I was fortunate enough to win a moose LEH draw this year for region 5. Entered as a group of 3 we had two bulls to find. When looking at travel plans I noticed that there was a 5:00am boat on the thanksgiving monday. This would work for my hunt partner and I as we had family commitments on the Sunday. The rest of the group left the island on Sunday. The drive up was uneventful and I thought that we made decent time. (arriving in daylight for a change). I think we only saw 2 does on the whole drive if I remember correctly. As we rolled into camp the other guys were headed out for a scouting mission. They didn’t end up seeing anything that evening.
Tuesday morning is open season. Most guys would think that means wake up pretty early and get at it. For me ( in this camp at least ) it means wake up when you kind of feel like it. 8:00 ish? I think I was still tired from the day before. After a couple slow coffees we’d start to think about a decent breakfast. I’m not sure if we went with bacon, hash browns , eggs and sausage that day or not ? There is a 10:00am atv rule in place there so we don’t worry about rushing out o camp. We were excited for opening day so we probably left camp by about 11:00. I normally like hunting off of my atv as I like the independence. My partner isn’t in the best of shape due to an illness. ( fcuk cancer) so we took another friends sxs to use. ( that guy normally comes on this trip but couldn’t this year so we brought his buggy ) Mike wasn’t planning on doing much hiking etc.. as mobility is a struggle. So the two person sxs was the ticket for us to go together. I wanted to check out an area that we discovered last year. I knew where the rest of the group was planning on being but this new spot was about 10 km further. We roll up to the area around 2:00 or so and I see a truck parked at a junction that I wanted to explore. This junction went into a cut that I saw a bull in last year. So we continued further down the road that I was pretty confident was a dead end. I found a decent spot to park where Mike could glass from. I went for a short walk further into the slash. As I was turning I heard what I thought was a grunt. Waited for a while longer but couldn’t see or hear anything. When I did decide to walk back to the sxs I spotted a cow calf walking away from where I was looking. I convinced myself that that was what I heard 20 min prior.
We decided to drive on and find a spot to set up for the evening session. The truck that was parked earlier wasn’t there on our way back so I wanted to check it out and to show Mike this spot. I parked in a spot that I had sat at last year that had a good vantage point of the timber across the slash. Mike was fine with the location. I grabbed my gear and headed left to the other side of the slash. I’d been working my way along the timber line for 45? mins when I hear on the radio “ where are you? “ I’m actually headed back around and not that far from you why?
“I’m looking at a bull , two actually. Down to the right they just came out of the timber “
I’m hustling back at this point as Mike says that he’s pinned in the sxs and was worried that if he opened the door they’d spook. I arrive and lay down into a shooting position on a dirt knoll. I wanted Mike to shoot but he says “ you go , it’s your tag “ Ok , I’m fine with that as I like shooting. I fire but see no reaction. I’m laying about 25’ from the sxs and ask if he saw the bullet hit. I shoot again, pretty sure that I hit it but not much of a reaction.
I should also say at this point that we figured the bull on the right was a better choice. A bit bigger set o antlers. It took a step forward and I thought that it had a wobble to him but I’m really doubting myself at this point. Normally you get a reaction from a 7mm and my shots felt good. I really didn’t want to have to find this bull in the timber later. So my trigger finger was getting a workout. It goes down after 4 shots. I think that if I waited then it would have fallen over after the 2nd but I wasn’t willing to risk it. Meanwhile bull number 2 didn’t really go anywhere. We watched it for about 5 mins after his buddy fell over.
I drove up to the bull to confirm dead etc.. It’s just after 6:00 now and knew that the two of us would be a while dealing with it so we raced back to find the others before they made their way back to camp. ( 15 km the other way ) They were celebrating cause they got to share the news that they got a bear that afternoon. I said that I’d need to borrow there sxs to fit 1/2 a bull into for the ride back to camp.
We finally get back to bull to start the rest of the task. Quartering went pretty well I thought. I was relieved to see that my bullets were going where I was aiming. 3 holes in maybe a grapefruit size ring in the breadbasket. The 4th hole was a little forward in the front shoulder ( that one went through clean. The exit hole was pencil sized) Heart and lungs were smashed up. Ranged the next day showed 255 yards.
Loaded up on the two buggys we make our way back to camp. I think it was around 1:00am when we were done at the meat pole in camp. Not that we rush through things quick or anything.
The next day we all head back to the same area as we know there’s still a bull around. I ended up seeing bull 2 again on the second night in neighbouring slash but he was on the run at a distance. The other tag holders went to where I was first on the previous afternoon. Turns out what I heard grunt was a large bull. I had convinced myself that what I heard was the cow calf. They were calling it and got a glimpse but didn’t have a shot at it.
The next couple days were kind of the same. One guy did get a mule deer but we weren’t seeing the bulls anymore. Mike and I needed to be home by Saturday night due to commitments on Sunday. Yeah I know, it was a short trip but it’s still fun to get together with the rest of the group. We loaded up and had plans on leaving camp fairly early on Saturday morning. We were making our way back to the highway and at one point both spot a deer at the same time. Upon glassing it as it’s standing in some bushes I see that it’s a buck. Boom down it goes ( after agreeing that we have time to deal with it ). Change into some less clean clothes and boots , gut it , load it into the back of the truck as we didn’t want to put it in the trailer so that it might cool better.
6-7 km down the road we stopped to watch a bunch of other deer ( all does ).
There’s quite a few of em and we watch for a while. We eventually move forward and see that there’s a small buck in the mix. Now we are both tagged out. Later that evening we get an update from the guys in camp. They got the other bull that afternoon. It was a pretty good trip for us.
I’m lucky that our group gets along good and has a great time together. We look forward to it every year.
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