- Location
- Rockland, ON
Returned Thursday from our annual moose hunt. We travelled 3000 km return, spent about 33 hours in the truck in total. The hunt was successful, in fact, the actual "hunting" lasted less than an hour.
Monday morning my hunting partner and I went up the lake about 25 minutes in the dark and reached our spots on the river just at legal light. He dropped me off at my spot and then putt-putt backtracked 3/4 km down river to his. By the time he was getting out of the boat the bull and cow were down.
After he had dropped me off I tossed my life jacket on the beach, laid my pack by a tree, uncased and loaded my rifle, slung it over my shoulder and went to the shore to look west, upriver. As I then looked north where I expected the moose to be, the bull was following the cow out of the tree line. They must have heard me (the wind was in my favour and moose can't see well) because they were looking hard my way. I made a soft cow call which seemed to calm them both. After a five minute standoff, nerve wracking for me as they were in cover, she led him out of the brush and into the open.
I figured that he would hang around if I dropped her first so when she offered me a perfect broadside at 187 yards I took it. She humped up so I knew she was hit hard, but she turned 90 degrees and started walking away from me towards the trees. When she offered another broadside a second shot anchored her down.
He, meanwhile, stood and watched her. He started to move away from me to the tree line but turned and offered a broadside at 232 yards. One shot, he wobbled, turned 90 degrees to the trees, teeter-tottered and dropped.
Our crew's "hunt" was done. A few hours later we had both animals back at camp. As luck would have it, there was a rented excavator there for some bush road work and it made much easier work of getting the moose from the boat than it was getting them in.
I used a stainless Browning BLR Lightweight PG in 308 Winchester. Cartridges were 165g Federal Fusion. The shots on the cow were through and through, the shot on the bull passed through the ribs on the far side but did not exit the hide (not recovered though, maybe in a zillion pieces). The Fusions did their job very well on the lungs but I'm not certain they would hold together if they hit bone bigger than ribs. I was intending to use the Federal Vital Shok 180g Nosler Partition and my second choice was the 180g Federal Fusion. However, after many range trips and performance/accuracy testing, neither 180g bullet performed as well as the 165g Fusions. I had also tested the 165g Federal Vital Shok Trophy Bonded tip and the 168g Winchester Ballistic Silvertip but nothing had the consistent accuracy of the Fusion 165's in my BLR.
Here's a few pictures of the adventure:
Monday morning my hunting partner and I went up the lake about 25 minutes in the dark and reached our spots on the river just at legal light. He dropped me off at my spot and then putt-putt backtracked 3/4 km down river to his. By the time he was getting out of the boat the bull and cow were down.
After he had dropped me off I tossed my life jacket on the beach, laid my pack by a tree, uncased and loaded my rifle, slung it over my shoulder and went to the shore to look west, upriver. As I then looked north where I expected the moose to be, the bull was following the cow out of the tree line. They must have heard me (the wind was in my favour and moose can't see well) because they were looking hard my way. I made a soft cow call which seemed to calm them both. After a five minute standoff, nerve wracking for me as they were in cover, she led him out of the brush and into the open.
I figured that he would hang around if I dropped her first so when she offered me a perfect broadside at 187 yards I took it. She humped up so I knew she was hit hard, but she turned 90 degrees and started walking away from me towards the trees. When she offered another broadside a second shot anchored her down.
He, meanwhile, stood and watched her. He started to move away from me to the tree line but turned and offered a broadside at 232 yards. One shot, he wobbled, turned 90 degrees to the trees, teeter-tottered and dropped.
Our crew's "hunt" was done. A few hours later we had both animals back at camp. As luck would have it, there was a rented excavator there for some bush road work and it made much easier work of getting the moose from the boat than it was getting them in.
I used a stainless Browning BLR Lightweight PG in 308 Winchester. Cartridges were 165g Federal Fusion. The shots on the cow were through and through, the shot on the bull passed through the ribs on the far side but did not exit the hide (not recovered though, maybe in a zillion pieces). The Fusions did their job very well on the lungs but I'm not certain they would hold together if they hit bone bigger than ribs. I was intending to use the Federal Vital Shok 180g Nosler Partition and my second choice was the 180g Federal Fusion. However, after many range trips and performance/accuracy testing, neither 180g bullet performed as well as the 165g Fusions. I had also tested the 165g Federal Vital Shok Trophy Bonded tip and the 168g Winchester Ballistic Silvertip but nothing had the consistent accuracy of the Fusion 165's in my BLR.
Here's a few pictures of the adventure:
