TimberPig
10-17-2015, 09:45 PM
I'm not normally much of a poster onhere (this is probably the first thread I have ever started in fact), butenjoy reading the stories others post, and finally have one somewhat worthy ofposting.
A little background, my dad passed away when I was 9, and only one of my unclesstill hunts (and doesn't live in BC, nor does he hunt big game). As aresult, it took some help from a good friend (whom I haven't hunted with in toomany years and keep meaning to get out with again) who helped convince mymother to let me start hunting with him back when I was 16 (1998).
We started out with trying for a deer in late September/early October thatyear, then as that was the last year of the Cariboo GOS moose season (October15-31, any bull), we switched over to trying to find me a moose. We werehunting an area my friend had had success in many times over the years(including that year on a September LEH draw). We were only able tohunt the weekends, due to his work/my school, but managed to find a small bull,however, due to my inexperience, I missed an offhand shot at the bull, andnever got another chance. I was pretty disappointed, but we movedback over to trying to locate a buck for me, without luck due to the 4 pointrestriction in place.
Fast forward to 2000, I pulled a LEH bull draw for the same zone, hunted thesame area, but was unsuccessful in locating a moose in the limited time I hadto hunt.
I hunted off and on around university over the next few years, then finishedschool and had more time, finally taking my first deer in 2006.
In 2008 I was working in 5-03, and had seen many bulls in that zone in 2007, soI applied on the September draw, and won it. Despite being in the zonehunting/working for 19 of the 21 days, I was unsuccessful in harvesting a bull,although I had one On October 1, after my draw was closed I could have shot 3different times standing at 25 yards. Very frustrating to say the least.
Despite wanting to make the trek further north for the GOS moose seasons, time,money and lack of a group to go with prevented this from happening, leaving meat the mercy of the LEH system for moose hunting in the Cariboo. In themeantime I helped some friends fill a couple of moose tags in the Cariboo, butstill no moose of my own yet.
After another several year hiatus waiting for a tag, I was successful this yearin drawing a 5-02C tag for October 1-14, so I rearranged my holiday time to beable to take the time off to hunt the draw.
I already had planned to go back to the same area, as I had previously huntedyears before, although the landscape had changed some more in the interveningyears, due to the salvage of beetle killed pine.
October 1 saw me in my spot, calling, hiking swamp edges and looking tosee where the moose were hanging in the area, but with little fresh signevident, and afternoon temperatures that were way too warm (20ishdegrees). I continued hitting the area hard, checking different areas,calling and generally doing everything I could to find a moose without muchsuccess. I had a bull responding to my calling on the 3rd, but a swirl ofwind sent him packing. On the 6th, I was calling beside a swamp, and hada bull responding from within an old cutblock, but he was with a cow whowas screaming at him to keep him there, and I never saw either of them emergefrom the 25 year old stand. The next few days were warm and windy, withno further action despite putting in the time and effort, the results weren'tcoming.
I had pretty much given up hope of filling my tag and was just happy to havebeen able to get out and put in an honest effort to filling the tag, when on themorning of the 13th, the weather cooled a bit again, with -3 overnight lows andfrost. I was back in at the same little swamp where I had the bull andcow a week earlier, but on the other side of the swamp. The morning wascold, with mist coming off the swamp and a gentle breeze in my face when I letout my first calls, that didn't seem great, they sounded kind of flat. Icontinued calling, and the next set of calls just bellowed and echoed andsounded much better. About 10 minutes after my second set of calls, Iheard a bull grunt from the other side of the swamp, where the bull and cow hadbeen a week earlier. I started getting my hopes up a little, but tried mybest to stay calm. I called again, and shortly after calling heard a branchbreak a couple of hundred meters from where the grunt came from, headingtowards my location. The conditions were still good, with the breezestill coming into my face. I had no further calling from the bull, so Ijust continued on with my calling on schedule, and after my third set of calls,heard another branch break another couple of hundred meters closer to mylocation, and probably only 150 meters away from me. I only had to wait acouple of minutes until the bull poked his head out from the trees into theswamp, looking for the cow. I was sitting between a couple of smalltrees, so he couldn't see me well, and began walking along the edge of theswamp towards my location. After about 25 yards, he stopped broadside fora few seconds, so I reached over to get my rifle, which was sitting beside me,expecting him to turn and take off, blowing my only chance. I managed toget my gun in hand, scope caps off, and get into a stable sitting positionwithout him getting alarmed. I fully expected him to bolt, but heremained calm, still looking for the cow, while I was able to get myself calmenough and settled enough to take the shot.
