My brother in law and I left for moose country on Sept. 23 . We slept in Thunder Bay that night after a 16 hour drive. The next day we arrived at our usual camping spot around 2:30 and since we got camp set up by 4:00 we split up and went hunting.
I walked from camp and set up on the bay of a small lake and started calling softly. After half an hour I called louder and the brush started snapping across the bay. A bull started grunting and immediately stepped into the water and worked my way. I quickly ranged him at 308 yards and scrambled to get into a shooting position. The bull stopped and stared. He was quartering towards so I aimed for the near side shoulder/ neck and touched one off. The bull staggered and walked further out into the water and stopped standing broadside. I put the second shot through the lungs and he staggered towards shore out of sight.
I listened carefully for ten minutes but heard nothing so I backed out and went back to camp . At camp I got the canoe and my hunting partner and we portaged to the lake and slipped into the water. We slowly paddled around the corner into a small bay where I last saw the bull and there he was,laying dead in the water right beside shore!
It was starting to get dark so we gutted him where he lay and since the day was warm we left him upside down in a few inches of water to help cool out those big shoulders and hips.We left him for the night and celebrated at camp.
The next morning we cut in a four wheeler path, quartered and bagged him. We put the quarters in the canoe, transferred them onto the bike and hung them up at camp. By noon we had everything tidied up and back at camp. We are becoming efficient at getting moose out with just two of us!
Since temps were forecast to get into the mid to high twenties and warm at night , I took the moose into a butcher to have it cut wrapped and frozen. The nearest butcher was 3.5 hours away so it was an all day job. On the way home I stopped at a river and caught four nice pickerel for our supper. I also saw a black bear in a clear cut but my partner had the tag at camp too far away to contact him so I drove on. We had a good fish supper that night.
We still had a cow tag but didn’t care if we filled it so we mostly fished and cruised lakes hoping to see one. We saw four caribou,dozens of bald eagles, sharp tailed grouse,ruffs,spruce grouse and caught over 60 pickerel over the next week. The weather was hot,hot hot ,with temps climbing to 30 degrees. We were happy about our decision to have the moose butchered as there was no way to keep a carcass cool in that weather.
On our way home we picked up our frozen meat and drove the 24 hours straight to keep the meat frozen. This was a great trip that was relaxing because of the early success with great fishing and easy weather to camp .
Here’s some pics.
Moose trip, Sept. 23-Oct.4
