunted deer closer to home…around the river?
Outdoorsguy
Just got back from Ritchie’s Feed & Seed…picked up another 90-pound bag of my deer pellets. This year I decided to keep the trailcam sites baited, during the season, with pellets instead of apples of carrots. (Oh yes, and Acorn Rage as well!!) I use the pellets at home in my feeder throughout the year with success. The only drawback they have is getting soggy after sitting out in a rainstorm, but if you check and replenish daily, it’s not an issue.
Our supply of apples at the hunt camp are now stored in the woodshed fridge with a friggin rope tied around the fridge to keep coons from stealing them! They burrow under the woodshed door and manage to open the handle on this oldschool fridge we have. What a mess!!
Man, I swear these animals have human hands instead of paws!!
Outdoorsguy
I’m off for a half day of bow hunting deer tomorrow then onto Northern Ontario early Thursday morning for a 4 day moose hunt. We have a bull tag to play with so that amps up the possibilities. Then it’s home for 6 days then 14 days of deer hunting. love this time of year!
It’s funny how excited we all get this time of year. I end up chatting with my hunting buddies almost every day now…what are we gonna do different this year? Who’s bringing what meal? Doesn’t seem to matter what you talk about..so long as its hunting or camp-related, it’s exciting!!
Best of luck Keebler..sounds like you’ve got some exciting days coming up. Man, I’m really thinking of getting one of those headcams for next year. Sounds like a terrific way to relive the hunt all year long.
Outdoorsguy
The headcams really are fantastic. I finished editing the video from the 2011 Rocking Chair buck (will email you a pic). This buck got barely past one of our guys during a drive (he punched a hole in a dead birch tree). He had been in the right spot, moved then decided to go back.
Anyhow, 2 of us hopped in a boat and went around to another chunk of land and 3 guys went after it. We managed to corner it and the same guy ended up shooting it from a hill/big rock on one side of a pond shooting down into the hardwoods on the other side after the deer had come to me and took off. I hadn’t seen them, but I was walking towards the pond and they heard me. I got on the radio and blasted which way they were headed.
After the shooting, I ran across the mostly dry pond where i turned on my headcam. I have footage of him directing me to where he saw the deer, finding the blood trail and one of our guys came over to help and the deer still go up where we each shot at it. I had the final kill shot to put him down.
The best part is the stories after and reliving what happened and the teamwork required to make this a successful hunt.
I’m also editing the bull moose we got in archery season. Too bad that fella didn’t have a headcam b/c we still hunted right into their bedroom and he shot the bull at 8 yds (after it charged him once), then it charged him again lol 49″ down 🙂
Cheers,
Keebler
Outdoorsguy, can’t seem to work the video link, 404 not found.
I got a fat not typical buck on my trail cam this year along with a 6 and a coupla 4’s. He looks old too.
johan, I’m sorry..I’m still having trouble getting my vids going here. I seem to have the audio clips mastered but videos are remain a challenge. Have to talk to my guy at the SUN about that.
Man, I would like to see a pic of said non-typical you speak of..even through a pm would be fine. Sounds exciting..cant wait to pull the cards on all my cams next Friday!!
Outdoorsguy
made a five gallon pot of hamburger soup on the weekend, it’s a favorite in camp, and as we eat other meals and there are leftovers like potatoes, any kind of pasta, sausages chicken, pork, or what ever, we add it to the soup, it’s usually gone by Wednesday or Thursday and the last bowl doesn’t taste anything like the first bowl. Three or four of the guys have wives that make all kinds of pastries and muffins and cakes. Like I told all the rookies with us this year on the moose hunt, one of the things you’ll remember is how well you ate, the killing of animals doesn’t happen every year for every one, but the eating does.
Iggy, we have a camp venison stew that’s much like your camp soup…it’s a tradition on the first night and there’s leftovers, so a couple of days later we’ll have it again and it always tastes better the second time around!
I hear you about the eating..it comes with the territory. Man, I remember the year we brought up fresh squid and had calamari done-up right on the woodstove. Talk about roughing it…hehe
Outdoorsguy
Bad coons, I hate them, can’t wait for the city to declare war on them, our city is infested with them. But the city is run by the politically correct, and tree huggers so I’m not holding my breath
I also keep feed (Rolling Acres that I get at the TSC store) at my trail cam during the hunt, and every time I go by either dogging or sitting, I exchange SD cards and show the guys in camp what’s going on at my stand. Apples seem to be a good idea, I wonder what would happen if you cut them up, more scent in the air and the deer would tend to stick around longer I would think
Iggy, I can tell you that deer friggin love apples…especially this time of year, and I would wager a guess that it would be their food of choice around now. Of course, you always hear about whitetails and their need for ‘mast’ like acorns and beech nuts, but I truly believe that is out of necessity and not by choice or preference. Apples to deer are probably like junk food(chips & candy bars) is to us..
