2018 Cariboo Moose Hunt

[corywilson13]

I shot my first deer 10 years ago then 6 years went by without another deer making its way into my freezer. Something changed 6 years ago that has made every year since a success. Possibly my focus was more refined, we had more experience, but most likely it was the primitive urge to provide for my new family. I love being in the wild, watching, learning, teaching my daughters. My way of life had changed over time, any spare time I had was no longer spent 'hanging out' or playing sports, it was pure focus on how to improve, plan and prepare myself for my next hunting adventure. I love adventure, but I really love feeding my family meat that we hunted, packed, processed and cooked. This moose hunt was no different. We did more research and preparation than we ever had and it paid off. We'd like to say thanks to our longtime friend and hunting mentor Gord for the moose calling lessons and great advice. Srupp for all his tips, tricks and guidance. We can't forget Brian011, hunterdon and sarg for the great HBC messages filled with useful information. We experienced the hunt of a lifetime, and have all of you on HBC to thank for that. Each story that is posted and read is more fuel for the passion of what we love to do.

May 2018
We have been putting in for a moose draw in the Cariboo for 5 years or so since we started hunting and have yet to be successful. This year we thought we would try a different MU that had some better odds but was only a bit farther away from the home base cabin on Sheridan Lake. Between my hunting partner and I we couldn't agree on what draw to put in for, the pre-rut with better odds or during the rut with worse odds? We settled on splitting the difference and one of us put in for pre-rut and the other during the rut. Come the long awaited LEH results day the pre rut tag was successful and the planning for the fall had already begun. Having never hunted moose before besides having a "just in case" tag on an elk hunt we were excited to gather all the information we could about moose hunting over the summer.

Takeaway - For LEH moose is a pre-rut draw with better odds advantageous to a rut-time draw with lesser odds?

Early September
We decided to take the Labour Day long weekend and go scout the new area out so we could hit the ground running come hunting time. After leaving work early and taking the ferry from the island we go to the cabin late at night and made a plan to check out some areas that we had gotten some Hunting BC intel about. Thank you very much to the many people who gave advice, including Srupp who was exceptionally generous! While this weekend was focused on scouting it was also the opening days for archery mule deer and rifle black bear so both we came prepared with both weapons just in case an opportunity presented itself for either animal. Little did we know this scouting trip was going to turn into an interesting two days of hunting too!

Day 1 - Scouting Trip
Up early the next morning we were into the bush at daybreak headed to a lake with a good rec site that we planned on making camp at that night. Only a few minutes down the fire road a good sized black bear was spotted running off the road, while it was long gone by the time we got out of the truck it sure got the energy level up first thing. After setting up camp the plan for the day was to check out the area around the lake before doing a large loop of FSRs that covered a good portion of the area the moose tag was good for. It only took another 15 minutes until another black bear was spotted at the end of a dead end road. We had him in the crosshairs but decided he wasn't big enough to be worth taking away the rest of the day of the scouting trip. We carried on with the day by slowly making our way around the loop and checking out some of the larger lakes in the area and any moose marshes we could access. We were slightly delayed after I sliced my finger pretty deep when pitting an avocado and needed steristrips applied to keep the gash closed. After stopping for lunch my partner had removed his bow release for eating and had yet to put it back on as we continued down the road when a nice 2x2 buck jumped out 60 yards in front of the truck. While we have taken quite a few larger mule deer via rifle over the years we both previously agreed we would pop our archery cherry with any 2pt or bigger. In the excitement and complete surprise of the prospect of this buck standing still in its tracks as the truck stopped and doors opened my partner fumbled putting his release back on for long enough to not get within 50 yards before the buck trotted away. By this time it was barely noon and there were close calls with a bear and a first archery buck already!

The rest of the afternoon was spent finishing the loop and arriving back at camp in time to regroup for the evening. We had brought a small zodiac and some fishing gear so I set out for the evening to scout the boat access only side of the lake for moose sign and maybe catch a fish on the way.

https://i.postimg.cc/7hRVY9q2/IMG-2041.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

At the end of the day no fish were caught and while we got a really good idea of the lay of the land not much fresh moose sign was seen and nothing overly encouraging when it came to the moose hunt later in the month.

Takeaway - When in a hunting situation already have your weapon ready to go, even if you think an animal encounter is unlikely.

[corywilson13]

Day 2 - Scouting Trip
After a good day of scouting the previous day but with no encouraging moose sign we decided to try a different section of the MU that we hadn't explored yet. We parked at the first old slash we came across and decided to make some boot prints after mostly making tire tracks the previous day. That was a great choice because walking through a small marsh on the far side of the slash the first fresh moose sign was found - fresh shit, beds, and some recently chewed grass. Area marked on the GPS and onwards we went. This new area had a bit different terrain than what we saw yesterday and as we continued to check out all the small lakes and marshes we encountered we continued to see more moose sign. Another small marsh area yielded some very fresh moose sign so we know that moose were living in this general area. By mid day we reached another lake with a nice rec site a relatively short drive from the area with the most moose sign and we agreed this was likely to be our campsite for the moose hunt in a few weeks. After having lunch we agreed to head south on the FRSs to eventually come out at the highway slightly closer to the last ferry we planned to take home that night.

