2006 British Columbia Moose Hunt (why I work out)

This is a prime example of why I work out. I am trying to loose the weight I've gained since my 2008 hunting season.

This hunt was my graduation present from my parents. My dad and I have been trying to get this hunt put together since 1999. We'll finally in August 2006 we were on our way to hunt moose with Prophet Muskwa on the Prophet River about 200 miles north of Fort St. John B.C.

Approx 35 hours after we left home, we pulled into a field 200 miles up the Alaskan highway. We sat there for about 30 minutes in anxious anticipation until a plane emerged in the distance. The pilot landed and taxied up to us.

After we got the plane loaded and gassed up. We taxied to the end of the "runway"/field turned around and went for it. I remember thinking, "those trees are getting awfully close. You can pull up any time." In typical bush pilot fashion, he seemed to pull up at the last moment and shoot for the sky.

After what seemed like a very short plane ride, we were 65 miles from the road and any civilization. We stayed at the base camp for the evening and enjoyed the guides hospitality. In the morning, we prepped and packed the horses (10 horses) for the 15 mile trip. After 10 hours of being on a horse in some nasty steep, beautiful country, we had arrived at the first satellite camp. We hunted out of that camp for 3 days. In those 3 days, we saw many cow moose, a couple smaller bulls, grizzly bear, black bear, cow elk, and a nice 6X6 bull elk. But no large Bull Moose.

So unfortunately we had to repack the horses and go for another 8 hour horse ride. I can't tell you how saddening that is. My butt was killing me after the first 10 hour ride. Plus we rode the horses about 3-4 miles each morning out to where we were hunting. Now, 3-4 miles on flat land isn't much. 3-4 miles in extremely steep mountain country is a whole different ride.

On our way to our new satellite camp. A horse goes down, yellow stuff oozing out of his nose. SO we hurried to unpack him. It looked as if we'd have to shoot him and spend the next two days burning him. We needed to make sure the grizzlies and wolves didn't develop a taste for horse. Thankfully the horse regained enough strength to carry itself on to camp. I stayed in the back and milked the horse on to the new camp.

Thankfully we made it without any other issues.

After 6 days of beautiful country and butt numbing horse rides. We were just settling down for an afternoon siesta in the afternoon of day 6 when dad came tearing through the woods. I went one way for a quick look and he went another. He had finally found what we were looking for.

We glassed the moose for about an hour to determine that there were two trophy bulls together in some very thick cover across the valley. We stalked to within 330 yards and had a beautiful spot to shoot from. I wanted to get closer, so we stalked to within 100 yards, but couldn't see a thing due to how thick the cover was. We walked back out only to see the bulls lay down and relax. All you could see were antler tines sticking above the brush. All we could do was sit and wait. We stalked within 80 yards two more times before dad got frustrated and convinced me to make the 330 yard shot. I was more than comfortable making that shot as we've practiced out to 500 yards.

Well, we spotted the moose at 1PM and after all the back and forth and moose laying down and loafing. They both stood up at 7PM and finally presented me a shot.

The first shot found its mark in the boiler room with little effect. Dad told me to hit him again so I did just that. Again, little effect. The moose basically stood there as if he had a cold with blood pouring out his nose and coughing from time to time. So I decided to put one in his shoulders. That bullet found its mark and broke both clavicles. This upset my moose enough to make him mosey out of site.

With confidence that my moose was down, dad put one into his moose. Again, great shot. Again, unaffected moose. Second round, dad's moose moseyed off.

We gave them some time and went for a walk. When we got over there, there was blood everywhere. No moose. We started following the trail, but the brush was so thick you couldn't see 2 feet in front of you. At one point I told dad, "he must be here, I can smell him". I folded the brush enough where I could climb about 4' off the ground. About the time the world erupted. My moose “The dead one” came tearing out of the brush about 5' between dad and I. I ended up shooting him in the back of the head as he ran down the side of the mountain.

Once we were 100% sure my moose was down, it was off to find dad's. That didn't take long either. Same result. Running moose. Dad hit him again in the vitals. Dad put the 4th shot into the hump to break the back. Finally, two moose down and time for the work to begin.

Now, you guys are thinking we went under gunned. Not true. I was shooting a 8MM Rem Mag home loaded with 220 gr Swift A-Frame. Dad was shooting a .338 Win Mag home loaded with 225 gr Swift A-Frames. We recovered one round from my moose on the far side shoulder right under the skin. Perfect mushroom and 87% weight retention. We recovered two of dad's. Same place, far side shoulder. Perfect mushroom, 86% and 88% weight retention.

Both lungs were demolished. All I can say, moose are extremely tough animals.

At 8PM with two moose on the ground. We knew we had a long night ahead of us. How little we knew. Finally around 4:30AM we were finishing the processing of moose. This left about 30 minutes of unrestful sleep as we had a wolf pack working the area. The horses were highly agitated. So basically at first light when it was safe. We loaded the horses and started the long walk out. Yes walk, we only brought enough horses for one moose. Who would have thought we'd shoot two together.

It was a long walk out to our camp, but it was well worth it. Once at the second satellite camp. We took a 2 hour, regrouped, packed up and headed for base camp. We finally came rolling into base camp around 8PM that evening. While drinks and a hot meal sounded good. Sleep sounded so much better.

We enjoyed the next few days telling and reliving stories, eating very well, sharing a beverage or two with our feet up, and taking in the beautiful country that is absolutely unspoiled by humans.