VanIsleCam
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
I drew this map sitting down with the kids after I got home from 11 days in the bush. It is a good representation of what I did to get on the beast.
The five of us were in BC 7-23 which was open for calves and LEH draws. On the first day, I walked the roads near our camp and saw nada. The five of us then burned around on the quads for the rest of the day though everybody and there dog was doing the same thing and everybody was looking into the same holes. Bit of a gong show to say the least.
Day two and I am climbing a hill behind our camp...
When C, on an initiation license (with no spare centre fire) burns back into camp yelling "Cam - turn your radio on" - I hear C and as I am half way up through old slash yell back "What's up?!". "I see a moose" yells C. I tumble run down the hill and after getting an ear full about not having my radio on we burn 6 k along the road away from where all the road hunters are. Sure enough there is a cow and calf. They have moved 10 meters from where C. first saw them. C and I are on the high bank looking down to the edge of the lake but the pair are lasered on to us with all 4 ears tuned towards us. I strap on the A7 and head down the bank and into the dead fall. I try to be as quiet as possible but as I get to the edge of the brush and onto a root ball, I see the pair in the water swimming to the other side of the lake.
Not to be deterred, I head back to camp and grab the other supplies I brought to make a temporary camp. This is what it looked like.
And these were the essential tools I used for brush clearing and trail making...
All super quiet - in comparison to my favorite tool the Stihl 42AV
. And after 5 hours work I had this view looking from the camp to where they had gone.
Now this was a great rest spot, but it didn't get me to a shooting position so I cut another trail down to here (as marked on the above map)
But despite my efforts, they did not show that afternoon or the next morning. So the next morning/afternoon, I used my clippers to work my way along to the second position on the game trail along the lower edge of the map. I ended up on a root ball at last light and saw the pair as well as a bull!!!! come out at last light. I assumed that given they had moved roughly 100 meters at a time along the edge of the lake that tomorrow they would come out 100 meters farther the next day.
Sure enough, I saw the pair in the morning and despite being too far away to shoot, I had I good idea where the might come out that 3rd evening. By this point other members of our party were onto the scouting and M. had the same idea. Though he did not see them, he had assumed at good entry point for that evening and it turns out we were onto the same spot for for getting to the edge of the lake that night. M. had brought down moose before and as we had both picked the same entry without knowing it, I offered to flip him for a chance that evening. He declined which I appreciate.
That evening, I went down to the third spot (marked by the stick man with flame) which turned into to the kill spot. I clipped my in with the #5 pruning shears wearing my rubber boots repaired with duct tape as they had holes in them though they were the last pair of dry boots I had. I shot my first deer in flip flops and now I was readying to shoot my first moose with leaky rubber boots for chrissakes.
I set up on the stool and waited. At 6:05 they appeared. Moose are incredible as for such a large animal they suddenly appear outta nowhere it seems. I had ranged the far side of the bank and got a reading of 153y. I sat in wait, on my stool, listening to the ducks. Then they were there, 30 degrees to my right. I pulled the scope cover off and couldn't see chit through the scope. There they were as I frantically used the neck of my tshirt to wipe the front of the scope. Looking through it I had a dime of clear space. I estimated 200-300y and placed the reticle accordingly on the calf and fired.
Man there was a fireball outta the A7 and the calf went down! I grabbed the radio and called out "calf down, calf down". But to my chagrin, it got to its feet! My friend T., who was 200 meters to my left and on the same side of the lake, heard the shot, charged around the edge and yelled "It's still standing!". I cycled another round and fired, again splitting the difference between the 2-300y markers on the scope. Big bang and nothing. I cycled the A7 again, dropped the reticle to 200 fired and the calf went down for good.
But that sounds simple, the cow stood over the calf for awhile. I missed part of this as I was fighting my way back up the bank through the slide alder heading for the road. By the time I was back to camp and got R., loaded the canoe and chainsaws etc it was pitch black. T. in waders, bless his soul, had made it half way around the edge of the lake trying to find the beast. He got swamped out and as a result had scouted an "easiest" route for the canoe out of the lake fingers and across to roughly the other side. I had taken an azimuth from my shooting position so I had a pretty good idea where I shot from and where I thought it would be.