It’s funny, there’s another hunter up in our area who use to haul-in a truck-load of carrots.Im talking an entire truck box full of carrots..and he’d dump it all in one huge pile beside the lake. We have noticed the deer droppings all around that area are a distinct dark orange in colour..hehe..because of their big carrot diet. I have seen both carrots and apples out at the same time, though, and they’ll go for the apples first every time!
Now, the Acorn Rage, well that’s a different story..for some reason the bucks are attracted to it and Im not sure why….might go back to my theory on ‘mast’
Outdoorsguy
OH, BTW!!!
The Fall issue of Bounder Magazine is expected out today or tomorrow…so don’t forget to pick-up your copies to bring to hunt camp! My column this time focuses on deer camp with some other stuff and some neat pics included too…I’m hoping to get my copies at Metro on way home from work today!
Man, I can’t believe what a great publication this is…Brian keeps making it better and better with every issue…and get this, there is talks of eventually running subscription, which would be great because they are often hard to find as many of you may have noticed.
Outdoorsguy
My mother, who is in her eighties has been making a sea food chowder, for as long as I can remember. My Dad takes all the credit for it. It’s the first offical hunt camp meal served up Sunday night. We have a few neighbours who seem to always
drop in for a visit at that time. Funny they have been doing it for years. Anyway I can’t think of a better way to start
off the week.
Imacdon
imacdon, that’s awesome…enjoy!
Isnt it funny how tradition always comes into play whenever we discuss the deer hunt..
Outdoorsguy
Not many wild apples at my place this year considering last year was a bumper crop. I notice that they never eat the greenish/yellowish variety until they have frozen once or twice and way late in the season normally. Red ones don’t have a chance and aren’t on the ground or low branches for long.
that’s right Johan, apple crops sucked this year..my tree hardly had any so the deer must go crazy when they see them.
My oldman went to our camp today to poke around..said the deer have been hitting the acorn rage big time…cant wait to check my cameras!!
Outdoorsguy
Jeff. i hunt home for the first week (shotgun) second week up north with rifle. was just look a hour ago at a spot corn on the river still standing not many tracks… this warm weather not much moving in my area
And lemme guess Chessy, you’d be most happy if one of the kids got a deer, right??
I remember how excited you were last year when your daughter got one..that’s the sign of a good parent right there.
Outdoorsguy
Our opening supper on Sunday night is always spaghetti, it’s an old firefighter’s tradition that spaghetti is served on Sundays, and we have quite a few firefighters in camp and they don’t break tradition
There is an apple orchard in the west end called Pinewood Orchards, on Herzberg Rd that sells drops really cheap. Bob the Butcher was telling me that’s where he gets his apples.
I met a guy that works there a few years ago, it’s leased land from the NCC. The NCC wanna-be cops found a tree stand on or near his orchard and threatened to take the lease away if they ever caught someone hunting on “their” land
Iggy, the Orleans Fruit Farm(Along St Joseph/Montreal Road near Bearbrook) also sells deer apples..I got a few bags there this fall..and last fall too. They are $6 for a 25-30 pound bag!
Outdoorsguy
apples this year went from 80 a bin to just a tad under 200 a bin.. my buddy had a 20 % crop. but made a killing on what he grew . he is right now putting in cement slabs for bases for his propane powered windmills to stop the damage that happened this year he will not have it in parts of the orchard next year . one farmer put them in and he had a 100 % crop and paid for the machines in full with just one crop the 2 machines are 250 ooo a piece …
as for my kids if it was not for them, i dont think i would be going north and days would be limited south at this point in time they are going to be like pioneers this year if they don’t fill the freezer they will go hungry cause dear old dad just cant keep up the pace anymore
This week’s Outdoors Column out nice and early:
http://www.ottawasun.com/2012/10/24/white-tailed-deer-season-spells-excitement-for-sportsmen
Outdoorsguy
its not early its regular time…. thats how you win tinks prize package 🙂
Our hunting group which hunts west of Perth only has 1 doe tag out of 7 applicants this year.
We got some bad news last night when my wife claimed she had filled the tag using a 20-06 KIA Sedona.
imacdon
Imacdon, that is NOT good news!
Hopefully Mrs Imacdon is ok, and the vehicle isn’t too badly damaged? You know if she was driving a Toyota there wouldn’t be an issue…hehe..sorry couldn’t resist.
