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Thread: Moose adventures again

  1. #1
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    Moose adventures again

    Well our family is still on reduced odds for Moose, but that didn't stop my best friend and his dad from pulling a shared group hunt in my back yard! I just realized that I didn't finish the story of our last successful LEH season. I will have to do that as the Moose that I took was a beauty and it will be fun to relive that a bit through finishing it. Here is the link
    http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/showth...ighlight=moose

    That being said, this years hunt is in my back yard, in my moose hole and one of my favorite places to hunt. The last time we were lucky enough to be part of the LEH draw for this area we struck gold you might say haha. It was an amazing time, an amazing hunt and we were super excited to go back to this spot again and do it all over. Here is last times story
    http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/showth...ighlight=moose

    OK, now for the goods. Opening day was a monday, so my family decided to come early, hunt a bit for a 4 point muley or white tail buck and do a bit of scouting. We went in on friday with the Dyck family arriving the day before the opener. What a crazy week of weather it was, and from what I can see, we weren't the only people experiencing some odd patterns. Not much for deer on the weekend, just a bunch of does, and then on sunday, before the opener it started to snow, and snow, and snow!



    We couldn't believe our luck. When it started to snow I figured it might just tease us but be gone by the morning, but nope, it snowed while we slept and it stayed for the entire hunt!
    I should back up a minute first. In our eagerness to "get out there" we forgot a few items. They weren't going to be that big a deal, but we forgot the metal poles for our interior frame for the tent. Thank goodness we were only an hour away from home. I was able to find cell service and make a call to the gf. She happily traded staying the night for bringing us our forgotten gear. Generally we don't allow the women to come, not that any of them want to, but my new lady is all over this type of stuff, so she wasn't too happy when I told her there wasn't an open invite for her. Maybe next year haha.

    Anyway, back to the story. So we wake up opening day. We wake up early, really early simply because we are excited. There were a few other camps in the area, but I know this country better than anyone (no joke) and I knew where we would have the best chances to find our first bull. Be first I told the camp as I loaded the old guys (the 2 Opa's) into the truck and we headed out. We drove out in the dark and it was magical. We were about 30 minutes ahead of shooting light, and the cut blocks were basically glowing with the fresh snow. Theres one. I stop the truck, yup. And there's another one behind it. 2 moose, but it was just a bit to dark to tell if they were bulls, neither had massive paddles. As dawn came I could tell one was a cow and one was a bull. With him looking right at us at 250 yards, it was hard to see his antlers, but he finally turned his head to see what his cow was doing and I could see he was a 6 point with some small paddles. Its a shooter I whispered. We had agreed in camp to try and maximize our meat by not shooting an immy. So out came the rifles, we had all the time in the world. I kept my voice calm, talked the tag holder through the shot placement, the distance and just reminded him to slowly squeeze when he was comfortable. Boom, his rifle rang out. Nope I said, you missed. Thats ok, reload, he isn't going anywhere. Take your time, squeeze the trigger. Boom his rifle cried out again, and we got a report of a serious WACK! reporting back. Yup that was a good shot I said as I watched the bull through my binos. Reload but don't shoot, lets see what happens. I was sure he had lunged the moose, the wack was the front shoulder. The moose just stood there, then the cow decided she was done with this situation and started to move off up the block. The bull turned, and I whispered for the shooter to wait as it wasn't a clear broadside shot. The bull took 2 steps and turned a bit more to follow the cow. I gave a grunt and he stopped. Theres your shot again I whispered. Another shot rang out, but I think it was a miss again. The bull walked into some small trees and disappeared. Its ok, he can't leave the trees without us seeing him. A few minutes later he stepped out and I gave another grunt. The last shot rang out and the moose dropped out of sight again. Finally it was time for a hoot and a holler, some hugs and high fives. Opening morning success. I sent the old guys up the hill to claim their prize, and I jumped in the truck to go get the young guys to help pack the moose out.


    to be continued
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  3. #2
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    Feb 2012
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    Re: Moose adventures again

    Great story, can't wait to hear the rest. What a start to a hunt!

  4. #3
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    Re: Moose adventures again

    The rest of the day involved packing the animal down in quarters, building a new game pole as we had relocated our camp to a new spot (won't use that spot again, too open), having some laughs and not seeing anything on the evening hunt. Again it started to snow...simply amazing for this time of year around Kamloops. Off to bed we went.

