Exciting , BC Moose, Tag soup, recapped

[h20hunter]

10 minutes from home....

[7mmfan]

Well it’s about time. There’s a lot of impatient people here waiting on moose threads these days. A lot has happened since you’ve been gone, and not reported on. Near mutiny.

[h20hunter]

I saw that. Such drama.  Drove straight through today from PG to home.  Pretty nice drive.

So....tag soup. We cut fresh bull tracks every day.....got about 1200 yards from a stud that would be a shooter on any day. We closed the distance but they were 50 yards.....bull and cow....from a treeline in three different directions....but when we crested a hill to look for the shot they were akready in the timber. Good hunt, good camp,  bulls simply would not respond to calls and were for all purposes nocturnal.  Weather was way to warm and nice. I'll write more later but still have a day or two off and gotta get adjusted to normal stuff.

[HUNTINCOUPLE]

That's why it's called hunting and not killing. 

[TheStovePipeKid]

Well it’s about time. There’s a lot of impatient people here waiting on moose threads these days. A lot has happened since you’ve been gone, and not reported on. Near mutiny.

I'll own my part in all that. Ate some crow today over it. Crow goes great with tag soup. Stinks not getting a bull h20hunter, but it sounds like a thrilling adventure. I've seen amazing sights on trips I came home with all my tags. This truly is a wonderful world to live in.

[ctwiggs1]

Sorry to hear man - but glad you got out and got to take all that countryside in!

[10mmg]

I ate the same soup from Alberta last year. Worst soup ever.

[TVHunts]

Well crap, wished it had turned out better for you. 

The scenery while there and the drive North and back are something in itself.

[Karl Blanchard]

That's how she goes sometimes man. Way to have a good attitude about it and looking at the positives instead of the negatives.

[h20hunter]

So here is a bit more of a recap......

So drove up and had an nice drive. No issues and met up at the local meet up spot and headed to camp. Camp consists of small hunter cabins with wood stoves and basic rack for sleeping. There is a larger cabin that has the kitchen, storage, and dining area. Shower available next to the guides cabin. Pretty dang basic but watertight, plenty of wood, over sized stoves and just fine for camp. Most nights I burned one stick of wood and the cabin was way to hot. On site is a 100 yard plus range to double check you sight in if needed or to simply run some rounds for kicks and giggles. I learned very fast that you better not leave a single glove, boot, book, or hat unattended. If so, Tucker, the sub 2 year old wirehaired pointer was off to the races with your item.

Food.....dining. More than you can ask for. Full breakfast, mid morning sandwich and treats prepared for the morning hunt, full lunch, full home style dinner hot and ready at the end of the day. Very good and I was never left hungry. One of my favorite dinners was the 10 grouse ( 5 of one, 5 of another) that were baked with grouse heart stuffing and all the fixings. So good.

Hunting. Hunting was a combo of road hunting checking clear cuts, looking for animals crossing and putting some time in on foot to get into other areas, glass, and explore. We called, beat the brush, set up in travel lanes, cut bull tracks and tried to work the areas morning and evening. Most days we did see moose. Our issue was it was warm....most days were simply pants, normal boots, long sleeve shirt. Blue skies but not getting cold at night. Day two was my one and only shot at a bull. We spotted a brute of a bull and a cow at I would guess 1k to 1200 yards. They were in a corner at the end of a logging round on a small hillside. They knew we were there and we really on had two options. We could go almost straight at them and try and cut off 600 yards right through the cut or we could circle around and try and drop into the cut for a shot. My range was anything inside of 550. We put on the sneak, could here them a bit, dropped in.....no moose. Close. We spent the next days cutting tracks, spotting a few bears, yotes, a porky, some cows here and there and grouse. I did shoot grouse almost every day, had a fun double, popped three out of one flush and had some fun shooting them.

Yes, it is tough not filling a tag after the obvious financial, time, and away from family expense. Now, i would be much more bummed if folks around us or in camp were killing moose and I wasn't. There were a few town hunters buzzing around on quads but only one other long term repeat client hunter in camp. They never even saw a bull. We know of one other camp that got a moose during my time there. We believe we came across the kill site and in the drive out over I'd say 60 miles or so I saw one "on the road" kill site. The moose were there but they just weren't rutting hard. The bulls would sneak the cows into the timber which was dark, dense, and really impenetrable.  We would call, grunt, rake the brush, and couldn't get a single vocal reply. Tough hunting. My guide, Justin, was a local that has been with Shane for a long time and at only 32ish years old the only fault I could find was his affection for Milwaukee Best Beer. He pushed his bush truck through stuff I would not have believed we could get through. One night we did get to dig it out and without the winch on the other truck we would have had a long night ahead of us. Good times!

Overall.....the big question is would I go back? Yup, I would. Like I said, yes I'm bummed but I don't know what they could have done better or worked harder to get us on a moose. Just wasn't our hunt.

[7mmfan]

Thats the way it goes sometimes. I guided fishing trips for many years, and sometimes the fish bite, and sometimes they don't. When you book a trip a year or more in advance, there's no way of knowing the weather is going to be warm and rut is slow. It's cards that are dealt and it's no ones fault. It seems like you're content with the effort that was put out and that they worked hard for you. Next time you'll show up on the back end of a cold front with fresh snow on the ground and highs in the teens. The bulls will be frisky.