# Northwest Ontario



## eboll (May 6, 2008)

I searched back on this forum 5 years, and didn't come up with much on Northwest Ontario. I am looking at going on a guided hunt whitetail hunt in a couple years. Does anyone have any recommendations? I see many outfitters have cancelled hunts recently due to low numbers (wolves). It seems like the racks aren't as big as Saskatchewan, but the body sizes are tremendous. The hunts seem to run a lot cheaper than Saskatchewan. I could do almost 2 hunts in Ontario for the price of 1 hunt in Saskatchewan. Any opinions?


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## jzofchak (Oct 13, 2015)

eboll said:


> I searched back on this forum 5 years, and didn't come up with much on Northwest Ontario. I am looking at going on a guided hunt whitetail hunt in a couple years. Does anyone have any recommendations? I see many outfitters have cancelled hunts recently due to low numbers (wolves). It seems like the racks aren't as big as Saskatchewan, but the body sizes are tremendous. The hunts seem to run a lot cheaper than Saskatchewan. I could do almost 2 hunts in Ontario for the price of 1 hunt in Saskatchewan. Any opinions?


I have hunted both Ontario and Saskatchewan. My first few years in ontario I went to Sioux Narrows or Nester Falls. This area can be hunted unguided. So cost is a lot cheaper. Rent a cabin on Lake of the Woods and hunt the Crown Land. We would usually go like 2 deer for 6 guys. Later we decided to go with a guided hunt in ontario to better are chances. We ended up hunting Dryden for 4 seasons and we were happy with those hunts. Success was a bit better over 50% and It was about twice as much $ as the unguided. Ontario is a fun big woods hunt but deer sightings are really low. A couple years ago I bit the bullet a booked a hunt in Saskatchewan by myself for the week of Thanksgiving. I drove from Michigan to a small town 1.5 hours north of Prince Albert. This hunt was costly but I am so glad I did it. You see deer all day long. You will see like 6-12 or more bucks a day. Saskatchewan is the deer hunters dream. I saw tons of deer, elk, wolves, lynx and mule deer. If you can swing it do it and if you go take a videos..


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## 7mmsendero (Dec 2, 2010)

I recommend calling around before booking. I’ve heard bad things about the herd up there.


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## eboll (May 6, 2008)

jzofchak said:


> I have hunted both Ontario and Saskatchewan. My first few years in ontario I went to Sioux Narrows or Nester Falls. This area can be hunted unguided. So cost is a lot cheaper. Rent a cabin on Lake of the Woods and hunt the Crown Land. We would usually go like 2 deer for 6 guys. Later we decided to go with a guided hunt in ontario to better are chances. We ended up hunting Dryden for 4 seasons and we were happy with those hunts. Success was a bit better over 50% and It was about twice as much $ as the unguided. Ontario is a fun big woods hunt but deer sightings are really low. A couple years ago I bit the bullet a booked a hunt in Saskatchewan by myself for the week of Thanksgiving. I drove from Michigan to a small town 1.5 hours north of Prince Albert. This hunt was costly but I am so glad I did it. You see deer all day long. You will see like 6-12 or more bucks a day. Saskatchewan is the deer hunters dream. I saw tons of deer, elk, wolves, lynx and mule deer. If you can swing it do it and if you go take a videos..


Did you get quality bucks on your unguided hunts? I would like to think of myself as very capable of hunting unguided, but picking the right area could prove to be tough. I have heard the wolf population has exploded. The one outfitter said they constantly hunt wolves and have had to expand their area outside of their core whitetail grounds to fill tags. I would think that no non resident hunting this year would help put some age on bucks too. On another note, I looked at Alberta whitetail hunts. Most were in the 7-8k range. Ouch.....


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## Stubee (May 26, 2010)

I’ve hunted NW Ontario every year except this one since 2003 on my own 330A and a friends land and have posted here a little bit about it. I don’t bait, hunt mostly thick cover or very close to it and while we’ve never taken a buck over 155” I’ve seen larger and friends have taken them well above that, gross scored. I love it to death. I don’t know any outfitters I’d recommend up there just because I haven’t looked into it. Guys I know hunt their own land or know how to get back in on Crown land. It’s pretty wild country. 

I can’t compare it to other places but can say it’s not the area to hunt if you plan on seeing multiple bucks a day, every day. It appeals to me because a big buck is always around and it’s “woods hunting” I can figure out myself.


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## boon (Apr 4, 2007)

My group and I hunted the Kenora area from 2004 to 2016. Our group consisted of 5 hunters, the first 3 years we just hunted crown land and would get 3 Bucks out of the 5 of us. I started Nocking on doors and picked up private ground then we started getting bigger bucks and we would all tag out no problem!! Most Bucks were in the mid 130’s, but we had a couple break the 150 mark and our largest was 172. The last year we went up there we all got our deer, but it was getting a lot harder and we were seeing a lot of wolves.


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