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Zeal Team 1 team room

Sorry I got on this thread late, I was up in the north country for a few days getting the hunt camp squared away, and dialing in my rifle...

Hello all for the Great White North! I'm looking forward to getting to know you guys, and talking hunting. The last few years in this contest have been just great - I've made some good friends and really enjoyed hearing the details of how people are hunting in their areas. This year I will not be on a Moose hunt, so I will be fully dedicated to dropping a whitetail (there will be a couple of days of duck hunting sprinkled in). It is hard for me to guarantee that I will post big points for the team, the big woods hunting I do is kind of unpredictable - but I can guarantee that I am going to bust my a$$ in the attempt. With any luck I will cross paths with a real Canadian buck - the kind that can get the puck out of the corner...

I'll be sharing maps, plans and stories as the season goes on.

General season plan
Oct 1st archery opener - hunt for a couple of weeks around my home in Southern Ontario
Oct 25th - I begin my rutcation and will be hunting my best archery spots hard in three Southern Ontario locations
Oct 31st - I head up to my camp near the western side of Algonquin Park for a 4 days of rifle hunting. (~1000 acres of private and public land)
Nov 4th - I cross over to a new hunt camp on the south east side of Algonquin Park to hunt with my friends family at their farm for 3 days
Nov 12th - After a few days at home resting I am back up north rifle hunting a huge patch of public land at my buddies cottage.
Nov 15 - Back home archery hunting
Dec 6 - Week of shotgun hunting in Southern Ontario if I have not filled my tag.


1632231785299.png
 
Sorry I got on this thread late, I was up in the north country for a few days getting the hunt camp squared away, and dialing in my rifle...

Hello all for the Great White North! I'm looking forward to getting to know you guys, and talking hunting. The last few years in this contest have been just great - I've made some good friends and really enjoyed hearing the details of how people are hunting in their areas. This year I will not be on a Moose hunt, so I will be fully dedicated to dropping a whitetail (there will be a couple of days of duck hunting sprinkled in). It is hard for me to guarantee that I will post big points for the team, the big woods hunting I do is kind of unpredictable - but I can guarantee that I am going to bust my a$$ in the attempt. With any luck I will cross paths with a real Canadian buck - the kind that can get the puck out of the corner...

I'll be sharing maps, plans and stories as the season goes on.

General season plan
Oct 1st archery opener - hunt for a couple of weeks around my home in Southern Ontario
Oct 25th - I begin my rutcation and will be hunting my best archery spots hard in three Southern Ontario locations
Oct 31st - I head up to my camp near the western side of Algonquin Park for a 4 days of rifle hunting. (~1000 acres of private and public land)
Nov 4th - I cross over to a new hunt camp on the south east side of Algonquin Park to hunt with my friends family at their farm for 3 days
Nov 12th - After a few days at home resting I am back up north rifle hunting a huge patch of public land at my buddies cottage.
Nov 15 - Back home archery hunting
Dec 6 - Week of shotgun hunting in Southern Ontario if I have not filled my tag.


View attachment 53046
Well planned and organized. You just made my "hero list"!
 
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Well planned and organized. You just made my "hero list"!

All the planning and organization in the world can get derailed really fast by a 60oz bottle of Crown Royal...


Nov 10 2019 at my rifle camp (after my buddy got a buck we decided to celebrate by cracking that bottle). Come morning we were wounded...
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Hey @MJH how is Algonquin Park for a summer fishing destination by canoe? Have done Quetico but not the much closer Algonquin. Last time I researched this there was talk the fishing was not great because of environmental issues.
 
Hey @MJH how is Algonquin Park for a summer fishing destination by canoe? Have done Quetico but not the much closer Algonquin. Last time I researched this there was talk the fishing was not great because of environmental issues.


I am sorry to say that your information is poor.
Some areas get a lot of traffic, but push a couple of portages in and things start to happen. There are some issues in the park with some invasive species which have affected trout productivity, but there are plenty of lakes in there that are pristine. I am fortunate enough to be close friends with a fish biologist in the MNR, so I get inside information from him. I'll start you off with a tip - live bait is not allowed in the park. So what do you do? get minnows which have expired, salt them, and bring them in. 100% legal, 100% obvious, but nobody does it... If you wanted to plan a trip, let me know what you want to target and I'll get you pointed in the right areas.

Now Quetico is a very special park (although I have never stayed in the park). It is on my list...
 
I am sorry to say that your information is poor.
Some areas get a lot of traffic, but push a couple of portages in and things start to happen. There are some issues in the park with some invasive species which have affected trout productivity, but there are plenty of lakes in there that are pristine. I am fortunate enough to be close friends with a fish biologist in the MNR, so I get inside information from him. I'll start you off with a tip - live bait is not allowed in the park. So what do you do? get minnows which have expired, salt them, and bring them in. 100% legal, 100% obvious, but nobody does it... If you wanted to plan a trip, let me know what you want to target and I'll get you pointed in the right areas.

Now Quetico is a very special park (although I have never stayed in the park). It is on my list...
Happy to hear my info was poor. :cool: I'll think about that trip after hunting season. Likewise if you're thinking Quetico/BWCA or similar LMK.
 
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OK my local township just updated the map showing the permissible hunting ground/areas within the local public land. My mind exploded - they have expanded it significantly into a few blocks I have been dying to get into. DYING.

The only issue I have is that they did this 8 days away from the archery opener!! (more accurately, I didn't find the updated map until now - but I am happy to blame this on them!!). I have to rethink my whole approach now.

I only have one tag in that unit, including a spot on a prime time primary scrape that would make Eberhart cream his pants (I have taken 5, 8 and 10pt bucks there over the last 4 years). This is where I will be sitting from Oct 25-29 (wind dependent). These new spots would have to compete with that. I do have another tag in the adjacent unit, but I am still working on finding deer consistently in there which has been hard.

Question - Should I early season hunt this new ground basically blind, or stick to the other unit and avoid risk burning my best tag?

Keep in mind boys, I hunt for meat not trophy racks.
 
Tough call. Only you can answer that one! I hunt for the freezer also and like to hit my places I know (or think I know) will produce before I "play" at the deep public ground.
 
I find myself to be overly aggressive most of the time so my initial thought is take a day and hunt it and see what it’s like, since I too fill the freezer first and foremost. You may find that that spot that looked so great really isn’t that great at all.
 
I find myself to be overly aggressive most of the time so my initial thought is take a day and hunt it and see what it’s like, since I too fill the freezer first and foremost. You may find that that spot that looked so great really isn’t that great at all.

Ya I will definitely put a couple of days into some run and guns in 2 of the new blocks. A lot of the interesting stuff is really heavy cover where I would normally need to find access routes and deer sign to hunt on. I am not against getting into a climable spot and blind calling - but I tend to reserve that for later on nearer to the rut. We will see. I will share some maps and photos in the next couple of days.
 
Did yall see redsquirrels rule modification that we don't have to be in the picture?
Ya I saw that. I thought it stipulated that we needed 1000 posts to qualify for that? If I am lucky enough to lock one down, I'll gladly be in the photo...
 
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