Early Moose, Late Story

[Tarp Man]

Well guys (and aparently only 5 gals much to Marc's disbelief), here is the story of my August season moose from Fort St. John.

After driving for many hours, accompanied by the usual amount of pre hunt BS'ing, my buddy and I and his dad drove up to our usual spot past FSJ to be ready for opening morning. We proceded to set up the camp and plan where we would have the most success (big open slash? Pipelines? One of the few moist, swampy areas left?) We had time to do a little scout around the area and talk with our hosts to find out what they had been seeing for animals. Evening before opening morning, we spot a cow/calf pair and a lone cow in the same area. We decide to go back to this spot for opening morning.

Tuesday morning: One barely sleeping night later, we are back in the spot at first light slowly walking into our clearing, (the same one my buddy shot his moose in last year) and what do we see but a guy in a cargo van driving out! So we wait until he drives up and talk to him. Turns out he didn't even get out of his van. PERFECT! There might still be animals in the fringes. We slowly walk into the clearing. Saw nothing until the far end of the slash and a 45 minute walk. What were first thought to be beef cows turned out to be a pair of bull elk, one 5x5 and one potential 6x6! These are the first elk I have seen outside of a park/wildlife refuge or Banff, AB. Prettty impressive seeing these massive animals tread lightly across a grassy knoll, antlers still in velvet and slightly glowing in the morning sun. After watching those monsters parade past, we snuck further into the clearing. Our only reward, was another lone cow moose. we decide at that point to slowly circle back around into the wind of where we came in to see if there was anything feeding on the fringes. An hour and a half later we were no closer to a bull on the ground. As we are walking out, we find a four-truck camp set up with fire pits smoking. So much for our great spot. Its now 11 a.m. so back to the trailer for breakfast and regroup.

Tuesday afternoon: After we eat, we head back out to the area where I shot my moose last year. Down a pipeline to the clearing. (Go ahead and ask where... it is the one with tall timothy grass and the clearing was replanted 5 or so years ago :) ) I decide to walk the edge of the clearing, my buddy settled down to watch the intersection of the main pipleline. (Clear fields of fire established, radios on.) After walking around the clearing being downwind as much as possible, I get back to the skid trail and settle down myself to watch for a while. It is now getting into the evening hunt. About thirty minutes later, a loud crunch behind me sets the heart racing. Turns out to be a mulie doe. Can't believe I almost filled my shorts over that little girl! I slowly turn back and standing about 150m down the trail is a big bull! Antlers were big enough to see without binos. As I go to raise the rifle, Mr. Big trots across the trail, no shot. That's o.k. though, cause I think my buddy is 400m or so parallel to me and will have a clear shot when this bull pokes his nose out on the main pipeline! Perfect! That is if he was where I thought we was. Turns out he was chasing a moose that he was almost sure was a bull (an immature it turns out). He ends up shooting this bull, so I will leave that story to him. Meanwhile I see squat from that moose until I hear my buddy's shot, and raise him on the radio. Great! At least one of us got something down.

After dealing with his moose and everything else that day, we ended up hunting only the eveing of the Wednesday. No luck, only a bunch of cow/calf pairs and two lone cow moose.

Thursday morning: up at the crack of dawn and out to pipeline #2 and slash #2. No animals, and a few hunters. Damn. Gotta get farther back. So we go back to another area where there have been lots of beds and sign and a few bulls, and walk the cut lines for a while. NO animals again! I am getting pretty worried as all I can think about is the one bull I didn't shoot at on opening night. The one that got away... Back to the trailer as it is breakfast/lunch time again and regroup. went out for the afternoon hunt with no success. This lead to the evening hunt. Had I known what was in store, I would have eaten a lot more for lunch. Part Two to follow, hopefully with pics.

[partsman]

Thanks for the story, keep it coming, used to hunt wonowon, Pink Mountain, graham river, halfway river and blue grave and others, always good hunting.

[MB_Boy]

Part Two to follow, hopefully with pics.

Now I feel like I am on hold with Telus......:wink:

[JohnS]

Now I feel like I am on hold with Telus......:wink:


LOL! ..... i feel the same way .....:lol: sounds like a great adventure so far...8-)

[Bow Walker]

Tarp Man........
The least you could do would be to supply some peanuts and "pop" while we eagerly await your late story!

