One of the thrills of hunting is chasing whitetails in different lands. Avid hunter Chris Labarge describes the land where he is hunting mature bucks in Southern Ontario. Through the years, hunting has become more challenging especially with the dwindling deer population. Chris shares how he tries to trail as many bucks as he can in a certain land where there is still a healthy mature buck population. He also addresses the problems of predation and shares some tips on how he picks his number one deer.
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Deer Hunting – Discover Cedar Ridge Outdoors – Chris Labarge
We’re heading up to Canada. I love to go north of the border. I’ve had some great hunts up there with some great people. Chris is no exception. He runs Cedar Ridge Outdoors. He’s getting going in this whole program. He and I connected on social media. I love to have new guys and guys that are hunting in Southern Ontario on the show. Chris, welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me. I appreciate the opportunity.
You live in Southern Ontario. I fished in Northern Ontario quite a bit. I call it the suburbs. You said, “It’s not that bad.” Tell the people what type of land are you hunting in Southern Ontario.
For the most part, there’s a fair bit of hardwoods and stuff around. We’ve got some cedar swamps. It’s a lot of farmland. There are a lot of big fields. The deer is plentiful. There are a lot of crops for them to eat. It is what it is. Hunting is hunting. At the same point, you’ve got to have a little luck behind you too. The deer population is there. In my area where I am right now, there are a lot of guys hunting. I’ve noticed in the last couple years the deer population has dropped a little bit. That’s why I do what I do and I try to keep the herd healthy.
When you talk about agriculture, what food are they growing? Do you need to put in your own food plots?
Where I am I haven’t got a whole lot of farms around me. There are quite a few in the general area. A lot of guys are growing beans, corn, a lot of stuff for cattle. I like to get my food plots and try to do what I can for the herd, keep them healthy and keep them in my area too.
You’re running on private land. How many acres do you have access to?
Personally, myself that I own, I’ve got 300. There’s a good friend of mine right next door that he’s got 400. I hunt about 700 acres for the most part. It’s a lot of acreages but we do alright with it.
What does the DNR say about deer per square mile?
To be honest with you, I haven’t looked into it. In our area, you would know the deer population when you get down closer to where there are a few more big farms, you see a big jump in the deer population. Back where I am right now, if I had to guess, I’m going to say five, six, maybe seven deer within 100 acres or so. It’s a pretty healthy population.
Are you running trail cameras?
On my 300, I usually run between five and six cameras. I don’t have a big budget. I’m your everyday guy that goes to work and whatever money the wife will let me spend on hunting, I spend.
Trail cameras, a lot of guys use them, especially this time of year when the deer are patternable to get a good handle on your census. What you got, up-and-comers, what bucks are going to be on your hit list and more importantly, do you have triplets? Do you have twin sets of fawns? What’s going on with the herd?
I’ve got lots of does and stuff. My buck population has definitely dwindled off over the last couple of years. We’ve got a lot of guys moving into the area. Farmers are breaking fields off. You see a lot more guys in the local area that are starting to hunt too, which is good but it’s bad at the same time. I’ve noticed my buck population dwindling down a little bit. At this time, so far on my trail cameras by the look of things I’m going to have at least five to six shooter bucks on my property that I’m getting on regular trail cameras right now.
What’s a shooter buck for you?
It’s 130, 140-inch-plus.
You’re talking two and a half, three and a half?
Yeah, anything over three and a half. Myself personally I try to harvest anything. For shooter bucks, I’ve got five that are four-plus.
That’s a pretty healthy population for mature bucks in 300 acres. That’s not bad.
It’s pretty good. A few years ago, I’d have seven or eight like four-and-a-half-year-olds ready to rock all the time. A lot of guys in the area are hunting. They get harvested.
What about predation, do you have any problems with bears in the springtime or wolves?
