Toughest game retrieval situation?

MackForce

MackForce

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Before the sheep and goat hunters destroy this thread...
What I mean is: When you've gone for a hunt expecting a certain level of effort and then things get TOUGH.
My hunting partner and I snagged a moose yesterday. Beautiful young Yukon bull.
Our "team" has 4 moose tags this season. We will be splitting the harvest up between a couple dozen folks around the neighborhood. So we wanted to get one (at least) pretty early on. Its a long season up here and began on August 1st. August 5th... Found one.
He was pretty far out in a swampy area. Neither of us had been into the muck that far, in that area. So we weren't sure what to expect. Swampy/wet retrievals aren't uncommon, but this one looked a bit challenging. But 2 strapping young lads should have no issue.... right.
The range finder showed the shot at 235 yards. Partner had to take 2, first hit the hump, second shot was a perfect neck shot. He was using his "old faithful", his grandfather's old BSA with a 4x old bushnell. Pretty smooth 30-06.
So we drop it. Call the girls to grab the canoe and start hiking out. We were slopping through swamp from ankle to chest deep. We cleaned it in waist deep water, resting the head on a tuft of grass to get as much elevation as we could. We halved it and threw it in the canoe.
Then things got tough.
I have a 18.5ft kevlar canoe. It held the weight. But its long and there was no real water ways wider than a foot and they were much to twisty to maneuver that weight and length through.
So we got the gals, made us 4, and we hailed across the tops of the swampy tufts... I tied the rope around my shoulders and the other 3 pushed/pulled/humped our way along.
It took us 3 hours to get the canoe to dry land where we could back the truck down to.
This was THE TOUGHEST (I dont mean packing out on dry land or bush, thats normal) retrieval I've had yet. But it was all worth it! Along the way I heard "Im never dropping one in the swamp again"! hahah ... then once its in the truck.. "That wasnt bad"... HAHAHA
Even the toughest/annoying ones are still worth it aren't they? Hes hung up now. Aging away for our upcoming block BBQ.
This is what we walked up to.

This was the posse. Good girls to be so happy in that slop! You can see the tree line for reference.

A few hours later... The smiles weren't so broad! But this is where the beer run came in. Check the tree line where we started. The water way pretty much dissipated in the growth. i think we floated a total of 10 meters.

We named him. Meet A$$hole.


Anyone else get into some tougher than expected?
 
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Oh hell yes! They do get tougher.
I shot a cow on farmland that ran into the "pecker poles" of a muskeg swamp off the field before she died! Cleaning an 800lb animal in that was a chore all by itself. Tight quarters, no small machines, everything done by hand and gravity working against you! Cut her in half and still too heavy, quarters now but still have to walk out of that uneven mess! Insects that won't quit, water soaked and very uncomfortable even if you didn't have to pack out a moose.
Add to that a bit of a hangover from the night before and a buddy who "cant stand the smell" and is more than a bit lazy!
You have to learn to pick your shots and patience go's a long way!
 
Sheesh guys... Im not saying this thing killed me! Ive been on lots of hunts. Have some that were much more challenging. I'm talking retrieval.. not the hunt itself.
My point is, I didn't expect it to be that tough. So when you're mind is set on a tougher hunt, its easier to handle.
Thought we were going to throw this fella in a canoe and out we go. Not drag a sled across the grass.
I wanted to hear some of your guys stories...
Superbrad - I think every hunter has stories. Im not usually a picture guy, so I thought I would post some since the gals had their phones on them and were snapping pics. Stories are better with pics I guess.
Any of that woodstove?
 
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My story is not nearly as miserable as yours. One year our hunting party dropped a big cow elk in the canola field. We drove the truck over to her, but SONUVAGUN was it hard getting that animal into the truck. Like deadlifting a horse. I have a new perspective on awkward game retrieval.
 
Done the same thing a few times, but we're a bunch of old farts. ATV's and ropes is usually how we get them out. so far we have not needed a canoe for moose. Did on a bear though. He jumped in above a beaver dam and died.
 
Was moose hunting North of Edmonton.

8 days in to a 10 day trip, a moose shows up. And dies. On the riverbank. In a DEEP STEEP valley.
Hand over hand, grass clump to grass clump, climb, kind of steep. 650 feet or so of elevation.

Not a happy thought.

We all dug into our wallets and came up with what we had, sent the 'fit' guy up to the trucks and he drove a couple miles out to where an outfitter had his base camp. Made a deal with the guys there and they sent the jet boat and hovercraft out to pick up our moose for $100. Best $25 I ever laid onna barrelhead!

On another trip, had to lend our quad trailer to a fellow that whacked a moose, and was looking at having to spend all night ferrying it out in pieces on his trike. ~25KM to the gate, where his truck was parked.

Being unprepared really sucks. Poor planning. Sometimes you get wet and bug-bit. That's how you learn to make better decisions! :) Like "let it walk away!" and "the one uphill from the road is smaller, but it's a downhill drag!"

Cheers
Trev
 
Me and a buddy went after a big ol muley buck a few years ago and after I shot it, the buck managed to flop its way down into a nice patch of pine blowdown way up the back end of the North White River that had been burnt. Worst 4 hour struggle I have ever done. Drag a couple of feet, grunt it over a bunch of blow down repeat, repeat 20 times !! Finally got it to where we could drag it up to the road to get it into the truck, we were so friggen done!! Really glad that it was not a moose !!!
 
First moose I shot was standing at the edge of a slough. When I nailed him, he decided to go swimming.
He only made it about 40 feet into the water, and then expired, but it was late October, ice around the
edge of the slough, and we had no boat, raft or any device to float out and get him.
Stripped to the skivvies, and out I went..c.o.l.d!!!!! I definitely took that lesson to heart for future moose
hunts. Dave.
 
