We’re heading up to “O Canada.” I love to go north of the border, I’ve had some great hunts up there and with some great people. And Chris is no exception, he runs Cedar Ridge Outdoors and he’s just kind of sort of getting going in this whole program, and so he and I connected on social media and we’ll be talking Deer Hunting and Discover Cedar Ridge Outdoors. And I love to have new guys and guys that hunting in Southern Ontario on the show. So, Chris, welcome to Whitetail Rendezvous.
Hey. Well, thanks for having me, I appreciate the opportunity.
Yeah, we were kidding in the warm-up that you live in Southern Ontario, I fish in Northern Ontario quite a bit. And I call it the suburbs, and you kind of came back to me and said, “Well, it’s not that bad.” And so let’s just tell the people, you know, what you’re hunting, what type of land are you hunting in Southern Ontario?
For the most part, like, there’s a fair bit of hardwoods and stuff around, we got some cedar swamps, but it’s a lot of farmland. There’s a lot of big fields, a lot of farmland. The deer is plentiful, like there’s a lot of crop for them to eat. So it is what it is. Hunting is hunting, I guess, and at the same point you got to have a little luck behind you, too. The deer population is there. In my area where I am right now there’s a lot of guys hunting, so I’ve noticed in the last couple years the deer population has dropped a little bit. But that’s why I do what I do and I try to keep the herd healthy.
Hunting is hunting, I guess, and at the same point you got to have a little luck behind you, too
Now when you talk about agriculture, what kind of food are they growing? So do you need to put in your own food plots?
Where I am I haven’t got a whole lot of farms around me. Like there are quite a few in the general area, but a lot of guys are growing beans, corn, a lot of stuff for cattle and that, oats. And they…but I like to put my…get my food plots and try to do what I can for the herd, keep them healthy and just keep them in my area, too. So it’s…
Now you’re running on public…pardon me, private land, how many acres you have access to?
I’ve got, personally myself that I own, I’ve got 300. And, but there’s a good friend of mine right next door that he’s got 400, so I kind of hunt about 700 acres for the most part. But it’s a lot of acreage, but we do all right with it.
Yeah, what are we talking about, what does the DNR say about, you know, deer per acre, or deer per square mile?
To be honest with you, I really haven’t looked into it. Like in our area it’s…you go 10 minutes south, the deer population when you get down closer to where there’s a few more big farms and that, like, you see a big jump in the deer population. And back where I am right now, if I had to guess, I’m going to say five, six, maybe seven deer kind of within 100 acres or so. Like it’s a pretty healthy population.