We don’t have any wolves, we’ve got coyotes. The coyote population is out of control. We’ve got an open season on them all year round. I try to get out as much as I can. If I’m deer hunting, I see a coyote, we’re coyote hunting now. I try to get out in the wintertime, especially when the snow is on the ground. I get my decoy out and I call. I try to put a few down every year. We’ve got a lot of coyotes. I don’t think there are a lot of guys for even the last couple of years. I get constant pictures of coyotes on my trail cams. We’ve got to get some guys in the area to hopefully start shooting a few of those and knocking them down a little bit because it’s definitely taking a toll on our fawns, that’s for sure.
Everybody knows that but unfortunately, a lot of guys don’t do anything about it. Predator control is key to having a healthy herd because you want that age recruitment every single year. When you’re spending money building food plots, trail cameras and doing everything you’re doing, it’s a shame to not take some time and go out and hit the coyotes hard and get some trappers in there. That’s the other thing, the pelts have got to be worth something.
I get the guys out. I try to talk to guys in the local area and try to get them out predator hunting. It’s a key factor. For me, as soon as the deer season ends, it’s time to start the next one. It starts with knocking those predators down in the wintertime as much as you can. When that spring rolls around, fawns are going to drop, they’re going to stay and they’re not going to get chewed out by them.
Do you have any trouble with bears hitting on your fawns?
We’ve got a healthy bear population. It’s at the point where they’re not making a huge impact on the fawns. They’re definitely probably getting a couple, that’s for sure. I keep my spring bait out. I get it out early. I try to keep my bears. Keep the food and hit them on the baits that help a little bit. We’ve got our spring hunt. We’ve got our fall hunt. We’re able to knock a few bears down every year. That helps too. The big thing for me is up this way is the coyotes. We’ve got to control those predators to get our fawns up and to go.
Everybody has their own way of doing something. Whatever works for you, keep doing that. Share on XAs far as the bear, how many bears can you take each spring?
Each Ontario resident gets one tag for the spring. We get one for the spring and the fall. I’m lucky enough on my property. My wife has hers, she hunts as well. She’s able to harvest a deer if she gets out. I try to bring a few guys in like local friends and stuff. My deer population is pretty much under control.
On your 300 acres, how many acres of food plots are you running?
I’ve done quite well. I’ve got to go 28 acres.
Are they kill plots? What size are the plots?
Some are destination plots for a big feed. It’s not a lot compared to what some guys do. What I put in is strictly for the deer. I did about five acres of beans. It’s strictly for the deer. It’s not going to be harvested or chewed up or anything for cattle or anything like that. It’s strictly for the deer. I’ve done a lot of clover plots. I’ve got a big clover plot through the middle of my property. Basically, the whole clover plot has all been chewed up. I’ve hit it with clovers. That puts a big number out there for getting that clover out for them. That keeps the food out for them. There are probably acres in clover that I’ve done.
You’re north of the border, how soon can you get into start working your fields or your plots?
A lot of it depends on our weather. I was trying to get clover down as early as mid-May I was getting the clover out, getting it down. I’ve had little earlier frost-seeding. I work full-time so like everybody, I try to do what I can when I can. We go from there. I enjoy what I do with it. My best thing is any chance I get to get out and improve the habitat, I get out and do it.
What about waterholes?
I’ve got a big pond right in the middle of my property. It’s got a little creek that runs to the south end of my property. It goes to a big lake down at the bottom of the hill on the opposite side of the road from me. I’ve got all kinds of water kicking around, which is good. My pond is probably about 25 acres in size. There are lots of ducks and stuff in there for duck hunting in the fall. It’s key. The deer like it.
The magic, especially with increased hunting, is to keep the deer on your land or your neighbor’s land and not let them cross the street or the road or not leave. You want them to stay.
That’s the whole plan anyways.
It doesn’t always work out especially during the rut because bucks will travel, there’s no question about that. At that time, it’s a wild card because you can see a buck on your land you’ve never seen. You go ask people and they say, “Yeah. He was seen way over here. He spent the summer over here and now he’s running. He’s looking.”
I’ve had that happen. A couple of years ago, I got a picture of a monster. I had never seen the deer before. I talked to guys in the local area and nobody else had seen that deer. I don’t know where he came from, but he showed up on my camera. I got one good picture of him. I’ve never seen him again.
