Treeson's First Moose

[Spuddge]

I'm posting this picture on behalf of another member, Treeson, because I know he won't post it (I do have his permission). We both got our first moose this year, I've already posted mine, so here is his. I'd also like to thank him again for his help with mine.

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/trev_s_first_moose.jpg (http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/showphoto.php?photo=10268&size=big&cat=500)

[2slow]

makes me want to go moose hunting congrats

[twanger]

And you can back the truck right to it-Priceless:razz:
Congrats

[Sitkaspruce]

Congrats to him...and you, on your first's.

and......OH....look...he shot it with a lever action!!!!!!!

What caliber is that???

SS

[todbartell]

nice bull! I will guess 308 Win, looks to be a Savage 99

[Spuddge]

nice bull! I will guess 308 Win, looks to be a Savage 99
That's right 308 Savage 99 circa mid 60s I think.

[huntwriter]

Nice moose, congratulations. I can see the truck in the picture. That’s how I like it to shot the critters close to the truck or in a place that lets me drive right up the downed animal.

[Steeleco]

Well done, to both you guys.

[Rock Doctor]

Nice young moose, Congrats to both of you.

[Gateholio]

Well done!! MAke sure you enter it in the contest!!:p

[Avalanche123]

Nice moose for your first one. Congratulations! Great start to your hunting season.

[The Dawg]

Congrats on a great first moose...we just had some of my immy from last year for dinner- try pulled roast sandwiches..yum :)

[Deadshot]

Just talked to a bud that went up Tumbler-Dawson way & not a moose was seen. Tracks were slim to none.
So to get two as first timers is fantastic!
Lucky buggers.

[quadrakid]

a couple of first timers getting moose,gives me goosebumps. i,ll bet there was some pretty good memories made and some fine times around the campfire.

[M.Dean]

Now thats the perfect moose hunt! You guys will relive that trip for a long long time! Good Job!

[moosinaround]

Hell yah!! Good moose boys!! Finest dining there is!! Moosin

[Red Foreman]

Nice moose,good to see the ole 99 making a kill.I'm hoping to use one of mine on a moose this year,I've got a mulie with the 99 just no moose yet.

[Mik]

Congratulations on both your moose. Nice-one.

[sneg]

congrats.good job.nice moose.

[bullmagnum]

Just talked to a bud that went up Tumbler-Dawson way & not a moose was seen. Tracks were slim to none.
So to get two as first timers is fantastic!
Lucky buggers.


I was also up near Tumbler Ridge this past week. Spent 4 days down south of it and spent everyday walking logging roads and marshes (close to 17k/day by my best guess with the postings) and saw very little sign. Freshes were some tracks about a week old. Quite disheartening to say the least.

We decided to head north of FSJ for the last day. The amount of sign we saw in that one day was incredible. It was a shame to have to leave.

Apparently (according to the ministry of environment staff) the winter kill two years ago south of the peace river was ENORMOUS. This was confirmed by butchers in Chetwynd and Dawson Creek as well. Numbers estimated to be a staggering 65% winterkill.

Anyways...all of this to say...if you are planning on heading up that way for a moose hunt, this is valuable information. Take my word for it =\ I only wish we had known what we did before selecting M.U.s south of TR for accompanying my old friends from Alberta.

The further north you go, the less effected the population is. So i've been told.

Hope this saves somebody some time :)

[Spuddge]

I was also up near Tumbler Ridge this past week. Spent 4 days down south of it and spent everyday walking logging roads and marshes (close to 17k/day by my best guess with the postings) and saw very little sign. Freshes were some tracks about a week old. Quite disheartening to say the least.

We decided to head north of FSJ for the last day. The amount of sign we saw in that one day was incredible. It was a shame to have to leave.

Apparently (according to the ministry of environment staff) the winter kill two years ago south of the peace river was ENORMOUS. This was confirmed by butchers in Chetwynd and Dawson Creek as well. Numbers estimated to be a staggering 65% winterkill.

