Ontario deer hunt

[treefrog]

Hey, we're in the midst of deer hunting season here in eastern Ontario, so I made a few video clips of the first 2 days of the hunt.
So far we've bagged four; I came home a day early for some work commitments. The weather has been much warmer than normal,
which often means the deer don't move as much.
We have a group of about ten guys hunting, usually 6 or 7 on watches and 3 or 4 dogging the bush to push the deer; really
the only way to hunt in this terrain...too many hiding spots for them. We hunt an area of about a thousand hectares, so sometimes
we get lucky and drop one where one of the quad-bikes can get to, but that's not what happened this year. I shot one way back
in there and we had some serious dragging to do. Then another guy shot one and it ended up in the water at the bottom of a ravine.
I went to chill out and go fishing one afternoon and got only one pike, but the serenity was great so I didn't mind the poor fishing.
On day 3, two of us saw bears, probably the same bear; it ran away from the other guy but was a little standoffish with me. I was on
a dogging run in the northwest end of the bush where he probably wouldn't see a person any other time of the year; the bear was not
aggressive, just not real interested in getting out of my way. Then that night it was a racoon circus outside the camp at midnight...
a mother and three little ones chasing around the yard and waking me up. Besides that I had also fishers on two different occasions
come up near me on my watch.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIHvFrWX9o0&feature=player_profilepage


http://i390.photobucket.com/albums/oo345/barefoot_01/hunting2011007.jpg

http://i390.photobucket.com/albums/oo345/barefoot_01/hunting2011013.jpg

[Martin]

Hey Treefrog, thanks for sharing that with us. I must admit, I rarely click on Youtube videos when they're posted but I was intrigued by yours. You all seem to wear very bright clothing when out shooting. I appreciate that this makes it easier to see your fellow hunters but doesn't this scare off the deer you're trying to hunt??

Martin

[luresalive]

Good vids

[Metal mug]

I like the dog. :)

[treefrog]

Hey Treefrog, thanks for sharing that with us. I must admit, I rarely click on Youtube videos when they're posted but I was intrigued by yours. You all seem to wear very bright clothing when out shooting. I appreciate that this makes it easier to see your fellow hunters but doesn't this scare off the deer you're trying to hunt??

Martin

You'd think so, eh Martin. But it doesn't seem to make a lick of difference; if you stand motionless with or without blaze orange clothing, they still
approach as if they don't see you. It's only movement that spooks them, apparently.

[treefrog]

I like the dog. :)

He was a cute little bugger. His name is Jed and he got lost from another hunt camp near us so he clung to me...shaking like a leaf with his
tail between his legs; he may have had a sniff of a wolf pack, he sure was scared. This is a lot of bush to get lost in, maybe 5-10 thousand hectares
between roads. A young fellow arrived thursday on a quad bike looking for him, very happy to find him, probably put a lot of training into him;
the dog seemed very lean and fit and quite obedient.

[Martin]

You'd think so, eh Martin. But it doesn't seem to make a lick of difference; if you stand motionless with or without blaze orange clothing, they still
approach as if they don't see you. It's only movement that spooks them, apparently.

Wow!! I'm amazed at that. Thanks for the explanation.

Martin

[happybonzo]

I went on a Shoot in France this year. Everyone was wearing DayGlo Orange bits of clothing. Animals don't see Orange but it still doesn't stop French Hunters from shooting a few of their compadres each year.
As to their "hunting" dogs: Before the Drives started all the hunters were boasting as to the wonderful attributes of their various hounds. As soon as the Drives started, the dogs were off and were totally uncontrollable :) Two days later there were still a couple of hounds wandering around lost; apparently this is not unusual.
It was a bit funny and also a bit sad as on the following Monday there were quite a few Hunters wandering around Decathlon buying DayGlo collars for their dogs. I had my dog wearing a Fluro vest thing and even then I thought that he stood a good chance of being potted
It was a bit of an eye opener as the Hunters shoot across roads! They also take large amounts of food and drink with them. I don't mind the food part of it but drink and guns I have always thought to be a dangerous combination.
The hunters were also intrigued by my IR rifle scope. They hadn't seen one to use before. Maybe just as well as they were dangerous enough in daylight!

[treefrog]

Hunting in France sounds remarkably similar to here. Beer is a key component to an enjoyable hunt;).
Dogs inevitably go missing and almost always show up; some find the perils of porcupines, bears, etc. Years ago we were minutes from
having a hound be devoured by a wolf pack. We heard the wolves behind the camp somewhere and the sound of a hound in amongst
the noise. We showed up minutes later to find the pack circling for the kill, so we fired into the air and scattered them. That sorry
hound was never quite the same after that.