Typically, those bucks, it’s a one-shot deal because he was coming through whenever he was coming through. He’s gone.
He’s miles away. I got that trail camera picture. My jaw dropped and I was like, “I hope he comes back.”
What time of year was it?
It was mid-December.
It’s the secondary rut maybe.
In mid-December, he showed up and after that, I’ve never seen him again. I’m going to say the picture was 10:30, 11:00 at night. He was glowing in the dark, that’s for sure. I have that one nice, clear picture of this monster standing there and he’s never to be seen again.
It keeps us going back to the field, that’s for sure.
It keeps those hopes up when you’re in the stand.
Let’s talk about your preparation. What are you doing for prep work to get you in hunting shape and your stands and all that stuff?
I’m starting to get out. I’ve already had my stand spots picked out ahead of time. I’ve got my trees already picked. I had those picked early in the spring. Every time I’m out on my property, I’m carrying my GPS with me. I make notes when I’m out, any sign I see. Every year, it changes a little bit here and there. My stands are usually relatively pretty close to the same area where they are every year. The odd one I go in different areas and throw it up. Right now, I’m out. I’ve already got a couple stands out already. Shooting lanes, I like to do them in the spring before everything starts to green up. I don’t like to trim back too much more than I have to. This time of the year now with all the trees in full bloom and start trimming. On the fall, I feel like I’ve opened it up too much. I like to do that stuff in the spring of the year before everything greens up and go from there. My trees are marked. They’ve already had stands up in them. I’ve got shooting lanes ready. Take the stands down and probably another two weeks I’ll go throw them back up and they’re in the tree ready to go.
Are you using hang-ons?
I use hang-ons for the most part. I do have a couple of ladder stands. I’ve got a couple of ground blinds depending on my plots and whatnot, how things go. I usually leave my ground blinds over my big plots for the late season especially when it gets cold. I crawled in there and got a little heater in there. It keeps me warm. For the most part, I’m a hang-on guy.
It sounds like you’ve got some flexibility. You’ve got some hang-ons. For the late season, you’ve got some shelter basically. How do you use your ladder stands?
For the most part, I like to use my ladder stands on my bear baits. I do have a few set up on my tree line on some of my smaller kill plots. It depends. Where my stands are if I’m going to use it or not, it depends on the wind is blowing that day and how I feel the deer movement in that little area is, whether or not I’m going to go in. With my stands too is budget. I’ve got what I’ve got and I use what I have to use to hopefully get the job done.
You mentioned that you’ve got a number of sets out there and wind plays a big factor. How do you approach your stand?
I try to come in as quiet as I can. I’ve got little lanes cut in. Most of the time, I’ve got an east wind thing going on for the most part. Mother Nature is Mother Nature. It’s going to change all the time. I know my property quite well. I’m able to adjust myself. I know where my stands are. I can move in and out and around them. It comes down to that day and what my plan is and how I’m going into it. I plan that spur of the moment.
I know some guys go in with leaf blowers and cut trails into their stand. It’s not the usual way that they would go in, all depending on the wind. They can get into a stand no matter what the wind is doing and not give themselves away. What’s your thought on that?
I use my property a lot. I’m out on it all the time. For spooking deer and that, I don’t feel to go to that extent for myself is necessary. I’ve got my main trails in and out. If I got to do a little bit of a loop back to a stand, if I got to circle around it or something to get in, I will. The use of leaf blowers and stuff, I’ve never done it. I can’t say it doesn’t work because I’ve never done it either. You could say everybody has got their own way of doing something and whatever works for you, keep doing what you’re doing.
Over the years, what have you learned now that you know that you sure wish you knew five years ago? Your one big thing.
The one big thing that I’ve got onto in the last couple of years, I’m going to have to say is scent control. When I first started hunting, I didn’t know a lot about it. I had a few friends that got me into hunting. Nobody in my family hunts, so I was self-taught. I didn’t realize until about five, six years ago how big scent control is. To me, it’s a huge thing and I take every advantage that I can when I’m in a stand, spraying down, washing ahead of time, keeping my clothes clean and scent-free. As for going in and out of a stand, obviously I spray down as scent-free as I can. I go pretty hard on the scent, that’s my thing. If you can trick that big guy’s nose when he’s downwind or hopefully fools him using your scent control, that’s the big thing is fooling their nose. Any chance I can take to hopefully beat their nose, I will.