Anyways...all of this to say...if you are planning on heading up that way for a moose hunt, this is valuable information. Take my word for it =\ I only wish we had known what we did before selecting M.U.s south of TR for accompanying my old friends from Alberta.

The further north you go, the less effected the population is. So i've been told.

Hope this saves somebody some time :)
You are absolutely correct, the winter kill 2 years ago was terrible, we were up there and were skunked, didn't see a thing for the entire week we were up there. Talked to Mike at Russell Meats in Chetwynd and he had less than 20 percent of the usual moose brought in. He said this year is better but nothing compared to 3 years ago. On a positive note we did see a few cows and calves, some fairly mature this year, so the next few years do look promising. And me and my buddy did get 2 moose within the first 3 days of our hunt. So things are looking better for the future.:D

[lunatic]

Man I don't know what to say about that. Not sure where exactly you hunted, but I live in Tumbler Ridge and I sure have not lacked seeing LOTS of moose on my quad trips this year. Some areas were hit hard last year but T.R. was not one of them.

[Spuddge]

Man I don't know what to say about that. Not sure where exactly you hunted, but I live in Tumbler Ridge and I sure have not lacked seeing LOTS of moose on my quad trips this year. Some areas were hit hard last year but T.R. was not one of them.
We weren't exactly in the Tumbler Ridge area...:wink:

[bullmagnum]

Well, its possible we were just hunting in a bad area. It was a first for all of us being up there. We grabbed so me topo maps and as much info from friends who had been up there as we could. What I dont understand is that we literally scowered a good section of logging roads day in day out and saw zilch. Up before daybreak and walking...straight through til dusk. It probably didnt help that 2 of the days it was over 30 degrees...but still they should've been near water? we tried to scout out some good lakes and marshes midday and dusk as much as possible, but no luck. But from all of the locals(hunters) I talked to, they said the winter of 06 definately had an impact on the area.

And spudge, I also talked to mike when we picked up our bear meat (which he generously did for us) and he told us the same. 3 years ago and prior he averaged about 550 moose, last year was down to somewhere in the early to mid 100's I think he said. Maybe it was less...I dont remember correctly now.

[bullmagnum]

I should add that we didnt see zilch big game...just no moose. We saw a 3x2 young bull elk (and we actually called him away from a few other cows!), 8 whitetail, 4 of which were young bucks, and 4 black bears. One of the bears we stalked to within 30-40 yards and videotaped him for about 5 minutes, just for kicks. It was that kind of week :D

I do love it up there though. I'll definately be back!

[lunatic]

"Seen 68 moose this year winter kill my arse seen four different sets of twins and even a set of tripplets . we hunted hard and should of had 3 moose but were happy taking one. "



This is a qoute off the "other" hunting site last year from someone who PM'd me asking what the winterkill was like around T.R. in winter of '06. They had been coming and hunting the area for years. I told them that all was fine and to come on up. When I PM'd him after the hunt the above quote was his reply. I do know some areas were sparred. ask some locals for advice next time you come up. I don't hunt moose very often anymore so I would probably give some advice if asked about where to go.

[bullmagnum]

hey lunatic, that's definately good to know :) I may head back up to tumbler ridge/ FSJ area again next season. It's beautiful country, and im certain there are still a lot of moose around.

In regards to that other hunter. I guess he found where the other 45% were hiding. The facts are though, whether or not people like to acknoledge it, that there was a significant winterkill. When we asked the min. of Environment if they had done any counts since '06 they said they had not conducted a full count yet. But they did have estimates from tenative counts of the area. This is where the 65% estimate came from. And we did talk to many locals of the surrounding area of TR and they confirmed (not specifically in TR, mainly DC and Chet). All I can say is I hope that you and others who live there continue to see lots moose :D

[bullmagnum]

wouldn't let me edit my my poor percentage mistake. I forgot how to subtract 65 from 100. :D

[talver]

hey lunatic, that's definately good to know :) I may head back up to tumbler ridge/ FSJ area again next season. It's beautiful country, and im certain there are still a lot of moose around.