We were on our way to check out one of the spots we identified we wanted to scout and stopped to check out another moose marsh. As I did so my partner took his bow and climbed up a small sandy hill that ended up being the backside of what looks to have been a small gravel pit once upon a time. As he scanned the top ridge of the pit 70 yards away he spotted a mule deer bedded down with a whole ton of antler visible. He didn't take the time to count the number of points as it was any buck archery season but he was clearly a mature buck so it was game on. Having not been particularly quiet climbing up the back side of the pit the buck had my partner spotted but remained bedded. Off came the boots and pack and my partner slowly crept around the top of the pit towards the buck, entirely expecting him to stand up and bound away at any moment, but with no other option than to try and make a stalk anyway. 70 yards turned into 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, and by the time a semi clear shot was possible… 19 yards. By this time the buck had stoop up but hadn't moved. He nocked a shiny new G5 Montec and let it fly - THWACK. The buck bounded down the sandy bank and stood in the middle of the pit 60 yards away, too far for another shot but with no way to approach closer. The buck stood there for what felt like an eternity then bounded off out of sight, but did not appear to be wounded… My partner went to the spot where the buck was bedded and followed his path as he ran off, no blood. Up until now I was unaware any of this happened until I got the call on the radio to come help track a big buck. We both retraced the steps twice and unfortunately still no signs of blood. We found the arrow lodged in a tree about 30 yards behind where the buck was standing and again, no blood. We were able to estimate the arrow's flight path and came to the crushing realization that for the arrow to be that high up the tree is must have gone over the deer's back. All summer practicing with the bows we both had been consistent within a few inches at 20yards so what went wrong? In the arrow's flight path about 10 yards from where the buck was bedded there was a small branch (more like a twig) with a fresh blade mark on it's top side. Small enough to seem inconsequential before the shot, but big enough to deflect the arrow a foot high and allow the buck to live another day. It took a while to accept that we just missed likely the biggest buck of our hunting careers so far, and first archery animal to boot, but we reminded ourselves that we came here to scout for moose and anything else would have been a bonus. That only made the situation slightly better.

The rest of the afternoon was spend finishing the planned route back to the highway and we did actually see our first moose of the trip, a cow moose on the FSR we startled so badly it looked like it's front legs were going a different direction than he back legs! Poor moose but it was quite the funny sight to see. We ended the afternoon happy with what we had seen over the past two days and felt like we had a game plan for two weeks from now when the hunt started. That, paired with a handful of exciting deer encounters sure made for a very eventful scouting trip!

Takeaway - Always know your arrow's travel path, even a small twig can send your arrow off in the wrong direction.

Stay tuned - we will post the hunt over the next few days.

[sjdb243]

I love the takeaways! Good write up cheers

[two-feet]

keep the moose hunt coming!

[corywilson13]

I set off on this trip alone. My hunting partner (aka Rampager on HBC) enjoys trail running, and had a 50km race in whistler that had to be run a few days later. The plan was I would get our camp setup, and explore as much country as possible before he arrived 5 days later at the start of the rut. We would then be ready to call the big moose I found right to the tailgate of the truck.

Day 1 Sept 19
I started work extra early so I could catch the 1pm ferry. Not long after leaving my house I did the mental check I always do before hunting "Gun - check, clip - check, tags - che… son of a bitch, I remembered that LEH hunts require the additional piece of paper to be carried at all times and filled out once the animal is shot. I Almost missed the ferry cause I had to turn around and print my LEH authorization. In the weeks leading up to leaving, I had prepped the old tent trailer we had purchased that summer the best I thought I could. Repacked the wheel bearing grease, welded on trailer levelling jacks, repaired the tongue jack, and filled the deflated spare. I kept the speeds low on the drive, but still managed to explode a trailer tire on the coquilhalla before Merritt, without a shoulder to pull on to. So here I am, parked in the slow lane on the coq, its nearly dark and I have a blown tire. Fortunately I had the tools I needed for a quick wheel replacement. 3 seconds of the impact gun rap-rapping on the one levelling jack and the tire was off the ground. Within 5 minutes I was dirty but the tire was changed and I was back on the road. I had planned to stay with a friend in Kamloops, which worked out great - Had a few good meals with friends (and my last shower for a while)

Takeaway - Trailers seem to be the weak link when travelling for hunting. Be prepared for bumps in the road.

Day 2
I was able to get 2 brand new tires mounted on the trailer rims in Kamloops, and some last minute food picked up (I had forgot to pack my pre-made frozen meals from freezer at home when I had rushed to catch the ferry). After the couple of minor setbacks I was excited as ever to get on with this hunting adventure. Besides a quick fuel stop in Hundred Mile, I drove straight through to the camp we had scouted in August and arriving at 1. I introduced myself to the fishing neighbors and the hunting neighbors. The one other hunting group had arrived an hour before, and also had a moose draw. I had my simple camp set up by 3, so I got on the quad and decided to take every right turn and get a feel for the area. At the first small swamp I got off and looked around. Found fresh (goopy brown with green inside) moose poo. Also stumbled into a bunch of grouse in the trees, some were very fat, of course my shotgun was back at camp on the first night… Got back on the quad and found a road that had a lot of windfall with some small lakes/marshes at the end. It took a while to hike in but I found moose highways along the edges of the marshes. I found 30+ piles of fresh moose shit. Near the end of the road I went down off the road and aimed for a small marsh. 2 large deer were on the far side, I didn’t get a chance to see if they were bucks, my first thought was, “wow look at those elk” as the deer were so big. One went left and one went right. I followed the left one for a while, then switched to the right as it was getting darker (6:15pm) and I should be heading back to the main road. The little hill I had bumped the deer from was some sort of a mushroom incubator, there were dozens of mushrooms, many of them had deer sized bite marks in them. The rest of the evening I saw more than 20 grouse. 5 in the last 3 minutes on the quad back to the campsite. I love grouse - and was looking forward to bringing some back to camp each day. The weather really changed at the end of the first day. The clouds were dark, and the rain began pouring down - nearly west coast style for hours and hours - I was surprised the canvas roof of the tent trailer kept the water out for the whole night.

