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Thread: Long hunting journey finally lead to my first big game

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Feb 2015
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    Long hunting journey finally lead to my first big game

    Hold on tight because this is going to be a long one.

    I started hunting in 2014. My hunting group didn't really hunt per se, they camped and hunted to pass the time. For 5 seasons we were unproductive. In 2018 we got a cow moose shared LEH but ended up calling out a bull moose.

    2019 was the lowest part of my hunting career. Myself and my in law got a bull moose draw(not shared) and my friend and his dad got a shared cow moose draw. The plan was for 1 cow moose tag to be with a bull moose tag at all times. Day 1 the dad went with me and my in law went with my friend. We didn't see anything that day.

    Day 2, the dad decided he wanted to show the young bucks his canoeing skills and went with his son and the in law up river. I decided to go to a swamp solo. After hours of calling, 2 cow moose step out in front of me. After years of not having any success, I wasn't thinking straight. I took down one cow and informed the friend and his dad that they need to punch their tag because we got a cow moose. They both refused to do so. In the end, we quartered the moose, I went back to cell service and reported myself to the CO's. By the time the CO's had arrived a day later, the meat was already starting to smell sour. Originally we were going to drive back into town ASAP to the butcher, but due to the remote location and lack of cell signal, and the others wanted to continue hunting, we couldn't move the meat. I got off light with the loss of my bull moose tag and meat plus a 350$ fine. It was a tough lesson to learn but I'm never shooting an animal for someone else.

    2020, determined to have at least 1 successful year, I decided to ditch my old hunting group and called up an old coworker in the peace region. I'm from the omineca area btw. We scheduled a hunt from September 22-26. Unfortunately something came up and my coworker had to cancel last minute. From the 22-24th I saw nothing. I was starting to feel really down, having spent so much time and money going on this hunting trip just to see 1 cow moose and 2 does.

    Sept 25 morning another former coworker decides to take me out to his hunting spot. We slowly walk into a cutblock with chest high grass. We walked about 200 yards and cow called. Right there and then, a hump and antlers stand up not more than 60 ft away. This was a bull, but we had to count the brow palms. I was so excited that my legs were shaking. I couldn't get a good look at the brow palm. Every time the bull would turn to us, brush would cover it. We called to get it closer but it just wouldn't move from behind the brush. Unfortunately the wind turned and blow our scent right at it. The bull ran off before we could even get a count. Coworker #2 had to go back home that same day.

    Just then my coworker #1 sends me a text. He has some free time from the 25th-26th to take me out to his hunting spot. We did an evening hunt on the 25th but saw nothing. Next morning we rode our atv's up to a trail head and hiked for awhile. As we came around a bend we heard what sounded like 2-3 big animals running into the brush. We spooked something big but the willows were too thick to see through. We tried to call them out but no response.

    Then we decided to go to another cut block. As we drove our ATV's to the trail head, we see 2 elk cows run directly across the road we were on and into a trail that we were planning to walk. We slowly made our way down the trail, trying to find them and hoping we didn't scare them too much. After 100 yards down the trail I decided to let out a cow mew. Then my coworker motioned for me to stop moving. We heard grunting just on the other side of some 10 ft tall willow patch.

    To give you a better layout of what we were in, we were in a spot with the trail Y's. Just before the Y there's a 40 feet diameter clearing to the left, in front of us is the trail and to the right is another trail. The grunts were coming from the path infront of us just in the willow patch to the left. We switched up the call and started grunting back. We picked up sticks and starting breaking them, thrashing and acting like angry moose. He started grunting and scraping back. Then we let out cow calls. This got him moving closer. It seemed as though he would go right through the willow patch and come out the clearing to my left. I take aim at the clearing, waiting for my coworker with the binos to verify palm count. Right then my coworker sees him come out the patch and starts crossing the path infront of us. He quickly counts 3 points before the bull goes into the willows to the right of the path. The moose was trying to scent us, but he messed up. He went upwind of us instead. My coworker was already in position for when the moose was going to come out to the path on our right side.