Boom! One shot from my .338 Win Mag at about 50 yards, and he slowly ambledinto a patch of timber beside the swamp. I lost sight of him in thetrees, and heard some branches breaking, so I began to question my shot or if Ihad somehow missed. I tried to stay calm and give him some time, and thesound of breaking branches stopped. I sat and waited for what felt like 10minutes, but was probably more like 2 minutes in reality. I walked overto where he was standing when I shot, and didn't see any blood. Now I wasstarting to panic that I had missed, so I had my gun ready, and began followingthe path he had disappeared on, still not seeing any blood. Fortunately Ionly had to walk a couple of more meters before I was able to see he wasdown, but still kicking a bit, so I put a finisher into his neck. FinallyI had my first moose down, and now the work was to begin.
Here's the only photo I took before heading out to get my quad and gear tobegin the extraction. Not a huge bull byany means (37.5” tip to tip), but I wasn’t about to be picky.
https://www.flickr.com/gp/135305774@N07/59238x (https://www.flickr.com/gp/135305774@N07/59238x)
As I was hunting by myself, and didn't have any friends lined up to help pullhim out, I took the time and worked my butt off on the solo extraction. As I am slow, it was about 6 hours of work to get him out loaded into the truckand headed for home. Once at home, due to disruptions, exhaustion and mygenerally slow pace at skinning, it was about 5 hours later by the time he wasfully skinned, hung and cooling properly.
I learned a few things in the process, mostly to keep going even if the oddsare against you, you never know, and that moose being big animals are mucheasier to handle solo if you break them right down into quarters before tryingto move them too far (I halved it and wrestled them into the trailer behind thequad, then from there into the truck).
Also, while skinning I found my first bullet fully mushroomed under the offside hide. I really didn't expect a 225 gr Accubond fired from a .338 Magto be stopped on a 50 yard shot on a moose. Athough it was quartering away andwent through the back of the ribcage, through the liver, through the left lung,and then out the offside ribs, so probably penetrated +/- 2 feet of moose, andthe liver is full of fluid so will slow a bullet more than a pure lung shotwould.
All in all, a hard hunt in less than ideal weather conditions that paid offwith a freezer full of delicious meat for the year ahead. The only downside isSWMBO has decreed that I am officially grouse hunting the rest of the season,as our freezers are full (once the moose comes back from the butchers) so Idon't need to shoot a deer (or my winter elk LEH draw), at least by herthinking.
Hope you enjoy my story, far too few are posting them anymore.
A little background, my dad passed away when I was 9, and only one of my unclesstill hunts (and doesn't live in BC, nor does he hunt big game). As aresult, it took some help from a good friend (whom I haven't hunted with in toomany years and keep meaning to get out with again) who helped convince mymother to let me start hunting with him back when I was 16 (1998).
We started out with trying for a deer in late September/early October thatyear, then as that was the last year of the Cariboo GOS moose season (October15-31, any bull), we switched over to trying to find me a moose. We werehunting an area my friend had had success in many times over the years(including that year on a September LEH draw). We were only able tohunt the weekends, due to his work/my school, but managed to find a small bull,however, due to my inexperience, I missed an offhand shot at the bull, andnever got another chance. I was pretty disappointed, but we movedback over to trying to locate a buck for me, without luck due to the 4 pointrestriction in place.
Fast forward to 2000, I pulled a LEH bull draw for the same zone, hunted thesame area, but was unsuccessful in locating a moose in the limited time I hadto hunt.
I hunted off and on around university over the next few years, then finishedschool and had more time, finally taking my first deer in 2006.
In 2008 I was working in 5-03, and had seen many bulls in that zone in 2007, soI applied on the September draw, and won it. Despite being in the zonehunting/working for 19 of the 21 days, I was unsuccessful in harvesting a bull,although I had one On October 1, after my draw was closed I could have shot 3different times standing at 25 yards. Very frustrating to say the least.
Despite wanting to make the trek further north for the GOS moose seasons, time,money and lack of a group to go with prevented this from happening, leaving meat the mercy of the LEH system for moose hunting in the Cariboo. In themeantime I helped some friends fill a couple of moose tags in the Cariboo, butstill no moose of my own yet.
After another several year hiatus waiting for a tag, I was successful this yearin drawing a 5-02C tag for October 1-14, so I rearranged my holiday time to beable to take the time off to hunt the draw.
I already had planned to go back to the same area, as I had previously huntedyears before, although the landscape had changed some more in the interveningyears, due to the salvage of beetle killed pine.
