The Hermit
10-07-2009, 09:35 PM
Each having an LEH for Bulls in 7-26 one of my archery bear and elk hunting partners and I headed north a little early planning to get camp set up and scout out a productive area that AWISHAKNEW had hunted in years past.
In advance of our departure I posted here on HBC looking to rent a trailer to haul our camp and quad on this trip. One of our HBC members, VISLE, kindly agreed to rent me a spare trailer of his real cheap. After picking it up and hauling it home, loading it with the quad and sundry gear, ol AWISHAKNEW arrives and says "explicative bleep bleep that is a lot of explicative gear! No way we can get all that and two moose into the truck". He did make mention and complimented me on my nice Gortex camo hat though! So we rent a 6x12 Uhaul hook it up on his full size PU and off we go.
Now I knew that AWISHAKNEW had been in on a number of moose kills over the years but on the drive up I began to count the seemingly ENDLESS stories and lost count. He is a great story teller and the miles passed quickly. Finally asking him just how many moose he and his partners had taken over the years ... the number was an astounding 50+.
I was pretty pumped with anticipation by the time we got up there!!! I have been on four moose hunts in the past few years and never connected so I was eager to learn the ropes from a genuine "old" hand!!! It took a little longer to sort out the chronology of those kills and the various relationships between his many "now deceased" partners... I started to worry that I might not have long to live being associated with this guy!!! ;-)
I was hoping to stop in Willy's Puddle to visit with Steve but the timing didn't work out, bummer. We did stop and have a chat with Todd Bartell at Ominica Sports. He is as nice in person as he is helpful online and we really enjoyed meeting him! He pointed out that ELK are open in 7-26 so that was all the excuse I needed to buy a new bugle that was highly recommended to me last month in elk camp... of course we didn't see any elk but what the hell! AWISHAKNEW inquired about Gortex hats and pointed out mine as an example. :roll:
So we get to AWISHAKNEW's old hunting grounds and the spot had been logged off and was now devil's club and blowdowns... arggggh. It was also 28 degrees out and nothing was moving or calling! We used the first few days to scout out another few likely spots and settled on two areas to concentrate on. After about five days the weather broke and we got a couple days of rain and things cooled down considerably. Of course the stories kept rolling and we got to know one another pretty well. It was about this time that my hat disappeared...
http://www.members.shaw.ca/btozer/Moose09/DSCN0710.JPG
At last we started hearing a few cows calling and the occassional MMMMWHAAAAA in return. Saw this cow one morning and decided to head back there in the afternoon and see if we could get her to compete a little with AWISHAKNEW's formidable sexy cow imitations!
http://www.members.shaw.ca/btozer/Moose09/Cow.JPG
http://www.members.shaw.ca/btozer/Moose09/IMG_0364.JPG
This went pretty well and soon enough a small bull answered and started thrashing the bushes along the shore. A couple bull calls and out he came and stood there trying to figure out what the heck that floating thing on the lake was... every time we moved off to one side or the other he turned to continue facing us so I wasn't able to get a good shot angle. After what seemed like as much time as one of AWISHAKNEW's medium length stories, the bull started to get nervous and turned to get out of the water. One shot from my new Tika T3 SS in 338 Federal with 185gr Barnes TSX dropped him on the spot from about 75 yards. Whooooo Hoooo!
http://www.members.shaw.ca/btozer/Moose09/DSCN0721.JPG
Now intellectually I knew that dealing with a dead moose on the shore was going to be a lot of work but holy hell!!! We field dressed him and left him there overnight returning at dawn with all the gear. We were about 5 km down the lake and had to ferry each quarter back to the landing and load it up on the quad for hauling back to the truck. We finished hanging and skinning out the quarters about 8pm that night.
http://www.members.shaw.ca/btozer/Moose09/DSCN0739.JPG
A couple days later we were back on the lake and a huge cumulous nimbus storm came up and we decided to get off the water tout suite! Sitting back at the landing waiting for the storm to do its thing I decided to try calling so grabed the birchbark and let go me warbley come hither cow call and HOT damn if Mr Big didn't answer and within two minuted charged out of the bush about 100 yards away!!! BANG AWISHAKNEW's 270 rang out and we had another day and half's work to do!!! :biggrin: Since I know of about five deceased former hunting partners I'll post a pic of me with his moose as I'm not sure he would want his picture on here after this post!!! LOL
http://www.members.shaw.ca/btozer/Moose09/DSCN0755.JPG
http://www.members.shaw.ca/btozer/Moose09/IMG_0372.JPG
http://www.members.shaw.ca/btozer/Moose09/DSCN0760.JPG
Then it was time for a little R&R and the long drive home.
http://www.members.shaw.ca/btozer/Moose09/IMG_0379.JPG
Got the quarters into the butcher and looks like they total about 900 pounds of meat! Cool!!
Great trip, learned lots from a willing able and talented old hand, and looking forward to the next LEH!! Thanks again AWISHAKNEW, your the man!!!
