I left for the fall Moose Hunt last Saturday with my Brother, Father-in-Law, and three friends. We left in my 24" boat and my FIL's 24" boat, we figured on being out a week or so, the boats had a pretty hefty load for long trip. Our plan was to travel about 80 to 90 miles East of home, which is about 200 river miles, it takes the entire day to travel that far, especially factoring stops and the normal hindrances(shallows).
We arrived shy of our camp that evening, because of water causing trouble in my FIL's outboard. My friends set-up there tents, I stayed in the boat. We woke up early the next morning, drained the carbs and changed the plugs, then we were off. We arrived at camp fairly quickly stopping to talk to a couple people(this time of year, the usually empty river is a highway).
We set-up the tents again and unloaded our gear. Relaxed our legs a bit.
After a quick late Lunch/early Dinner, 4 of us headed up the Pikmik River about 15 miles. I stopped at a hill that appeared to be the highest point in the area and we climbed the small hill and stayed and watched for 4 hours.
While on the hill, we spotted a Black Bear eating Berries in a large Blueberry patch about a mile away. My friend, Scotty and Brother, Brian, wanted to try and stalk the Bear. We dropped them off across the river and they started there long trek to the meadow through thick alders and marsh. I returned to the hill with my friend Nathan(akblueline). The wind was in there favor and they made it to the meadow quickly...not that being 20 years old had anything to do with it
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We watched as they got approximately 150 yards away from the Bear, we saw the Bear became a bit weary and seamed like it knew something was around. My brother took a shot with his .270(gift from me) and completely missed! The Bear ran off never to be seen again. They went to the area to make sure there was no blood. At this time I saw something swimming in the lake above there location approximately 1 1/2 miles away. I recognized that it was a Bull Moose without binoculars and when I did use the Binoculars, I realized that the Bull had a rack that had to measure over 6' wide. My brother and Scotty tried to get near it, but it walked into the alders.
*Before you read on, please realize that we hunt for food as a group, not for sport, so killing the animal quickly is a necessity, we can't risk a loss of the animal. As of us spend quite a bit of money for gas and food for the trip.They knew it would be dark soon and started to head towards the river down stream from us, which was a lot closer to them. We picked them up and started to the camp. On our way down, we figured on doing some Beaver hunting, so I geared up with my AR. We passed a Cow Moose on the way down and I took a couple pictures of the sunset on the way down.
When we rounded a quick bend, we saw a young Bull Moose standing on the river edge. We slowed, stopped the engines and it started to run up the bank. I still had my AR slung to my chest, so knowing the others had higher powered rifles and were good shot's(Bear excluded) my Brother hit the Moose in the neck. The Moose turn and jumped in the river(S&*%). It swam to the other side and went onto the bank, were Nathan hit in the vitals with a .338 and it still continued to run. I let off one more round with my 5.56(70 grain FMJ) and hit it right in the head dropping it dead....it went into the river.
We pulled the Moose out of the River and onto the bank and I started to quarter the Moose. It was a young bull, a small eight pointer, which is a plus because the meat is a lot less tough and not as gamy as a larger Bull.
We got the Moose loaded and started for a slow and long trip to camp in the complete dark, only natural light to guide us. We arrived at camp two hours later.
After waking up early, we split up into two groups. One to get the wood for the drying racks and the other to skin the hide from the Moose. Before the afternoon, we were done hanging the meat.
We stayed another night, got two sack full of fish and then started home that next afternoon. The weather the night after we caught the Moose became wet and and never let up.
My steering cable broke on the way home and we had to manually steer the boat with a make-shift tiller handle my FIL made for such an occasion. We made good time, but I was plagued with water in my tank and this slowed us for a while. The local fuel company will get a written complaint.
It was a good hunt, some tempers flared, but for the most part...I enjoyed the time out and being able to kill a Moose for food for the our families. We split the moose up between us, as it is customary to do in our culture. I took one side of ribs, with the backbone attached, the blade and the brisket. My wife and I cleaned and butchered the Moose. I got several "racks of ribs, some nice fillets and about 20+ pounds of Ground Moose.
September 10th 2009 7:47 PM