[Tarp Man]

Sorry guys, I will post the rest later tonight. It gets pretty epic...

[Ozone]

Oh ya leave us hanging.

[bsa30-06]

Well its later tonite, tell us the rest of the story and don't forget the pics.

[Tarp Man]

So where were we? ... Oh yes, the evening hunt. Well my buddy and I geared up for the evening hunt (read 4pm or so until dark), and after talking to our hosts again, we decided to hunt their grazing lease as it was behind three gates and received little or no hunting pressure. So we head out there, nine miles from the ranch and another nine miles into the bush. 17 or so miles were on the quads, the last two on foot. We snuck through the bush down cow trails and old access roads to this old slash and set up to wait. On our way to the main slash, we passed a small pocket clearing about 2 acres in size, and my buddy spotted a cow moose. Quickly stopping where we were, we waited for about 15 minutes to see if there was a bull hanging out with her. A few moose calls later, no dice. So we proceed to the main slash, which was not the best for spotting swamp donkeys from the ground. It was about 25 acres in size. Imagine willows thick and most are about 5-6 feet tall. At this time there could already be things bedded in there? So we sneak to the one small rise in the near middle of the slash and settle down to wait.

About 45 minutes later we hear a volley of shots within a kilometer away, first one, then two quick ones, then another two later. Quietly muttering under my breath (read curse like a sailor at being close but not quite in the right spot), I wonder what in the world would need five shots? At least it would draw the bears away from us! Then more waiting. At this point we have about 45 minutes of shooting light left and I am second-guessing myself like crazy. Right spot? Wrong spot? Right time? Wrong time? Finally a mini conference and I decide we should head back to where my buddy saw the cow moose on the way in. You know the feeling of sneaking as quietly as you can, as fast as you can, in a half crouch? So five minutes of this and we reach the edge of the first clearing.

We peek through the trees into the clearing, but that earlier cow has buggered off and the clearing is empty. With my options dwindling like the evening light, I decide we will spread out about 50m apart and push through the clearing, stopping at the pocket of trees in the middle. We planned to wait out the light there with a bigger field of view to see whatever may enter the clearing and my crosshairs (hopefully). About 50m into the clearing I hear a stick snap behind me and slowly turn to see a nice little paddle bull moose staring at me. I freeze and slowly bring my binos to my eyes to confirm there are antlers above those honkin' big ears. Yup! He's giving me a nice almost broadside, slight quartering towards me shot at about 75 m. It took about .2 seconds to decide to not bother telling my buddy to freeze cause he'll know once the Tikka speaks! Now the slow shouldering of the rifle, and flick up and down of the bolt to cock it and, steady now, pick a spot, nice even squeeze, and BOOM! The bull does a jump and I do too! I quickly cycle the bolt for a follow up shot but hold my fire. I know I hit him where I wanted, at the back of the shoulder, and he takes four steps and pitches over! I am hollering "He's down, I got him, over and over. My buddy is pretty pumped and says what happened? So I quickly tell him as we are standing there waiting for him to expire, except the stubborn bugger gets up! "Screw this" I think. It is getting late and we don't want to be chasing him in the bush at night. So I put another round through the boiler room and down he goes for the last time. Now we are really stoked! Both of us getting our moose, two years in a row! As the adrenalin begins to fade the shakes hit pretty good. Not ashamed of that either.

As I turned when I heard the stick snap and saw him staring right at me I figured this is the worst case scenario I had been having nightmares about for a month now. I had been practicing for two years several times a month at the range, both on the bench and off. I know I can hit a target (pie plate) with three shots offhand at 100m. Beyond that, I need to be kneeling or on a stump, tree, etc. I already decided that I would not be shooting beyond 100m without a rest. My own restriction. As far as the shakes go, last year I got sewing machine legs so bad sitting behind a stump trying to shoot my moose to the point I almost dug a little ditch! So being caught in the open with no rest and the moose already seeing me first was my worst case scenario. I guess all that practice paid off because both shots felt good.

After a few quick pictures and field dressing him, with my buddy on bear watch, we hauled our heinies out of there. The reason being is that our hosts offered to bring in the moose with the tractor if it was near a road. And after being up until 2 am ond Tuesday night/Wednesday morning dragging out my buddy's moose, we figured a little help was o.k.

