I have hunted the kamloops/100 mile area all my life like my father before me and we have had some good success with spike/fork moose and filled all of our LEH's over the years. However, the LEH tags are few and far between these days so about 6 years ago we decided that on the years where we were unsuccessful for the local draw, we would head North and chase the generous GOS's up there. So began our annual moose hunt.
We finally decided on a place to check out after hours on google earth. After getting there we find the area is very thick but there is moose sign all over. The only way to really hunt it is to walk the game trails and call the bulls to you and hopefully get a good enough glimpse for a tine count. After 2 years of NIL but a few close calls, we connected with one 2 years ago and it kept us coming back. It's tough hunting but it is true wilderness and we fell in love with the country. We always had a few encounters but it seemed we never hit the peak of the rut. This year everything changed.
Day 1 of the hunt was warm and slow but day 2 brought the first frost. We called in 4 bulls the first morning and hopes were high. The next morning was again frosty and we shot a 50" bull and a spike/fork. 5 days later when the snow hit we had another double header and spanked two small tri-palm bulls. Countless encounters and bulls called in. It truly was the perfect trip. 4 bulls between 5 guys and we will have some happy families at home feeding on moose meat for the year.
My topic of debate is this : Do you think that area should be left alone for a few years to let a new breeding stock mature? Or do you think new bulls will move in from the vast untouched wilderness beyond to fill the void? The area does see quad traffic and moose are shot but unless you catch something on the road it is pretty tough.
Take into account, all 4 bulls this year were shot within 3km of camp. On the other hand, this only makes 5 moose in 6 years of hunting it for our group. Still, I know in the southern interior where I grew up hunting and there isn't much true wilderness left, I would feel wary of even hunting an area after harvesting 4 bulls in one year. In fact, we probably would have stopped at 2 and turned our attention to deer. The land is vast up there and almost all the country is left un-hunted which brought up this debate in our group.
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Last edited by ElliotMoose; 10-14-2020 at 12:45 PM.
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