My son came with my usual hunting partner and I this year for his first moose hunt . We left on Sept 15 and got to our hunting area on the 16th and hunted that afternoon. After a 24 hour drive it felt good to be outdoors.
We split up to cover more area and my son heard a cow and bull calling. Him and I returned to his area the next morning and called but there were no responses. This lake has great pickerel fishing so we hunted until 11:00 and then caught a lunch’s worth of fish. This lake doesn’t get fished by anyone else as it is portage to only with no other boat access.
That evening we split up and my son heard the two moose calling again further down the shore. He stayed until dark but they wouldn’t come to the lakeshore. Both nights we had violent thunderstorms at last light with torrential downpours.
We tried a different area the next morning as the wind was not right for the lake we were hearing the moose.My partner heard a bull raking his horns at the lake he was at but no show either.It has been raining and warm every day so far.
That evening my son and I returned and called for a couple hours when we heard the cow and bull both calling across the lake. With a safe wind I asked my son if he wanted to take the canoe across and try to sneak in but he was unsure about it and would prefer if I would try. He could watch the shore from a nearby island in case they came out while I tried moving in. I got to the far shore and starting getting closer but the moose had stopped calling. Iradioed to my son that I was going to rake trees and for him to let me know if I was close to where we last heard them. I raked the trees and he radioed back”you’re right on top of them”.
I raked again and started hearing sticks breaking and then caught a flash of antler. He thrashed a spruce tree at forty yards and when he stepped into the open I grunted him and he stopped. When I shot he bolted ahead fifty yards and stopped but I had no shot. I could see his horns and then I heard him wheezing and he crashed!BULL DOWN!
I flagged a trail to him with toilet paper but when I shot the heavens opened up and poured rain and disintegrated my flags so I blazed a trail back to the canoe,picked up my son and headed back to the moose. He was super excited! We got back to the moose and gutted and skinned him to speed up the cool down process. We canoed across the lake and walked back to camp,got a wheeler and extra canoe and our other hunting partner and went back.
We broke the moose into quarters and backpacked it down to the waiting canoes,paddled across the lake and ferried the quarters back to camp on the four wheeler. We finished at 2:00 a.m.completely dog tired.
The next morning we ran the moose into town 3 1/2 hours away and got it into a butchers cooler. The temps were far too warm but the quarters had cooled down nicely and weighed 562 pounds skinned on the rail.
We went back to camp and for the next four days tried to fill our cow tag,fished and watched some caribou. There were also a good crop of blueberries that we picked a few bags full and we hunted grouse also. One afternoon my buddy and I landed 30 pickerel in a little over an hour. They just turned on!
Nine days after we arrived we packed up and headed home with a frozen butchered moose. A great trip again.
Moose hunt, Rifle