Part three is coming, so I will post this to keep all you impatient ones happy.

[Tarp Man]

Part Three...

So we jump on the bikes after hiking out the last mile or so by headlamp and burn back to the ranch. I knock on the door, slightly regretting the fact it is now 10pm. He answers the door and says he will be right out as he wants to get the tractor. (Big sigh of relief by me as it is a 30 minute trip in by quad). He comes out and says there is only room for one extra person in the tractor cab, so I offer to my buddy that I will go as I shot the moose and he can stay at the ranch and wait for us to get back, then he can help skin and half it. He agrees, I even offer for him to nap as we had a 22 hour day on opening day getting his moose out and skinned. Truth be told, there was no way I was missing out on going back and getting my moose as I figured there would be adventure to be had. Good thing I inhaled an energy bar before jumping into the tractor with our host. Before leaving, I stuffed a few essentials in my pants pockets (headlamp, skinning knife, stone, licence, toque) and reloaded my ammo belt (clip in pocket with 3 rounds, another 8 on the belt). Then began the adventure.

We drove the tractor in therem without atv support because the last 1/2 mile before the clearing with my moose was choked off with blowdown trees. Our host figured it was faster with the tractor and the silage claw on the bucket to clear the area, than using a chainsaw and a quad going ahead. That was mistake number one. So we drive in there, chatting happily away, bouncing down this overgrown road. It would have left many bruises, except I am wedged into the cab between the door and the dash, sitting on an overturned 5 gallon bucket. After he takes a short cut (never a good idea in the dark bush... mistake number two), we back track our way to the moose clearing. Our host made short and quick work of the blow down trees, until the last one was almost cleared until a loud WHOOOSHHH was heard over the cracking and snapping of trees. I hesitantly say "was that a hydraulic hose?". My host looks over to the right side front wheel and we both see a 8" diameter spruce trunk sticking out of the sidewall of the tire. Well, he took that rather well, because I found out later that tire was not going to be cheap to replace.

So I ask, "I guess we start walking, right?". He replies, "Oh no, lets see how far we get once I get that tree out of the tire. I'll just lower the bucket and we can slide along the grass on the bucket". I have very little tractor experience, but if he figured this was o.k. then I was game. So now we begin a demonstration of tractor driving skill I will never forget. We turn around and go into the clearing, load the moose into the bucket and tip it up, so we can slide along on the smooth bucket bottom, driven by the rear wheels (4WD tractor, rear wheels with individual braking). So we carry on, with the front right wheel flopping along, and my host steering by braking one rear wheel then the other, kind of like a bulldozer. This seems to be working very well, until we hit the muddy stretch, that the earlier "short cut" detoured around. So he hollers "Hang on" and guns it to try and get through on momentum. No dice.

Once bogged down, he tries rocking it back and forth, lowering the front wheels back on the ground to gain any traction, but that flopping right tire dragged us down and we are sunk to the axles before we know it. This time I figure for sure we are walking out. I ask the question, and he says "I'm not ready to give up yet, but we may end up building a fire and sleeping here". Now for some of you, that may be fine, but I am thinking that we are in the middle of the bush, in grizzly country, with a freshly gutted moose, and scant room in the tractor cab. I'd rather walk out on the trail I know, by headlamp. except that the ranch is approximately 14 miles away. Thus began an hour of using chains and cutting down trees and rocking the tractor back and forth trying to inch out of the muck. If I had known this would have happened I would have brought my camera. It got epic in a hurry. Finally, against the odds, we got unstuck and attempted to carry on. Once back in the cab, my host asked me "So how many more of those are there?" I think he was joking, but my answer of "Three and a steep ditch" kinda sobered things up. So we carried on and took one muddy stretch at a time. We went through sliding sideways, pitching and yawing back and forth, but somehow he got us through each one. We left ruts that were a good 18" deep, and each of those muddy sections were about 60 feet long. The steep ditch was the easy. part. Finally we get to the main road which was gravel, so there was no option to skid the bucket along the ground. We had covered the 9 miles of bush on the quads in 30 minutes. In the tractor, it took 2.5 hours. So it is now 1:15 on Friday morning, and we are pretty tired, but still 9 miles from the ranch and a warm bed. My host tries to raise his wife (or anyone within CB range), but to no avail. So we skin out the moose, hanging from the tractor bucket (the best way by far to do really big animals) and decide that it is now 2 am, and the ranch is a 9 mile walk away. I know that I can walk that in about 3 hours, but at that point, we could have slept at the tractor and people at the ranch would be waking up and come looking for us. So we decided to sleep at the tractor. Having been careful when skinning my moose, we layed it out on the ground next to the tractor, hair up, and cut a few armfuls of dry timothy grass and layed down on it to try and sleep!

