As I've mentioned here before, my big game hunting revolves around hunting whitetail deer in the big woods of Eastern Ontario - it's a passion and there's nothing better than a cold November morning in the big woods with the first rays of the sun illuminating the horizon.
In Eastern Ontario we have a 2.5 month archery season (October 1 - December 15) with a two week rifle season (first two weeks of November) and a one week muzzleloader season (first week of December) contained within.
Due to my job constraints I am largely limited to weekend hunts - thus I employ bow, rifle, and muzzleloader in pursuit of big woods mature bucks.
I hunt the big woods of Eastern Ontario - endless square kilometers (much of it public land) of lowland swamp, conifer thickets, and hardwood ridges. Although this area sees plenty of hunters, few venture far enough off the ATV trails and logging roads to find the reclusive backwoods bruisers. Outside of the two week rifle season there isn't much hunting pressure - especially if you backpack in as I did on occasion.
Although I was "in the game" all fall (I run 17 trail cams throughout a general area of a couple thousand acres of public land - no shortage of burly mature bucks), I wasn't able to catch up with one of the area's mature bucks.
Although this remote area had a strong population of mature bucks (the two pictured were two of the better), catching up to one in this environment is always a low percentage task.
I came closest in bow season, jumped a mature buck out of his bed - but having to watch helplessly with bow in hand as he leapt away 60 meters distant.
In the end, I was forced to make Tag Soup for the first time in five years - but it was a great season overall (as always) and if the big bruisers can dodge the wolves and Old Man Winter I should have the chance to get after even bigger bucks next year ...
In Eastern Ontario we have a 2.5 month archery season (October 1 - December 15) with a two week rifle season (first two weeks of November) and a one week muzzleloader season (first week of December) contained within.
Due to my job constraints I am largely limited to weekend hunts - thus I employ bow, rifle, and muzzleloader in pursuit of big woods mature bucks.
I hunt the big woods of Eastern Ontario - endless square kilometers (much of it public land) of lowland swamp, conifer thickets, and hardwood ridges. Although this area sees plenty of hunters, few venture far enough off the ATV trails and logging roads to find the reclusive backwoods bruisers. Outside of the two week rifle season there isn't much hunting pressure - especially if you backpack in as I did on occasion.
Although I was "in the game" all fall (I run 17 trail cams throughout a general area of a couple thousand acres of public land - no shortage of burly mature bucks), I wasn't able to catch up with one of the area's mature bucks.
Although this remote area had a strong population of mature bucks (the two pictured were two of the better), catching up to one in this environment is always a low percentage task.
I came closest in bow season, jumped a mature buck out of his bed - but having to watch helplessly with bow in hand as he leapt away 60 meters distant.
In the end, I was forced to make Tag Soup for the first time in five years - but it was a great season overall (as always) and if the big bruisers can dodge the wolves and Old Man Winter I should have the chance to get after even bigger bucks next year ...
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