Weekend hunter wannabe need some advices in Thunder Bay areas.

RemingtonMarlin

RemingtonMarlin

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I am new in Thunder Bay areas. Looking for someone can show me the way into hunting in small games, or even deer and moose hunting.

Well, I bought deer, black bear, and moose tags last year and did not go because I was scared being lost in the wood, being shot at, or something else. My biggest concerns was stepping in someone's "territory" and private land, or where hunting is prohibited.


My best score was two rabbits before I moved to Thunder Bay using a Rem 870.
 
Go to the county office and get a landowners map. Find an area you would like to hunt. (hint, the futher from the main road, the better) Drive out to your area, knock on the farmers door and introduce yourself. Tell him what you want and let him come to his own conclusion about you. I'll say this, around here, a John Deere hat goes a long ways. :)
 
pharaoh2 said:
Go to the county office and get a landowners map. Find an area you would like to hunt. (hint, the futher from the main road, the better) Drive out to your area, knock on the farmers door and introduce yourself. Tell him what you want and let him come to his own conclusion about you. I'll say this, around here, a John Deere hat goes a long ways. :)
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Never been to Thunder Bay before, have you? Not a lot of farmers, and a hell of a lot of crown land.

Go to the local MNR office. Get a crown land map. Have fun.

EDIT - It seems you need to find someone to mentor you in outdoors skills. Using a map and compass should be a priority before you get help hunting.

And I wouldnt tackle a moose alone if I were a beginner. Shooting is the easy part. Getting it out of the swamp it surely will run into, gutting it, and getting it out of the bush after the shot are the fun parts. Deer can be daunting enough to a rookie, something 5 times as big would be a mountain.
 
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Lots of crown land to hunt. If you need help reading maps to distinguish between private and crown land I would be happy to help you out. Not sure what to say about your fears other than I think they are unfounded. Learning to read a map or use compass/GPS should ensure you never get lost.

I am not really into taking strangers out hunting, I prefer to hunt alone. But if you are interested in hunting west of Tbay for deer I can point to to a few decent spots (crown land) where you shouldn't get lost. Actually I have hunted in just about every direction from Thunder Bay so I can give you some general pointers for the area.

Which gun club do you belong to in town? I shoot with NOSA.
 
Well, I do have a GPS, which is working quite nicely. I've spent quite some times in the woods north of TB, which is job related. I saw a lot of the logging roads north of TB along 527. I am not sure if I am allowed to shoot games or just targets in those areas.

By the way, I am with NOSA.
 
So where to get the maps with the distinct boundary between non-hunting areas and no-restriction crown lands?

BTW, is the rabbit hunting season ends in June 15, 2009 for WMU 13, 15? If so, I may grab the last chance to go out and shoot some .22.

I would love to hear your advices on "hot" spots and their access points around Thunder Bay, where is not far away from the main road. The reason being that I don't have a tough truck or ATV.

Kenny_G2 said:
Lots of crown land to hunt. If you need help reading maps to distinguish between private and crown land I would be happy to help you out. Not sure what to say about your fears other than I think they are unfounded. Learning to read a map or use compass/GPS should ensure you never get lost.
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I've seen dead mooses along the road which were crashed by a truck perhaps. One was still alive when we saw it.
I think I may handle it regarding its size as long as not too far away from the main road.
blasted_saber said:
And I wouldnt tackle a moose alone if I were a beginner. Shooting is the easy part. Getting it out of the swamp it surely will run into, gutting it, and getting it out of the bush after the shot are the fun parts. Deer can be daunting enough to a rookie, something 5 times as big would be a mountain.
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527 is great hunting, I got my first moose ever up that way off 811. Once you are a few kms past the truck scales it is pretty much all crown land. Get some provincial series maps of the area (1:100,000 scale) which show private and Crown land. They can be found at Chaltrek on Balmoral St, they can point out the differences. I believe Crimestoppers also has a map series out with some of the logging roads.

For Small Game the Dorian loop would be a good bet in the fall. But so would any logging road out that way.

Also check out this local fishing/hunting website. The Ask a CO forum is very informative. http://fishingboard.thunderbayfishing.com/index.php Shooting on Crown land can be tricky with the MNR and COs.
 
811 through 527 all the way to the end. I've been there before. Spotted many black bears there last summer. Well, Thanks for the advices. I will try to get some maps at Chaltrek.
 
Lots of bunnys around this year. Try the Dorion loop.

For moose, your best places to look this fall are the same places you saw tracks all winter along the highway. Most of my contacts from Gull Bay and Armstong get their moose right off the side of the highway. PS, nothing wrong with eating road kill moose, especially if it is still kicking.
 
PS, if you are ever shooting at the NOSA range in Nolalu or at GMK and see the handsome native guy there is a good chance it is me. Say hi.

PM me if you need more help. Ken
 
Kenny_G2 said:
Lots of bunnys around this year. Try the Dorion loop.