October 1 saw me in my spot, calling, hiking swamp edges and looking tosee where the moose were hanging in the area, but with little fresh signevident, and afternoon temperatures that were way too warm (20ishdegrees). I continued hitting the area hard, checking different areas,calling and generally doing everything I could to find a moose without muchsuccess. I had a bull responding to my calling on the 3rd, but a swirl ofwind sent him packing. On the 6th, I was calling beside a swamp, and hada bull responding from within an old cutblock, but he was with a cow whowas screaming at him to keep him there, and I never saw either of them emergefrom the 25 year old stand. The next few days were warm and windy, withno further action despite putting in the time and effort, the results weren'tcoming.
I had pretty much given up hope of filling my tag and was just happy to havebeen able to get out and put in an honest effort to filling the tag, when on themorning of the 13th, the weather cooled a bit again, with -3 overnight lows andfrost. I was back in at the same little swamp where I had the bull andcow a week earlier, but on the other side of the swamp. The morning wascold, with mist coming off the swamp and a gentle breeze in my face when I letout my first calls, that didn't seem great, they sounded kind of flat. Icontinued calling, and the next set of calls just bellowed and echoed andsounded much better. About 10 minutes after my second set of calls, Iheard a bull grunt from the other side of the swamp, where the bull and cow hadbeen a week earlier. I started getting my hopes up a little, but tried mybest to stay calm. I called again, and shortly after calling heard a branchbreak a couple of hundred meters from where the grunt came from, headingtowards my location. The conditions were still good, with the breezestill coming into my face. I had no further calling from the bull, so Ijust continued on with my calling on schedule, and after my third set of calls,heard another branch break another couple of hundred meters closer to mylocation, and probably only 150 meters away from me. I only had to wait acouple of minutes until the bull poked his head out from the trees into theswamp, looking for the cow. I was sitting between a couple of smalltrees, so he couldn't see me well, and began walking along the edge of theswamp towards my location. After about 25 yards, he stopped broadside fora few seconds, so I reached over to get my rifle, which was sitting beside me,expecting him to turn and take off, blowing my only chance. I managed toget my gun in hand, scope caps off, and get into a stable sitting positionwithout him getting alarmed. I fully expected him to bolt, but heremained calm, still looking for the cow, while I was able to get myself calmenough and settled enough to take the shot.
Boom! One shot from my .338 Win Mag at about 50 yards, and he slowly ambledinto a patch of timber beside the swamp. I lost sight of him in thetrees, and heard some branches breaking, so I began to question my shot or if Ihad somehow missed. I tried to stay calm and give him some time, and thesound of breaking branches stopped. I sat and waited for what felt like 10minutes, but was probably more like 2 minutes in reality. I walked overto where he was standing when I shot, and didn't see any blood. Now I wasstarting to panic that I had missed, so I had my gun ready, and began followingthe path he had disappeared on, still not seeing any blood. Fortunately Ionly had to walk a couple of more meters before I was able to see he wasdown, but still kicking a bit, so I put a finisher into his neck. FinallyI had my first moose down, and now the work was to begin.
Here's the only photo I took before heading out to get my quad and gear tobegin the extraction. Not a huge bull byany means (37.5” tip to tip), but I wasn’t about to be picky.
https://www.flickr.com/gp/135305774@N07/59238x (https://www.flickr.com/gp/135305774@N07/59238x)
As I was hunting by myself, and didn't have any friends lined up to help pullhim out, I took the time and worked my butt off on the solo extraction. As I am slow, it was about 6 hours of work to get him out loaded into the truckand headed for home. Once at home, due to disruptions, exhaustion and mygenerally slow pace at skinning, it was about 5 hours later by the time he wasfully skinned, hung and cooling properly.
I learned a few things in the process, mostly to keep going even if the oddsare against you, you never know, and that moose being big animals are mucheasier to handle solo if you break them right down into quarters before tryingto move them too far (I halved it and wrestled them into the trailer behind thequad, then from there into the truck).
Also, while skinning I found my first bullet fully mushroomed under the offside hide. I really didn't expect a 225 gr Accubond fired from a .338 Magto be stopped on a 50 yard shot on a moose. Athough it was quartering away andwent through the back of the ribcage, through the liver, through the left lung,and then out the offside ribs, so probably penetrated +/- 2 feet of moose, andthe liver is full of fluid so will slow a bullet more than a pure lung shotwould.
All in all, a hard hunt in less than ideal weather conditions that paid offwith a freezer full of delicious meat for the year ahead. The only downside isSWMBO has decreed that I am officially grouse hunting the rest of the season,as our freezers are full (once the moose comes back from the butchers) so Idon't need to shoot a deer (or my winter elk LEH draw), at least by herthinking.
Hope you enjoy my story, far too few are posting them anymore.