British Columbia Moose Hunt (Picture Heavy)

[jabber]

A little late in getting this posted as it took place in October.

This process kind of started in 2018 in a way. I was unsuccessful in drawing a tag for any hunts in 2018 even though I applied in seven or eight states. In 2019, while my son did draw a great late season elk tag in Arizona that we went on after Thanksgiving, story here, I was once again unsuccessful across the board. Moose has always been on my bucket list, so I started doing a little research in Newfoundland. That then led to looking in British Columbia.

Trying to find an outfitter that was first in my budget, second had an opening for this year and finally had a good track record for success took a while. My wife agreed and encouraged me and my boss agreed to letting me take two weeks off, something that I haven’t seen happen in the 25 years I have worked here. I ended up contracting with Copper River Outfitters in Smithers, BC. in early July for a hunt starting the second week of October. I know DIY and all, but that’s not the way this hunt went down.

The next decision was getting there, which in my mind there was never a doubt that I would drive it. I enjoy driving, I enjoy seeing new areas that I have not been too and scenery I have not seen before. This approximately 6,000-mile trip guaranteed that and did not disappoint. With that I will be adding quite a few scenery pictures that I took along the way.

Travel Day 1, Friday would leave Houston at noon with a 649 mile drive to Dumas TX. (no pictures, been this way a bunch)
Travel Day 2, Saturday would leave Dumas for Billings MT, 917 miles. (no pictures, not first trip here either)
Travel Day 3, Sunday would leave Billings, cross the border at Sweet Grass, MT and end up at Valemount BC, 864 miles. (pictures)
Travel Day 4, Monday I would have 412 miles left to put me in Smithers by noon, about 42 driving hours later. (pictures)

When I crossed the border at Sweet Grass apparently I didn't have my honest face on, as they decided they wanted to do a search of my truck. I wasn't concerned, but after watching their actual search process I don't think the Canadian's are too worried about items being snuck into Canada.

I know we have a couple of guys on here from Montana, so I will add my limited experience in two Montana towns:

Billings - Spent the night, Hotel and Restaurant were pretty nice. No complaints.

Great Falls - Not so much. Experience limited to McDonald's for breakfast. Saw the employees get mad at an older gentleman because THEY could not get his order right. Then saw two different older gentlemen almost get into a fight at the counter. Over a nickel. Yes, literally a nickel. $0.05.

Now for some pictures.

In Montana:



There are bucks left in Montana










After crossing into Canada



These next shots are mostly from Banff & Jasper National Parks. The pictures do not do these places justice. The scenery is simply amazing.

 

[jabber]

Monday afternoon we arrive in camp about 30 miles out of Smithers. As soon as we pull in and start unloading, it starts snowing. Beautiful scenery.



After getting settled in, I find out my guide for the hunt will be Riley, who is in his mid-30’s. We loaded up and headed out to a clear-cut area for the evening. Turns out this will be an area we visit frequently throughout the hunt. This particular day we do some glassing of a meadow from where we parked, then hiked about a ½ mile around to the back side of the clear cut and did some calling. Nothing sighted.

Tuesday, Day 2, Had about 4” of fresh snow overnight. In the morning we went to an area that had a couple of different small growth trees plots where we could do some glassing and calling. We hiked in about a mile to the first area. We crossed some fresh tracks and followed them just a short distance and jumped a cow and calf that had bedded down. We continued down the old logging trail when I happened to glance over into a meadow a couple of miles away and see something that looked different. I put up my binos and could tell it was a bull moose working his way across it. Riley looked at it and thought it was a pretty good one. We hiked a little further in that area, and then Riley made the decision to go after that one. Thank goodness it was pretty much all downhill the mile or so back to the Tracker as he was in a hurry.

We drove around to where the meadow was, which ended up being the same meadow we had glassed on Monday, from here on out to just be referred to as the Meadow. We parked and had about a mile to hike to get to the Meadow. As soon as we left the main road on a small two-track, I noticed tracks in the snow, fresh looking wolf tracks going the opposite direction that we were. I have a wolf tag. The tracks looked fresh enough to me that I glanced behind me a few times. We made it down to the Meadow. Riley called, no response. We found the bulls tracks in the snow where he went into the woods, so we backed out and went back to the Tracker, with the plan to return that evening. I noticed that the wolf tracks I had seen on the way in, looked much less fresh now, which makes me think we had just barely missed seeing it on the way in.

The Meadow, it extends quite a ways to the right as you are looking at it in this picture.

 

[Deleted member 38069]

Great pictures!

 

[FAIR CHASE]

SWEET!

 

[mtmiller]

This should be good.

Just to be a stickler, not Canada. haha

After crossing into Canada

View attachment 125050

 

[LWC55]

Can't wait to see the rest

 

[duckhunt]

Great stuff so far

 

[BigHornRam]

I flew out of Smithers on a B C hunt. Nice town and area.

 

[jabber]

This should be good.

Just to be a stickler, not Canada. haha

You are right. I waited to long too post these and forgot where I was when I took them.

 

[dirtclod Az.]