Don’t feel badly about the doe tag..our gang has applied for doe tags the last 10 years and guess how many we’ve gotten?? ZERO!! Lower deer density up in the mountains where we hunt..and they only have about 100 extra antlerless tags available for an area prob the size of WMU 64 & 65 together!
Outdoorsguy
we have seven doe tags in 16 application, if everyone that said they applied did, and I know that’s not the case, so it’s probably closer to 7 out of 14
Jeff
can you stick your head into Mr Gibbons office and thank him for the cougar on the Sunshine page today
Thanks 🙂
I live close to that apple orchard that you speak of so I may go this weekend and pick up a bag, going to the cottage tomorrow to finalize the leaf removal and coming home Saturday, then heading up to the camp Sunday morning to put a tree stand and see if I can raise a few birds
Come on Iggs, you saw the Sunshine girl and you didnt see that nice-looking buck on the next page..hehe..I’ll pass on yer tks to Rick, he will appreciate it.
Hopefully they still have some deer apples left, I know a lot of people seem to buy them. The guy told me last time that one person had just picked up 30 bags!!
Have fun at the cottage and at camp!
Outdoorsguy
jeff so excited for opening day i have 2 big boys but hope they do not go nocturnal there is a 10 pt buck and a 12 in the area along with 6 and 8 but this year for christmas i wan’t the big boy you never get tired of the fever you only get tired eating bacon and eggs and beer and of course the homemade toilet area
lucky for us the hunt is not this week, it would be a miserably wet hunt.
Went to camp yesterday, put out some more bait and my trail camera with fresah batteries.
Went to my favorite hunting spot and put up a strap-on tree stand. Now I’m ready
Both hounds know it’s getting close
Iggy, the boys are I were just saying the same thing! I have hopes that after the huge weather system moves thru, things will calm right back down again for the weekend!
I’ve got a neat deer blog post coming up btw…just need to add a couple more photos from home.
Speaking of trailcams, Bushnell is finally sending me two of big new models out this year. The x-8 and the Trophy HD MAx…will be setting those up for the weekend hopefully!
Outdoorsguy
Hey folks,
Regarding the apples, I’ve heard the deer aren’t hitting them as well b/c there was a bumper season for acorns and they prefer the high energy than to apples. After bow hunting for deer and bow/rifle for moose, I’m seeing tons of feeding in the hardwoods. This was in 2 spots in Ontario so it seems to be consistent (I know that’s only 2 areas, but still). The feeding sign was crazy.
Cheers,
Keebler
Tks Keebler, it’ll be interesting to see what the big storm does..followed by cooler weather. Man, a fresh snowfall is pretty darn exciting on opening morning!!
So, feeding in the hardwoods eh?? Some oak and lots of beach in my area, so we’ll see if the deer are still eating beachnuts or if the bears have eaten them all!
Outdoorsguy
just was dropping son off to go fishing . on the way home there was 2 does and a fawn running down the side road fields across the road into another big set of fields nothing chasing them just running for no reason .. ( it is really not that windy here either to make them spooked
Latest post:
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Outdoorsguy
Hey Jeff.
just back from a good time up north moose hunting. saw alot of empty trailers on my way up, so i was not expecting much. after a few days of scouting we found an area with fresh tracks, and started to call. this bull was a crafty one. would only answer once, then try to sneak in. he came in to the old man, but a bike coming down the road scared him off at the last moment. the next night i was in that spot, and called inbetween the wind gusts. with about 10 min of light i heard him coming, just as he was just about to come out, i heard my dad coming down the road. man, i thought same as what happened to him last night, now it was happening to me. but the bull kept coming out and stept out at 100 yrds. i let him have it with the old 270, loaded with reloaded barnes x bullets. he went down 30 yrds from where i had first shot at him, but behind some tag alders. i got ahold of my dad and explained what had happened and we waited 20 min. man that is a long time. now dark we headed in and there he was just out of sight of where i was standing. i think my dad and my other buddy still have sore ribs from the high fives and hugs. it was my first bull, not a huge one, 31/2 yr bull with a 39 inch rack. i will try to send some pics, but i think they are too big. now it is time to get out and get my daughter her first deer. can’t wait for next week!! everyone hunt safe out there!
Hey Jaye, congrats…that sounds like quite the hunt..and I felt like I was right there with you!
That is a very respectable bull and will be quite tasty as well Im sure. If you can shrink those photos, Id love to post them here!
Outdoorsguy
I’ve never seen so many acorns as I have this year, don’t know what it is but they are everywhere. Good sign for the deer herd too because they even munch on these when the snow comes