[Tarp Man]

Part Four...

Let me tell you, there is no way I would ever do this on my own, nor with most people I know. But the way he said it, it sounded like the most logical thing to do as the tractor cab left no room to lie down in, and neither of us wanted to sleep on the bare ground. And up north what better way to have and adventure than to sleep out overnight, on your freshly skinned moose hide, guarding your moose kill and tractor with the busted-ass tire? Sounds like Great Northern BC Adventure TV to me! So we settle down and let our eyes get used to the dark once the field lights of the tractor were off. Let me tell you, it gets VERY dark once those lights go out. It was at that point I cradled my Tikka very close to me. So it was about 2:30 now and getting cold. My host has only blue shop overalls on over his shirt and no jacket, and wearing rubber boots. I have my zip-off pants, and hiking boots with wool socks. I wore a fleece shirt over a quick-dry shirt, and my toque. Grabbing that toque saved a lot of shivering. I stayed warm most of the night, but my host got cold and crawled into the tractor for some warmth. He found his 12 year old son's chore coat in there and threw that over me before crawling into the cab. I gave it back as he had far less on than I. And I was pretending to be a tough Northern BC'er. (For now). So I gradually calmed down and stopped thinking that every sound I heard was a big grizzly sneaking in on a perfectly hung moose kill. I was treated to a display of aurora borealis that was breath-taking. (BIG BANG theory my ass!) Intense colours of red and green and yellow and blue/purple were amazing. I hope everyone reading this gets to see this incredible sight. It went on for about 15 minutes, but it seemed like an hour. Then the shooting stars began. Talk about an amazing night. Finally the heavens settled down and I slept from about 3:30 to 4:30. It was starting to get light out and I woke up shivering pretty good. That moose hide kept me warm for a while as I had wrapped up in it once my host jumped in the cab. I knew the only way I would warm up was moving around, so I got up and my host woke up then and we tried the radio again with no success. So we started hiking/hunting our way back to the ranch as we figured my host still had his moose tag and two moose were not much more work than one at that point! On our way back we stalked up to a cow/calf pair, but no bull around. After about an hour or so of walking, we hear an ATV coming down the road with the throttle pinned wide open. The CAVALRY IS COMING! I knew it was a quad because of the sound knobby tires make on a road when planing off the tips. You ATV'ers know the sound. (Imagine a 4WD going down the highway on mudder tires, paired with a 4 stroke engine.) So we see my hunting buddy come over the crest of the hill, shotgun across his knees, looking all business like. Once he pulls up, and asks "So what happened?", my host explains in typical Northern BC understatement, "The tractor got a flat on the way in and we had to skid it out on the front bucket and then we slept at the road once we knew the radio didn't get reception. It was too late to start walking, so we slept there at the tractor." He then hops on the front of the quad for the ride back! My buddy kind of looks at me, (both my host and I are very muddy, and I have moose hair all over me) and I just say, "It was epic, just epic".

It turns out that once we left the ranch, my buddy took me up on the offer to have a nap, knowing I would come and wake him up when we got back. The nap ended up lasting until 6am, at which point he wakes up thinking it was way to light out, and the ******* (me) had not woken him up to come and help! Then he looked out into the yard to see where the moose usually hangs, but no moose and no tractor. Then he notices I am not in the trailer sleeping. Then he gets worried when my boots aren't in the trailer either. So he piles out of his sleeping bag, throws on some clothes and fills his pockets with 12G slugs cause he figures either a bear got us or the tractor is buggered. He grabbes the shotgun and heads out dreading what he will find.

So we see my hunting buddy come over the crest of the hill, shotgun across his knees, looking all business like. Once he pulls up, and asks "So what happened?", my host explains in typical Northern BC understatement, "The tractor got a flat on the way in and we had to skid it out on the front bucket and then we slept at the road once we knew the radio didn't get reception. It was too late to start walking, so we slept there at the tractor." He then hops on the front of the quad for the ride back! My buddy kind of looks at me, (both my host and I are very muddy, and I have moose hair all over me) and I just say, "It was epic, just epic".