Beautiful pictures!,Following along... 〽

 

[jabber]

I failed to mention earlier that Riley also carried a gun with him whenever we left the Tracker. A short barreled 375. He said it was in case he needed to make a quick follow up shot. Sounded reasonable to me at the time.

Tuesday evening, we made it back to the clearing about 5 and went in about three hundred yards from the tree line and got setup. About 6 Riley cow called, at 6:30 he raked the trees and grunted. We heard tree limbs snapping in the distance a couple of times and finally about 7 we heard a grunt. At about 7:15 he came out at about 250 yards and it was getting dark. I was having trouble seeing him through the scope. Riley was having a cow telling me to take him, he’s huge. I just couldn’t see him through my scope due to glare. Riley told me to try his gun, so I switched, no better.

This is becoming a real circus. I go back to my gun and Riley says let’s go, so we move up to another tree that is about 200 yards from the bull. Now I could see a little better but still not great, and the bull is facing us straight on. The sight of those yellowish antlers showing in the dark is one I will not forget. He finally turns broadside, and I touch one off. I hear it hit. I lose sight of it, but Riley said he fell and then got back up. I can hear what I thought was thrashing. Riley takes off running through the Meadow, which is really a swamp. I couldn’t keep up, but finally got there, no bull, no noise, nothing. We look around with flashlights a little bit in the area we thought he was at when I shot, but nothing. Riley decides to back out and come back in the morning. The whole evening he is questioning me about the shot. I was good with it. I thought it was a solid shot and we should find it in the morning after a short trailing job.

On the trip back to camp, a grizzly runs out onto the road in front of us and we got to follow it for a short distance. First live wild bear seen, first grizzly seen.

Rough night wondering.

 

[NEWHunter]

WTF . . . what am I supposed to do now? Start working again? This is going to be a rough time wondering what happened.

 

[jabber]

Wednesday, Day 3. We wait until daylight to head out, do the one mile hike to the Meadow, look at that same set of wolf tracks again and think about how fresh they were our first trip in. We make it to the Meadow, head over to where we thought the bull had been when I took the shot. After looking a little, we found where the bull had been knocked down, but no blood. We look around and finally find a couple of small drops of blood on some bushes. We start following the tracks and find a couple of more spots of blood. Nothing like I had hoped for. In a distance of about 150 yards we found about 6 different locations that had a couple of drops, the tracks did not indicate that he was favoring any leg. At that point we had been in there for a couple of hours already. Riley suggested we back out, go and make sure he didn’t cross the road that he was heading towards about ¼ mile away. We did the mile back out, went up and down the road and didn’t see anything. We headed back to camp, where Riley got his father Brett and they went back out to continue searching.

They got back to camp around 3:30 and said they had tracked it for a couple of miles and while they did occasionally find a couple of specks of blood, he had never slowed down or bedded and didn’t appear to be fatally hit at all. Both Riley and Brett looked worn out. After talking with Brett & Riley again and re-thinking my shot, I believe I shot high, above the vitals and below the spine. Which made sense as I could easily see the horizontal line of his back when I was aiming at him and I just lowered my shot some from there, like I would on a whitetail. Moose have a thicker body.

I was torn up, hated wounding and not recovering an animal. Didn’t really know if I wanted to continue the hunt or not. That is when Riley stepped in and encouraged me to continue hunting, he said that bull will be fine.

 

[jabber]

Wednesday evening with Riley being worn out from the tracking job, we just went up to the clear cut where we could set in the Tracker and glass the Meadow. That was fine with me because my heart wasn’t completely into hunting again at that time. After setting there glassing the Meadow which was about a mile away and numerous other clear cuts that were farther off for about thirty minutes I noticed Riley was dozing. He earned a nap. OMG, there’s a bull crossing the Meadow. I wake Riley up, he takes one look at it and says that’s the biggest bull he has ever seen in this area. We watch it for about 20 minutes as it crosses the Meadow and heads up into the woods. We were able to continue getting occasional glances at it as he makes his way through the trees. I got interested in hunting again. Through out the remainder of the hunt I kept reminding myself, low and behind the shoulder.

Thursday, Day 4. We make the plan to hike down into the Meadow, take our lunch and spend the whole day there. Other than a couple of birds, there were no animals seen at all. A very long day. As we hiked out in the dark, it is first through the swampy meadow and then uphill for a while. Both work on me as I start to breathe heavy and have to take a few breaks. Riley has realized this from our previous hikes and does a great job of stopping to look or glass and allow me to catch my breath. About half way through this trip out at one of the stops, I noticed that Riley had taken his rifle off his shoulder and was now carrying it at the ready. I had not seen him do this before and kind of got me nervous. When we eventually got back to the Tracker, I asked him about it and he said that he had thought he heard heavy breathing and I told him it was probably just me, and he said no that this was different. At that time, I realized what he was really carrying the rifle for.

 

[jabber]

Friday, Day 5. This morning we hiked up the mountain behind the Meadow into the area where we had seen the bull disappear on Wednesday evening. No moose, but we did find some fresh tracks. We then took about a 20 mile road trip into an area where he has killed bulls before, no animals there, but a few more good scenery shots. When we got back to camp, one of the other hunters (4 in camp) had killed a small moose.



