A Rookie's Moose (British Columbia)

[warnniklz]

Was a busy hunting season last year. Spring bear was successful. Did some stone sheep hunting, buddy got his first mountain goat, went on a couple other goat hunts, went on a weekend warrior bighorn hunt, bunch of mule deer hunting... but this is about a moose.

My buddy Brad is an Adult Onset Hunter. This was his second hunting season. So far... he's got himself 2 bears, and a mule deer.







The thing was, Brad had only been out hunting for 3 days and had 3 critters in 2 years. 2019 season, he got a coveted moose draw in central BC. I won't get into all the details, but the last few years, tag authorizations for drawing moose have been "TBD". So you're gambling on if there's even going to be a moose tag for that draw and you got to beat everyone else out of the draw. None the less he got the draw. His problem was, he lives an hour and a half away, and work had his September booked up with travel. So he wasn't even sure if he would get out.

 

[warnniklz]

His draw was the month of September... the first 10 days of September is also archery season for mule deer and not very far from my place. So since I told him where to apply I figured I could do some scouting for him. August 24th, myself and my brother went in, set up trail cameras, a blind, laid some salt out with crab apples and cleared a bunch of the brush so we had a soft quiet trail to walk in on.

 

[warnniklz]

After doing some goat hunting, deer hunting and whatnot... I finally went back to check trail cams. Found out my spot wasn't super secret. Just secret.


Thanks for leaving my trail cam buddy. Got a bunch of pictures of mule deer and cattle. But was excited to see these two. Not sure if the one in the background was a bull or cow, but promising none the less.

 

[warnniklz]

With a wedding and what not, the next couple weeks was a little quiet.

I got a call from Brad saying he'd be flying back from Vancouver on the 27th, wanted to go for his moose on the 28th and would have to fly back to Vancouver on the 29th. Well shit, can't say no to that. 27th rolls around, Brad is suppose to be in town around 9pm. Get a call, "I won't make it, I forgot my wallet on the plane and it has all my tags in it".

I told Brad to maybe give the airline a facebook message, twitter message and/or instagram message to maybe expedite the process. No luck. Brad wasn't going to get to go for his moose.

Oh wait! He did get out for 2 or 3 days with his G-Pa, but got skunked. Seen a spiker but didn't feel comfortable with the shot and let it walk. So he finally got days in the field without getting anything.

So Brad and I weren't going to be able to go for his moose. I figured I could get up early and burn to bighorn country. I was up early and looked at my gear. I thought "what if Brad does get his wallet back and wants to go? Then I'm not in cell service and don't get his message?"

So I started in on some early morning video games. About 10:00am rolled around... well... here's how it went



I think we were in the bush by 2ish. Within the first 3 kilometers in I was sweating because we hadn't seen anything yet. It was a furious hunt. We walked some clearings and wasn't seeing much. Crossed some guys coming out with campers and pulling side by sides. Hunters for sure. Don't know why they had campers back where they were, no real good places to camp unless you want to camp right in the middle of the spot you should hunt... never a good idea folks, I see it all the time. Frigs everything up.

Down the road I told Brad that I'm going to burn over the hill and go and do some calling in a little swamp I know about. He was to stay on the road where he would come to a clearing with a swamp in it, park there and just kind of toodle around there for an hour, then I would come get him. I get in to my little swamp, do some calling, wind is good, but nothing happening. Time to go get Brad.

I had to circle the swamp, all of a sudden I hear a loud stick break and catch movement.

 

[warnniklz]

But the movement I caught was Brad coming through the trees. Not where he was suppose to be, how did he know I was here? He parked at the wrong spot and just followed the marsh leading him to me. He had only seen a grouse. We went and took a look at another swamp to see if anyone was home. No luck. Now we had to make a decision. We were running out of time. Do we go to the area Brad was suppose to park and look for moose, or do we haul ass over the mountain and go check the area around my trail cam?

I knew I had a moose on my trail cam... so that looked promising. So up and over that direction was the plan. We took a little detour to check out another area. More trucks and quads burning around... I gotta check how many moose tags were issued in this area again. A little early to be looking for 4 points in this area, but I guess if you don't look you don't know.

So ditch the detour idea and keep hauling up and over the mountain. We came across another side by side with a couple nice looking ladies in it, they didn't stop for us

. Kind of losing focus, we got on the subject of silent farts. We were trying to come up with as many different silent fart sounds as we could. All of a sudden I spotted a cow moose standing in a burn.

"there's a moose" I said. Then I spotted the bull with it. "There's your bull"

 

[warnniklz]

Brad is very cautious when it comes to touching the trigger. On his deer I swear he lined up for a minute before touching off. On his bear it was several long seconds before he put a round down range. Now I approve of his actions on making sure he's comfortable with a shot, better to let something walk un-touched than taking a marginal shot. But we had one afternoon to make this happen, here was his opportunity and Brad was taking his sweet ass time to get in position.

In other words, I was getting buck fever while Brad was calm and collected.

The bull turned and Rrad touched off a shot quartering away from him. I lost sight of the bull for a second as the cow ran between us and the bull. I caught sight of the bull again and it was if someone stuck a faucet it in him and turned it on. The bull was hit hard. The bull tried to follow the cow but then ended up laying down. We gave it some time and then I lead the way in. I gave my 30_06 to Brad and took my 300 back. If the bull got up, I wanted to make sure to sit him back down right quick. The bull wasn't going anywhere but, Brad did finish the job.

Me and Brad had now spent 3 days hunting together and B-Rad has taken home a critter every time. Luckily we still had some daylight to get to work.








I got going on dressing out the moose. It's Brad's moose and he should learn... but we had to get this moose through a burn. I also like clean meat... Easiest way is to open up the chest and pelvis so you don't have to cut so much by feel. Also good for people like Brad that like to hack and saw with a knife.

I like to open up my critters from nuts to the bottom of the rib cage, less opening to get dirt in, especially if you're dragging it. I got him gutted, heart, caul fat, kidney not left behind. Got him positioned towards the road. It was only a 100 or so yards through the burn to the road, then we could drive up to it. Well we made it maybe 15 yards, Brad was gassed. Shit, he's way bigger and stronger than me... but to be fair, I've crushed a mountain or two so far this year.

I went up the 3rd rib and halfed the moose with my knife... I always thought those pocket sized bone saws were dumb... I wanted one now. Got him halfed and we leap frogged the two halfs back to the road. Just before dark we had the moose in the back of the truck and on the way to town.

We took it to a friend's house in town to hang. My place off a 4 story balcony wouldn't work... We got him all skinned out. As is tradition, me and B-Rad took a raw chunk and cheersed it. Also... the fat behind the eye does taste like pizza dough, just doesn't have that carbonated fuzzy sensation.

Was 340 pounds of tasty gluten free moose on the hook.

 

[geetar]

Congrats to your buddy on his first moose. Also very glad you clarified it was gluten free moose and not that other nasty kind

 

[Sask hunter]

Congrats he would be tasty

 

[warnniklz]

Congrats he would be tasty

While he was busy wrapping, I snuck a pack of mixed steaks from him while he wasn't paying attention. Did them up in a hot cast iron then topped with melted butter and blue cheese. HAWT DAMN! Should have stole more.

 

[duckhunt]

Great hunt

 

[mdeerjunkie]

Congrats!

 

[LCH]

Very nice, thanks for the story.