Well let’s see now.... we left Oromocto on Friday at 2pm, drove to Truro to pick up another buddy, off we went 3 newfies returning home for an annual pilgrimage for moose meat, lol.
We crossed that night, got hammered on the boat and partied with some dudes we meet in the bar, had a great time. Once we get up the notherern pen, and once inside our MMZ we uncase our rifles, just in case we see a bruiser on the way to Port Aux Choix where we were staying, Base camp. Saw a large cow standing in field off from the highway and pulled off to have a look, real good size, but I didn’t feel good with taking her, being the first day and all, wanting to try for a nice bull. So we passed on her and kept on trucking, after a bit of razzing of course. Once into base camp, we unpacked and got ready for a drive into woody hills, behind Hawkes Bay. We drove in over the country, real moose country up there, but no animals, lots of caribou, saw a 28 point stag that was no mare than 25 feet away from the truck, at that point I wished I had a boo tag instead!!, took some pics and vids of caribou on the roads and what not. Back to town, had a large traditional meal consisting of Moose roast, baked chicken, rabbit x 2 pork roast, and all the fixens to go with it salt beef, veggies, baked puddings, man o man I had to roll away from the table,lol. Sunday afternoon we head out for moose camp, 3 of us Me, Dwayne, Justin and Dwayne’s dad, Henry who is 62 and full of the most amazing stories ive ever heard. Its Sunday so we cant hunt but we go out and scout some bogs around camp and walk to the lake, do some calling, no animals seen but loads of sign, now I must mention where we were located, there has not been a hunter set foot yet this year at all, 4 hour drive into the camp, with all the luxuries, generator, propane fridge and stove, oil drip heat stove (awesome) 2 bedroom camp. So we have another great meal at the camp, Baloney and potatoes and all the trimmings, hit the beers and shoot #### and hear stories for the night, all excited about the next day.
We had the 18 foot fiberglass boat all ready to go up the lake, its 9 miles long and nestled in the long range mountains of Newfoundland, called eastern blue pond. So we are up before light, have a coffee and wait for enough light to drive the boat, away we go, after and hour of steaming down the pond we get into where we want to be, and are looking at all the beaches and cutovers from he boat with the bino's, I spot antlers on beach, look again its a bull, large bull sleeping next to the beach on a grassy spot, so we turn the boat around and come back down the pond a bit to get in around a point out of site, myself and Dwayne jump out and scramble like mad men to get into position, step around the large rocks on the point and there her is, laying down a 10 point bull, real nice, he stands up and I give it to him with my 303, using a Winchester CPx3 at 45 yards, hear whack, he stumbles, jack another round in while looking through the scope and he makes two steps and I fire again, just incase, whack! he makes 2 steps and falls over, we run ashore into the cove, while Justin brings the boat in the cove, he only made it 15 yards from where he was shot both shots, were lung shots, no meat lost at all, pass through on the ribs, in and out, clean!! I’m so happy it’s the fist moose ive killed and it’s a whooper. So we get him paunched and split and get back into the boat for another look around, try and fill tag two!! I get dropped off over a large bog, with instructions of where to go, and where to meet the boys. They are going back to quarter the moose, and put it in the boat. Me not thinking at all , left the boat with 3 bullets, not a good idea, while up on the mesh I see a large cow at 450 yards, in the open barrens, not a tree to be seen, so I pick up an old caribou antler place it on my head and make my way to the cow, I got to about 300 + or - and try her, as see is getting really nervous, bang, nothing, too low, reload, bang , damn to low, my range estimation was way off, esp. where I was on open barrens, with nothing to compare with, so I start to run close as the cow turns and moves off, I fire a 3rd shot and she stumbles, so I get to where she was standing, no blood, no hair, damn, I see here trotting into a distant wood line, and then realize im out of rounds and have at least a 2 hour hump to the boat!!! PHAWK, lol. so I turn to go and he comes mister 8 pointer out of the wood line running my way, what am I going to do , throw my rifle, so I call him off, after yelling and waving my arms, he goes away , and im off to the shore line threw some of the worst tuckamore tangles and black spruce windfalls ive ever been in, hard gong, finally get to the water, have a smoke and some water, lay my rifle across my lap, and look down
PHAWK!!! My bolt is missing, I scream and scream against the wind and mountains, im so upset, so I sit there and ponder my next move, get hooked up with the boys and back to camp with my 10 pointer. Clean and skin and hang with no problems, on the beer, and ready for another meal for a kind, of salt fish and potatoes, pork scruncions and onions, cup of tea, then its dark, a few beers and off to bed, day one down.
Next morning we are up at fist light and into the boat again, by this time the winds are getting high and we are waiting on rain and wind advisory, so we are all al little nervous over the boat trip, but we pile in wave good bye to Henry tell him we will be back with another animal soon, off down the lake we go, after a bit we spot a large cow on shore, so we get out of the boat and head after her, Dwayne and Justin fired at her, but drew no blood or hair, we looked around in the woods for a bit and were amazed about the way the ground was trampled and tore up from all the moose activity, we decided to get in the boat and keep going, as we back out of the cove, and swing the boat around into the wind, I look over my shoulder and see a bull and a cow , walking onto the beach where we had just stood no mare than 5 mins earlier, we look them over, decide we don’t have time to get ashore, cut the motor and let the boat blow into the cove, at about 300 yards, they began to move, they were just watching us, and im told if im taking one of them to do it now, from the bouncing bobbing boat with 2-2.5 foot waves, these guys are sealers im with that shooting from a bouncing boat is no big deal, I had Justin’s dads .270 with 150 grain bullets as I look threw my scope , the boat is bouncing, and they yelling take the shot take the shot, I squeeze the trigger and hear bang…thump, rack another one as the bull is leaving the beach bang…thump, ok he is hit good , lets get ashore, as the bull runs into the woods, we get ashore and find lots of blood and hair sign, so we start into the woods, 250 yards in we find him nice 4 point bull laying down , dead, whoohoo, check him over my first shot cut his throat totally, second shot took his knee cap out, he was done and now the hunt was over, two tags filled in two days. So we quarter him up , haul it to the boat, by this time the wind is howling and there a re 3 foot white caps on the pond took us 2.5 hours to get up the pond, I took video of us coming up the pond to show how rough it was. We got back cleaned camp, loaded up and back to town, cleaned up the quarters, let me hang in the garage, and started to celebrate, over all, the best trip of my life, good hunting, good buddies and great hospitality. Will have memories for a long time, can’t wait for next years annual pilgrimage!!
Ryan
here is the link to some pics and one vid i think, i will update when i get more added to my photobucket album.
http://s7.photobucket.com/albums/y265/RYAN-URSUS/moose%20hunt%202006/
