TheCoachZed
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
TL/DR: I got super lucky by getting a nice moose
Our four-man team headed up to New Brunswick's Zone 3 (Madawaska region) on Sunday morning. Two trucks, towing a small camper trailer and a trailer with an ATV. An hour and a half into the woods from Edmunston, we set up camp and then went out looking for moose. We were immediately rewarded with moose spottings; we grabbed a couple cameras we had on salt blocks and saw there were some nice bulls in the area as well. Later on, the guy who was doing the calling went out with the other shooter (two guns to one licence in NB, if you wish to do so) and the other guy who was taking video (I had had several sleepless nights in airports through the week and needed to catch up on some rest for the season). They called in several bulls just up the road from camp. Things looked promising. Too bad we were planning on it being around 10C, and nighttime instead drops to -10C ... we were not expecting that much ice INSIDE the camper.
Monday morning, we went scouting. We saw a very nice bull driving through a clear cut, saw some other cow and calf combos driving around and walking. In the afternoon, we went deeper into the woods on foot, walked up on some nice ones--my buddy behind the camera almost got run over by a nice bull in the woods when we jumped him out of his sleep. Everything looked good for the season opening Tuesday.
Tuesday morning, we start the day driving the cut we saw the nice bull in the day before. Immediately, the guys on the other side of the truck see a big smasher bull. I jump out, but the Remington 710 jams when I rack the bolt (quel surprise!). I'm wrestling with the half-jammed gun as the moose runs into the woods. My second shooter never got a chance at him--I zoomed in to 9x on the scope and couldn't find him when I walked around the truck.
So we get back into the truck. Not 100 yards down the road, we see a second, even bigger bull. This time the gun cooperates, but once I get around the truck and see the bull, I can't find him with the 9x zoom (I forgot to zoom back out to 3x) and as I adjust the scope, the bull walks off into the brush as my second shooter asks if he can shoot it. Not wanting to be done 5 minutes into my moose hunt without even seeing a moose in my crosshairs, I told him not to, because I figured we could both get a shot. Nope.
For the rest of the day, we walk in the woods, calling while we go. We jump a few cows in the area where my buddy almost got run over the day before, and we find a spike who has no idea what/who we are, but we pass on it all as the rain starts.
The next day is rainy. We drive the same cut in the morning but no moose are there at all. After our gear got soaked, we decided to drive to town to dry it out, get something to eat, then hit the woods again in the afternoon. We walk deep into the woods after our return, jumping several cows that would all have been easy kills, but see no bulls. We're discouraged, but we know it's going to be nice the next day and hope that means moose will be feeding in that same clearcut we saw the nice bulls.
But again, no moose in the clearcut. We stomp around the woods and finally get rewarded with a cow returning a call ... but all we find in the area is a nice shed. We walk until early afternoon, finding countless moose beds and feeding areas but only spot three cows and the back end of what might have been a bull as it ran.
Then Jason shows up. Some of you might recognize him from his infamous YouTube clip. I worked with him several springs in Quebec, and he was guiding a client in the same area we were hunting. His client had tagged out, so he said he'd take us hunting. He asks us where we heard the cow in the morning, then says we'll go to the same area, just uphill.
We walk into the woods just a couple of minutes after he gives us a speech on noise. Not five minutes from the road, we hear a big grunt, and then there's a big big smasher standing right there! And that's without any calling. We almost walked right up to him. He was only 25 yards away, and he was surprised.
He was even more surprised when I shot the 7mm magnum at him. And I was even more surprised when a stump exploded, instead of the moose. I'd pulled the trigger when the scope was full of moose chest, and had no idea how I'd missed. Then I noticed a little clump of brush directly in front of me. I stepped to the side, aimed at the same spot, shot again, and the moose stumbled. Then my second shooter finally got around to shooting, and put one into his shoulder. Then the big bull was gone, we knew not where--we spotted a moose hightailing it over the horizon and I had a sinking feeling, especially when Jason started muttering about how he suspected it was a bad shot and couldn't find much blood.
But the blood trail picked up, and after five minutes of looking, there was the big bull, lying down dying behind a windfall.
The result was a 56.5-inch spread bull, 640 lbs on the hook, shot through the low neck with a 7mm magnum and shoulder with a .308, at point blank range. No idea what happened to the .308 bullet, but the 7mm fragmented, as it went in the right side of the neck and I found a piece of it exiting out the left side of the ribcage. No idea if my neck shot would have killed him, but the shoulder shot definitely would have.