Takeaway - If you want to eat grouse - bring a grouse gun.

[corywilson13]

Day 3By the next morning, the small group of moose tag holders had grown and they had taken all of the upper campsites at the lake except mine. I was surrounded - which was great. I had introduced myself to all of them when I could, and explained I was not expecting anyone for quite a few days. I asked that if they saw anyone snooping around my camp to walk over and talk to them. After that I felt very comfortable leaving my camp unlocked with and my quad, chainsaw ect visible.I took the quad up the main FSR to access the ‘high potential’ area I had found the previous night from the other side. I bush whacked 600m from the cattle/atv trail into the area. The rain would let up a bit for 20 minutes, and then start pouring down for another hour. The bush was so thick that my gear was soaked from rain and pushing through the thick bush. I had been warned by Srupp that it was very easy to get lost in this type of flat/hilly terrain and was he ever right. Generally I have a good sense of direction, and look at my GPS quite infrequently. In this unfamiliar terrain I kept getting turned off course and relied heavily on the GPS to navigate. I placed a trail cam at a small lake that had a decent amount of fresh sign hoping to come by a few days later and see the monster bull I was dreaming of. I found some bear scat and a moose carcass on the far shore of the lake. My heart stopped for a minute when the batteries died on the way out. Fortunately I had spare batteries and I was able to get out before dark without too much stress. Takeaway - Electronics are vulnerable - if you are relying on a GPS for navigation, always carry extra batteries.Day 4I set off in the dark on a very long 20km plus hike right from camp around all of the lakes and marshes in the area. Along the edge of one of the larger lakes I found a matching set of moose sheds 25’ apart on the small trail along a nearby lake. I was so tired after that long hike with a heavy pack, when I got back to camp around 2, I slept for an hour solid. Once refreshed, I drove a number of hours away to a few of the lakes we explored on the scouting trip in the evening to see how many hunters were at each site. I Drove to the east side of one of the lakes, or tried to but the mud was too deep. Didn’t see much sign where I did look, but shot a grouse on the way out which always helps to improve the hunting spirits.My back and shoulders were extremely sore from carrying the moose sheds and all my gear over and under windfalls for the first half of day. I had a hard time lifting one arm above my shoulder by the end of the night and was slightly concerned that if I shot a moose the next day, my back and shoulders would not cooperate with the pack out in the frame pack. I had picked up the trail cam that we had placed weeks before on the scouting trip. No moose, lots of young bucks, and a few bears.Takeaway - Don't overload a small daypack (or buy a daypack with a waist belt)https://i.postimg.cc/Pf1wvLLs/IMG-2251.jpg (https://postimages.org/)


https://i.postimg.cc/3NQ0bhcc/IMG-2249.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

[corywilson13]

Day 5
Drove to the marshes at the end of the FSR first thing. Shot a big fat spruce grouse on the way. Hiked around for a few hours, found some fresh moose sign in the treed area between two clearings/marshes. Continued down the trail on the quad until the wind falls were too high to plow over, then I started walking. I heard a cow moose bawling, so I slowly made my way back towards the atv. I listened for at least a half hour before I was certain that it was a hunter making the call - I didn’t think moose would call out every ten minutes exactly. I then quadded a bit further to the last road and hiked in extremely slow. Didn’t see any moose sign, although the rock bluffs overlooking the marshes gave excellent visibility. I found a lot of horse sign and pieces of a horse that was recently ripped apart. Probably wolves. Jarrad contacted me that he would arrive late, so I headed back to prepare the camp for his arrival. On the way back I took an offshoot of the FSR, a forks in the road later and I found myself in the center of a moose carcass dumping ground. There were 5-6 cow and bull moose carcasses that have been dumped by someone and strewn around by the predators fighting over the scraps. I also stopped at an old skidder trail and attempted to hike into the prime area. 20 minutes of climbing through windfall later my GPS died, and my anxiety rose. I'm an islander, and have less experience hiking in flat, rolling terrain than I do mountainous. Back home, it is harder to get turned around. If you go downhill, you eventually get to civilization or the ocean. If you go uphill, you will be able to eventually see the ocean. The sun was shining, the weather was great. If I was more familiar with the area I would have kept pressing on, but the little voice (probably Srupp's) told me to locate the last known spot I had been, and head back to the atv immediately. Fortunately I was able to use my compass and get back to known territory. The terrain is challenging to navigate, I found myself getting turned the wrong direction lot here.
Takeaway - Hiking Solo - Minimize Risks.

