Our Moose Hunt 2022

[ekul246]

When Marc and I first saw him on the road, all we knew was that he had mature looking antlers. The rest had been about getting the job done. He was a big boy and more than I could have wished for. I had expected only to see spike forks and that was good enough. I hadn’t expected this. He had paddles and two drop tines, the one on his right being large and the one on the left being small and coming off his brow tines. We celebrated, took pictures and savoured the moments. I inspected his rack, ran my hands down his back and checked out his huge ears. It was surreal. Alex ran back to camp to get some things that had been forgotten as well as the trailer. While he was doing that, I put a strap around the bulls head and under his chin and we pulled him out onto the road. It took us 5 hours to get the bull dealt with. His hind quarters were 6ft tall. Their size is amazing. The wind picked up and blew as we worked, trees crashing down on either side of the road, dirt flying around. We left the hide on the quarters as we worked to keep the meat clean. Alex fed us granola bars and water as we cut the meat, having had no breakfast and lunch had also passed. Many of the other groups of hunters with the draw drove by us as we worked. They all stopped and chatted and congratulated us. They were all thrilled at finding this was our first moose and first moose hunt together and it was brothers who had bagged one while out with their Dad and a good friend. No one had seen anything and one hunter got out and put his hand on the rack, hoping it would help him have some success.





Finishing up, we headed to camp and cleaned up a bit as the wind had scattered everything and even pulled up the stakes holding the tent down. Marc and I drove to reception to try and call a butcher but everything was full. I got the phone number of a cooler and called the owner. He had tons of room and the price was reasonable. We went back to camp and loaded up the meat in the coolers and drove to town for ice, giddy the whole time and periodically laughing with joy at our success. Along the way, a grouse bounced off the hood and into the bush and we both laughed as Marc said, “WE’RE KILLING EVERYTHING TODAY!”

I spoke with my wife on the drive and showed the kids the rack of the moose sticking up behind me in the back of the suburban. They were losing their minds with excitement! We loaded ice into the coolers to cool everything down and then back to camp to hang the quarters from the meat pole. It was a long exhausting day and we DID eat tenderloin and heart, for the first time ever, cooked over the fire as our Thanksgiving dinner that night, as I had foretold! I also broke out the celebratory bottle of bourbon and half of that went down between the four of us. I then corked it and went to put it away. The others said, “Hey, what are you doing?!” “We still have another moose to kill!” I said and tucked away the bottle. (I told you I was being very optimistic on this trip). We laughed about all the effort we had been putting in hiking and getting into the bush just to have a bull pop out on the road. It was a couple days later that I realised that the wind had been blowing from camp the whole night before in that direction. I had put lots of scent up around camp and he had shown up just a couple kms from camp and was heading towards it. He was most likely following the scent to the source, our camp. So again, it hadn’t been a complete fluke! It had been from our actions and the change in weather had obviously facilitated.




Day 11
We really slept in this morning. We deserved it after all the hard work the day before. Out to the Phonebooth to try some of the butchers again, but to no avail. Early afternoon, Dad decided to stay in camp while Alex came with Marc and I to the Monster’s swamp. We lasted a couple hours there. I turned to the others and told them that I felt like this was a waste of time. We had chased him out of there and he wasn’t going to come back. They agreed and we left the Monster for the last time. On the way, we stopped to check the trailcam in the clearing. THERE WAS A BULL ON IT! We couldn’t see his head on the video, only his rump. But on the ground after he passed the shadow of his antlers could be seen. 100% a bull. He had come through on Day 9 at 10:15am. I figured he had smelled the scent on the tree and would still be in the area. That night, I started trying to skin the skull of my bull, but didn’t make much progress before it was dark and dinner was ready. We decided to get up early and go sit in the bottom part of the big burn we had been to right before Marc had shot his bear on Day 9.

Day 12
We made our way in as the light slowly grew and sat scanning the tree line with the wind perfect, hoping some deer might walk out. Around 8:15am, I had to go and try a couple of the butchers again,as they had told me to call back. I asked Marc, did he want to hunt the clearing where the camera was or come with me? He wanted to hunt. I dropped him off and Alex came with me to the Phonebooth. I called everyone again and everything for an hour in any direction was full. So I called the cooler and told him we would be a few hours before we arrived. Alex and I headed back to camp. About two-thirds of the way there, a vehicle was travelling towards us. I recognized it a second later as Dad’s suburban. Alex said, “What are they doing? It’s only 11am.” “Marc killed a bull!” I exclaimed. “There’s no other explanation for them coming in our direction at this time!”. Sure enough, Marc was next to my dad in the suburban. We stopped next to each other and I said, “Did you kill a bull moose?!” “I killed a bull moose!” Marc exclaimed, holding up his cut tag, smiling and his eyes huge in his head. “NO WAY!”. He proceeded to tell us how it went down.



I had dropped Marc off with my bugle tube near the clearing and left. My dad would wait at camp and Marc would walk back later. He had made his way down and sat on the north side of the clearing; the wind was perfect. He setup and made his first cow call. Immediately, he thought he had heard a grunt, though far away. He continued calling every 15 mins and the grunting responded, coming closer. The bull was coming from down and across the little lake. He heard the bull coming closer and closer. Then he seemed to get a bit hung up. So Marc decided to grunt. Immediately, the bull began grunting like mad and galloping up the slope towards him! He said it was crazy and terrifying! The bull came to a sudden stop at the edge of the clearing, drooling and grunting and looking back and forth for the cow he had been smelling but couldn’t find, the scent I had put up. He was standing broadside so Marc shot him. A 30 yard shot and the bull dropped like a sack of potatoes. Marc was in shock! The bull jumped up and took off back where he had come from and Marc put another in him. Less than 20 yards from where he had first been hit the bull fell. In the chill morning air, Marc made his way across the clearing and rechambered. He could see the bull and his hot breath expelling through the hole Marc had poked in his lung. Marc waited a minute and then seeing that he wasn’t yet expired, put another one in him. The bull’s breathing stopped. Marc told me his next thought was that he wished I had been there for it. He knew what he had experienced was what I had been hoping for and talking about the whole trip. That meant a lot to me when he told me that.

Dad had heard the initial shot and decided to drive up and check on Marc. Marc was just heading to the road when Dad called down, “Did you kill a moose?” Marc whooped in response. They piled into the suburban and headed over to get Alex and myself. Marc, like me, had wanted to wait until everyone was there to put his hands on his moose.