M, T. and I paddled out across the lake after the five of us had cut a canoe friendly dragging trail from the road to the lake edge. We set across and located it...
We dragged it to the lake edge, tied it to the rear of the canoe and M and I paddled it back across the lake. I was already faccked from paddling when T yelled out "You only have 11 minutes before it sinks" and I spun around terrified to ask M. who laughed at T's "joke". We moved about 6 inchs per stroke but in due course got it across. While M. went back with the canoe for T, we began to carve a larger road for the quads.
With everyone together, it was soon that we had two quads at the lake edge, to be hooked together with the moose behind quad number two. C. and M. did a great co-ordinated driving job to get the animal up to the road. After that, it was gutting time, and my foot ware provided this sweet photo....
However, I don't know that I have felt as happy/proud/stoked as I look in this one... Yup up to my forearms in blood - no Island deer here!
By the time we finished up skinning, hanging etc. it was 2am. I stayed up an extra hour to vinegar the insides and trim away blood shot yielding this the next morning....
Turns out I had hit the calf with all three bullets. The first went clean through the hump. The second was 12 inchs back and smoked the spine. And the third went through the cavity and was stopped by the hide between the ribs. We recovered the bullet. In addition to the lower jaw, these are the trophy/story pieces I kept...
The white square is a piece of quartz I found in a creek and I saw the pair each day I had it in my pocket. I didn't see them one morning/evening that I left it in camp but it was in my pocket the day I shot the calf. Call me superstitious. I was using 165gr Hornady SSTs 30.06.
It was a male calf and dressed at 209lbs. It was the only moose taken during the hunt though we switched to 6-6 the next day after dropping the calf off at Hunnifords in PG so we could keep going. Though I think I did it right by sitting on the animals and waiting for a chance to shoot, it all went out the window once it was down. Without T,C,M and R, extraction would have been a nightmare. Can't wait till next year to be up all night.
The five of us were in BC 7-23 which was open for calves and LEH draws. On the first day, I walked the roads near our camp and saw nada. The five of us then burned around on the quads for the rest of the day though everybody and there dog was doing the same thing and everybody was looking into the same holes. Bit of a gong show to say the least.
Day two and I am climbing a hill behind our camp...
When C, on an initiation license (with no spare centre fire) burns back into camp yelling "Cam - turn your radio on" - I hear C and as I am half way up through old slash yell back "What's up?!". "I see a moose" yells C. I tumble run down the hill and after getting an ear full about not having my radio on we burn 6 k along the road away from where all the road hunters are. Sure enough there is a cow and calf. They have moved 10 meters from where C. first saw them. C and I are on the high bank looking down to the edge of the lake but the pair are lasered on to us with all 4 ears tuned towards us. I strap on the A7 and head down the bank and into the dead fall. I try to be as quiet as possible but as I get to the edge of the brush and onto a root ball, I see the pair in the water swimming to the other side of the lake.
Not to be deterred, I head back to camp and grab the other supplies I brought to make a temporary camp. This is what it looked like.
And these were the essential tools I used for brush clearing and trail making...
All super quiet - in comparison to my favorite tool the Stihl 42AV
. And after 5 hours work I had this view looking from the camp to where they had gone. 
Now this was a great rest spot, but it didn't get me to a shooting position so I cut another trail down to here (as marked on the above map)
But despite my efforts, they did not show that afternoon or the next morning. So the next morning/afternoon, I used my clippers to work my way along to the second position on the game trail along the lower edge of the map. I ended up on a root ball at last light and saw the pair as well as a bull!!!! come out at last light. I assumed that given they had moved roughly 100 meters at a time along the edge of the lake that tomorrow they would come out 100 meters farther the next day.
