I have seen a few stories but not enough!
Please post pics and stories of your hunt.
*Notice how I didn't say kill pictures? Post those too but want to hear your experience and stories regardless if you were successful!
Good luck and be safe.
My second trip to the rock.
Day 1 Newfoundland Moose Hunt
4:30am and I am already awake. Why! Nothing better to do so check the gear and cameras again.
8am Mark calls me to tell me fog is too heavy in camp and we are delayed 30 mins because helicopter can't get into camp. Hopefully this will just be a short delay.
8:30am Mark calls and says we are good to go and that Leah (his wife) will be there shortly to pick me up.
9:30 nice helicopter. I have been looking forward to this ride all year. We load up and pile in. There are 3 other hunters. Me and Chuck (a Bowsite member) are heading up to the Ironbound camp while the other 2 are heading to Sharon Valley
As the 'copter takes off on this sunny yet partly cloudy day it becomes very apparent that my anticipation was well worth the wait. As we glide over Newfoundland never more than 300 yards above the terrain - the scenery changes from mountains with valleys to rivers covered in tuckamore to something that looks like mars with open barrens strewn with ponds. 100's of ponds. It's no surprise that Newfoundland is called The Rock.
As I enjoy the scenery, take videos and pics I pick out the first moose. Then another. Another. The total tally was 8 moose and a herd of caribou. It got the anticipation even higher.
10:15am as we approach camp it's the same one in the pictures. The building has been here for many years and resembles what you expect a wooden building to look like after many harsh winters. It has a bluish paint that is a little weathered making it look like a cabin on the Maine coast. It's beautiful in its rustic way.
We are quickly met by Grandma (camp cook) who represents her name well. She is a sweet Newfie Grandma. She tells us to get unloaded and settled in and then come back for turkey soup and freshly made bread. Even though I just ate a few hours earlier I hustle up because I am hungry.
As I finish my bowl of soup and 5 pieces of bread I hear a crackle sound on the radio. "It's Marshal. I'll be back to camp in 10 minutes." You never get tired of the accent but Marshal sounds like he could be Irish as well. As the radio goes silent I eat a hot roll and stop myself because I realize I must look like a goldfish who can't stop eating.
I hear the steps on the wooden platform. Marshal passes the window and I quickly knew he and I would get along well. He's a wiry guy maybe 6 ft with a short beard and curly hair. He's smiling as he enters the kitchen and looks hungry.
"I was just out scouting this morning eh. Seeing some nice moose. Some bear as well." Chuck and I grill him for the next 45 minutes. He never breaks his smile as he recounts his scouting trip. We lean forward and like a child the night before Christmas trying to figure out what's under the tree see if any big moose had been seen. "Ay! There are some slammers out there but they aren't behind every tree."
11:30am we are dressed and ready to roll. It's a warm sunny day by now. The wind is blowing pretty good. It's about 55 degrees. We dress light and make our way to lookout point. As we make the 15 min climb I take a deep breath in the fresh air and am happy to be out hunting.
12:00pm as we glass I hear Marshal, "There's a moose. There's another." As he points them out I get excited because there's a bull worth investigating. They are a looooong ways away. 4 miles to be exact. If you have never been to Newfoundland my rule of thumb is to double the distance because walking through the bogs, tuckamore and moose pitfalls takes a lot out of your legs.
I look at Marshal and say,"I'm game if you are." Chuck smiles and says he'll wait for us at the lookout gladly letting us younger, foolish guys give chase. As we make our game plan we start our trek.
Marshal quickly informs me he's never taken a hunter over there before. Most guys aren't willing to walk that far. We cover 2 miles in the first hour of the hike. We were flying! Almost running. I look back at the enormous rock outcropping we were perched on and it looks a long way back.
We stop every once and a while to glass. The moose have disappeared but we know they are bedded in there somewhere. The next mile was tougher going as we cross a few streams and bogs. My Irish Setter Ecoflex boots I bought for the trip were even better than advertised. The reinforced boots saved my ankle several times and they feel just like wearing tennis shoes even though they were 18" high.
As we take a drink from the crystal clear stream we double check our game plan. The goal was to ascend the other large outcropping we had seen from our original lookout which now seemed to be a speck in the background.
2:30pm We slow our pace and carefully make our way up the ridge stopping every few hundred yards to glass. As we get to our vantage point a very young bull catches our eye as he is spooked by us. We watch him as he walks away. I'm always amazed at how fast moose can cover territory. I guess they use those long legs for something.
We continue slowly, sidestepping the hill when we notice a cow moose who must have winded us. She covers a mile in a heartbeat. I may have misjudged the wariness of a Newfoundland moose. The rut is about over so the chaos of bulls chasing each other and cruising during the middle of the day are gone. The moose are back to their routine.
As we continue to glass, we make a game plan to stay up high on the hill and slowly work around the lake we are sitting high above and just walked around. We are on high alert because we know that bull we glassed has to be here somewhere. Marshal takes my shooting sticks and we proceed.
As we come to the first little gully Marshal looks back unfolds the stick and says hurriedly, "Nice bull. Shoot. He's running." I try to find him through all the tuckamore he's running through and spot him. I raise my rifle and squeeze the trigger as he runs through the shoulder high firs. I miss. I chamber another round and take a deep breadth as he gets to a 150 yards and still running.
Boom. The shot disturbs the quite landscape. The moose drops out of sight. Marshal looks back,"I think you got him!!!" It was a great shot. We listen and hear splashing. Is he getting back up? It goes quite. We can't see him but it's so thick and tall we make a game plan to approach him just in case a follow up shot is needed. Plus we don't want to walk up on a wounded, angry moose.
As we carefully make our way down we get more and more excited. I have no idea the size of those moose except his body looked huge. As we work our way through the tuckamore I hear Marshal say,"I found him!"
I hustle over and smile as it's 4:30pm on the day I arrived and my moose is down. 4 total hours of hunting. He's a nice 10 point bull - the largest taken from that camp this year.
We snap photos and take care of the dirty work fast. The meat is bagged and then laid out for the helicopter to come grab in the next day or so. No packing it back to camp which would have been brutal because we are a long way from camp.
We tie the rack to my backpack and trek our way under the full moon. It's a bit harder now for this 43 year old. We make several stops as the adrenaline rush has subsided and the miles of hiking catch up to me. It's a beautiful night with a full moon and millions of stars. As I catch the light of the cabin in the distance my legs respond knowing dinner is in my sights.
Roasted moose with turnip bacon mashed potatoes and corn never tasted so good. Wild blueberry pie to wash it down hit the spot. A warm shower and cozy sleeping bag await me.
It's 10:30 as my head hits the pillow. I smile as I close my eyes because I couldn't have dreamed this day up!
@TMA: Yes it was Ironbound. Great, great outfit.
@Elmer: Yea we could have neevr shot that moose that far away. Well we could have but that would have been a brutal pack out.