[jbrown14]

Hey Treefrog, just bought myself a Remington 870 Express 12 gauge not two days ago intending to catch the spring deer season here in NY. (Maybe turkeys too.) Looks like a very successful opening for you and the gang, well done!

In regard to the hunters wearing the blaze orange, here's a more technical explanation copied from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (http://www.dec.ny.gov/outdoor/9186.html) website:

"Deer have no red-sensitive cone cells in their eyes, so they can't tell red or orange from green and brown. In addition to having this kind of red-green color blindness, deer have different sensitivity to various wavelengths of light than humans. Deer see short wavelength colors such as blue (and even ultra-violet, which humans cannot even see) brighter than humans do, but deer are less sensitive to longer wavelengths such as orange and red, so these colors look darker to deer than they do to humans. Fluorescent colors like hunter orange look bright to humans because they absorb UV rays we can't see and turn them into longer wavelengths we can see. So, hunter orange reflects less UV that deer see well and more of the rays deer don't see well."

Best of luck out there!

Josh

[treefrog]

Josh, that's the best explanation yet. I'll keep that for reference.
The 870 Express is a winner. Geese, turkeys, deer, it'll do it all. I never heard of a spring deer season, but good luck. Our deer season here is only November.

BTW, we got 2 more yesterday, final count 6. Freezer is currently full.

[CanadianMike]

Typical Canadian................ :D

[jbrown14]

Josh, that's the best explanation yet. I'll keep that for reference.
The 870 Express is a winner. Geese, turkeys, deer, it'll do it all. I never heard of a spring deer season, but good luck. Our deer season here is only November.

BTW, we got 2 more yesterday, final count 6. Freezer is currently full.

Wow, two more! Congrats! Up till now it's been just my father-in-law bringing the venison to the table, hopefully next year I can join in and increase the bounty. And apparently I misspoke. There is no spring season for deer here. I may have been thinking of fall and spring turkey seasons. Bear in mind that I've not hunted yet, just lived vicariously through friends and family who do.

In New York, if one hunts with bow, muzzleloader, and shotgun, the season can stretch from the second week of October until the second to last week of December.

[CanadianMike]

Is pretty typical of up here too, many deer hunters take up the crossbow, bow, etc. in order to enjoy the extra two to three weeks of hunting season past what is allowed with a rifle.

I don't hunt BTW, but am getting outfitted in case I need to (just got back into archery, been away from it for over 16 years.) ;)

[Metal mug]

Is pretty typical of up here too, many deer hunters take up the crossbow, bow, etc. in order to enjoy the extra two to three weeks of hunting season past what is allowed with a rifle.

I don't hunt BTW, but am getting outfitted in case I need to (just got back into archery, been away from it for over 16 years.) ;)If you get a beret you can make some videos and put them on you tube shooting at a cardboard target. :D

[jbrown14]

If you get a beret you can make some videos and put them on you tube shooting at a cardboard target. :D

WooHoo! Thanks for the laugh. I needed it this morning. Avoid the warrior wannabe, and watch the ontario deer hunt instead. Much more interesting. :D

[CanadianMike]

If you get a beret you can make some videos and put them on you tube shooting at a cardboard target. :D

Ya, I could do that, I have full combat gear from my airsoft days, but I'd have to make sure the area is clear of other cardboard while I shoot at the target, because they last thing I'd want would be to get flanked by cardboard tubes, and a gas mask isn't something I have........ the cardboard might use mustard gas!!

[moa_shooter]

Great site...


...Our deer season here is only November...

Actually, depending on your hunting method the deer season is much longer. I am in South Western Ontario and our whitetail season for bows starts October 1st and runs till December 31st with a one week break during the first week in November and December for the shotgun season. Here's a picture of my tree stand early in the season.

https://sites.google.com/site/varpics/_/rsrc/1287868998490/home/IMG_2109.JPG

The way I understand it, a deer will detect danger by sight, sound or scent. In order to be spooked they often need to detect two of these three variables. So they may see you but will not be spooked unless they can smell or hear you as well. Once I had four does walking all around my stand (one of them was actually licking the bottom of the ladder) but were not spooked. I know they could see me but I had masked my scent and stayed motionless. Unfortunately I did not have an antlerless tag at the time.

[Ben Casey]

i had a couple of them stands on my land in Germany but not as big we used to see Deer all the time roaming around it was great :)