ONTARIO hunters, info appreciated

I moved around a lot and never laid down roots.

Almost 100% of all land in Southern Ontario is private and the little parcels of Crown are Crown because they are so inhospitable nobody can use it for anything or if they are not, they tend to be so heavily used that a dedicated hunter might tend to stay away.

Anywhere you go you are an "outsider" because you didn't grow up there and the locals will look at you a little sideways. Where I live (small town Eastern Ontario) MY house will always be "old Bob's place" - I'm sure even after I have lived here for 30 or more years.

Yes, have knocked on many doors with a resounding NO heard in every case. Some don't believe in hunting, others have someone who has been hunting there for "years" or they hunt it themselves and you are not welcome, so unless you know someone or can get in with someone who knows someone I have never found the welcome mat laying out.

A couple of us leased land by the season and got knocked out because someone is always willing to pay 100 bucks more.

But as has been stated, if you are mega-persistent you will eventually find somewhere to hunt - just might take a season or three to find it. If a fish/game club is where you end up living, do join up, that can produce a few leads.

Having said that, deer hunting, turkey hunting, ducks/geese, bear and varmint hunting is good in most points south of a line perhaps cutting midway through Algonquin park.

Forget moose hunting unless 1) you can get in with an established group of a dozen or so hunters 2) you are willing to fly in to an uber-remote location where "a couple of guys" can pull a tag (and I do mean fly in as the only access - if there is road access you will never pull a tag as an individual or even a small group) or 3) you want to drop beaucoup bucks on an outfitter that gets a tag allowance.

There is only a couple of WMU's (broken into 8 sub areas so you can't even hunt a whole unit if you get struck by lightning and get a tag) that have elk hunting - you have to buy a tag to even get in the lottery which is 2013 gave out a whopping 70 tags which was reduced to 55 tags in 2014.
 
Deer hunting is great in SW Ontario... IF YOU OWN THE LAND !!!

Good luck getting permission to hunt.

If you don't have written permission the cops love to give out trespassing tickets on hunters. Hike on the same land without a gun and he will not give you the ticket though... They like to pick on hunters for some reason.

There's lots of Crown Land in the Tweed/Bancroft area - there you can hunt without permission... sort of. There's usually some group of hunters who will act like they own the land though and try to kick you out anyway - even though they have no legal right to.

If you have a choice, stay north of Toronto or better yet north of Barrie.
 
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I own 95 acres just outside of Hearst near the top right edge of WMU 22. If anyone is interested in using it to camp, etc send me a PM. There will be a cabin there next year and an outhouse this summer. And depending what I manage to grab for a property near Meaford this summer there might be some land open for hunting there as well.
 
Southern Ontario " There are so many opportunity's for hunting different species it is ridiculous.The private property thing is something that you will have to get around but easily do able if you put in a effort .Come sample the deer , numerous tags to fill .Turkey spring and fall.Ducks and geese.Coyote,rabbit, squirrel doves, pigeon,crow,fox ,black birds, starlings,ground hogs. Why live or hunt anywhere else. The big game is north or west.
 
Jay said:
I'm going to say that hunting around Ottawa leaves A LOT to be desired. Private land & poor game populations are the norm. For example, I hunted last deer season & did not see a deer! And, I had a doe tag, sigh. No idea why the hell the MNR would issue doe tags when the population is so low?

Anyhow, if you like hunting, Ottawa isn't a good choice. (I'd imagine other large cities in ONTerrible are the same, sigh)

Cheers
Jay
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Where'd you end up hunting in the Ottawa area? My wife and I are about to head out for our first season this fall - and although I have access to family land in the Peterborough area, I was looking at some of the crown land north-west of Ottawa and it looked promising (if a bit of a drive...)

Matt
 
I was born and raised in Southern Ontario, and if hunting is something you are concerned about, don't come here. Compared to most other places in the country you will probably have to work harder to find game and you will be fighting crowds in the process.
Yes, there is game here, but it's no Mecca. Just trying to give you some fair warning. I'll be moving west as soon as I can.
 
As said already, if you love hunting DO NOT move to southern Ontario! I moved here from northern Ontario 15 years ago and have still never killed anything down here. When I want to do some real hunting I travel north to Sudbury/Manitoulin area, or south to West Virginia.
 
Yes if you move to Toronto obviously hunting sucks. But drive a hour or two north and everything changes. Wolves, coyotes, plenty of white tails, plenty of black bears, plenty of turkeys. Plenty of moose but good luck with tags. Great duck and goose hunting too. I live in wmu 80. I shoot coyotes, deer geese and ducks all around my house. Yes all private. If I spend a hour in the truck going north I have all the crown land I want. With all the game I want.

Yes BC is way better as you have a lot more variety of game. But ontario is still great hunting. If you say ontario sucks for hunting??? Really??? You realize how many monster white tails come out of ontario annually? Monster black bears??? Really nice moose. I almost never leave the marsh without my limit of ducks. The guys who say it suck are guys who live in the city and never spend time looking for spots to hunt. They drive up North for one week with a new sako, under armour suit that still has the folded creases from packaging and found a tree to hang a stand and then cry they never see anything.
 
autocrash said:
Where'd you end up hunting in the Ottawa area? My wife and I are about to head out for our first season this fall - and although I have access to family land in the Peterborough area, I was looking at some of the crown land north-west of Ottawa and it looked promising (if a bit of a drive...)