https://i.postimg.cc/SsfmkpK5/IMG-2270.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

[corywilson13]

Day 6
My hunting partner arrived late the night before. I felt we needed time to talk about my adventures on the days previous, before formulating our plan of attack against the moose so I decided that we would go for a longer drive to a lake we had not explored on the scouting trip in the morning. When we got to the area, we stopped at a nice big grassy marsh and explored. I walked counter clockwise, he walked clockwise. Once we were 180deg around the marsh, we found some fresh moose sign. Very exciting. We decided to sit and watch from the side of the dried up marsh and start calling, neither of us had attempted to call a moose before, so we both took turns practicing. My partner did spot a mule deer coming through the trees on the far side of the marsh. But we both got excited and moved when we shouldn't have, it was gone in a flash. While exploring that road system we shot a grouse and could have easily shot a black bear. We stopped at all of the grassy marshes we found. Until now, I had not been doing much calling. I was not a confident caller. Calling lessons on youtube are great, but do not give you the confidence that speaking moose to a big bull does. We decided to do a fair bit of calling this morning, probably because we hadn't seen a ton of sign, and thought if we were going to scare the moose away, might as well scare them away from an area we don't plan to hunt the remainder of the trip.

The afternoon plan was to show my partner the other areas I had already explored.

Later in the day, after going around a few of the small lakes in the area we ended up on a ridge and bumped into a big mule deer at less than 100 feet. He definitely heard or smelled us before we him, and he bounded off. Another really cool experience we had this day was when we were below hundreds of geese. It sounds like 100 male geese were trying to convince 100 females that it was time to mate, but they were not having any of it. Turns out, after 10-20 minutes of squawking and honking and flying in a violent tornado spiral, some of the geese broke off and started a vee flying formation, and a few more joined, until the remainder of the squawkers caught up and disbanded the vee. We figure the geese were determining if it was time to fly south for the winter yet or not. We experienced this a few times throughout this trip and it was unforgettable.

We then hiked along the overgrown road, stopping at a round marsh. We hung up some tampons soaked in cow moose urine in an attempt to attract a bull (synthetic urine thanks to the 2018 hunting reg changes). From this point forward, I was seriously concerned that from how much my pack stunk like cow moose in heat. I have heard that being surprised by a sexually frustrated bull moose although sounds exciting, can be quite scary if you are not expecting it. We cleared and marked a trail for quiet easy access the next time we were in the area. We continued hiking through the bush to a nice unnamed lake, and stopped for a break (monster energy and cookies). We continued to hike north, and Jarrad wanted to go up on the ridge and hike west. We did a few moose calls along the way. Halfway along the ridge we bumped into a big mule deer which bounded away.

Later that evening, after a lot of bushwhacking we ended up at a small lake where I had previously left my trail camera. We checked but no pics of game. On the hike out we continued to find lots of fresh moose sign.
Takeaway - Expect game around each corner.

https://i.postimg.cc/7hPwLQGL/IMG-2285.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

[corywilson13]

Day 7
We had a great plan to drive up the FSR in the morning. My hunting partner would hike along a marsh on the north side of the road while I called into the wetlands from the south side beside a derelict cattle loading corral and ramp. I had previously placed a cow moose urine soaked tampon at the other end of the wetland. Within 40 minutes I had decided that the wind was not in my favor, so I gathered my gear and walked up the road to the next marsh. I called for a while with the wind in my face, enjoying a Pb and j with some luke-warm coffee. He met me there after a few hours and we came up with a new plan for the remainder of the morning. I directed him to a clear cut half a km away that was hilly with 3 marshes in it. I walked between a bunch of small lakes towards him, calling as I went. I saw some fresh moose poop. He saw a grouse on the way but had to run back to the truck to get the shotgun. By the time he got back to the grouse it had waddled off into the bushes. We checked the trailcam but found that it hadn’t taken any pics of animals in the last few days.

In the afternoon we decided to do something completely different. On our scouting trip we had found an area with fresh moose sign in a grassy marsh a few lakes over from our camp. I had also found fresh sign near that lake a few nights previous.

We parked as close as we could, feeling a bit deflated from the hard work we had put in over the last few days without seeing a moose. We got out, did a quick check of the area and met back at the truck in record time. We got in the truck about to drive off to another location when Jarrad checked the GPS and noticed another marsh in behind the one we just checked out. "We won't find moose habitat from the cab of the truck" was our thought, so we got out with minimal gear and made a beeline for the little blue dot on the gps screen. We found a small lake (which we named mint lake), and saw more moose sign than we had seen yet. In the tall grass along the shore of the lake I found a chewed up 4pt mule deer skull. We decided to stick around until dark waiting for the big bull moose to show up. We were not in the right state of mind when we left the truck, and found ourselves cold, hungry and underprepared for the sit until dark. We were not expecting to find such a good spot. A few hours into the sit in our natural blind we knew we had to make a change if we wanted to be able to make it until dark, so my partner offered to hike out through the timber to grab our packs, food, clothes ect to make the end of the day more bearable. It was a very quiet evening.
Takeaway - Keep your gear with you - even if you are "only going to be 10 minutes"

