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Moose hunting with traditional gear is not for the faint of heart.
I fell in love with moose hunting a while back. In 2007 , I killed a nice three year old bull from 6 paces. It was my second trip for the biggest deer of North America.
I just returned again from another Moose adventure last weekend. I did not kill a moose this trip but if I rolled 30 years of hunting experiences in to just one, it would not come close to the excitement,thrills and scares last week held.
The hunt took place in northern Alberta just south of Lesser Slave Lake. Here is camp showing the guides tent/ kitchen.
On day 1 my guide Dave called in a P & Y moose but the moose must have had his ass kicked recently because he kept looking over his shoulder for another bull. He departed coming no closer than 75 yards.
Dave, the pied piper of Alberta.
Later that day we got into three different bulls all with cows. Down in an Alder thicket in chest high grass on the side of a beaver pond I thought for sure my life was over. On the drive up to camp I learned that there are indeed Grizzlies in this area of Alberta. Not many but enough that they are seen occasionally.
We had snuck up on a big bull and cow with calf and Dave had left me in a spot to try and see if he could get the bull to come my way. It was deathly quiet. Suddenly there was a very loud and menacing growl-bark and then a second. A bolt of adrenaline shot thru my body like never before. I had no idea what it was but was sure from the sound of it I was dead meat. I knocked an arrow.
Dave came around the corner just then looking unconcerned. I nervously asked WTF that
sound was. He said the cow was about 40 yards away and she wasclearing her nose and throat of the black flies! Whew!Later that day we were trailing a cow and bull moose. They were inthe thick stuff but we were following the sounds of the cow balling and the soft grunts of the bull. We were trying to get a visual of the bull. Unbeknown to us they had stopped in the bush along side the cut were walking on and we had closed the distance to a few yards. Suddenly a loud crack alerted us to how close we were to them. There was a bright spot in the cut ahead of us, Dave was going to try and
call the bull in to it. I set up 10 yards off of it and Dave ran in to it and gave a call.Instantly the bull gave a loud grunt and branches were being smashed. Dave ran out of the opening into the
thick woods so the bull wouldn’t see him. We both thought the bull was running to us. He actually was. But instead of coming into the open, he ran at us to get between us and the cow he was following and then he herded her quickly away.
The next day and the day after we went back to the same area where we had so much action. We got a few grunts in reply to our calls , but it appeared each bull was still with their cows. We did find several huge rubs.
On Day four we took the four wheelers and the meat or meat head wagon depending upon who was riding in it to an area deeper in the wilderness. Four wheelers are used to retrieve game and get deeper in the woods. We did not hunt from them . They were always parked a mile minimum from where we would begin each days hunt.
We didn’t get into any bulls that day but did manage to shoot a few grouse and cook them for lunch.
On Day 5 we drove back to the newer area since it looked so promising. It was only 5 Km as the crow flies from camp. But the only bridge that crossed the main river had washed out forcing us to make a
25 KM one way trip to get there. Dave kept talking about the big old bulls that lived back there. He wasn’t kidding. -
big moose live here
That night Dave called in a B & C bull to a mere 24 FEET and I couldn’t get a shot.
We had set up 100 yards down wind of a big beaver pond. At 7:05 pm were heard a distant grunt reply to Dave’s balling cow calls. 35 minutes later after listening to him grunting the entire way. I heard him splash thru the beaver pond. Seconds later he finally crested the poplar ridge above me.
As he ran down the ridge I couldn’t believe how big he was. Holy **** I kept saying. I had set up on the bulls side of the cut in the forest. A
main game trail came down the ridge and split into a Y 30 yards before the cut and both legs of the Y dumped out onto the cut n the forest.I was crouching just 6 yards down wind of the lower leg. The bull turned on to the upper leg of the Y and stopped as soon as he hit the cut. He was facing me at 22 yards. Dave had moved down wind about 75 yards , was calling and breaking sticks trying to sound like the cow was walking away. The bull took two steps forward, lowered his head swished his antlers left to right and then right to left thru the chest high grass and stopped. Dave called again. The bull took two more steps and repeated the head swinging. He was 16 yards away quartering at me and softly grunting.
Dave broke a stick or two. The bull slowly started to move forward. He was angling to his right directly at me. I was hiding behind my recurve and a single poplar not moving a muscle preparing for what I thought was going to be a point blank broadside shot.
He was HUGE. At 10 yards the bull did the one and only thing that would prevent me from killing
him. He turned onto the bottom leg of the Y and stepped up onto the bank. He was facing me head on a 8 yards! He towered above me. He was a monster
standing so close he could have killed me by taking just 2 steps forward. He stood there just listening. His eye on the right side of his head seemed to be looking into mine. I could see red blood vessels in the white surrounding the dark brown pupil. I dared not move , I made my self not blink for fear he bolt forward and run over me.He swung his antlers to the right. I knew he was turning the rest of the way onto the trail . I drew my bow but only got 1/2 drawn before the opportunity was gone. By the time I was full drawn he had turned so much all I had to shoot at was his butt. I watched him trot back up the ridge grunting the entire way.
We returned the next day and the day after but it wasn’t meant to be.
The 2 compound hunters killed 2 bulls; one was a 4 year old and the other a 2 year old on the last day. Both we’re in tree stands.
Their shots were 14 yards and 22 yards. Dean another one of the expert guides called both bulls to them perfectly. They could have easily killed them with stick bows!
jim
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