Let’s talk about that scent control. Starting in the morning before you hunt you take showers, deodorant, you wash your clothes and you get carbon impregnated fabric. What’s your process? Are you using Ozonics? How do you minimize your scent?
I start with the shower and wash all down. My clothes are all washed. I use ScentLok. I’ve got their bag and unit that I use. I put that out and keep all my clothes in that. I’ve been using ScentLok. I’m a big believer in it. I purchased Ozonics as well. I’ve talked to a lot of guys in the industry and everybody has had good things to say about it. I’m going to try it out and see what happens.
In our industry, it’s the culmination of a lot of little things that make success. You come on with a product like Ozonics and how it makes such a huge difference. Why did people think it works well?
The guys I’ve talked to see a lot of big deer come out downwind and not even lift their nose to have them there. They’re saying they’re using it. I’ve always had great luck with my ScentLok, my clothing, spraying down with their stuff. I’ve had them come out downwind of that. I’m going to try to up the ante and use Ozonics along with my ScentLok and see what happens.
What do you know about UV brighteners in fabric? Do you know anything about ultraviolet rays?
I can’t say I know much about it. I’ve heard a few things talking with guys that from my understanding, anything with a UV brightener in it, it stands out more in a deer’s eyes. They can pick you out with it. When I wash my clothes, I make sure it’s got no UV brighteners in it. That’s my understanding. I could be out to lunch on that too.
No, you’re not. I’ve had a couple shows where I had Dr. Shawn Tyson on. He makes the product, Pure One Outdoors. He’s got UV killers. Simply what happens when I took the Deer Steward class from QDMA, deer see in blue hues. The most blue in the woods is dawn and dusk. If you have the UV brighteners in your clothing and there’s the blue fabric in your clothing or threads, anything to do with that, and you use a brightener, your clothes will glow. You have to get rid of that. I’ve talked to guys on the show and they said, “I did everything right. I had the right products. The wind was right and everything and the deer drilled me. He knew I was there and he couldn’t smell me.” He was glowing at dawn and dusk. When it gets brighter outside, it doesn’t happen. It’s a perfect storm for the deer. It’s part of their protection against us because they see in the color spectrum the blue hues and they’re greatest at dawn and dusk.
I heard a little bit about it from a good friend of mine. He owns one of the companies that I promote a little bit. He’s done his DS1, his DS2. He’s trying to get his DS3 right now. He’s talking to me a little bit about different things through it and that was what he told me. It was over a few beers too. You know how that goes.
He’s 100% correct. QDMA has got some great research, just go to QDMA, “How do deer see?” and you don’t have to do it at QDMA, you could do it on Google. You’ll find this out. It’s another one of these tips that makes a difference because you’re doing everything right. It sets that one little thing and you’re busted. There goes the deer of your lifetime, he looks at you and goes, “I don’t think so,” and walks away.
The education for them is you don’t want to do it.
You don’t because they’ll remember that stand also, with or without you in it. Why do you hunt, Chris?
I enjoy it. As much as I enjoy hunting, I enjoy the prep work up to it, watching them grow and seeing my herd. It’s nice at the end of the year to harvest that nice deer and get a nice big buck. I enjoy the outdoors. I like being out there. Whether I see deer or I don’t see deer when I’m in a stand, I enjoy being outside in nature. Nobody in my family hunts. I had a good friend of mine who took me out and I just took it. I’ve always enjoyed it. I met a few other guys and started hunting with them and started to get into it. It has all snowballed and here I am trying to grow something.
Do you hunt rifle, muzzleloader, shotgun or archery? What’s your preferred weapon?
I prefer archery, but we’ve got a two-week gun hunt up here too, that I gun hunt. If I don’t have any luck by then, we have a late season muzzleloader hunt. We get a week of that and I’ll go up muzzleloader. It kicks back over to bow season again. I hunt right up until the last day if I haven’t gotten anything. It starts on October 1st and it doesn’t end until December 1st.