MackForce said:
Sheesh guys... Im not saying this thing killed me! Ive been on lots of hunts. Have some that were much more challenging. I'm talking retrieval.. not the hunt itself.
My point is, I didn't expect it to be that tough. So when you're mind is set on a tougher hunt, its easier to handle.
Thought we were going to throw this fella in a canoe and out we go. Not drag a sled across the grass.
I wanted to hear some of your guys stories...
Superbrad - I think every hunter has stories. Im not usually a picture guy, so I thought I would post some since the gals had their phones on them and were snapping pics. Stories are better with pics I guess.
Any of that woodstove?
Click to expand...

Sorry if I came off as uppety there..... I greatly enjoyed the pics and story and appreciate that you posted them.....

My worst retrieval was a black bear while deer hunting...... It was about 20 years ago and I had never shot or handled a bear before..... As a young lad, I was in dog duties trying to push deer out to the old guard...... We managed to push out a 250 pound boar instead and one of the watchers put a 30-30 round through it...... It took off over a ridge and down into a gully filled with prickly ash..... When I got out to the shooter he pointed me in the direction and sent me in (him being too old and all)..... As I followed what little blood I could find I weed through the ash in near zero visibility..... About 20 minutes in I heard the death bawl (which, with no experience, I didn't know was a death bawl)..... So now I thought I was in zero visibility chasing a very alive bear....

Long story short, I finally found the bear and had to gut it by myself while the old timer yelled out instructions from about 50 yards...... I did a hack job if it and when I emerged all scraped up and gouged from the thorns, bleeding but proudly carrying a bear quarter I got crapped on for not saving the hide for a hat....... I told the old man to #### his hat and proceeded back into the ash 2 more times (luckily by this time, one of the other young fellas came along to help)......

image_zpseucym1a6.jpeg
 
Beautiful Pic Brad! I'd give that old girl a go.
Great stories fellas.
We did know what we were getting in to (by shooting it in the swamp). The water was pretty warm. I would/will do another one there in order to get a nice one. Probably not if its October though!
This is my last year in the Yukon, so I'm doing what I can.
 
My brother in law's quote, "Nothing ruins a moose hunt quite as much as actually shooting one." I have developed a keen sense of how hard the work is going to get, and I have passed on shots, and just walked away from "moosey" places, that were just too ugly. I have never known a moose to run into an open field you can get the truck to after it was shot.

I have come to view a winch equipped Argo as the perfect moose retrieval vehicle, although I don't own one because I don't think they are much fun for anything else. I can testify that one can drag a mostly floating moose across a body of water and out to a cut line, however. Don't know what it would have been like if they hadn't come along.

No pictures. Before cell phones and the cameras were in camp.
 
Several years ago my s-i-l shot his first moose. It ran a short distance and jumped into a beaver pond and expired. The pond was deeper than we were prepared to wade into. Went back to camp to pick up some equipment and returned to kill site at 8 p.m. It was 3 a.m. before we got back to camp. At that point we had the moose out of the pond, gutted and propped open to cool overnight. Had to go back in the morning for quartering and transport back to camp. This was a fly in hunt so we didn't have access to any mechanized equipment. We used a come-along to haul the moose to the side of the dam. We had a piece of plywood we found at our cabin that we used as a ramp in order to pull him out of the water.

On another hunt a hunting buddy shot one along side a large pond (or small lake which ever you prefer) where it died about 10 yards from dry ground. The water was quite shallow here. Had a heck of a time trying to find an anchor to secure the come-along to so we could eventually winch him out. The shooter and my self were both in our late '70s at the time and were of little help. My s-i-l had a bad cold and was not feeling great. He did yeoman work in getting the moose out. I think the time line was just about the same as the first example I gave.

My conclusion is that come-alongs will work but something with power is better. We did later look at the attachment that goes on a chain saw but never did buy one. (Added weight to be paid for on the flights.)

If it was not for having a couple of younger, willing guys us older ones would have had to quit a few years ago. As it is it looks as though this year will be the last year to moose hunt for us. Will continue deer hunting though since we can use an ATV there.

Jim
 
Well, after more than 50 moose down personally, and being in on close to that many shot by others, I
am well aware of the work involved in getting the big swamp donkeys out of the bush.

Every once in a while, it goes the other way, too. I shot a 3 Y.O bull about 5 years ago that was on the snowy hillside above the road.
One shot, down he goes. I dressed him, cut him in two, backed my pickup up to the edge of the road [level with the truck bed] and
slid each half down the hill right into my truck. Total time after the shot - 1 hour. I was alone, so was pleased with that moose. He
was delicious! Dave.
 
OntJim: it was a come-along that taught me a typical moose has about three feet of stretch in it before a rope on the horns will actually move it, and then it will relax that three feet for the next short move.
 
I have had my share. An older pal shot his caribou as it was getting out of the river and you guessed it fell back in, being very buoyant it started floating downstream, i stripped down and went in after it, cold heart stopping water, but i managed to bring it back in! I don't think i would try that stunt again regardless of how old my pal was.
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I have shot my fair share of moose but giraffe was a whole new thing for me a couple of years ago and it struck me how much you appreciated friends and help after the shot:)
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Last season I was solo hunting at my deer camp for a moose calf (we already had our bull and no one else could get time off of work) and took a tumble and dislocated my shoulder. Two weeks later I'm less than fifty yards from where I fell and shot a four point buck still hunting. My shoulder was still pretty tender and it took forever to gut it and drag it a half a mile back to the boat by myself. I got it into the boat but had to find help to get it out and into the truck.
 
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