For moose, your best places to look this fall are the same places you saw tracks all winter along the highway. Most of my contacts from Gull Bay and Armstong get their moose right off the side of the highway. PS, nothing wrong with eating road kill moose, especially if it is still kicking.
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Thanks. I just read the 2009-2010 hunting regulation. The rabbit season will be on until June next year. So I just renewed my small game hunting lisences. I will confirm with the 2008-2009 regulation if I could find it somewhere on my shelf.
 
RemingtonMarlin,

Hunting a new patch of woods can be intimidating. Here are a few tricks that help my piece of mind.

Learn to use both a GPS and a compass. GPS units can run out of power or fail in heavy bush or heavy cloud. Orienteering experts seem to like to make navigating with a map and compass sound intimidating, probably so they can charge you to take courses. Map and compass work for safety is very much simpler (at least in non-mountainous areas). If you are on the east side of a north-south road, west it the safe way to go (rivers in between not considered, depends on just what you've gotten yourself into)! It sounds silly now, but if you tell yourself that when heading out, you'll never get to the panic situation where these simple sensible things become beyond comprehension.

If your gps does not have loaded maps, or if your maps don't have the minor roads in your area, leave it on on the dashboard as you drive on any scouting trips, and then save the tracks.

I have made sure that my flashlight takes the same batteries as my gps (both double a). This makes carrying backup batteries simpler, and in a pinch, batteries can be swapped to which ever unit is most needed.

And it's again one of the simple things, but so easy to forget (I've been guilty and it is bad) - tell someone where you are going, give them a map with a big x on it for where you'll be, and once you're out of cell range, don't change the plan.

I'm sure you've seen lots of threads on this site about emergency gear. It helps your piece of mind if you know you're carrying everything you need to be fine for an overnight in the bush, if necessary. Now some of the folks here go a little over the top, but carefully work out what you'll need.

Happy hunting.

RG

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RemingtonMarlin said:
I've seen dead mooses along the road which were crashed by a truck perhaps. One was still alive when we saw it.
I think I may handle it regarding its size as long as not too far away from the main road.
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I think you're underestimating how big moose are. We're talking about an animal which can weigh in excess of 1000 pounds. If its any distance at all from a road, you're in for a long, long, days work getting it out.

If you're alone, go after deer first. You wont regret the experience, and you'll learn a lot which will apply to moose hunting. You'll also get a better understanding of just how difficult getting game out of the bush alone can be.
 
The deer-first advice is good stuff. If you're going it alone without a mentor of some sort, there will be a very steep learning curve. Just dealing with your first deer may take hours - it did for me despite meticulous preparation. You may have studied every field-dressing diagram ever made, but actually making the cuts is another thing.

Dragging a single moose quarter solo even a couple hundred yards, and even in relatively nice terrain is exhausting and time consuming. A quarter of a medium sized moose might weigh as much as you do, it is pure dead weight, just dragging it over a little hummock on the ground requires a full-bodied heave. Add to that the very strong chance that you'll be maneuvering those moose pieces through ankle deep muck.

The knowledge of anatomy required to get a moose into quarters (or any of the other options for cutting it up) can only be gained by experience.

I don't want to be at all discouraging. This is just reality. Any chance of having a friend along? In any case, make sure to have some sort of hand winch and low-stretch rope. Moose die in horrible places.

In any case, are you in the moose draw? If not the deadline is two days away, and unless you were in it last year, you're a year away from an adult moose anyhow. A calf would be much more manageable (still likely bigger than the biggest deer - cut it in half after the third rib from the back), but they can be tough to hunt.

RG

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Thak you all. I got the idea. I will not take part in the moose draw this year. May apply for a deer tag though. I have excellent units of both the compass and GPS. All I need is the direction and a little practices.

Thanks.
 
RemingtonMarlin - just making sure: do you realize that you need to be in the moose draw for two years before you have any real chance of getting an adult moose tag? By passing this year on the draw, you are basically out of luck on the 2010 hunt.

Even if you get draw priority, you'll at least have more of a chance of getting an adult tag next year, but in most of the wmus your area your chances at an adult tag are much better (generally guaranteed) in a group. I don't hunt anywhere near your area, so I don't really know how things tend to work out, but I would think you'll have lots of opportunities in Tbay to meet other hunters one way or another. It'll be a lot more likely you'll get invited to join a camp, with the benefit of other people's experience and muscle power, if you're in pool A in the draw.

RG

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Having lived and hunted in Thunder Bay here's a few hints:
1- Go down to D&R Sports and chat with them. They have been around as a store since forever and used to be very knowledgeable and helpful.
2- Take the Thunder Bay Search and Rescue course. This will give you excellent knowledge to find your way around in the bush and basic bushcraft skills.
3- Wanna know how to process an animal? Fire up YouTube, there seems to be a 'how to' video for everything (no guarantees on quality!)
4- If you are on a gravel road and far enough from any houses, start hunting. Private land is rare up there.
GOOD LUCK
 
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