My buddy and I hunted WMU56 on the second week of rifle season. Overall, the weather was pretty good as we only lost 2 mornings to snow and we hunted from Fri. 8 to a half day Sun. 17. We normally hunt the second week as we've had too much crazy weather and no rut activity in the first week. There are does hanging around on the property and we saw 9 does in total, but this year again, no doe tags. Oddly, the rut didn't start where we were until Fri. 15 when my buddy found scrapes and rubs in the afternoon while doing a scout. We hunted hard but though we saw the does, we never did get eyes on the buck, so for the first time in years, we were skunked. If I wasn't under the weather, I might have stayed to bow hunt. This is the second year where we were beat for doe tags and in talking to the locals, it seems that there were not too many antlerless tags given out for that WMU. The locals are pretty ticked as there seems to be a lot of does. I don't know why the late rut and I'm no wildlife biologist. One thing that got me a little angry was talking to other local hunters and finding out that very few of them bothered to fill out the game surveys that came every year. Really? For the cost of a lousy stamp, you couldn't be bothered to send information to the MNR that would help them assess the whitetail population? I don't know how many of my fellow Ontario hunters are aware of this, but the Wynne liberals gutted the MNR budget to the tune of (I heard) 80 mil.! They were so cash strapped that they raped every department they could and put the money into general revenue so this means not enough staff to do accurate deer census and not enough conservation officers. I think this is one of the reasons that there are so many unsuccessful applicants for the doe draw. I like the idea that the Ford government has made your next years license contingent upon filling out the survey. In my opinion, if we assist the MNR in getting a good idea as to the whitetail population, it may benefit us all. I hope my fellow hunters did better than we did.
WMU56 and an odd hunt
- Thread starter LawrenceN
- Start date
OneBarfly
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Eight guys hunted WMU54 and got one doe in total. We saw lots of tracks and trail cam evidence of more deer and a bear visiting about 150 yards away. Wolves were spotted very close by several times and caused issues for us I think. They are protected, so nothing we can do about it. Heard almost no other shots all week.
Our property sits in the middle of WMU 54 and 56 so we hunt both units. Deer sign was few and far between for us this year with a high presence of wolves. Seems as though every time we cut a deer track at first light, there would be a wolf track behind it. It would be nice to be able to shoot the wolves, but we are just outside Algonquin and there is no wolf season for any county surrounding the border of the park. The wolves seem to be taking a toll on the deer population, but have seemed to have no effect on the moose as they everywhere and seeing 10-12 through the course of a week is the norm.
I have a cottage in WMU54 and also hunt there. Deer population is way down compared to when we bought the place in 2001 to about 2010. I walk every day with my dogs, I don't really expect to see a deer unless it's running away but don't see deer sign on dirt roads, trails or in the bush.
Moose population may be up based on seeing a few.
Moose population may be up based on seeing a few.
thanks for the report. heading to 56 this weekend for a bit of bow hunting at a buddies cottage. More so scouting for potential rifle hunt next year as opposed to my place in 42 where we only saw a few deer tracks this year.
Agree with the disappointment in lack of people reporting. They should be ashamed. I'm glad it is now mandatory but am also amazed at the number of people who whine about it being mandatory or those that want to lie to manipulate the data in their favour. It truly disgusts me. People love to complain about he MNR, but then don't want to take the slightest bit of effort to provide them with real data.
Agree with the disappointment in lack of people reporting. They should be ashamed. I'm glad it is now mandatory but am also amazed at the number of people who whine about it being mandatory or those that want to lie to manipulate the data in their favour. It truly disgusts me. People love to complain about he MNR, but then don't want to take the slightest bit of effort to provide them with real data.
X2!!!!! Good luck on your bow hunt. If what we saw is any indication, you're rut should be in full swing.
