DarkSiths 2016!

[Darksith]

Well I'm in Burns Lake, my home town...about to depart tomorrow on my leh shared moose hunt. Spirits and confidence mostly due to the spirits are really high. Can't wait to Share more. Until then

[Shikari300WSM]

Goodluck amigo! Hopefully you come out withere a hog of a bull!

[604Stalker]

Great work post up those deer if you have pics sounds like a good trip

[Darksith]

So off we went from Burns Lake to a destination I could tell you about, but then I would have to murder everyone so its probably best I just say we went somewhere fun. It took quite the effort to get there too, there may have been ferries involved and other water crossings. We end up on some sweet ground with the place to ourselves! how often does that happen? She was a little moist that day, and most of the trip actually, which only led to many many different silly jokes.

we always stop along the way to enjoy a refreshment and some scenery.

After a long day on in the truck, on the ATV and maybe even some boats we get to our home for the next 10 days

Usually we are in wall tents with cots and hauling so much gear. Its good to have friends with connections to sweet hotels like that I tell ya!

[Darksith]

We also are so lucky to have some crazy traditions when it comes to our fall hunts. There are not many people in this world that have got to dine on fresh oysters 18h from the coast! But many what a feast this was to kick off our hunting trip.



I even found a few pearls! Of course I left them at the cabin with the book and an oyster shell to brag to the owner about what he missed and what we had. He must of been scratching his head seeing oyster shells at his cabin! So off we went the next morning, feeling good and looking to have the best trip ever. Then all of a sudden I feel something wrong with my side by side. I look back and immediately realize that I am about to lose a bearing on my rear axle. How in the world could this happen, I just paid a shop a bunch of money to fix this...it all becomes clear when I think back though. I can't even remember how I figured it out but I soon realized that I had a spare hub with new bearings sitting at my house. This is the second hunting trip where I had a catastrophic failure of my machine due to a shit mechanic shop. So we are a group of 4 with only 1 quad and 2 trailers all of a sudden on day 1 of our hunt! like WTF are we going to do. We make a few phone calls, and we end up getting a friend to bring us his side by side. Now its quite the task to actually get the machine to where we are, but we get it done without even losing a hunt (morning or evening)! Lets just say that we ended up buying several bottles for people for the favors we called in on this trip. Now not only did we get a new ride delivered to us, but we also phoned a buddy in Kamloops who went to my house, found my spare hub that should of been installed on my machine and he sends it via greyhound to Burns Lake. Then through a chain of people the hub gets delivered to us on I think day 8 of our hunt and with 10 minutes of wrenching we get the hub swapped and my ride ends up being a crucial piece of our puzzle to get all of our equipment home.

OK, back to the story.
Day 2, the morning of. Remember how I said we didn't even miss a hunt, well off we go, with plans to pickup the other side by side that afternoon. 2 guys on a quad and 2 guys getting towed in the trailer. Now it was wet, so we in the trailer (me of course since my machine failed and my buddy Reagan) we are getting sprayed with water from the rear tires of the quad the entire morning. Rain gear or not we were wet. It totally sucked. But around the corner we come and there on the road are 2 bulls, both we figure 2.5 year old animals. We watch them for minutes and decide to pass. We have aspirations of trophys on this hunt and my buddy wasn't going to let us connect on the second day with such a small moose. So off we watch them go, and besides, we had a meeting to get to to pickup our second/third machine. We finally get the other machine to our cabin and off we go for our evening hunt, back to 2 guys on 2 machines. The afternoon is uneventful, we are heading back and its starting to get dark. Still shooting light but not for long when the lead machine stops. What we ask when we pull up. You don't see that moose? I look out and sure enough about 300 yards away there is 2 big white paddles looking at us, thats all that you really see, the dark moose is blended right into the background. The scramble is on, thats a tough shot my buddy says, Reagan and my uncle bob both say my name. I can make that shot. 300 yards, the moose standing looking at us face on...I can make that shot. I get setup and try to kneel down with a metal pack as my rest. My buddy is telling me to hurry up but I won't be hurried. Im not comfortable or solid enough so I relocate and try a different position. Hurry up he says, hes not going to stand there forever, but again, Im just not comfortable. I end up prone on the road looking through a window of shrubs, finally I am happy. I do the math in my head one more time, with the estimate of 300 yards. I put the crosshairs basically on his nose knowing if it drops in 12" as it should it would be perfect, if it was a bit farther and I had 8" more of drop I would still have a heart shot.

Boom my 325wsm barks and as the picture settles down in my scope after the recoil I see that moose rear up his front legs and jump straight up in the air. Ive never seen a moose leap like a deer, but this beast did. Lets go my buddy says and off we go. I reload a shell but there is something wrong with my clip and I don't end up chambering a round. I don't think much of it though, we have little time and some ground to cover. I get about 100 yards closer to where the moose was when all of a sudden there he is again, looking at us, facing us directly. I drop to the ground but I lose the ability to see him and get off a shot, I stand up but Im breathing heavy with adrenaline and from the sprint. Then he turns and disappears. WTF I think to myself, I have heart shot lots of deer, sometimes they jump up like that moose did, other times they just drop in their tracks. my buddy who is fitter than I is way out in front of me, encouraging me to hurry up. Im coming I say as I scramble through the old cut block navigating the blow down. We get to where the moose was standing but hes no where to be found. Shit, this is not what we wanted. We figured I would kill the moose dead or miss completely. He was obviously hit, but now I start to second guess my range and wonder if I just grazed his brisket. We keep moving towards the back of the block. I end up circling around when my buddy is all of a sudden by my side, I found him, come with me he says. We quickly scramble to the moose. hes pinned at the edge of the timber, he can't make it over the blowdown. Hurry and kill him my buddy says, we don't want to chase this guy into the timber and this is Grizz country. We don't want to leave him either. I raise the rifle and squeeze...click. WTF oh shit, my guns magazine isn't working...I fiddle with my rifle and finally get a bullet to chamber.
Crack barks my 325 again and down goes the moose. We high 5 and hug. Hes down but his head is still up.

Go finish him off my buddy tells me. Im so excited I forgot what I was doing, or what I was doing I guess. There is all this blowdown, so I have no clean shot. In my mind I am just going to walk up to this beast and he will simply surrender and let me dispatch him as quickly and ethically as possible. What was I thinking. I climb over a bunch of blowdown, get right up beside this huge animal and his survival instinct kicks in again. All of a sudden there is no blowdown between me and this moose, and he gets one last bust of adrenaline and stands up turning toward me. I will never forget this, I was in real danger. 2 steps and he could of smashed me with his rack. Shoot him my buddy yells at me, I just point my rifle at his moving head and pull the trigger. Thank god that dispatched him. If I had of shot from the hip and missed I could of been in real bad shape. That was the last round in my rifle.

[Darksith]

We get him gutted and reluctantly leave him for the night. It was a nervous reentry into the area with all of the G bear activity but in the end nothing had found it yet. We got it loaded up and the rest of the day was spent dealing with our prize.

The next few days were wet and unproductive. We even decided from lack of sightings to spend a day in camp playing with our .22's. We invented a game and had competitions. It was one of the funnest days of the trip. We spotted a few more bulls, missed a shot, but all in all it was one of the funnest hunts with the oldest of friends. I can't wait to do it again one day!

[Arctic Lake]

Congrats ! Your having a good year !
Arctic Lake