# Somewhere to Hunt in Sourthen Ontario.



## blackegale2

hey kujoe nothing in the leamington area for deer hillman marsh has day blinds for waterfowl, i think there is a few small areas in the chattam kent area,might still get in a few areas local by knocking on doors but its getting pretty crowded,


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## cath8r

Hey man. Getting a spot to hunt in Southern ON is tough. No public land and alot of hunters and less than 5% forest cover. ITs all privately owned and you gotta knock on doors till your knuckles bleed. ITs pretty discouraging but not impossible. Try to be a nice guy and make as many friends as you can. Somone will have a lead that can get you on to a farm. Hang in there. I hear Wheatly has alot of deer and guys can find a spot if they work at it. Like anything else you gotta try try try.
I fear that the hunting land situation is going to be the death of hunting in N. America.


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## ace7038

I am a farmer. I own property. I have hunters ask all the time. They are kind of a pain in the you know what when you Say I already have a lot of people who want to hunt my property, and I like to hunt myself.

Take a different approach to your situation and the general tone of this thread so far, go buy your own property to hunt, then you can go when ever you want without any inconveniences (it sucks when you give permission to two people to hunt turkeys on one property and you show up to hunt your own place on the last day of the season and they are both there already). You will have no problem getting a farmer to rent your property if any of it is workable and most all farmers will gladly watch it like their own if you are not close by to watch out for the everyday dealings of owning property. If it is o property with bush only it will not be expensive to buy at all.

ONE MORE THING: IF THE PROPERTY OWNER SAYS HE ALREADY HAS ALREADY GIVEN PEOPLE PERMISSION TO HUNT THERE AND DOESN'T WANT ANYMORE PEOPLE, SAY THANKS DON'T PUSH YOUR LUCK WITH OTHER EXCUSES, WALK AWAY.


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## 3D-GURU

ACE;

You must be joking, right??? Everybody can just go out and buy their own land?? Come on man, give your head a shake.

I am sure that everyone would love to do that, but not everybody has the means to do so. If you do, great, but please don't try to say it is easy, and funniest of all, that it can be cheap to buy. You have seen the prices of land in southern Ontario lately, haven't you?? To buy anything with enough acres to hunt on, you will pay outrageous amounts of money. More than most of us paid for our houses.

I am sorry sir, I just don't think your advise was very good. I truly believe that by being nice to land owners, and offering to help out with chores and such, you will get permission sooner or later.

Rob


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## sagitarius

cath8r said:


> Hey man. Getting a spot to hunt in Southern ON is tough. No public land and alot of hunters and less than 5% forest cover. ITs all privately owned and you gotta knock on doors till your knuckles bleed. *ITs pretty discouraging *but not impossible. Try to be a nice guy and make as many friends as you can. Somone will have a lead that can get you on to a farm. Hang in there. I hear Wheatly has alot of deer and guys can find a spot if they work at it. Like anything else you gotta try try try.
> I fear that the hunting land situation is going to be the death of hunting in N. America.


Because of guys like this 



ace7038 said:


> I am a farmer. I own property. I have hunters ask all the time. They are kind of a pain in the you know what when you Say I already have a lot of people who want to hunt my property, and I like to hunt myself.
> 
> Take a different approach to your situation and the general tone of this thread so far, go buy your own property to hunt, then you can go when ever you want without any inconveniences (it sucks when you give permission to two people to hunt turkeys on one property and you show up to hunt your own place on the last day of the season and they are both there already). You will have no problem getting a farmer to rent your property if any of it is workable and most all farmers will gladly watch it like their own if you are not close by to watch out for the everyday dealings of owning property. If it is o property with bush only it will not be expensive to buy at all.
> 
> ONE MORE THING: IF THE PROPERTY OWNER SAYS HE ALREADY HAS ALREADY GIVEN PEOPLE PERMISSION TO HUNT THERE AND DOESN'T WANT ANYMORE PEOPLE, SAY THANKS DON'T PUSH YOUR LUCK WITH OTHER EXCUSES, WALK AWAY.


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## cath8r

I have found that land with bush commands a premium. Farmland here in Essex/Amherstburg goes for around 2000-4000 dollars per acre, typically getting cheaper as the size of the acreage goes up. Wooded land typically is in the 10 000 $/acre also depending on acreage and a host of other factors. Bylaws (here in Essex anyway) don't allow severing lots anymore and try not to break up 50 acre parcels (to keep it a farmbased area and not a glorified sub-division). 
Skunks misery in Lambton/Kent area is public land to the best of my knowledge. I have also heard of a Conservation Authority hunting pass for that area as well. Just steer clear of one certain friendly farmer that posted earlier and have at it. Wish I could help more but its a tough row to hoe in SW Ontario.


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## kujoe9309

Thanks alot for all the advice, I would love to own some property maybe one day, but for now I will knocking on doors. Hopefully if I start earlier enough I will have somewhere to hunt for deer in the fall. I will look into Skunks misery, thanks Cath8r.


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## kujoe9309

I found this on the Middlessex County Website.

Hunting is allowed in all Middlesex County Woodlands. The McLaren Forest in Southwest Middlesex located directly across from Four Counties Health Services is ”ARCHERY ONLY”. The Banks Forest in Thames Centre, located at the corner of Hwy 401 and Elgin Road (CR # 73) is also “ARCHERY ONLY”.