Once back at the ranch, my hosts kids start pouring out of the house and milking barn wanting to know where their dad was all night! We agree to go and eat breakfast, then go back with the pick up trucks for the tire and the moose. So a quick breakfast later we are back up the road and loading the moose into the truck and lifting the tractor tire onto the flatdeck. Then off to the butcher, who was very near full.

Thus ended a hunting day that began Thursday morning at 4 am and ran until 9 am Friday. All with only 1 hour of sleep. I guess those night shifts are actually training for late night hunting adventures! I ended up not sleeping until that afternoon on the way into FSJ to celebrate with a dinner in town! All in all it was an epic adventure. Definitely a few lessons learned. I am always bringing my small backpack on trips, even if it is "just a short run out with the tractor". Accidents can happen. This pack always contains everything I would need for a night out. Food, water, space blanket, first aid kit. Another thing. I don't recommend sleeping in bear country wrapped in a freshly skinned moose hide. Gives new meaning to "bear burrito".

Oh, yeah. I still am working on pictures, but they are only of the moose. I did not have the camera for the adventure. It lives on in memory better anyway.

Also, for those who want to know (I know I would... I used my Tikka T3 wood stock, blued barrel, topped with a Bushnell Elite 3200 3-9 x 40, shooting Remington loaded Swift A-Frame bullets, 180 gr. Both shots were a complete pass through. I chose them based on.... Bah, as soon as my buddy reads this he knows that I chose them only because they were the choice of the week. I had a hard time deciding what to use besides a Barnes Triple Shock X-Bullet.

[Jagermeister]

Hey Tarp Man,
That's gotta be the best read on here so far, truly epic as you would say. Congratulations on the success of your hunt and that of your partner also. Thanks for sharing.

[Ozone]

Great story.

[Tarp Man]

The best part, I didn't have to make any of that up. The truth was plenty!

[3kills]

awesome story cant wait for pics....

[lip_ripper00]

too cool, thanks for sharing. great hunt!!

[PGKris]

:lol: Sounds like a blast man!

[CanuckShooter]

Sounds like a grand adventure !! Northern BC style...

[dawn2dusk]

Great post made my day. Thanks for sharin your adventure.

[Jelvis]

You must be young and energetic, to do all that in a short time, good for you and thanks for the hunting storey Jel 9286

[partsman]

Typical hunt in the Peace Country as i recall.:lol:

How I miss those days, took me four hours once to get the ATV back onto a road in a heavy snowfall, near dark, using two come alongs, with it teetering on the edge and any slip going to cause it to roll down the embankment.
Guys at camp with the typical, "where you been?"
turns out they were getting ready to start a search.

[MB_Boy]

Tarp........great story! It was well worth being on "hold".

Thanks for sharing and sounds like on of those good ole trips that the story will live on and on.

[Offroad]

Tarpman that was a great story I really enjoyed reading it. Congrats on the moose, looking forward to seeing the pics.

[Bow Walker]

Epic adventure for sure! Epic task typing it all too - but as was said here, it is far and away the best read to date. When you going out next?

[colt52]

Great read, congratulations on your moose !!

[atri]

Thanks for sharing your story. The twists and turns of the events were a treat to read. Though it was unpleasant to actually go through the experience, your memories will be all the sweeter as the years go by.

[Elkhound]

You guys are so lucky.....a tractor to get your moose. Nice

I love it when a plan comes together:lol:

[Tarp Man]

Yeah, the tractor was a nice touch. Too bad that gave a false sense of security. I won't make that mistake again. Also, there has been some question about the moose my buddy shot. It was a nice spike fork, a legal bull in that season. Just to clear things up. (Very tender eating!)

[John P]

Just read this thread best story ever posted on here, thats what its all about

[Maverick]

Great story Tarp Man much appreciated.

[peashooter]

best story to date.

[peashooter]

still waiting for pics. :wink:

[trigger]

great storey.
But wheres the pics???????????????????????????????

[Mik]

Sounds like quite the adventure! thanks for posting, Congrats to the both of you.