Day 8
We were back to the same spot at "Mint Lake" before first light. We sat and sat from before dawn until 6pm. We came well prepared to sit it out for a whole day. We had more food, warm clothes, I had a book with a bunch of useful knots and some rope to practice. I had enough time to tie all 101 knots multiple times. We both took a few naps. This day was much different than any hunting we had done before, neither of us sit down and stay still very well, so it took a lot of perseverance for us to make it most of the way through the day before getting antsy and going to explore. When we did explore around the lake a bit further we continued to find more and more moose sign. Beds, shit and dug up roots. We learned that moose use their mouth to dig roots out from below the grass. We found a small field of tall grasses at the end of the lake. Growing up from the grasses were tall weeds, the smell was so strong, I tasted one of the leaves and found that we had discovered 4 different flavors of wild mint covering a square acre! We had been smelling mint from our blind when the wind was in our face, but we couldn't quite put a finger on what could have been causing it. I believe that the moose were using their teeth to dig down below the mint and eat the roots. We loaded up a few bunches of mint. We crushed the mint and hung it all around our blind to attempt to mask some of our 1-week-without-shower hunter odor.

Just after 630 pm, it had been over 12 hours since we had first sat down and got to our blind at mint lake. We decided, while we were running out of light that it was time to try something different. I had been exploring the surrounding areas on the GPS, figuring that there was a ton of moose sign at mint lake, but no moose. So they could possibly be at a similar lake nearby. There was one lake, aka "not-mint lake" about a km away, that was the same shape and had the same amount of marsh land surrounding it on the crude 1.5x2.5" gps backroads mapbook display. We decided to rush there and check it out/find a trail in, before dark so we could possibly start our day there in the morning.

So back to the truck, a quick drive down the road and we are hiking through the bush and down to the lake, we were being somewhat quiet, but still making some noise as we were rushing. In less than 10 minutes of navigating the maze of windfall we came down into the lake. The wind was in our favour for our location. The open area was definitely larger than mint lake. The longest distance in the open space at mint lake (longest potential shot) was around 240-250 yard where at this new lake, length wise we were looking at over 400 yards. As we walked down towards the lake we had about 30 minutes of legal light left as we emerged to the edger of the grasses and willows that surrounded the lake. As soon as we got down to the tree line and stepped out into the willows I heard a faint "Pop" sound. I had never heard a bull moose, but figured that a bull moose could possibly be making the noise. I had been doing most of the cow calling up until this point, so I asked my partner if he wanted to let out a bull call "Wuh". After the "Wuh", we grabbed some willows in front of us and made them crash back and forth. Within a short time we heard a roar (think MGM lion) come from the far treeline across the lake, approx 350 yards away. We let out another bull call (we had not brought the fiberglass calling horn - it was still in the truck. Always come prepared) The bull responded with a loud "WAH". We crashed some more alders and have another half dozen calls while the bull crashed and raked his own willows, and "Wah'd" right back at us until we ran completely out of light around 7:30.

What an exciting night - we headed back to camp, unsure how much information we should share with the other hunters camping near us. We were amped up and ready to go look for the big bull moose at "Not-mint lake" first thing in the morning. We made some dinner and packed our lunches, ready to get an early start the following day. Like every night, we spent a bit of time strategizing what the best plan of attack would be for the following day. I can't stress enough how mentally challenging moose hunting was. We analyzed every situation after it happened, we tried to learn as much as possible from the smallest sign on the ground, and I truly believe that if we didn't there wouldn't have been moose tacos on the dinner table tonight.
Takeaway - Always be prepared. We really can't stress this enough, as most of you have experienced being caught out in the rain without a jacket, or on a long hike but out of water, it happens. Just learn from those occurrences. I won't hike into a moosey swamp without my moose call again…

[corywilson13]

Day 9
The day started off looking for the big bull at not mint lake. When exploring the lake we found a cattle dumpsite, with over a dozen bull and cow cattle carcasses strewn around, some were fresh as the birds were still picking the flesh off the bones. After exploring the area we hopped back in the truck and headed to a nearby lake with a couple camping spots. Once there we found a stinky fresh wallow 30' behind some travel trailers that were camped there just on the other side of the willows. A short walk around the marsh we found a moose trail through the willows where 7-8 willow bushes were completely thrashed by a bull moose. This was our first bull moose sign, which made us feel like although we didn't see or hear the bull from last night again this morning, we were doing a good job of narrowing in on the area that held the bulls. Our positive mental attitude was increasing each time we found new signs of bull moose.

Got back to the truck, drove down the road and hiked an overgrown road the long way back to the same lake through what the GPS said was marsh but was actually forested areas. Once we finally got to the marshy areas, there was a ton of trails and game sign. The area was so thick, we ended up not spending much time before we bushwhacked to the nearest road and hiked a few km back to the truck.

It was at this point that we were starting to feel lost the highs and lows of the hunting trip rollercoaster were starting to take their toll. We wanted to come up with a solid plan for the remainder of the trip now as we knew we only had a couple days remaining before the end of our LEH draw. One option that had kept coming up was to spend 2-3 hours calling at one of the lakes that had sign, and then moving on to the next and repeating. We felt that staying at one lake day after day, 12 hours per day just did not fit our hunting style. We would get more enjoyment out of our adventure if we felt like we were doing something.