    When we woke up it had stopped snowing, and the stars were out in full force...which meant the temp had dropped...oh man had it ever! I told everyone to pack for some colder temps, seeing as how we have done this hunt several times before, never with snow in Oct no one really packed for snow...and of course me being the tough one, I barely packed for the cold lol!

    I gotta believe this was some kind of record for Oct 2...The cold meant that nothing was moving, there was fresh snow and no tracks were to be found anywhere. It was an amazingly odd moment. After this mornings hunt, if we didn't have the experience that told us the most moose would be seen on Oct 3 and 4, we may have green lighted immature moose. The discussion was had, and the idea was floated but we were far from feeling panic.

    So -17, no animals sighted the entire day. Not many pictures either as we were all huddled around the fire keeping ourselves warm by passing around the scotch.

    The old guys had gotten their moose, now it was Reagans turn. They tell me I have a knack for finding moose, so reagan had been riding with me this day. We figured it was going to happen, but it didn't. Not in the morning, not in the evening, so the plan was to keep the group together and have at it again. Well then next morning (oct 3) out we went, back to the spot I figured we would see moose and wow is all I have to say. Again our motto for this trip was be first, so first we were. The weather had again changed and with that change the Moose came out of the forest. Tracks everywhere, bushes thrashed by angry bulls, we could hear them in the timber, see that we were literally minutes behind but we didn't see a single moose. It was crazy, there are 3 roads that divide up this little area, with swamps and timber between all 3. The roads take the high ground and we can see down into the swamps. I can't believe we didn't see a single moose. Reagan and I went out again at 1pm to see if we would get lucky and catch a moose doing the afternoon shuffle. We tried calling, we could hear them react to our calls in the timber but they just wouldn't come out. More conversations were had but no immy was given the green light yet haha. Back out we go for our evening hunt. We are driving into the valley and I look down the draw...I think thats a moose, its about 800 yards away, maybe 1km. Binos up, yup its a moose. I get out the spotter and put it on the animal, yup its a bull...might be an immy though. Whats the plan reagan asks. Well the road takes us up and directly above him so we will just drive up and see whats what. So along the road we creep, moose typically don't blow out of there, he had already made us and hadn't left so I wasn't really too worried. We got above him, put more glass on him and yup he was a shooter. There was a tree directly in front of him, and he was basically facing us, so it was just a waiting game. I ranged the bull at 225, told reagan where to aim and then we just sat there. It took about 5 minutes but the moose finally decided to go on his way. 2 steps, I gave a grunt and reagan let him have it. He was hit for sure, it looked like it might have been a touch back, another bullet lept out of reagans rifle, the moose kept walking. Now he was directly walking away from us, I told him to hold, wait for him to turn. I gave another call, a cow call this time, the moose turned and reagan let another bullet fly. The moose took 2 steps and did the classic wobble and fall over dead. Big hugs, this was reagans first moose. I was so happy for him, we had so much fun after that.

    Now I am the more experienced field dresser, and on the last moose reagan may have nicked the stomach haha, so I let him celebrate while I got dirty. Hes not much of a technology guy...doesn't even own a cell phone, but he sure did snap some fun pics with my phone on this one

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  5. #4
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    Re: Moose adventures again



    Now I have never noticed this before, but do all bull moose have nips, or did our bull possibly identify as a lady bull?
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  6. #5
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    Re: Moose adventures again

    all males have nipples.....
    sorry pretty sure i saw the guy on the right dressed in drag at the kamloops pride parade...

    thanks for sharing the great story and pics.. lools like a great pocket you have there.... how was tge deer?

  7. #6
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    Re: Moose adventures again

    i love the old mazda...

  8. #7
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    Re: Moose adventures again

    no deer sighted really. Its an odd year, has been all season it feels like.
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  9. #8
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    Re: Moose adventures again

    yup that guy cleaning the moose was in dressed in drag for sure..

  10. #9
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    Re: Moose adventures again

    just kidding great write ups keep them coming

  11. #10
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    Re: Moose adventures again

    Good Story and moose !
    Arctic Lake

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