Our four-man team headed up to New Brunswick's Zone 3 (Madawaska region) on Sunday morning. Two trucks, towing a small camper trailer and a trailer with an ATV. An hour and a half into the woods from Edmunston, we set up camp and then went out looking for moose. We were immediately rewarded with moose spottings; we grabbed a couple cameras we had on salt blocks and saw there were some nice bulls in the area as well. Later on, the guy who was doing the calling went out with the other shooter (two guns to one licence in NB, if you wish to do so) and the other guy who was taking video (I had had several sleepless nights in airports through the week and needed to catch up on some rest for the season). They called in several bulls just up the road from camp. Things looked promising. Too bad we were planning on it being around 10C, and nighttime instead drops to -10C ... we were not expecting that much ice INSIDE the camper.
Monday morning, we went scouting. We saw a very nice bull driving through a clear cut, saw some other cow and calf combos driving around and walking. In the afternoon, we went deeper into the woods on foot, walked up on some nice ones--my buddy behind the camera almost got run over by a nice bull in the woods when we jumped him out of his sleep. Everything looked good for the season opening Tuesday.
Tuesday morning, we start the day driving the cut we saw the nice bull in the day before. Immediately, the guys on the other side of the truck see a big smasher bull. I jump out, but the Remington 710 jams when I rack the bolt (quel surprise!). I'm wrestling with the half-jammed gun as the moose runs into the woods. My second shooter never got a chance at him--I zoomed in to 9x on the scope and couldn't find him when I walked around the truck.
So we get back into the truck. Not 100 yards down the road, we see a second, even bigger bull. This time the gun cooperates, but once I get around the truck and see the bull, I can't find him with the 9x zoom (I forgot to zoom back out to 3x) and as I adjust the scope, the bull walks off into the brush as my second shooter asks if he can shoot it. Not wanting to be done 5 minutes into my moose hunt without even seeing a moose in my crosshairs, I told him not to, because I figured we could both get a shot. Nope.
For the rest of the day, we walk in the woods, calling while we go. We jump a few cows in the area where my buddy almost got run over the day before, and we find a spike who has no idea what/who we are, but we pass on it all as the rain starts.
The next day is rainy. We drive the same cut in the morning but no moose are there at all. After our gear got soaked, we decided to drive to town to dry it out, get something to eat, then hit the woods again in the afternoon. We walk deep into the woods after our return, jumping several cows that would all have been easy kills, but see no bulls. We're discouraged, but we know it's going to be nice the next day and hope that means moose will be feeding in that same clearcut we saw the nice bulls.
But again, no moose in the clearcut. We stomp around the woods and finally get rewarded with a cow returning a call ... but all we find in the area is a nice shed. We walk until early afternoon, finding countless moose beds and feeding areas but only spot three cows and the back end of what might have been a bull as it ran.
Then Jason shows up. Some of you might recognize him from his infamous YouTube clip. I worked with him several springs in Quebec, and he was guiding a client in the same area we were hunting. His client had tagged out, so he said he'd take us hunting. He asks us where we heard the cow in the morning, then says we'll go to the same area, just uphill.
We walk into the woods just a couple of minutes after he gives us a speech on noise. Not five minutes from the road, we hear a big grunt, and then there's a big big smasher standing right there! And that's without any calling. We almost walked right up to him. He was only 25 yards away, and he was surprised.
He was even more surprised when I shot the 7mm magnum at him. And I was even more surprised when a stump exploded, instead of the moose. I'd pulled the trigger when the scope was full of moose chest, and had no idea how I'd missed. Then I noticed a little clump of brush directly in front of me. I stepped to the side, aimed at the same spot, shot again, and the moose stumbled. Then my second shooter finally got around to shooting, and put one into his shoulder. Then the big bull was gone, we knew not where--we spotted a moose hightailing it over the horizon and I had a sinking feeling, especially when Jason started muttering about how he suspected it was a bad shot and couldn't find much blood.
But the blood trail picked up, and after five minutes of looking, there was the big bull, lying down dying behind a windfall.
The result was a 56.5-inch spread bull, 640 lbs on the hook, shot through the low neck with a 7mm magnum and shoulder with a .308, at point blank range. No idea what happened to the .308 bullet, but the 7mm fragmented, as it went in the right side of the neck and I found a piece of it exiting out the left side of the ribcage. No idea if my neck shot would have killed him, but the shoulder shot definitely would have.
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