New regulation calf hunting ontario wtf 2 weeks only starting oct 22
- Thread starter dogger1
- Start date
- Location
- Rockland, ON
We will hunt opening week, we've got both a bull and cow tag. What bothers me the most about this new reg: when we have a cow tag, and see a cow and calf together, we will take them both so that we don't leave an orphaned calf. Now, we'll take the cow but must leave the calf to survive on its own. That likely means the calf will starve or perish to wolves. Hopefully, the orphaned calf would be taken by other hunters during the calf season. I wouldn't count on that. It would have to survive on its own for 7-14 days, from opening day until calf season, and I think that is unlikely. IMO, the reg is poorly thought out. It looks like the city folk bureaucrats, pushing political BS, did not listen to the advise that the MNR folks that I know would have given them.
They should have cancelled the cow and calf season altogether for 2 or 3 years. Another option would have been to get rid of the calf tags and just have the adult draw tags. If you shoot a calf, you'd have to put your cow or bull tag on it.
We are going before the calf season, but to me its a moot point, as I have only seen 2 calves in 10 years of moose hunting and don't care to shoot one anyway.
Last edited:
- Location
- WMU248 near Edmonton
well those are weird regs.
just to compare out here (in the new socialist state of Alberta) we have 3 types of draws, Antlered, fairly simple, thats bulls. Calf, also simple, thats anythign less then a year old, and Antlerless, which is a little more complex, cows, calves, and anything with antlers less then 4" all are allowed on an antlerless tag. So if you have a antlerless tag and you see a cow and calf you are encouraged to shoot the calf, not required that you shoot the calf but encouraged to as it won't survive without the cow.
Now the in my zone of choice they stopped the antlerless draw about 15 years ago after a few hard winters and ticks did a number on the population, and instituted the calf draw. Moose populations have really rebounded, and getting a calf draw is fairly easy.
I think its a great tool for increasing the population size and still allowing for a good number of tags for the draw.
Oh and Calf is good eating, and exciteing when you know the cow is just out of sight waiting for the chance to stomp you while your concentrating on gutting the calf....
The MNR has to do some rethinking on this whole moose hunt ,,,we have more then one problem with the moose numbers in the north of Ontario ,,the first part is the unregulated harvest ,we are not going to get into that right now ,second any farmer grows there herd by having young every year then thy sell of the young males to feed lots as thy are the surplus ,the cows and calves are the base of the herd ..any one that thinks thy can grow the herd by shooting cows and calves is out to lunch ,,,the surplus animals young males and really old males are the ones that get removed from the herd every year .So why does the MNR not stop all cow and calves hunting for a few years and see what happens ,,This idea of shooting cows and leaving the calves is just plain dumb ,,,,,the third problem with the moose is the predators bears and wolfs ,,,kind of funny how thy stop the spring bear hunt and stop the hunting of wolfs around the park and the moose numbers drop ....go figure..Dutch
canadian hunter312
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Brant County
It doesn't help the population at all.
Unfortunately, many moose hunters think they're entitled to the chance of harvesting a moose each season. That coupled with the government seeing it as an income source means the moose population in Ontario is screwed unless selfish moose hunters start using their heads and see the big picture. I simply cannot figure out how moose hunters have been complaining about the dwindling populations for the last few years, yet when the MNRF changes thing's to help the moose and hopefully help the population they have a little hissy fit and think the folks at the MNRF are complete idiots.
I doubt you'll find any good reason for allowing the harvest of calves besides $$$ and satisfying hunters...
To harvest a cow and leave calf behind is absolute stupidity. Calf will not survive especially a harsh winter, Can not believe that somebody actually approved that plan.
If moose population needs some recovering they should have stopped both cow and calf hunting for few years and evaluate after.
We have 1 bull and 1 cow tag but I hope we do not run into a cow with a calf. i will not personalty harvest a cow with the calf behind.
If moose population needs some recovering they should have stopped both cow and calf hunting for few years and evaluate after.
We have 1 bull and 1 cow tag but I hope we do not run into a cow with a calf. i will not personalty harvest a cow with the calf behind.
the tag actually specifies cow only?
Here in BC under the LEH it is a cow/calf (antlerless) tag and hunters will take a dry cow or a Calf with the tag because shooting a cow and leaving the calf all alone is just poor etiquette.
It is the same here... a cow tag is also good for a calf and a bull tag is also good for a calf... the problem is, the dumbazz beaurocrats made a "calf specific" season and it doesn't open until the second week of the hunting season. I think they though that since opening week sees the most hunters in the field, this would take some pressure off the calves... but as "FoymountFarm" pointed out above, anyone with a cow tag who fills their tag, is now leaving an orphaned calf in the bush with zero chance of survival.
This ^ is the explanation in a nutshell. The government would ideally like to sell an infinite number of tags and have none actually filled. The next best thing is to sell as many tags as possible with little regard for the number of animals killed, and this is what they do. They speak of the culture and the tradition of moose-hunting, which in Ontario translates into every hunter expecting a moose...any moose, bull, cow, calf, whatever..."I need to kill a moose!" Apologies to the Ontario hunters who don't fall into this mold, but after hunting in Ontario for most of my life, the impression I had was that most of them do.
The other excuse often quoted is that since there's about a 50% mortality rate among calves during their first winter, shooting 100 calves in the fall is actually the same thing as shooting 50, since half of them are doomed anyways. Now there's logic.
I can only imagine the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth in Ontario if the MNR stopped all shooting of calves and cows for a few years, and restricted the bull tags using something like their current lottery system. Heaven forbid that they attempt to manage a diminishing resource the same way that many other jurisdictions do...the general run of hunters would bemoan the infringement of their rights (to shoot a moose every year) and the MNR would bemoan the loss of revenues.
I think what a lot of people in Southern Ontario don't know is that MNR doesn't want moose in certain areas of the province. Woodland Caribou are an endangered species and in those areas forest management and tag allocations are designed to limit moose habitat and populations.
Climate change, which I know CGN doesn't beleive in, also means more whitetail deer pushing father north. Moose and deer don't mix well due to disease and the resulting increase in wolf population.
Climate change, which I know CGN doesn't beleive in, also means more whitetail deer pushing father north. Moose and deer don't mix well due to disease and the resulting increase in wolf population.
