Well, here's my moose hunt BS for 2012. Hope it's interesting.
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I spent 4 days in the bush Sep 21-25 getting camp set up.
I had to come out for a day to get a few things I had forgot, plus to repair 2 flats on my ATV trailer.
Got back into camp on the 26th and went for a walk, to scout the country. I found sign of a bull in the area north of camp, and an ideal calling location.
My buddy arrived on the 27th and we organized his stuff, cut firewood etc. It was too warm to hunt anyway.
On the evening of the 28th, we walked into the area I had scouted, and called for about an hour. We were positioned on a hill, with an old burn and muskeg below us, calling out across a broad valley, that is several kms long. We had no answers, but conditions were ideal, so we knew moose had heard our call, and we'd be sure to get action in the morning.
Saturday morning, we again walked in. There were 2 fresh sets of bull tracks, one heading into where we'd called, and another right at the calling site. Bulls will often come in over night and be hanging around, where we call, and I knew there had to be a bull somewhere very close.
SP does most of our calling; he's a bull magnet...
Within 10 minutes or so, of beginning to call, we heard a grunt right below us and a cow and bull walked out of the timber. It was about a 46" bull, a real nice young bull, but not quite what we were looking for. The cow didn't want anything to do with him, and was coughing-barking at him to leave her.
I raked some brush to simulate a bull, and the young guy got scared and took off. The cow turned and went back into the timber.
So we kept calling. About 20 mins later, I spotted another bull coming across the muskeg below us. It was a smaller bull, maybe 38-40". He was headed right for the cow, and sure enough he hooked up with her, and took off after her. The cow wanted nothing to do with this guy either, and immediately started barking at him.
But he followed her anyway, and they went out across the muskeg. The bull was calling her, and she was coughing at him, basically telling him to **** off... she wanted a bigger bull.
Eventually he left her, and turned to come to us.
This bull was definitely too small, but we kept calling and then a third bull could be heard. This bull was calling from a long ways back in the timber up the valley, and he sounded like a bigger bull.
As SP continued to call, we had both bulls coming. Eventually the smaller bull came out below us; a beautiful animal. He was the perfect 'meat bull'. We left him alone, and he ended up spooking and running off. The bigger bull was still coming.
It took about an hour and a half to work this bull, to get him into the timber below us, but he didn't want to come out, and was crossing through the timber below us, from our left to right. Because of the wind direction, there was no way he could wind us, so we were okay there. But the bull was definitely hung up.
We decided to move closer to the bull, it was bit dicey as to whether we would lose him or not, and moving toward a hung up bull will sometimes help. So we dropped down the hill toward him, calling as we went, so he would maybe commit to coming out. We stopped when we were about 100 yards from the bush, and worked the bull with softer, more plaintive calls. This got the bull worked up.
I could tell the bull was going to come out, so I moved back up the hill to a better vantage point, SP moved lower to my left, so we both had clear shooting.
When the bull came out, he was facing straight at me, about 120 yards. I quickly glassed the bull, saw the brow tines and that he was about a 50" bull, and immediately dropped into a shooting position. SP gave one more low call to hold his attention and I shot. I center-punched him right at the base of the neck, and the bull wheeled to his left, and ran. I knew I had hit him hard, and sure enough he was down within about 40-60 yards, something like that. We never did range the shot, or check how far he went. I will do that in the spring, when I'm in there bear hunting.
I found him right away. He had run toward a wide, heavily travelled game trail, and dropped there.
I was shooting my M700 .338WM; 225 gr Nosler Partition. He did not require another shot.
This bull has spectacular brow tines, and really cool, dished palms. There is a big curve in them that matches on both right and left. The rack is narrow, at only 49-1/2", but it might score not too bad. Maybe 175-180 or something like that.
Sep 29, 10:40. I dropped this bull with a 225gr Nosler P; .338WM. It was ~120 yard shot.
His rack was covered with tiny seeds from all the tag alders he had bulldozed on his way in. This bull broke a LOT of timber as he came in!
SP, the 'Bull Magnet'.
A couple angles of the rack.
We had to add a tarp, as my old wall tent developed a few leaks. Need to give it a new coating of water-proofing.
It wouldn't be a Swan Hills moose hunt, without snow...
Oct 2, coming out the trail. Stupid tag alders were loaded with heavy, wet snow.