How many deer can you take in Southern Ontario?
One, we get one tag. If I get my tag filled, I try to get my wife out and she hopefully tries to get one. Between the two of us, we put a little bit of meat in the freezer. Sometimes I’m able to break away from work and I get to go to Northern Ontario, up to Dryden and we go moose hunting up there. Up in that area where we go, we’re able to buy an additional antlerless deer tag. We’re able to harvest a doe up there, which is nice because we go up. We’re able to harvest a moose or two, depending on the group of guys that go and how many tags we got. If we get those tags filled, we’re able to do a little bit of a deer hunt up there too, which brings home a little extra meat for the freezer.
What’s moose like hunting in those woods? I’ve flown in and caught walleyes, but you get twenty yards off the lake and you’re in an absolute jungle. I don’t know how the moose get through it. I’ve seen a sign of moose. I’ve never seen a moose up there. I’m going, “How do these suckers live here?”
It’s the culmination of the little things that make hunting successful. Share on XIt’s a good hunt up there. We go up more for the fun of it. There’s usually around eight to ten of us that go when I am able to go. We go down the old logging roads. We go into the cuts and stuff. We glass and watch the cuts and the odd time you might be going down one of the old log roads there and one might walk out in front of you. You get them off, and hopefully off the road far enough there where you’re able to get a shot. A lot of it is glassing the big cuts and driving around in the trucks.
You’re talking logging roads, which are open and then cuts, those are timber cuts, clear-cut. There are openings. I’ve never hunted up in Ontario. It’s all new to me. It’s like out West where they have clear cuts and the elk come out and feed because that’s where the food is.
There are some thick timber and nasty stuff you can hardly walk through. I don’t even know how they get through it. They manage to put their head down and run through it. A lot of it is watching cuts. We get on the lakes. We get in the boats. We do some calling and try to call them up to the edge of the lake as well. We go to have fun. If we get a moose, we get a moose. It’s a group of guys out enjoying the outdoors.
I was in British Columbia one time and hunting. It’s amazing how they voice call and stuff to those moose. They do respond. You don’t always see them, but they respond. It’s an interesting hunt and the work starts when you put one of those suckers down, that’s the only thing I know.
We like to hopefully get them out in the cut where they’re easy to get to.
When you’re thinking about this upcoming season, you’ve got some deer already in velvet on your hit list. What makes you pick your number one? How do you pick your number one deer and rank your deer so you decide which one you’re going to hunt?
My number one, he’s been my number one for three years now. He’s eluded me. He’s back, I’ve got a couple of pictures of him. He’s the oldest deer I’ve had on my property. If I’ve aged him right, he’s nine and a half years old.
What’s the usual age, seven or eight years old?
It’s usually eight around here. He’s nine. The first year I got a picture of him, I’d say he was at least four the first year I got a picture of him. He was a nice ten-point. The following year, he grew a little bit more put on a bunch of mass though and he stayed a ten. The year before he dropped down to a nine and he dropped down to an eight-point.
He’s put on a lot of mass though.
He’s wide. He’s got a lot of mass. He’s not tall by any stretch, but I’ve been chasing this guy. He’s eluded me. I’ve had a couple of run-ins with him, but I haven’t had the luck. It was probably the worst run-in with him I ever could have had.
What happened?
We finished the gun hunt. We were coming in for the morning, coming back in to have some breakfast and that. There were a few guys over. There were two of my good friends standing right in my backyard because my house is right on our property. They’re standing there. The guns unloaded, threw them in the cases in the truck. Me and another friend, we were walking down the trail and we popped out in the field right behind my house. All of a sudden, I hear them hollering, “Shoot, shoot.” I look up and it was a flip of a tail. There he jumped off into the woods and he was gone. He was bedding right beside my house. He bedded up not probably 80 yards from my house. As I was walking down the trail, I jumped him up. He ran out pretty much right into my backyard about 30 yards from the guys as he walked right out and stood there and stared at them for about fifteen seconds. They were in a mad scramble to try to get the guns and get a shot off. By the time they got it, he had flipped off and he was into the bush and gone.
