Well, sometimes it all comes together...
I spent 4 days going solo at the end of August on one of our local rivers North of Fort McMurray looking for a Bull Moose in bow season. I saw plenty of moose but most were when running the boat and that made for a tough stalk once they know you are there. I did manage to get close to a couple young bulls but being later in the day and far from camp it would have made for an all-nighter on the side of the river if I decided to take one and in the end I let them walk. I also messed up on a big bull that I got in real close with but never did get a shot. Pretty impressive watching him freight train out of there at 30 feet. I swear you could feel the ground move...
Fast forward to last Friday. My brother-in-law has a early season bull moose draw so things worked out and we had a couple days on the river planned. I picked him up well before first light and a few hours later we were on the river. It’s a bit more work these days as I sold my Explorer a few years ago and last fall bought a Solar 380 Jet inflatable with a 25hp (20 at the pump) Merc 2-stroke factory jet. I had high hopes of seeing moose like I had a few weeks earlier but with the rifle draw season open all we saw were other boats.
By noon we were 80k from the truck when I took a wide turn around a 90 degree right corner in the river. We both spotted the bull at the same time so I quickly cut in and ran the boat up into the high grass before we cleared the corner. Todd jumped out and a few feet up the back he could lay down in a good spot. I stood up as the boat was back around the corner a few yards and I could see decent bone in the binoculars. We figured 250-300 yards to where the bull was then the river turned left. I remember saying let him have it when you get a shot which was quickly followed by the report of his 300 Weatherby Mag. I swear I saw the bullet impact so I said now we get to see him fall over...but instead he started to eat again. At that Todd let him have it again and this time I saw the bullet impact right behind the shoulder. It had been raining all morning and just quit so it was pretty cool to see the impact and the water come off him. At that he started walking like a drunken sailor. No need for another one and within feet he was down and Todd had his first bull moose.
After the high-fives were done we jumped in the boat and went to go have a look at Todd’s bull. As we got up the river we could believe it but not a 100 feet up the river there was another bull standing on the same side of the river. It was farther around the corner so we couldn’t originally see it from where we stopped. At about 75 yards it wandered off the side of the river and into the timber before we could get a picture. Not a monster by any means but a decent bull much like the one we had on the ground if not slightly bigger.
We no sooner got out on the shore and I pointed down river 75 yards and a third bull walked out....and this one was a pretty good bull. I took a couple pics then told Todd I was going to get back in the raft and drift down river to see if I could get a decent video. I managed to get within about 80 feet before he turned and started to run away. One poor excuse for a cow call later and he stopped and turned broadside at about 60 yards. Boom, could have had him. He turned and trotted off again but wasn’t much interested in the cow call the second time.
Back up river at the downed bull we took a bit of time for some pictures then the work started. Todd made two great shots and there was no meat wasted. Typical gutless method and the only thing that made it a chore were the million little No-see-um flys buzzing around our face. It was a bit of a rush because of them but also because we had a long trip back to the truck and I wasn’t expecting the inflatable to move as fast going down river as it did going up, which I hadn’t really thought of earlier. After a kilometer going back down river the math I was doing in my head wasn’t adding up to us getting back before dark so we decided to offload half the meat and come back for it the next day. That got us back for dark Friday and another long day yesterday getting the second half out. Thankfully it was a low of only 2 degrees the last few days so all was good with the cool weather.
With that I’m going to clean up the boat and pack it away for the winter. I’ve got a late season undersubscribed bull moose tag for the same zone and while I’d like to get back up river there is not much chance a guy could get back in the area come November. Heck most years there is too little water to get to where we shot the bull come hunting season.
Check out the background in this first pic...
All loaded up but as mentioned, it was way too much for this little boat...
A second load today with the other half of the bull...
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