Friday evening we checked out a few different areas and then ended up back at the clear cut to watch the Meadow as darkness arrived. First full day that I went without seeing any moose.

Friday night we had a visitor in camp. A grizzly came in and broke open a small chest freezer that had a goat hide and some moose meat and hides in it. It then went and pulled the cap off of the grease trap and was eating out of it. They had pictures of it from the week before I got there when it came into camp during the day. I took a picture of the screen on a camera of it.

 

[jabber]

Saturday, Day 6. Saturday morning we hike into a couple of clear cuts, nothing. We then went to a small lake and glassed up a cow and calf there. When we got back to camp another hunter had killed a nice moose.

Saturday evening we went into the area where the moose had been killed that morning as they had seen more there. No luck.



Saturday night we were woke up by the grizzly trying to get into a trailer that had trash in it and then a truck. A warning shot was fired from a shotgun to scare it off. That worked for a while, anyways.





Sunday, Day 7. Back to where we had been the previous evening. Spotted a cow on the way in. After a couple of hours of nothing, we took the road trip again. Nada.

Sunday evening we first went to the clear cut to check out the Meadow. Empty. From there we went to a huge lake where we glass the far shore line and if a bull would be spotted we would hop in a boat and cross. We saw two cows there.





Running out of time, only two more days to hunt.

 

[Sytes]

Fantastic thread and great photos! Griz sure make a great story, epic...

 

[jabber]

Monday, Day 8. We went to an area that was about a half mile further down the road than where the second moose had been killed and we had been hunting the last couple of days. When we got into the area, Riley spotted a cow, then a small bull and then two more cows. The bull had been moving and went behind some trees out of sight. Riley moved further to the right to try and see where the small bull had went and I just started glassing where I was at. After just a couple of minutes I spotted a much bigger bull through the trees. All I could see was his head and antlers. I called Riley back over and showed him where he was and about that time he started moving to the right behind a clump of trees and we lost sight of him.

We waited about 20 minutes for him to come out and were beginning to think he had disappeared. Riley asked me if I wanted to try and find the smaller bull as we could still see where the cows were. I thought about it for a short time and told him no, I wanted the bigger one.

Not to long after that we spot it moving back to the left towards an opening about 150 yards away. As soon as he got in the opening, I took a free hand shot with my .28 Nosler and watched my bull go straight to the ground. So much for low and behind the shoulder. It was a spine shot and did require a finishing shot when we got up to it. As we looked around we saw a third bull there that was smaller than the one I had shot but bigger than the small bull.

We went back to camp, got a couple of guys, an ATV and trailer and headed back. After gutting, we loaded the moose completely in the trailer, as that is the way they do 95% of all of their game, take it back to camp whole. It was too big for the ATV to pull up the small hills. Even with the winch. We ended up cutting it in half and taking the front half out in the trailer and then went back with just the ATV and took the back half out on it. And even half at a time was a chore for the ATV.



Riley & I


We spent the afternoon, cleaning and celebrating.

Monday night our visitor returned. This time he tore up the seat to the ATV because it had blood on it, tried to get into the trailer and ate out of the grease trap again.

Tuesday. With the chest freezer that the bear had torn open damaged, Riley suggested instead of putting the meat in the coolers I had brought, to just load the freezer up and strap the lid down then plug it in at night at the motels to freeze the meat. That worked great.

Took a little different route home because I had never been to the state of Washington and wanted to check it off the list.

On the first day going home I had bought a small cooler to put my drinks in for the trip. I left it in the back of my truck overnight in Quesnel, BC. It walked off during the night with a full case of Diet Dr. Pepper. Never even got to drink one of them.

Travel Day 5, Tuesday leave Smithers around noon drive to Quesnel, BC 302 miles

Travel Day 6, Wednesday Quesnel to Post Falls, ID, 597 miles.

Travel Day 7, Thursday Post Falls, ID to Crow Agency, MT and a short visit to the Little Big Horn then on to Buffalo, Wy. 680 miles.

Travel Day 8, Friday Buffalo Wy to Quanah, Tx 961 miles

Travel Day 9, Saturday, Quanah, TX to home. 436 miles



Round trip was a total of about 5,900 miles, with a total driving time of about 94 hours, according to the timer on the truck, all inclusive. I enjoyed most of them.



Here are the last of the pictures
















This last picture is of the first bull that I shot on Tuesday, Day 2. They ended up killing it and sending me a picture of it on my way home. I had indeed hit it between the spine and the vitals. The bull was fine and would have survived, if it wouldn’t have got shot again. They ended up getting it back in the Meadow. They never did see the huge bull that we spotted Wednesday evening again.







Did you ever have that funny feeling when you are out in the woods that someone is watching you?

 

[Sytes]

Fantastic looking bull! And worked out great another brought down the first! The total trek was a great story to follow. Thanks for sharing.

 

[520 Road Sow]

What a drive and what an adventure that's awesome thanks for sharing!