Manitoulin Deer Hunt report (Photos)

Win 38-55 said:
By gum, MadDog, if I recall, you hunt behind that Music Camp. I don't know the rate of doe tags for Manitoulin, I had one but my friend did not. I usually hunt a bit further up on the north side of the F&G, I heard that MNR said that the deer harvest on St Joes was only 30% of usual this year. You got me scratching my head over 'haw eaters'. What are those?
Click to expand...

Ya, we actually pushed the bush there on Thursday. Pushed out a few does and ended up taking a small buck but we probably spent more on bullets getting it than it was worth. Those young little slickers can run quick when 5 guys are shooting at them. I was up in the bush beside the music camp pushing them out. Must have been about 40 turkeys up in there to, hard to keep your concentration with them running around.

30% sounds about right to me, me along with the rest of the bigger camps on the island were off to a really slow start. We had nothing on the pole up till Tuesday night when we hung two 6 pointers on the pole. I heard the Gilbertsons only had 2 deer by Tuesday as well. The worst was that my brother-in-law showed up on Tuesday and their pole was empty as well. 26 members in their camp (The Bar W) and not one deer. Can't see alot of doe tags going out for WMU 45 next year.

A long cold, wet week. Had to work hard for the ones we got this year but we did better than most of the other camps. Still found time for a Gibsons on the rocks and an afternoon nap though.

HPIM1185.JPG



HPIM1182.JPG
 
A "Haw Eater" is a Manitoulin Island resident AKA "Freshwater Newfie".The hawberry bush has about 2" thorns and red berries on it.Grouse gorge on them and jam tastes somewhat like apples....................Harold
 
Haw eater .... now I learned something. We got lots of those Hawthorne bushes not 25 yards from my house here in central Ontario. They got lots of red berries, but never thought to make jam out of them. If the economy goes completely to pot and there's no groceries in the stores, maybe I'll give them haw berries a shot.

MadDog, looks like the two deer on the left have some pretty impressive holes in them. I gather they weren't shot with 30-30's! My late father-in-law used to be a member of the Bar W. Sounds like I'd better plan to hunt Manitoulin again next year rather than St. Joe.
 
Ya, thats the last time the 99R in 358 goes deer hunting. Had to learn the hard way, it'll stay strictly for moose now.

That middle one was shot in the neck at over 200 yds with a 270 WSM, was a bang flop deer.

The biggest of the 6's fell to a 7mm rem mag and didn't go more than 20 yds.

Hopefully the deer have an easier winter on the island. I set my feeders up at my moms place, they yard up in the cedars over there all winter so I like to think I do my part.
 
I also hope the deer have a good winter. I'd like to retire on St. Joe someday .... on some poor farming land (i.e., lots of bush, mixed with hayfields for the deer to hang out). I download the Island Clippings on a regular basis just to check out the price of land. However, it's still 11 years to retirement.
 
The 100 acre hardwood lot beside me is gone up for sale. $40,000 I believe. I think a couple guys in my hunting camp are gonna chip in on it in the spring. It was recently logged so I'm not wanting it. Can't see spending $40,000 for 7 days of deer hunting but if the other guys want a little more land and enough maple to keep their fireplaces burning for the rest of their lives so be it. I wanted to move my stand about 50 yds over the property line for the last 3 years to get on top of the ridge, I guess this would let me do it!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom