Moose down in the water? Lets hear the stories

[two-feet]

Ever happen to you? As i plan and think about our fly in trip this year many possible scenarios play out in my head.

My story: my buddy and i launch the canoe into a huge riverine swamp system on a beautiful, foggy morning. As we paddle we hear splashing in the distance so we head that way. As we head deeper into a smaller channel we hear distinct splashing right behind us, where we just were.
My friend that was paddling is from down town toronto and this was his first hunt. But all guys from ontario seem to have black belts in canoeing and he can paddle silently.

We turn around and pretty soon we can make out some shapes in the fog. We get to about 40 yds and i can see one of them is a spike fork so i shoot it behind the ear with my trusty model 99 savage in .308. It dropped like a sack of potatoes in the water, and when we hopped out of the boat we were up to our waistes.

Long story short, we tied the moose to the canoe and paddled across the river channel like that, and then the chainsaw winch came into play.

[two-feet]

Unfortunately no pics from that story. Anybody else?

[decker9]

Iv had a few. Sit on my couch and sip coffee right at daylight, moose comes out onto my lake sore to feed, I canoe across and drop him, tow him back to my dock, pick'm up with the loader, hanging in the barn by lunch time ;). So far theyv been that easy anyway lol

[decker9]

http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/Mobile%20Uploads/7BC2A819-A8DB-4E5D-9DEA-163C25122754_zpspf6a8ako.jpg (http://s1074.photobucket.com/user/decker1122/media/Mobile%20Uploads/7BC2A819-A8DB-4E5D-9DEA-163C25122754_zpspf6a8ako.jpg.html)

http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/Mobile%20Uploads/CCC0C8CF-F8F5-43DE-978B-7B60127DE465_zpswhwkdbnd.jpg (http://s1074.photobucket.com/user/decker1122/media/Mobile%20Uploads/CCC0C8CF-F8F5-43DE-978B-7B60127DE465_zpswhwkdbnd.jpg.html)

http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/A6EFD332-7EBE-465E-B644-85538B82535C_zpszna7mnm3.png (http://s1074.photobucket.com/user/decker1122/media/A6EFD332-7EBE-465E-B644-85538B82535C_zpszna7mnm3.png.html)


And as I type this, sept 1 archery moose is tied up, not far from the patio
http://i1074.photobucket.com/albums/w411/decker1122/E183C9E4-43F7-456F-A8F6-537C838C3C81_zps1yxadn8x.jpg (http://s1074.photobucket.com/user/decker1122/media/E183C9E4-43F7-456F-A8F6-537C838C3C81_zps1yxadn8x.jpg.html)

[cassiarkid]

Shot a small bull on the Dease River, actually on Joe Irwin Lake. Cut him in half and cinched each half tight to the outside of the river boat (Too much effort to get it inside, and quicker we figured, not far to the cabin). Got about 300 yard when we hit a wave causing the hinds to catch in the water. Broke the rope and we watched them sink out of sight! Found the biggest lure we could and tried to drag for it to no avail. Did catch a 4lb Laker though! Never made that mistake again!

[whitetailsheds]

Buddy had a bull die in small 6' deep pond, 50 yrds across, 100 yrds long type of thing.
At last light came back to camp to gather up some help to pull it out. Came back in complete dark, we were going to take both our quads into the spot to wade in and pull it out........trouble was, as we pulled in we could see the bull in our headlights!!! NOT IN 5' of water floating, but rather UP ON SHORE!! DAFUQ?!?
I gave my buddy hell as I thought he was pulling a fast one on me. He swore he wasn't and had a weird look on his face as we walked up to it. As we got to it, we noticed an ear was missing, and huge chunks taken off the hind quarter.......OH OH!!!!!!
We backed off to the quads and pulled out our rifles, and got ready!!!
Nothing came out at us, and we were able to pull the bull out whole to the truck, which was a mile away!
Got it loaded up unscathed!!!
We did go back the next day in the afternoon to check it out, and found the prints of a momma grizzly and 2 cubs where the truck was parked when we loaded the bull up!!!!
That was a close call!!

[M.Dean]

Iv had a few. Sit on my couch and sip coffee right at daylight, moose comes out onto my lake sore to feed, I canoe across and drop him, tow him back to my dock, pick'm up with the loader, hanging in the barn by lunch time ;). So far theyv been that easy anyway lol Well, looks like I'll be buy'in me a loader, a canoe, a dock, couch and a coffee cup too!!! Sounds like the only way to Moose Hunt!!!

[swampthing]

http://i806.photobucket.com/albums/yy342/eberlestock/bobs%20pictures%20166_zpsoufcpfqv.jpg (http://s806.photobucket.com/user/eberlestock/media/bobs%20pictures%20166_zpsoufcpfqv.jpg.html)
http://i806.photobucket.com/albums/yy342/eberlestock/bobs%20pictures%20159_zpsjcyhwrlt.jpg (http://s806.photobucket.com/user/eberlestock/media/bobs%20pictures%20159_zpsjcyhwrlt.jpg.html)

[Wentrot]

Fawk, that first picture is worthy of being made poster size for above the fireplace.

[Salmon Belly]

You guys are going to love this other thread, "Dead in the water"
http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/showthread.php?86042-Dead-in-the-water-thread&highlight=Moose+water

SB

[kilometers]

You guys are going to love this other thread, "Dead in the water"
http://www.huntingbc.ca/forum/showthread.php?86042-Dead-in-the-water-thread&highlight=Moose+water

SB
Yep lovd that one

[Caribou_lou]

I wouldn't want to try and skin one in the water. Looks like a rough go!

[decker9]

Well, looks like I'll be buy'in me a loader, a canoe, a dock, couch and a coffee cup too!!! Sounds like the only way to Moose Hunt!!!

Haha, it kinda takes the "hunting" out of it, it's more like "filling the freezer" lol. I can think of close to a dozen moose that shore has provided us in my life time, iv only been here since 1980, the same shore had provided my grandparents since the 50's.

[swampthing]

I wouldn't want to try and skin one in the water. Looks like a rough go!

A bottle of pain killers on the beach helps with the back. Once the feet go numb you don't feel them anymore.

[klondikemike]

We got a real big bull a long time ago that was in the process of going to a cow that called behind us on our side of the river. Shot him as he cleared the trees hoping he would either drop there or turn for the bush. Instead he ran straight towards us across the muddy river bank and dropped right at the waters edge. The mud\clay was so soft we couldn't butcher him the so we tried dragging him back to the trees with a real small cable comealong and some crappy rope. There was so much stretch in the nylon rope that by the time the cable was reeled in the moose hadn't moved so I got the bright idea of pulling the rope sideways at a full run. Worked perfect as the moose would move ahead about a foot every time. We made a platform out of spruce boughs and broken dead trees to pull him onto so we could at least stand and not loose our boots in the mud. Tried one last pull like earlier and gave it a little more effort pulling sideways and i found the breaking strength of poly rope. It went off like a slingshot and slapped me all up the thigh and across the ass making welts right through my pants and longjohns. We managed to get him out all clean and hung up in 4 pieces.

[tomahawk]

http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/tomahawktom/Moose09024-2.jpg
http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj230/tomahawktom/Moose09023.jpg

Immy hit through the vitals up on the bank behind where this picture was taken and ran into the creek and died. He floated there till we lassoed him, to deep to walk out and get him.

[71_camaro]

Thats a big immy!easy to tell that one

[bcsteve]

We've had a few over the years.

#1.
We saw a bull standing in a meadow close to a creek. My buddy shoots it with a couple shots and hits him pretty good. The bull runs up the meadow into the bush where the creek turns into a pond leaving a blood trail a blind man could follow. I go into the bush while my buddy is reloading expecting to see the moose laying down. I hear some crashing and see the bull running for the pond and starts swimming across (small pond, only about 25 yds across). The pond was deep enough that he was swimming with only his head sticking out of the water. The adrenaline is flowing and instead of waiting for him to get on the other edge of the pond, I shoot him in the head. He turns into a submarine and disappears under water! Oh crap! What have I done!! He resurfaced, dead, after a few nervous seconds which felt like hours and got tangled in the brush on the other side of the pond. We walked across the on the beaver damn, tied a rope around his neck and after a few attempts, got the rope on the other side of the pond so we could pull/float him across. Now we had to pull him to the meadow where we could get him in reach of the truck. I had to wade in the pond (without waders) up to my waist in the pond with a long stick to keep the moose in the water deep enough to float him while my buddy pulled on the rope along the shore till we got to the edge of the meadow. Then the truck took over.

#2
Cow and calf draw. Driving on the road exploring this new area we were hunting and what do we see on the other side of the creek, a large cow and calf. Boom, boom, hunt his over. This one was easy, crossed the creek which was only about 20' wide, tie the cow and calf together, pulley on a tree and start the truck. We pulled the cow and calf in one shot over the creek and the embankment onto the road. About a 100 yds pull altogether.

#3
Last year and the most ingenious recovery. I'm walking up this trail which follows a creek and a serie of ponds, checking each ponds as I go along. I'm making my way in the bush to the last pond when I see this small bull in the pond. He sees me and starts trotting to the edge (having learned from #1) I wait for him to get to the edge of the pond. As he hits the grass I dropped him on the spot with my .375 Ruger. He fell in the grass on the far side of the pond, about 60 yds across. I go get my buddy. Shouldn't be a problem, we got plenty of cable and my new Lewis winch I've been dying to try. The bottom of the pond is too soft to walk across and the cable keeps getting tangled on everything if we try to walk around the pond. My buddy jokingly says: "we need to cast the cable right across the pond". We look at each other, well, we have fishing rods back in camp. I run back to camp, grab a fishing rod which is spooled with 15lbs mono and the largest weight we have. I go to the moose, by buddy stays on the opposite shore and casts me the weight. He tied the mono to some rope and eventually to the cable and I pulled it to the moose. Once the cable was tied to the moose it was time to break in the Lewis. Worked like a charm.