We called Gord (a hunting mentor of ours, who had shared our Tuchodi Rivier experience with us in 2016) for advice which was great. Gord assured us that we were doing great. We had found a ton of sign, we had interacted with a bull in the area. He reminded us that moose can easily travel long distances, so don't expect to see a moose where we already saw a moose. Because we only had a couple days left, he said we could consider spending 1.5-3 hours at a lake, then move on.

Headed back to camp for some food, and to come up with a solid plan for the remainder of the hunt. Decided to call at one lake then move one lake over, moving the same direction across the entire area to try and not miss any moose. We determined that because we had seen so much sign, and had a conversation with a bull, that we would focus on that area. We knew there was too much sign at the first area that I had been exploring to leave it be, so we figured that we would spend the afternoon walking through that area, checking and possibly retrieving two of our trail cameras.

We had great weather. The sun was shining while I observed amassive black bear on a side hill at the edge of a small lake. It was at 80 yards and moving towards me. It never did see me as I watched it through the binos. It stopped at a birch tree and rubbed its ass up and down for a minute scratching it’s fur.

We did not find much new sign, but re-explored the area all the same. I checked on some moose poo that I had found still warm when hiking through the area a few days previous. I learned that round moose poo that is green in the middle goes brown in the middle after 2 days when temps are 0 to 14 degrees C. We did some calling at the previously placed tampons soaked in cow in heat urine - without a response. By about 4:45, we had hunkered down at a small un-named lake which was about an hour hike along marshes and over windfalls, the sun was cooling down and things were feeling good. We let out a moose call every 15 minutes. Because we had been calling back and forth with a bull the previous day, both of us had a hard time committing to a marsh that didn't currently have a moose responding to our calls. We decided that we did not want to spend more than an hour at this small lake, so by about 5:30 we had agreed to pack up and hoof it back to the truck at the start of the very overgrown road a few KM away.

We went to bed slightly frustrated with the effort that we had been putting in, and still not seeing anything.
Takeaway - Moose droppings that are still mostly green inside are only 1 or 2 days old.

https://i.postimg.cc/P5HJGKKP/IMG-2256.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

[corywilson13]

Day 10
Woke up at 4:50, -2 degrees in the tent trailer. Seemed like we got out of camp earlier and earlier each day. We got to “Not-mint lake” at 6am and hiked down to the marsh in the dark with our headlamps. We called till 8:15, and left the area at 8:30. This morning was different. The temperature was colder, all of the marsh grass was frosted. I witnessed one of those little events in nature that only happens once a year. The little yellow leaves on the tall birch trees must have frozen over night. As soon as the sun came up and warmed the remaining ice holding them to the branches they began to fall. It seemed as if only a few minutes passed until the trees were bare and all of the leaves had floated down.

At 845 we began the hike down to mint lake, we were planning to cow call moose for a few hours, then walk the timbered areas around the lake until after lunch then we would continue to call. We followed the flagging tape that we had previously placed to get to the lake as quietly as possibly. On the walk down to the lake, we walked between some small grassy marshes, then through a forest, then through the willows that led up to the lake. Once we were walking through the willows, I called a couple soft bull calls through the moose mag as we walked to mask any sounds of us walking in (thanks again Srupp for the KC moose mags idea). It was 9am and just before we got to the blind we had previously setup we saw very fresh, large moose tracks on the trail, that were not there 2 days previous. It felt as if heart was beating out of my chest. The tracks were going the same direction we were, clockwise around mint lake. We were so exited to check the trail cam that the big moose had just walked in front of that Jarrad put his gear down and walked over to the cam 50' past our blind. I began to put my gear down and looked up across the lake. In the opposite corner of the lake was a bull moose! He was still walking clockwise along the marshy edge of the lake not far from a tree that we had hung tampons a day previous. I quietly called Jarrad and pointed to the moose as I set up my rifle on a solid rest. Jarrad crawled back to our minty blind and the moose was gone, hidden in the willows. We quickly discussed what our options were and if we should call. Until now, we had not used a cow call successfully, and hoped that the moose didn’t run away once he heard us (this has to be a common thought among first-time moose hunters). I let out a shorter, mellow cow call and then settled back in behind the rifle on its windfall rest. 10-15 seconds later, this massive Cariboo region moose struts his way out of the willows, he is now 100’ further to my right at just over 200 yards away. He slowed as he came into the open, looking for the source of the cow call. As he came to a stop, I counted to three and pulled the trigger. The shot was great, later we found the bullet had went through the center of his heart. The mature bull moose stumbled, and walked into the lake in front of him. The water was shallow, but the mud was soft and deep. He made it out to 50’ from shore until all we could see was half of one antler showing above the water. I am usually the first on scene to advise that its time for the safety eye-poke after an animal has fallen, but instead I exclaimed “There isn't an eye poke happening on this hunt”. We gathered our gear and headed around the lake to the far side. On our side of the lake the shore was flat, and grassy. Easy walking. On the opposite side of the lake there were only a few paces of grassy shore before the thick brush took over, with lots of small creeks snaking below the grass. Easy to step in and get wet/twist a knee. Once we got to where the moose had went into the lake. I cut my tag, and we took some photos (I am looking at the moose rack sticking out of the water in the pic below). We came up with a plan to get the moose out with our inflatable boat and a rope. Jarrad went back to the truck and drove it back to camp to get more gear, while I loaded come-a-longs, rope, rigging and waders onto my frame pack that was stored in the backseat of the truck.

