Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Canada How did you get "here"?

My family were Pennsylvania Dutch, settling in Penn. in 1680.

They fought for freedom during the American revolution, but when the cause was lost, they had to move to Canada, and settled north of Kingston in Ontario.

In 1822 my direct ancestor bought a farm near what is now Ridgeway in the Niagara Penninsula. The Battle of Ridgeway in 1866 was fought largely on their farm against (supposedly) Fenians, causing a group of parliamentarians to be sent to London to negotiate Confederation.

Big game were basically hunted to extinction in southern Ontario by the late 1800s, but my family began going north to hunt deer and later moose in 1907. I still hunt out of one of the camps they established in 1938.

What area are you refering to when you say "north?"

Randy

wabigoon

I was head Deer stalker on 2 private estates and many surrounding farms, in total I was responsible for approximately 20,000 acres of adjoining land and a further 3-5000 of other land, I was contracted to shoot between 53-58 deer per annum but I usually shot alot more than that on other ground I had and for private clients that had deer problems in there gardens or some other situation.
my role also included dispatching any deer that were hit by cars on the surrounding roads, this was a position I hated because I would get called out at all hours by the cops and then get shouted out by the do gooders for "killing bambi" it did however open many other doors for myself!!. I was also responsible for 5 other people who did vermin control which I also did, this for me was mainly shooting the rabbits and foxes. I would shoot about 1000 rabbits and a couple hundred foxes each year but would also include squirrels, magpies and crows, these birds are terrible song bird and game bird egg stealers and were shot on sight. I would also help the game keepers with the pheasant shoots that we had on the estates.

My passion however was running a little cocker spaniel each winter on the Pheasant shoots. I would usually have 12 days myself and beat 1 day a week, this was all pleasure and something that I would never have given up for anything (I had a VERY good dog and I never ever got tired of watching him work).

Feel free to ask away

edited to add, that we have 6 species of Deer and in the area I lived we had 3, the seasons on 2 of the species crossed and the 3rd doesnt have a season, so I was able to and did, shoot year round.

Im not sure how to take your first paragraph..

Though it might seem alot to you, my role was small compared to some of the other stalkers that I knew or knew of.

Whilst most of you have no understanding or have been mis-lead you can only dream about the amount of hunting that is available in the UK

All the venison goes into the human food chain, this was done via the game dealer we had on site, the foxes most of the time were taken and the fur used for whatever, and the rabbits if head shot would be taken by the game dealer, we have no laws about leaving dead animals, the squirrels magpies and crows would be left where they fell.

Senior, Was your father one of the "Home Children", I have heard, and read about, or a different situation?
Canada is in many ways both a young, and old country.

[Since I've been in the Ottawa area, I understand there's a small town south of Sharbot Lake (the name escapes me right now) that the locals refer to as "Teal Town". Its a good bet they settled near there.