Hello-

After having a moose hunt booked for three years waiting for a tag thru the outfitter, we were notified this week that our October hunt was cancelled due to a reduction in tags, and he would be sending us our deposit back. I could not find any recent news or posts about Ontario doing this. Any insights about this being factual and if so when it occurred? Super disappointed as this was a self guided week with my hunting partner that we have always wanted to do….

Thanks
Jasper243

We have had problems with moose numbers, so a few years ago the Ontario government went to a points system to hand out tags. The number of tags available to everyone has gone down in many WMUs (wildlife management units).

This article mentions that there are fewer tags up for grabs in certain WMUs but they do not get specific. You would have to compare the number of available tags for the past five years in the WMU where your outfitter is located to see how much they have dropped. Or you could email him and ask how the numbers have panned out for him the past few years.


https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/moose-hunt-tag-northern-ontario-1.6825949

That really sucks, maybe some of the members from Ontario have some knowledge.
Maybe choose another Province with a more stable Moose population, it is possible that fires in the area had a role to play?

I know a local outfitter who lost 5bull tags 2 years ago—2 more last year and another this year—I think he is down to nothing but cow and calf tags—which is a hard hunt to sell to non-residents 1st

and killing cows and calves is going to help the situation Sheeeeeeezeeeeeeeee!

Thanks for the replies. Kkahmann- wouldn’t the outfitters know their tag allocations by May/June? Seems late in the game to tell us. It stinks, but I would side with tag reductions if necessary. I understand ticks and wolves have been a real problem and moose are definitely down.

It depends on which WMU area you’re hunting in. Many wildlife management units are down in moose population which means less tags. We also have a large increase in whitetail deer population in recent years and this tends to hurt the moose population in certain ways also. Timber wolves are high in population (thanks to the deer explosion) also and they get a lot of the moose calves.
There’s still a solid moose population in the management areas I hunt in in my opinion. Areas 9B, 9A, 8, 11B. We deer hunt in area 10 which has a huge population of whitetails currently.

Yes, and because Outfitters have to apply like everyone else. They aren't guaranteed tags. Here is some more info for you to read.

Moose outfitters

An eligible moose outfitter must acquire moose tag shares from an authorized moose outfitter currently in the program that is willing to transfer their shares. The transfer of shares must be approved by ministry.

Becoming an authorized moose outfitter does not guarantee that you will receive any moose tags to offer hunting packages for clients. This depends on multiple factors including the number of:

- other outfitters operating in a wildlife management unit
- harvest opportunities available to outfitters based on what moose populations in the area can sustain

https://www.ontario.ca/page/tourist-outfitters-and-hunting

FWIW, Northern MN adjacent to Ontario had a viable harvestable moose population in the 1980's and early 1990's but ticks, weather and wolves combined to decimate the population. At our NW MN deer camp in the 1980's we often saw more moose than deer during our ten day deer season. Now hardly ever see a moose. They still exist in NE MN and North Dakota to the west but none in our area anymore.