PS... If anyone finds a hat like this up in 7-26 or if you ever see AWISHAKNEW wearing one like it let me know... I just know he has it!!!
http://images.cabelas.com/is/image/cabelas/s7_943412_renderset_03?$main-Medium$
In advance of our departure I posted here on HBC looking to rent a trailer to haul our camp and quad on this trip. One of our HBC members, VISLE, kindly agreed to rent me a spare trailer of his real cheap. After picking it up and hauling it home, loading it with the quad and sundry gear, ol AWISHAKNEW arrives and says "explicative bleep bleep that is a lot of explicative gear! No way we can get all that and two moose into the truck". He did make mention and complimented me on my nice Gortex camo hat though! So we rent a 6x12 Uhaul hook it up on his full size PU and off we go.
Now I knew that AWISHAKNEW had been in on a number of moose kills over the years but on the drive up I began to count the seemingly ENDLESS stories and lost count. He is a great story teller and the miles passed quickly. Finally asking him just how many moose he and his partners had taken over the years ... the number was an astounding 50+.
I was pretty pumped with anticipation by the time we got up there!!! I have been on four moose hunts in the past few years and never connected so I was eager to learn the ropes from a genuine "old" hand!!! It took a little longer to sort out the chronology of those kills and the various relationships between his many "now deceased" partners... I started to worry that I might not have long to live being associated with this guy!!! ;-)
I was hoping to stop in Willy's Puddle to visit with Steve but the timing didn't work out, bummer. We did stop and have a chat with Todd Bartell at Ominica Sports. He is as nice in person as he is helpful online and we really enjoyed meeting him! He pointed out that ELK are open in 7-26 so that was all the excuse I needed to buy a new bugle that was highly recommended to me last month in elk camp... of course we didn't see any elk but what the hell! AWISHAKNEW inquired about Gortex hats and pointed out mine as an example. :roll:
So we get to AWISHAKNEW's old hunting grounds and the spot had been logged off and was now devil's club and blowdowns... arggggh. It was also 28 degrees out and nothing was moving or calling! We used the first few days to scout out another few likely spots and settled on two areas to concentrate on. After about five days the weather broke and we got a couple days of rain and things cooled down considerably. Of course the stories kept rolling and we got to know one another pretty well. It was about this time that my hat disappeared...
http://www.members.shaw.ca/btozer/Moose09/DSCN0710.JPG
At last we started hearing a few cows calling and the occassional MMMMWHAAAAA in return. Saw this cow one morning and decided to head back there in the afternoon and see if we could get her to compete a little with AWISHAKNEW's formidable sexy cow imitations!
http://www.members.shaw.ca/btozer/Moose09/Cow.JPG
http://www.members.shaw.ca/btozer/Moose09/IMG_0364.JPG
This went pretty well and soon enough a small bull answered and started thrashing the bushes along the shore. A couple bull calls and out he came and stood there trying to figure out what the heck that floating thing on the lake was... every time we moved off to one side or the other he turned to continue facing us so I wasn't able to get a good shot angle. After what seemed like as much time as one of AWISHAKNEW's medium length stories, the bull started to get nervous and turned to get out of the water. One shot from my new Tika T3 SS in 338 Federal with 185gr Barnes TSX dropped him on the spot from about 75 yards. Whooooo Hoooo!
http://www.members.shaw.ca/btozer/Moose09/DSCN0721.JPG
Now intellectually I knew that dealing with a dead moose on the shore was going to be a lot of work but holy hell!!! We field dressed him and left him there overnight returning at dawn with all the gear. We were about 5 km down the lake and had to ferry each quarter back to the landing and load it up on the quad for hauling back to the truck. We finished hanging and skinning out the quarters about 8pm that night.
http://www.members.shaw.ca/btozer/Moose09/DSCN0739.JPG
A couple days later we were back on the lake and a huge cumulous nimbus storm came up and we decided to get off the water tout suite! Sitting back at the landing waiting for the storm to do its thing I decided to try calling so grabed the birchbark and let go me warbley come hither cow call and HOT damn if Mr Big didn't answer and within two minuted charged out of the bush about 100 yards away!!! BANG AWISHAKNEW's 270 rang out and we had another day and half's work to do!!! :biggrin: Since I know of about five deceased former hunting partners I'll post a pic of me with his moose as I'm not sure he would want his picture on here after this post!!! LOL
http://www.members.shaw.ca/btozer/Moose09/DSCN0755.JPG
http://www.members.shaw.ca/btozer/Moose09/IMG_0372.JPG
http://www.members.shaw.ca/btozer/Moose09/DSCN0760.JPG
Then it was time for a little R&R and the long drive home.
http://www.members.shaw.ca/btozer/Moose09/IMG_0379.JPG
Got the quarters into the butcher and looks like they total about 900 pounds of meat! Cool!!
Great trip, learned lots from a willing able and talented old hand, and looking forward to the next LEH!! Thanks again AWISHAKNEW, your the man!!!
PS... If anyone finds a hat like this up in 7-26 or if you ever see AWISHAKNEW wearing one like it let me know... I just know he has it!!!
http://images.cabelas.com/is/image/cabelas/s7_943412_renderset_03?$main-Medium$