It never gets old...
-----------------------------------------------------------
I spent 4 days in the bush Sep 21-25 getting camp set up.
I had to come out for a day to get a few things I had forgot, plus to repair 2 flats on my ATV trailer.
Got back into camp on the 26th and went for a walk, to scout the country. I found sign of a bull in the area north of camp, and an ideal calling location.
My buddy arrived on the 27th and we organized his stuff, cut firewood etc. It was too warm to hunt anyway.
On the evening of the 28th, we walked into the area I had scouted, and called for about an hour. We were positioned on a hill, with an old burn and muskeg below us, calling out across a broad valley, that is several kms long. We had no answers, but conditions were ideal, so we knew moose had heard our call, and we'd be sure to get action in the morning.
Saturday morning, we again walked in. There were 2 fresh sets of bull tracks, one heading into where we'd called, and another right at the calling site. Bulls will often come in over night and be hanging around, where we call, and I knew there had to be a bull somewhere very close.
SP does most of our calling; he's a bull magnet...
Within 10 minutes or so, of beginning to call, we heard a grunt right below us and a cow and bull walked out of the timber. It was about a 46" bull, a real nice young bull, but not quite what we were looking for. The cow didn't want anything to do with him, and was coughing-barking at him to leave her.
I raked some brush to simulate a bull, and the young guy got scared and took off. The cow turned and went back into the timber.
So we kept calling. About 20 mins later, I spotted another bull coming across the muskeg below us. It was a smaller bull, maybe 38-40". He was headed right for the cow, and sure enough he hooked up with her, and took off after her. The cow wanted nothing to do with this guy either, and immediately started barking at him.
But he followed her anyway, and they went out across the muskeg. The bull was calling her, and she was coughing at him, basically telling him to **** off... she wanted a bigger bull.
Eventually he left her, and turned to come to us.
This bull was definitely too small, but we kept calling and then a third bull could be heard. This bull was calling from a long ways back in the timber up the valley, and he sounded like a bigger bull.
As SP continued to call, we had both bulls coming. Eventually the smaller bull came out below us; a beautiful animal. He was the perfect 'meat bull'. We left him alone, and he ended up spooking and running off. The bigger bull was still coming.
It took about an hour and a half to work this bull, to get him into the timber below us, but he didn't want to come out, and was crossing through the timber below us, from our left to right. Because of the wind direction, there was no way he could wind us, so we were okay there. But the bull was definitely hung up.
We decided to move closer to the bull, it was bit dicey as to whether we would lose him or not, and moving toward a hung up bull will sometimes help. So we dropped down the hill toward him, calling as we went, so he would maybe commit to coming out. We stopped when we were about 100 yards from the bush, and worked the bull with softer, more plaintive calls. This got the bull worked up.
I could tell the bull was going to come out, so I moved back up the hill to a better vantage point, SP moved lower to my left, so we both had clear shooting.
When the bull came out, he was facing straight at me, about 120 yards. I quickly glassed the bull, saw the brow tines and that he was about a 50" bull, and immediately dropped into a shooting position. SP gave one more low call to hold his attention and I shot. I center-punched him right at the base of the neck, and the bull wheeled to his left, and ran. I knew I had hit him hard, and sure enough he was down within about 40-60 yards, something like that. We never did range the shot, or check how far he went. I will do that in the spring, when I'm in there bear hunting.
I found him right away. He had run toward a wide, heavily travelled game trail, and dropped there.
I was shooting my M700 .338WM; 225 gr Nosler Partition. He did not require another shot.
This bull has spectacular brow tines, and really cool, dished palms. There is a big curve in them that matches on both right and left. The rack is narrow, at only 49-1/2", but it might score not too bad. Maybe 175-180 or something like that.
Sep 29, 10:40. I dropped this bull with a 225gr Nosler P; .338WM. It was ~120 yard shot.
His rack was covered with tiny seeds from all the tag alders he had bulldozed on his way in. This bull broke a LOT of timber as he came in!
SP, the 'Bull Magnet'.
A couple angles of the rack.
We had to add a tarp, as my old wall tent developed a few leaks. Need to give it a new coating of water-proofing.
It wouldn't be a Swan Hills moose hunt, without snow...
Oct 2, coming out the trail. Stupid tag alders were loaded with heavy, wet snow.
It never gets old...