https://i.postimg.cc/d3WvZmrj/IMG-7962.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

I got back to the lake and tied a lasso (learned how to do this 2 days previous when we spent 13 hours sitting at mint lake and reading the knots book). I tested throwing the lasso but was not able to throw it far enough to reach the moose. So I moved all of our gear back to the flat grassy area on the side of the lake closest to our access trail. I met Jarrad back at the road, and loaded the boat floor and other gear into the frame pack. Jarrad carried the boat back to the lake. Once at the lake, I took a quick break while Jarrad set up the boat. We hopped in and Jarrad rowed us to the moose. Wow he was a beauty. At this time only one antler was above the water, everything else was below. I struggled to lift him up as Jarrad took some pics. I connected the rope to a sling wrapped around his antlers, and we made it back to shore. We had brought 600' of 1/2 marine rope just for this purpose, so we were able to stand on the far shore and pull the moose into the deeper water and then across the lake.

https://i.postimg.cc/RVD4MdMM/IMG-7969.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

We walked around the lake to the opposite shore and pulled the moose to the center of the lake, towards where we wanted to process him. We then pulled him towards shore until he got stuck in the mud about 25’ off shore. We had rigged up a come-a-long to a tree a few hundred feet from shore, and used a prusik to attach to the rope. 1/4 inch at a time, we pulled him towards shore. While one of us worked the come-a-long, the other had a strap attached to the antlers and was pulling and wiggling to keep the moose moving.

3.5 hours after the shot, the moose was on dry, solid ground on the edge of the lake. The sun was warm, but there was a cool breeze coming off the water. We had placed a clean white tarp in the shade, a hundred meters away to keep all the meat cool and out of the sun as we cut it off

https://i.postimg.cc/nzptdw11/IMG-2291.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

I made the first cut with my havalon, just behind the middle of the belly, and around to the ground on the front and back. I then carefully cut the hide up the center of the spine while Jarrad began skinning the front quarter from where I had started the cuts. We detached as much hide as possible until it was draped over the antlers, so we could begin removing the front quarter. We had quartered out a large animal once before, an elk on our Tuchodi Riverjet trip a few years ago. It took a few minutes for us to find our groove, but the first quarter came off and was carried over to the tarp in the shade. One of us continued skinning the rear of the moose, while the other started the cut through the top of the neck meat at the base of the skull. The rear quarter came off next, and damn was it heavy. We kept double checking that the penis and nuts were still attached to the carcass, we couldn't tell which quarter it was going to be attached to when we were all said and done, but we sure as hell did not want to chop it off by mistake and have to hand a baggie with moose junk to the CO if stopped. I removed the accessible backstrap, and we cut as much neck meat free from the carcass as possible.

The next step was to roll the moose over so we could begin working on the other side. We had laid a clean tarp down, so once rolled, the skinned side down would be on a tarp instead of the dirt. It took all the strength we had to roll that moose over to the other side, it was one of those "I'm pushing so hard I sure hope I don't shit my pants" kind of moments. We then repeated the quarter, backstrap, and neck meat process.

We slit up the stomach and pulled the organs and intestines out, everything came out very cleanly, the blood did not start pouring out until the diaphragm was removed. We were astounded by the sheer mass of the 'blood pudding' that we removed in large pieces. For anyone that has not worked on processing a moose - they are large animals - no joke. When the heart came out, we noticed that this was the cause of all the clotted blood. The bullet had entered the center of the heart, and excited the other side.

https://i.postimg.cc/0NGTJ0qK/IMG-7999.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

[corywilson13]

Finished caping the head, and cut the neck at the base of the skull to remove the very heavy head and cape. Removed the tenderloins by sliding my hand along each side to break the tender meat attached to the bone. The moose has the large tenderloins, then 2 medium size tenderloin looking muscles, and 2 smaller ones that are located nearby and are a similar shape. The 4 smaller muscles had some silverskin between the muscle groups, but tasted excellent the next day on the BBQ.

We used a battery sawzall to remove the ribs from the spine - and incase anyone was wondering - the penis came off with the flank meat that was trimmed from one of the ribcages - unsure if this is normal, but at least it ended up attached to something.

Now that most of the meat was in game bags, we started taking loads of gear and meat up our flagged trail to the road. The front quarters were carried over shoulders, everything else was strapped to the one frame pack we had. It took quite a few trips to get everything cleaned up and in the truck. I shot at about 9:00am, and after hiking through the bush with headlamps for a few hours, it was 9:30pm and we were loaded up and heading back to camp. The moose meat was stacked high in the truck.

https://i.postimg.cc/X7Ztgbbb/5797a71b-5128-4c26-817c-7c3ad7a4b48d.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

Back at camp, a large group of other hunters with a number of moose draws between them had shot a moose and had it hanging on one of the meat poles. It was a good feeling to come back to a camp that was already in high spirits. As we re-organized and came up with a plan for the rest of the night, they came over to hear bits and pieces of our story and tell us theirs. We ended up being invited for an excellent pulled pork dinner a little after 10:00pm, and that was exactly what we needed to push on for a few more hours. If any of you are on HBC, thanks guys!

