Got my moose!
09-30-2004, 09:08 AM
#1
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Bradford, Ontario
Posts: 2,205
Got my moose!
Just got back from my moose hunt. We hunted WMU16B north of Savant Lake. On the first morning I called in a young bull and dropped him easily. The rut is in full swing in Northwestern Ontario but it is so hot and dry that there was very little sign or acivity yet. We had to leave the next day out of concern for the meat. We were swarmed with black flies! We never even used the wood stove in our wall tent! Saw a real dandy (58") in the back of a pickup in Nipigon that a bunch of archery hunters bagged. We are seriously considering doing an archery moose hunt next year as to hunt them in the rut and call them in is real blast! Well now I have to get ready for my Wyoming antelope hunt, leave for that next friday.
09-30-2004, 09:44 AM
#2
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Saskatchewan Canada
Posts: 6,921
RE: Got my moose!
Terry congrats on getting your moose. We leave Saturday and hoping to find the same results in regards to the rut. If the weather man is even close it should be prime as they are calling for frost starting tonight through next week.
Enjoy the fruits!!
Enjoy the fruits!!
09-30-2004, 02:50 PM
#3
Nontypical Buck
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Elizabeth Colo. USA
Posts: 4,413
RE: Got my moose!
Congrats Terry!! I just picked up my moose meat from the local airport last night and am serving some up for the family tonight!!!
I posted a pic. of mine about 2 weeks ago here! Have you got any pics. from your hunt?
Let's seem them!
I posted a pic. of mine about 2 weeks ago here! Have you got any pics. from your hunt?
Let's seem them!
09-30-2004, 03:27 PM
#4
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Bradford, Ontario
Posts: 2,205
RE: Got my moose!
I have not developed my film yet but one of the guys had a digital camera so I will try and post them when he emails me them. Never done that so I might need some help with that.
09-30-2004, 10:19 PM
#7
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Rocky Mountains, Colorado
Posts: 1,964
RE: Got my moose!
TerryM,
Job well done, it sounds like you've just about got the moose thing "dialed in." So if I may ask, do you work the waterways with a boat and then go ashore when an area looks promising or do you slog in from the roadside. Is there muskeg in that area? Given that moose are bigger than elk, how do you get them out?
Good Luck with the antelope hunt coming up!
EKM
Job well done, it sounds like you've just about got the moose thing "dialed in." So if I may ask, do you work the waterways with a boat and then go ashore when an area looks promising or do you slog in from the roadside. Is there muskeg in that area? Given that moose are bigger than elk, how do you get them out?
Good Luck with the antelope hunt coming up!
EKM
10-01-2004, 07:54 AM
#9
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Bradford, Ontario
Posts: 2,205
RE: Got my moose!
EKM,
We learned a long time ago that moose don't really hang around water much during hunting season, more so in summer. We hunt the edges of clear cuts and log overs. The newer the better. This year I found one that still had logging equipment at one end so they had just finished cutting it. It was also cut in winter which means the road in was really rough so that kept the competition away. Basically the moose feed on the edges of these cutovers and bed down in the standing timber left along water ways and swamps. By law the loggers must leave 200 ft of edge cover for any body of water but many times the timber is not of commercial value and they leave much more. This strip is called "reserve" in logging industry lingo. So I come into the cutover before daylight and set up on a piece of high ground where I have a good view of lots of ground. By 7.00 am there were no moose using the cut so I called and imediately got a response. My bull hung up on me a couple of times so I actually had to call 3 times to get him into the open or a shot. I just use my hands, no birch bark horns as I feel they are just too loud and can spook them. As for getting them out we always quarter them where they drop as they are just too big to handle. We skin them when we get back to camp. To put it in perspective, I killed at around 7.30 am and we had the moose loaded in a 4x4 around 12.00 noon with 4 guys working. If you can get an ATV right to it its alot easier but this time it was particularly nasty and our bike was left in camp that morning. As for the cover, as already stated it is in a logging area so you do have muskeg and swamp but also lots of standing timber. A mixture if spruce, pine and some hardwood. Quite flat and wet, not what I would expect elk country looks like. This year the weather was so hot we had to leave the next day as we were afraid to spoil the meat. we actually never even had to light the wood stove in the tent. We had black flies and mosquitos big time. We had a canoe, an ATV but we never ended up using them at all. We find moose tend to be in the higher country on hard ground after the summer ends. We only had 1 bull tag for 4 hunters so we only had calf tags left so we packed her in early.
We learned a long time ago that moose don't really hang around water much during hunting season, more so in summer. We hunt the edges of clear cuts and log overs. The newer the better. This year I found one that still had logging equipment at one end so they had just finished cutting it. It was also cut in winter which means the road in was really rough so that kept the competition away. Basically the moose feed on the edges of these cutovers and bed down in the standing timber left along water ways and swamps. By law the loggers must leave 200 ft of edge cover for any body of water but many times the timber is not of commercial value and they leave much more. This strip is called "reserve" in logging industry lingo. So I come into the cutover before daylight and set up on a piece of high ground where I have a good view of lots of ground. By 7.00 am there were no moose using the cut so I called and imediately got a response. My bull hung up on me a couple of times so I actually had to call 3 times to get him into the open or a shot. I just use my hands, no birch bark horns as I feel they are just too loud and can spook them. As for getting them out we always quarter them where they drop as they are just too big to handle. We skin them when we get back to camp. To put it in perspective, I killed at around 7.30 am and we had the moose loaded in a 4x4 around 12.00 noon with 4 guys working. If you can get an ATV right to it its alot easier but this time it was particularly nasty and our bike was left in camp that morning. As for the cover, as already stated it is in a logging area so you do have muskeg and swamp but also lots of standing timber. A mixture if spruce, pine and some hardwood. Quite flat and wet, not what I would expect elk country looks like. This year the weather was so hot we had to leave the next day as we were afraid to spoil the meat. we actually never even had to light the wood stove in the tent. We had black flies and mosquitos big time. We had a canoe, an ATV but we never ended up using them at all. We find moose tend to be in the higher country on hard ground after the summer ends. We only had 1 bull tag for 4 hunters so we only had calf tags left so we packed her in early.