In regards to that other hunter. I guess he found where the other 45% were hiding. The facts are though, whether or not people like to acknoledge it, that there was a significant winterkill. When we asked the min. of Environment if they had done any counts since '06 they said they had not conducted a full count yet. But they did have estimates from tenative counts of the area. This is where the 65% estimate came from. And we did talk to many locals of the surrounding area of TR and they confirmed (not specifically in TR, mainly DC and Chet). All I can say is I hope that you and others who live there continue to see lots moose :D
Im that other hunter and trust me theres moose up in them hills out in that area. I didnt do anything different from what you were doing other than go up later in the season. August hunt isnt all its cracked up to be. I dont know how acurate the 65% number for the winter kill is. Do know you have to work harder to get your bull, but hey is called hunting not shooting. Hope you get one out of there in the future its great country up there. Have you hunted up there before? Lunatic thanks for the info last year will be up agian this year

[lunatic]

Im that other hunter and trust me theres moose up in them hills out in that area. I didnt do anything different from what you were doing other than go up later in the season. August hunt isnt all its cracked up to be. I dont know how acurate the 65% number for the winter kill is. Do know you have to work harder to get your bull, but hey is called hunting not shooting. Hope you get one out of there in the future its great country up there. Have you hunted up there before? Lunatic thanks for the info last year will be up agian this year


Sorry Talver....couldn't remember your HBC handle. Good luck again this year. I'm booked off from Sept 9th till the 25th for my elk hunt. Man I hate that drive in the morning. Don't even have time to finish a coffee.:wink:

[hunter1947]

Spuddge ,good going on the both of you getting a moose this year ,congrats to the both of you.

[bullmagnum]

Hey talver. No that was our first time up (between the 4 of us). I don't doubt that there are moose up there. On the contrary, part of what I loved about the country up there is that even after 4 days of hard trekking and glassing, I still felt as though a moose might walk out of nowhere and step on my foot. That is just another thing I love about hunting, the anticipation is about as sweet as seeing your target.

I definately want to go back to the area next season. Any help from you guys would definately be appreciated :) (specific spots preferred, but will settle for tips and tricks of the area) haha :).

[Spuddge]

Hey talver. No that was our first time up (between the 4 of us). I don't doubt that there are moose up there. On the contrary, part of what I loved about the country up there is that even after 4 days of hard trekking and glassing, I still felt as though a moose might walk out of nowhere and step on my foot. That is just another thing I love about hunting, the anticipation is about as sweet as seeing your target.

I definately want to go back to the area next season. Any help from you guys would definately be appreciated :) (specific spots preferred, but will settle for tips and tricks of the area) haha :).
Being a bit of a newbie myself I feel like I shouldn't be giving advice on hunting:redface:. This is only my 3rd year hunting big game, but I have learned alot, I was skunked for moose the first 2 years. My advice would be to take it really slow, park your vehicle before you get into the area you're hunting and walk slowly (cuts with new growth are favorites for game). Anything you think looks like game take your time and glass it. It's better to mistake an old stump for a moose than not look and realize too late that you missed something! Sometimes just glassing for a while will yield results, In one cut I couldn't see a thing with the naked eye, but with the binos I saw several mulies that were well camoflauged in the brush! Where I got my bull I saw several cows and was about to give up and realized there was a bull standing right there. I hope this helps. There's also being in the right place at the right time, look everywhere, you never know where they might be!

[bullmagnum]

Yeah, I hear yah. I did basically everything you mentioned, but sometimes luck just isn't on your side. I tell you what though, I've never been so sick of stumps and logs as I was at the end of that trip. It definately became difficult to motivate myself to stop and glassover a "big friggin moose" (as, of course, it was everytime I saw a stump or a log).

[Swamp Donkey]

CONGRATS on your first moose !