3 of us got away for 6 days to fill a moose tag in 356. Had elk tag as well but wasn’t the main focus. Camp was set on Sunday the 29th in a lease near Lake X.
Mama grizzly and two cubs passed by at under 200 yds while setting up camp, but they were non confrontational.
It rained at least 1/3rd of the time we were there. Thankful we had a garage to park in. When I ordered the tent 10 yrs ago, the 10’ porch was to keep our kit dry. Just worked out we had room for bikes.
Sunday night we just called clear cuts, hoping to pick up a response.
Monday was a quad around day to survey for sign. Strange observation, there was no atv track on any cutlines. Just a single two track on one power line. Effectively we had the place to ourselves. Based on the sign we found, truly, we should have packed up and found another area to hunt. Was some leftover sign from the elk rut, but overall not a lot of track to speak of. The habitat around the lake though, was ideal for moose hunting. Wednesday am, Matt (tag holder) and I cow called the south end of the lake. Matt had hunted lots before but had never taken a moose.Right after calling second set, a big boy stepped out on the line at 500 yds. I estimated at least a 5 yr old bull, with impressive fronts. He stared our way about 3 minutes. He came in our direction only about 10 yds from where he stepped onto the line, before he lost interest and went back in where he came from. I can only assume he had a cow held up in there, as wind was in our favour. “I’ll see you again in the morning “ I thought to myself. We let him be for the day. Over lunch, Colin says “ there has to be a satellite roaming around “, to which we agreed.
Wednesday afternoon, the 3 of us were set up in a huge clear cut on north side of the lake. Matt was with me again and Colin was 300 yds further away. An hour into the hunt, I pointed to Matt to a black spot in the cut.
Being a rough clear cut, we wanted him to come out of the valley to where we were calling. If it worked out, we’d still have a 300 yd trail to cut in to a kill site.
Bull came in on a rope. We had good cover on edge of tree line, and when I gave Matt the ok, he expertly squeezed off the 30 yd broadside shot to the neck with the Parker-Hale 30-06.
The back slapping began. After photos and stories, it started raining pretty good. Temps were cool at night and we had only enough time to gut animal and prop it open. Trail cutting wasn’t going to happen in the dark, so we’d be back in the morning to retrieve.
There was game to be had by the lake after all. They were just held up tight in their honey holes. Getting near their core areas and letting the calling do the work was key.
This was the 38th year Colin and myself have hunted together. At our age , it’s just about getting out and making memories. Bagging game is a bonus.
With the rain starting and darkness approaching, it seemed unlikely the crows would give away location of the kill site. Knowing there was grizzlies in abundance, we left the gut pile not 6 ft from the carcass. We left the organs on top within easy reach, hoping if a bear found the kill, it would feast on the low hanging fruit first .
Boy did we get lucky.
Grizzly found kill site very early in the morning. Not hard for them to smell a rutted up moose. We made our way into the site at 9:00 the next morning with 30-30 in hand. Bear had carcass almost buried. Not a bite was taken out of carcass. Bear rolled moose from its back onto its side and had it 75% covered. Clear to see in picture, we just lifted the legs of moose to inspect and dirt just rolled off its back into a pile. Just pauch left of the guts. Luck was on our side.
So 1 guy stood guard at all times while the other two hooked up and cut trail back to lease we walked in from
Carcass was boned out into bags at our camp. Took hide, head and skeleton about 2 km away on Thursday afternoon. Friday morning we checked it after driving around looking for elk, and everything had been picked clean by a bear overnight. Made trip home on Saturday
Bags were weighed this morning at a touch over 500 lbs.
Thanks to my loving sister, and my wife for preparing home cooked meals for us.
We have never hunted this zone. I reached out to a few members for some intel on good areas, and would like to give thanks to them for any information they offered.
Matt’s father gave us a vague starting point, but we did most of the reconnaissance ourselves.
Get out there and do it fellas (and gals). You just never know what stories are waiting for you.
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