Matt
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We have access to one property near Spencerville and another near Carleton Place. We usually hunt the Spencerville property as they don't hunt themselves. The property in Carleton Place is hunted by the owner & he likes bowhunting, so we don't like to impose & hunt there less often even though they are gracious & allow us access when we ask.

Access to property in & around Ottawa is a real challenge! If you love to hunt, Ottawa is not going to be your happy place...

Cheers
Jay
 
Chago said:
Yes if you move to Toronto obviously hunting sucks. But drive a hour or two north and everything changes. Wolves, coyotes, plenty of white tails, plenty of black bears, plenty of turkeys. Plenty of moose but good luck with tags. Great duck and goose hunting too. I live in wmu 80. I shoot coyotes, deer geese and ducks all around my house. Yes all private. If I spend a hour in the truck going north I have all the crown land I want. With all the game I want.

Yes BC is way better as you have a lot more variety of game. But ontario is still great hunting. If you say ontario sucks for hunting??? Really??? You realize how many monster white tails come out of ontario annually? Monster black bears??? Really nice moose. I almost never leave the marsh without my limit of ducks. The guys who say it suck are guys who live in the city and never spend time looking for spots to hunt. They drive up North for one week with a new sako, under armour suit that still has the folded creases from packaging and found a tree to hang a stand and then cry they never see anything.
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Well, that's quite the stereotype there.. You would have to be an idiot to think that ontario has better hunting than out west. In fact, the ones who say it isn't as good are the one who have travelled would be my guess. No one said it sucks here, but it definitely isn't as good.. By a long shot. And to clarify, the op did state southern ontario.. So yes, that would pretty much be the GTA/GHA/Ottawa.

I agree, the deer and Turkey hunting is decent. But south of Orillia 99% is private, and 95% of those people won't give out permission. So yes, there are opportunities, but you have to work way too hard and fight way too many people to consider it a good option out of the OPs 3.
 
I heard that Southern Ontario is a real pain to find land to hunt. If you could come up to Northwestern Ontario. Great deer, small game hunting and fishing. Anyone that claim North Bay is North is full of it as well. Up here Sault Ste Marie is considered Southern Ontario. It's really to bad that you couldn't make BC or the Yukon work, that's once in a lifetime type stuff for the boys here. Good luck though but for your sanity stay far away from Southern Ontario!
 
kdp89 said:
Well, that's quite the stereotype there.. You would have to be an idiot to think that ontario has better hunting than out west. In fact, the ones who say it isn't as good are the one who have travelled would be my guess. No one said it sucks here, but it definitely isn't as good.. By a long shot. And to clarify, the op did state southern ontario.. So yes, that would pretty much be the GTA/GHA/Ottawa.

I agree, the deer and Turkey hunting is decent. But south of Orillia 99% is private, and 95% of those people won't give out permission. So yes, there are opportunities, but you have to work way too hard and fight way too many people to consider it a good option out of the OPs 3.
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The hunting is great in Ontario, but you do have to venture further North then the 705 area code. We have great hunting and fishing up here in Northwestern Ontario. I realize that the OP wants to move to Southern Ontario but there is a lot more to Ontario then that.
 
blasted_saber said:
Anything south of Orillia will be diffcult to hunt because all land is private.
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What are you talking about? There are hundreds of hectares open to the public along with multiple conservation authorities having properties available for a small fee.

There are nearly 40 properties within a 45 minute drive of my house with excellent deer, turkey, rabbit, and grouse populations that are open to the public and free to use. I might run into 3 or 4 people each season?
 
kdp89 said:
Well, that's quite the stereotype there.. You would have to be an idiot to think that ontario has better hunting than out west. In fact, the ones who say it isn't as good are the one who have travelled would be my guess. No one said it sucks here, but it definitely isn't as good.. By a long shot. And to clarify, the op did state southern ontario.. So yes, that would pretty much be the GTA/GHA/Ottawa.

I agree, the deer and Turkey hunting is decent. But south of Orillia 99% is private, and 95% of those people won't give out permission. So yes, there are opportunities, but you have to work way too hard and fight way too many people to consider it a good option out of the OPs 3.
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I'm sorry but did you actually read my post? When did I say ontario was better then out west? I'm pretty sure if my literacy skills are still up to par, I wrote of course BC is better. But then I said those of you who say ontario sucks are way off. And if you read this thread which I'm assuming you browsed jut like you did my post. You would find multiple posts using the actual word suck. Also others making other remarks.

Being he's moving to the gta I don't assume he thought he was going to hunt in the gta. If I live in Vancouver I don't hunt in Vancouver I drive to the wilderness right? So why can't I say yes move to gta and drive two hours north where you have great hunting. I don't get it is that so far fetched. To drive to a hunting location?

OP I apologize if I misunderstood your question. But no if you move to Toronto you can't hunt outside your apartment building window. I just naturally assumed you knew that. You are forced to own a vehicle and drive a couple hours to never ending crown land full of wildlife to hunt.
 
kdp89 said:
...And to clarify, the op did state southern ontario.. So yes, that would pretty much be the GTA/GHA/Ottawa.
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You consider Ottawa Southern Ontario? Really?

Laugh2

I guess if you compare it to Thunder Bay.....you could be right. :rolleyes:
 
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