Sure enough, I saw the pair in the morning and despite being too far away to shoot, I had I good idea where the might come out that 3rd evening. By this point other members of our party were onto the scouting and M. had the same idea. Though he did not see them, he had assumed at good entry point for that evening and it turns out we were onto the same spot for for getting to the edge of the lake that night. M. had brought down moose before and as we had both picked the same entry without knowing it, I offered to flip him for a chance that evening. He declined which I appreciate.
That evening, I went down to the third spot (marked by the stick man with flame) which turned into to the kill spot. I clipped my in with the #5 pruning shears wearing my rubber boots repaired with duct tape as they had holes in them though they were the last pair of dry boots I had. I shot my first deer in flip flops and now I was readying to shoot my first moose with leaky rubber boots for chrissakes.
I set up on the stool and waited. At 6:05 they appeared. Moose are incredible as for such a large animal they suddenly appear outta nowhere it seems. I had ranged the far side of the bank and got a reading of 153y. I sat in wait, on my stool, listening to the ducks. Then they were there, 30 degrees to my right. I pulled the scope cover off and couldn't see chit through the scope. There they were as I frantically used the neck of my tshirt to wipe the front of the scope. Looking through it I had a dime of clear space. I estimated 200-300y and placed the reticle accordingly on the calf and fired.
Man there was a fireball outta the A7 and the calf went down! I grabbed the radio and called out "calf down, calf down". But to my chagrin, it got to its feet! My friend T., who was 200 meters to my left and on the same side of the lake, heard the shot, charged around the edge and yelled "It's still standing!". I cycled another round and fired, again splitting the difference between the 2-300y markers on the scope. Big bang and nothing. I cycled the A7 again, dropped the reticle to 200 fired and the calf went down for good.
But that sounds simple, the cow stood over the calf for awhile. I missed part of this as I was fighting my way back up the bank through the slide alder heading for the road. By the time I was back to camp and got R., loaded the canoe and chainsaws etc it was pitch black. T. in waders, bless his soul, had made it half way around the edge of the lake trying to find the beast. He got swamped out and as a result had scouted an "easiest" route for the canoe out of the lake fingers and across to roughly the other side. I had taken an azimuth from my shooting position so I had a pretty good idea where I shot from and where I thought it would be.
M, T. and I paddled out across the lake after the five of us had cut a canoe friendly dragging trail from the road to the lake edge. We set across and located it...
We dragged it to the lake edge, tied it to the rear of the canoe and M and I paddled it back across the lake. I was already faccked from paddling when T yelled out "You only have 11 minutes before it sinks" and I spun around terrified to ask M. who laughed at T's "joke". We moved about 6 inchs per stroke but in due course got it across. While M. went back with the canoe for T, we began to carve a larger road for the quads.
With everyone together, it was soon that we had two quads at the lake edge, to be hooked together with the moose behind quad number two. C. and M. did a great co-ordinated driving job to get the animal up to the road. After that, it was gutting time, and my foot ware provided this sweet photo....
However, I don't know that I have felt as happy/proud/stoked as I look in this one... Yup up to my forearms in blood - no Island deer here!
By the time we finished up skinning, hanging etc. it was 2am. I stayed up an extra hour to vinegar the insides and trim away blood shot yielding this the next morning....
Turns out I had hit the calf with all three bullets. The first went clean through the hump. The second was 12 inchs back and smoked the spine. And the third went through the cavity and was stopped by the hide between the ribs. We recovered the bullet. In addition to the lower jaw, these are the trophy/story pieces I kept...
The white square is a piece of quartz I found in a creek and I saw the pair each day I had it in my pocket. I didn't see them one morning/evening that I left it in camp but it was in my pocket the day I shot the calf. Call me superstitious. I was using 165gr Hornady SSTs 30.06.
It was a male calf and dressed at 209lbs. It was the only moose taken during the hunt though we switched to 6-6 the next day after dropping the calf off at Hunnifords in PG so we could keep going. Though I think I did it right by sitting on the animals and waiting for a chance to shoot, it all went out the window once it was down. Without T,C,M and R, extraction would have been a nightmare. Can't wait till next year to be up all night.
