Whitetail Deer Hunting:
Merkel's Camp has been providing fishing/hunting packages since 1963 and is one of the original Whitetail Deer hunting outfitters in this area. We offer an exclusive hunting package tailored to specifically suit your needs, whether rifle hunting or archery hunting. We limit the number of hunters to make sure you have quality service and a successful hunt. We hunt primarily private land in areas where there are tremendous opportunities for a large trophy buck.
Our camp is located along the section of the Trans Canada Highway that makes up the northern boundary of the famous Whitetail Triangle. Our area, without question, has the best fare-chase wild Whitetail Buck hunting in the world. It has become a Mecca for deer hunters from all over North America. Even hunters in Europe have started reading about Northwestern Ontario in the many hunting publications that keep getting drawn back to writing stories about Ontario's gigantic bucks. We are on the north-shore of Wabigoon Lake between the towns of Dryden and Dinorwic. Merkel's Camp is smack-dab in the middle Whitetail Central.
Why are the Bucks here?
The Trans Canada highway is actually the original trail the pioneers used to colonize Canada. Settlers from the east traveled west along the trail and as land on the prairies was claimed, people started settling farther east into Ontario. There were some flat areas for farming here and there but most settlers cleared the land themselves to make their own farms. This changed the environment. You have hundreds of thousands of square miles of total wilderness, thousands of lakes and stream and now thrown into the mix are corn farms peppering the landscape both north and south of the trail. Combine this new food source with the fact that Whitetail Deer in the far north are genetically larger and stronger in order to survive the harsh winters and you get the biggest Whitetails in the world. Whitetail Deer are also more aggressive in the far north because they need to defend themselves from the never-ending encroachment of wolves. This is a recipe for the best deer hunting in the world. Now in modern times you can add logging to the recipe. Loggers clear out old growth forest and allow new grasses and berries bushes to grow, which is a very important food source for Whitetail Deer, Moose, Black Bears and many other critters. The Whitetail Deer population has never been higher and the bucks just keep getting bigger and bigger.
The Hunt:
Merkel's Camp has an 8 point minimum to ensure trophies for now and the future. An 8 point beyond the ears will score between 130 and160 B&C. Usually these racks have great mass providing a nice trophy. Each year there are several bucks spotted and harvested, which are well above the 160 B&C Score. Some are over the 200 B&C. Each hunter will hunt an area, which has not been hunted that year by any of our hunters. The bucks taken are an average of 275 lbs field dressed and have some up to 380 lbs. Generally they are in the 300 plus range. Most of our hunters prefer fair chase hunts with 70% success. Baited stands are available if that is the hunter's choice.
Merkel's Camp Whitetail Deer Hunt includes:
- Extensive pre-scouting and orientation
- Delicious home cooked meals
- Very comfortable accommodation
- Deer hunting License ($224)
- Assistance with retrieval and skinning of deer