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## Iron Mike

I have some family in the A'berg area still that own a bit of land (wish I lived closer myself :mg

I can make a call if you'd like and see how a few of them feel about someone other than me hunting the land. 

What game are you after, if I may ask.:darkbeer:


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## SHD

Might be worth checking out the Ontario Hunting Guides. They are available at some Canadian Tire stores or, for much less $$$, directly from Outdoor Solution. I can't post links yet, but do a google search for "Outdoor Solution" and you will find it. Just go to "Product" at the top. Although the bulk of the info is available online or through other sources, having that many maps etc. handy at a glance is really useful. There are lots of little parcels of land about ... though I imagine that most get really busy during shotgun deer season, for example.

Cheers,
Dave


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## GIGG

I new on here, but I definetly feel your pain. I went for a drive last tuesday and didn't have any luck. I think essex county is one of the hardest places to get permission. Which unfortunately leads to people just saying "screw it" and they trespass. Which then makes it even harder for farmers to trust hunters. Like what was said above , keep knocking on doors and when someone is nice enough to offer any leads, defintetly follow up on them. Buying some land is exactly what I plan on doing, as soon as I win the lottery.


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## ace7038

If you ask politely, not just drive up, don't say hi or anything else, just hey where's the property that is owned by the county? Then come back after the season is open and say hey I saw a turkey over there in your farm and I thought I'd shoot it for you, O.K. Where did you get your manners? Not good ways to approach it if it is not your place. I have had both of these encounters in the last four years. The one I shake my head at the most was the first fellow who asked permission to hunt turkeys on my farm, he was hunting and another fellow who asked me permission came along and he ordered the guy out and then came and told me about it. Hey I don't mind if you hunt where I give you permission, but its not your sole private hunting ground. I grow the crops that the deer and the turkeys eat, I get to harvest only the one's I get a license to harvest. The "destruction" wildlife causes in my crops is costly to me, and would surprise the majority of you on here I am sure.

I do have people who hunt on my farms. I don't let everyone who asks to hunt in the same farm. I try to spread them around to different farms so they all don't end up in the same property at the same time. 

Not all of skunks misery is county owned. There are private properties in the misery. I don't own any in it I do have one property adjoining it. Just be careful down there on a Saturday in season, as it is an area that gets quite crowded with hunters, that said there is a lot of wildlife there to hunt and some very nice bush to see. 

One famous quote that gets repeated around here regularly from a hunter on an ATV when asked not to ride it on my neighbors property " I paid $8000 for this I got to ride it somewhere". Should have thought about that before you bought it.


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## ace7038

kujoe9309 said:


> I found this on the Middlessex County Website.
> 
> Hunting is allowed in all Middlesex County Woodlands. The McLaren Forest in Southwest Middlesex located directly across from Four Counties Health Services is ”ARCHERY ONLY”. The Banks Forest in Thames Centre, located at the corner of Hwy 401 and Elgin Road (CR # 73) is also “ARCHERY ONLY”.


The Mclaren Forest (we call it the hospital block) is a good place to hunt, deer especially. We always had shooting inthere before it became archery only. I have seen a lot of turkey activity on the south side of this bush as well. 
I have not hunted the Banks Tract as it is further east of me.


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## kujoe9309

I will look into the Ontario Hunting Guide would be nice to have some maps. I have never heard of Skunks misery, or The Mclaren Forest so I plan on making a trip out there to see the area. I plan on hunting deer this year, and if I can get a place to hunt i will take the turkey course so I can maybe try that next year. Thanks for all the help, and advice at least i know I have somewhere to hunt within an 1.5 hour of my door if the knocking doesn't work out. 

Adam


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## ace7038

If you look at a map of Southwest Middlesex The McLaren Tract is on the corner of Concession Drive and Hagerty Road. Also there is a large county owned tract between Concession Drive going south on Dogwood Road to Centerville Drive. Just a few intersections to look around in the area. Also there is a large and from what I have sen lightly hunted tract at Limerick road and Coltsfoot drive between Coltfoot and the CN Railroad. Easy acces on all 4 sides of this tract.


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## cath8r

I used to work in Leamington about 12 years ago. (E&B Air Cond.) I remember looking at alot of those woods off HWY 77 and some of the farms tucked back in off of those concessions when you head north out of town. They all looked good and have heard they hold alot of deer. Never tried getting permission though as I had alot of other spots close to home at the time. You could spend hours knocking on doors as there is lots of bushes out that way. 
Just a side note, me and a buddy of mine were looking for another property out here where we live about 4 years ago. We headed out after work one july night and went for a cruise. We knocked on a few doors and got the polite 'No' a few times. We kept driving buy this one farm that looked perfect but we were too embarrased to go up and ask. We thought that there has to be other guys hunting this place, we'll get told no for sure. Well we finally went and asked and got a 'yes'. The guy who they let hunt it had stopped and the farm was currently vacant. Hope this gives you a little hope. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.


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## huntnorth

Head further north and there is alot of crown lands to access.


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## bowhunterjon

there is lots of public land were i live. but you can only hunt deer on it, with a gun or a bow. but if you want other game then start knocking.


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