After swapping hunting stories over dinner, we took off and headed to our cabin an hour away. Hung the meat in the shop, fired up the wood stove and had the first shower in 9 days.
Takeaway - If you prepare for the worst and in happens, at least you are prepared. We had to solve the problem of a large, dead moose in the middle of a mucky lake. If we hadn't planned and considered all of the potential situations, we probably would not have brought an inflatable boat, 600' of rope, come-a-longs, rigging and hip waders.

https://i.postimg.cc/YCRVrqNQ/IMG-2304.jpg (https://postimages.org/)

Day 11
The next morning we cleaned up the meat and cut away fat, blood shot meat, dirt and hair. While cleaning the meat, I found the 165gr 30.06 Nosler Partition bullet waiting for me just inside the skin on the rib meat. I scored an X on the surface of the meat with my knife and the bullet popped out. I changed my bullet choice for this hunt, as I had experienced the 178gr Hornady Precision Hunters shrapnel on me at close range a few times. I consider myself in the 'average hunter' group that generally takes shots under 200 yards. I can attest, that shooting a moose at slightly more than 200 yards away, the partitions entered, expanded and slowed to a stop perfectly.

[browningboy]

Looks like you had a great trip!tough hunting up there for moose so kudos guys!

[srupp]

Hmmmmm when preperation and opportunity collide.....success...
Very well done indeed gents..great presentation..enjoyable..
Congradulations you guys earned this bull..
Cheers
Srupp

Ps I think I had coffee at the cabin you guys stayed at..very eastern end of Sherridan lk.....

[BStrachan]

Congratulations on the successful hunt! Thanks for sharing.

[buckshot]

Congratulations and thank you for an entertaining tale. Magnificent bull!

[Arctic Lake]

Great write up, very detailed ! That’s a nice rack on the bull ! Good to hear and quite often the case that members here offering advice to other members !
Arctic Lake

[IronNoggin]

Good Stuff! https://www.tnof.ca/styles/default/xenforo/smilies/Pozitive.gif
Nice writing, and some fine pix.
That is indeed a fine rack, and a great bull.
Damn good thing you had the right equipment along for that retrieval! Been there once or twice without that, and it ain't fun!
Congrats!

Cheers,
Nog

[Bubbacanuck]

Awesome story and thanks for sharing!! This story is the best I've read on HBC (in my limited time as a member) and the reason I joined! Congrats on a beauty bull!!

[Piperdown]

A great first moose and story, oh to be young again :)

[kennyj]

Great story and great bull!! Way to persevere.
Thanks for sharing your adventure.
kenny

[john-brennan]

Great job boys you earned it.

[two-feet]

That is a great central interior bull moose.

[Knute]

Congrats on a great bull, you guys earned your success.

Thanks for taking the time to recount your hunt is such an enjoyable way. The takeaways and photos round out the tale nicely.

[boxhitch]

Great story, thanks for sharing the journey

Takeaway - For LEH moose is a pre-rut draw with better odds advantageous to a rut-time draw with lesser odds?
Tough to argue with success
Would be interesting to see if the odds for those draws flip-flop each year as hunters chase better odds

[Brian011]

Congrats again! Definitely one of the biggest bulls I’ve seen come out of that area! You guys did very well!

[Stillhunting]

Beauty bull, well done! The amount of time and effort you put into that bull reminds me of our trip nearby last Fall. Fortunately, our recovery was a bit easier.

[ydouask]

Well done guys. It is great to see such good results when one does everything right, also excellent tips for those who follow in your footsteps. Thank you.

[250 sav]

Good read and well deserved bull

[tomahawk]

Congrats on a fine bull and a concerted effort to achieve your success!

[northcoastfun]

Awesome adventure and well deserved success ! Excellent way of documenting your hunt , my morning coffee tasted much better following along from moose camp

[swampthing]

Looks like you figured out stuff just fine!

[Takla]

Way to hang in there,took a while to find your bull but you got her done!After hunting moose for decades and never experienceing a shot moose getting into a lake and dieing it happened to me this past season,ours however swam out 20 yrds and proceeded to sink before our eyes as we broke thru the bush,two big holes thru his ribs both sides ment he simply filled with water and was gone in 12-14 ft of water.We made a grappleing hook out of a steel campfire grate and dragged bottom but to no avail and came home empty handed,next yr if we get the draw again we'll be packing a boat just in case.Anyhow great story and happy to see you guys were successful..congrates

[Bunner]

Nice bill, congrats. Thanks for the great write up.
Thanks for sharing

[Rampager]

Hmmmmm when preperation and opportunity collide.....success...
Very well done indeed gents..great presentation..enjoyable..
Congradulations you guys earned this bull..
Cheers
Srupp

Ps I think I had coffee at the cabin you guys stayed at..very eastern end of Sherridan lk.....

Thank you Steven!

If you were at the cabin with KW then you probably did!

We hope to have a similar write up at the end of this year but with Stone's sheep!

[Rampager]

Great story, thanks for sharing the journey

Takeaway - For LEH moose is a pre-rut draw with better odds advantageous to a rut-time draw with lesser odds?
Tough to argue with success
Would be interesting to see if the odds for those draws flip-flop each year as hunters chase better odds

I have certainly seen that flip-flop pattern with various LEH hunts over the years! I attribute part of our bison draw a few years ago to that.

As for this hunt - we will surely be putting in for the pre-rut hunt again. You're right, its tough to argue with success!