    The moose comes out 50 yards down the trail to the right and the coworker verifies the brow palms again, but the moose starts walking away from him down the path. He can't get a broadside shot. Too afraid to move around the corner to see the moose ( I didn't want to get spotted) I stood still. I knew I wasn't going to shoot this thing but it's alright because I finally got meat. I let out a cow bawl and according to my coworker, this made the bull turn broad side. He took the shot, double lung heart. Then the bull quarters away and the coworker takes another shot, into the lungs. At this point I've already ran around the corner to make sure my coworker didn't miss. It was at this moment that the bull reared back and fell. My co-worker and I walk up to it as it continued to kick around attempting to get up. He puts one more into the brain and that was that. The moose fell right in the middle of a quad trail, it couldn't have been any easier. We counted 2 brow tines on the right side and 4 tines on the left, 40 inches wide and left antler had 11 points total. We split the meat and he kept the antlers. I have no use for antlers anyways. I usually just destroy them to make knife handles.

    And that's how I got my first legal moose.
    Last edited by bruce44; 09-29-2020 at 09:47 AM.

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  3. #2
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    Oct 2012
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    Re: Long hunting journey finally lead to my first big game

    Congrats on your first bull moose! Pics?

  4. #3
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    Re: Long hunting journey finally lead to my first big game


  5. #4
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    Re: Long hunting journey finally lead to my first big game

    congrats on your buddies moose

  6. #5
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  7. #6
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    May 2015
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    Victoria BC
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    Re: Long hunting journey finally lead to my first big game

    Hopefully you will get your first one next year!

  8. #7
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    Feb 2009
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    387

    Re: Long hunting journey finally lead to my first big game

    Congratulations. I've been hunting for over 60 years now and got my first big game (bear) at age 12. When my dad and I hunted ducks he instilled in me that the one shot that hits a duck is not the hunt. It's the whole experience. When we came home with our limit of ducks he said, We got our limit today. He didn't say I shot 10 and my son shot 4. Later when I began to hunt big game with others it was always we. We got a moose. We got an elk. Some times I pushed bush and my partner shot the animal. It was our animal - not his. Other times I was the shooter and sometimes we both shot together. So when someone asks - did you get a moose last year I say yes. I don't say no just because someone else shot it and I only did the calling and helped with the hauling. So bruce44 - congratulations on your successful moose hunt!

  9. #8
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    Re: Long hunting journey finally lead to my first big game

    Congrats on the moose and kudos on the honesty about the 2018 season. I think you made the right choice in ditching your old party. Any guy that’s willing to let a moose go to waste because pulling the trigger is more important to him is in it for the wrong reasons. That discussion would have been a very good one to have ahead of time.

    Brad

  10. #9
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    Feb 2015
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    143

    Re: Long hunting journey finally lead to my first big game

    Quote Originally Posted by Razor84 View Post
    congrats on your buddies moose
    and you sir, are part of the problem. Doesn't matter who shot the moose, point is we got one and I contributed in a big way. He wouldn't have gotten the shot off if it wasn't for me.

    @high and to the right, thank you. Yes that's true when it comes to meat, it doesn't matter who took the shot, the point is meat is in the freezer. I'm finding so many people just want to shoot something so they keep going until everyone in the camp gets a moose. Before you know it, they have too much moose meat and either give it all away or make it into dog food. Greed to the fullest.
    Last edited by bruce44; 09-29-2020 at 11:43 AM.

  11. #10
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    Feb 2015
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    143

    Re: Long hunting journey finally lead to my first big game

    Quote Originally Posted by pin_head View Post
    Congrats on the moose and kudos on the honesty about the 2018 season. I think you made the right choice in ditching your old party. Any guy that’s willing to let a moose go to waste because pulling the trigger is more important to him is in it for the wrong reasons. That discussion would have been a very good one to have ahead of time.

    Brad
    We had a miscommunication. At the start of the day he said "if we hear a gunshot, lets all get back together so we don't accidentally shoot the same thing twice". I heard that as confirmation that I could shoot his cow and he could shoot my bull.

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