Are you going to put a trail camera by your house?
I’ve already got a couple. I put a Rack Stacker mineral station out. I run a few of them. I run four mineral stations on my 300 acres. I’ve got cameras on all of them. Of the four mineral stations, I’ve got one that’s within 100 yards of my house, believe it or not. It wouldn’t be 60 yards off the road. That’s the one he frequents the most.
He’s living underneath your deck basically.
That’s where he’s living. I’ve got that little bit of a core area narrowed down to where he’s holding up for the most part. I’m hoping I’m going to be able to sneak in there this fall.
How are you going to sneak in? He knows when you get up. He hears the alarm and hears you making coffee. When the door opens, he hears that. He hears all that.
I don’t know what I’m going to do yet, but I’m hoping I can get into that core area of his and hopefully make it happen. I haven’t got a plan worked out yet. I’m hoping if I can get out the front door and maybe sneak down the road and come in. I got a spot picked that’s not far off the mineral station. It would be about twenty yards from my mineral and maybe 40 yards off the road. It’s down in a swamp. That’s where he’s going during the day to bed up a little bit. I’m hoping he’ll be in the bean plot that’s out in the middle of the property in the morning when I sneak in there in the dark. He’ll come back down there to bed in the morning. I’ll be there waiting for him.
Obviously, he’s lived there for nine years, he was probably born there. He knows your habits better than you do. He says, “Hunting season, everybody goes in the woods, so I’ll hang out by the deck and cool my hooves here. When they go in the woods, I come out here. When they come back, I go back to my little place and watch them walk by me.”
He knows what he’s doing, but I’m hoping he slips up this time.
Send me a picture of your trail camera picture. We’ll throw that up there because that will be a good segue when you go, “I got him.” You take a picture of him.
That’s the plan. I’ve got a lot of guys that are like, “You’ve got to get that deer.” What I’ll do is I’ll send you over the last four years of pictures of him that I’ve got.
Yeah, I’d love to have them.
I’ll give them to you and you can see what he is. He’s a nice deer. There are a few pictures of him already on my website.
Do you have anything left to chat about that you want to leave with my audience?
The biggest thing for me is to get out there and enjoy it. Get some people out and get some new folks out there, enjoy the industry and work with each other. That’s the big thing, work with each other.
How do people reach out to you on social media?
They can find me on Instagram, Facebook. I’ve got a YouTube. I’m getting started getting a few videos on there. Cedar Ridge Outdoors on Instagram and Facebook. Get on there and like, follow, share, do what you’ve got to do. I’d appreciate it.
Chris, it’s been an absolute pleasure to visit with you. I wish you all the best. I can’t wait to get pictures of you smiling, grip and grin with that nine-year-old deer.
I’m hoping too, that’s for sure. A good friend of mine there, Steve Elmy at Rack Stacker, he’s helping guide me in the right direction too. He puts the product to the test down at my property every year. He’s helped me. I’ve got to get that deer for him. All the stuff he’s taught me and going from there.
All the best.
Thank you for having me.
Important Links:
- Cedar Ridge Outdoors
- ScentLok
- Ozonics
- Dr. Shawn Tyson – previous episode
- Pure One Outdoors
- QDMA
- Rack Stacker
- Cedar Ridge Outdoors on YouTube
- Cedar Ridge Outdoors on Instagram
- Cedar Ridge Outdoors on Facebook
About Cedar Ridge Outdoors
Cedar Ridge Outdoors has been delivering quality, handmade camping hammocks and gear since we opened in 2015. Our goal is to provide both a superior customer experience and tremendous value for our customers.
We began this journey out of necessity really. With our love of the outdoors and peace it brings, we were astonished at the cost of quality gear and lack of options. It was a take or leave it type of experience. We wanted to offer a line of fully customizable gear that offers quality as well as value. We are not a “Big Box” manufacturer. We promise to work with you to make sure that you receive the piece of gear of your dreams at a great price. Our hope is to get people in the outdoors with great gear that won’t kill the budget.