I absolutely hate long posts, so apologize to myself in advance before writing this one.
Some background - this hunt started about 3 years ago. My buddy Rob was at the local sports show back in 2019 and stopped by the 'Walsten Outposts' booth to see about a moose hunt. They are mainly a fly-in fishing operation out of Kenora, Ontario but do have an allocation for a few moose tags every year (only 4 bull tags this year, along with several cow tags). So he booked a hunt for us for in 2020. Well then covid hit and the Canadian border was closed, so we rescheduled for 2021. Then in 2021 there were record wildfires in that part of Canada and the hunt was cancelled again. The outfitters were not even allowed to fly due to all the smoke, and large southern portions of the lake we were on (Snowshoe Lake - western Ontario, right on the Manitoba border) were burnt. Rob is pretty much a do-it-yourselfer kind of guy, so we booked the hunt as unguided and 10 days in duration.
We left here (Marion, IA) the morning of Friday 9/23. Drove 12 hours to Kenora and spent the night in a hotel for our 10am flight in on the 24th. After getting settled in at the cabin on Saturday we did hunt the tributary river on the very east end of the lake that afternoon with no luck or responses to our calls.
For those who are not familiar with archery moose hunting, the most important thing to have is cool/cold/still conditions with no or very low winds. This allows your calls to be heard for miles as of course moose are not as plentiful as whitetail, but will come from a loooong ways off to a call.
Well Sunday was forecasted to be high winds (35mph+) which is less than worthless for moose calling. But we set the alarm for well before dawn and got up anyway. The forecast was right and we could see whitecaps on the lake in front of the cabin. We decided we didn't want to drown in the dark, so went back to bed. We got up a bit later (still super windy from the north) and decided to head to some spots we had scouted with satellite images and set up our calling spots/cut shooting lanes for the rest of the week. We decided to take a bow (mine) 'just in case'. Well, good thing we did as the first place we stopped (around 9:30 am) as I climbed on top of a rock where we parked the boat, I saw a cow about 100yds north of me and heading east. If I would have got on top the rock 30 seconds later, she would not have still been in the clearing and we would not have known she was even there.
So Rob and I paddled the boat back east a few hundred yards along the back of the rock ridge in hopes we could cut her off. She was heading into sort of a small bay area so couldn't go much farther east anyhow. We climbed back on top of the rock ridge and could hear her sloshing around in the muck to our NW. We continued N and dropped to the bottom of the other side of the rock ridge. We could still hear her sloshing around and it was apparent she wasn't coming further east, so I decided to climb back onto the rock ridge and see if I could stalk her. The wind was perfect for it. Rob stayed back as we knew one person would make less noise. To make a long story longer, I got on top of the rock ridge and went back west about 100 yards. I peeked back to the N where there was a small muck hole/pond and saw BIG ripples. So knowing I had her position, I slipped a bit farther W down the ridge, then N straight at her. It was an absolute perfect setup. She was to my N with a strong N wing and I was about 10 feet above her on the rock ridge. I crouched and crawled toward her and soon saw the hair on her back's hump. Then she picked up her head so I froze. She put her head back down to take another bite and I moved up another couple yards and prepped for a shot. She picked her head up one more time, then when she dropped it I stood/drew and shot her right behind the shoulder at about 10 yards. I couldn't believe it!! She then proceeded to trot out of the muck hole to the east and towards Rob. I kept waiting for her to fall, but she didn't. A whitetail hit there would have dropped within 15 to 20 seconds. She then proceeded to walk north across the clearing and about 35 yards in front of Rob. I was shooting video at this point (see YouTube link) and you can see Rob in the background. Rob was filming at this time also. He of course didn't have his bow and was not even aware I had shot her, but rather assumed I had just spooked her. Guess he didn't have faith in my ninja deer stalking skills!! lol
To try and wrap this part up, I shot her about 10:10 am, We didn't look for her at that time, but rather headed directly back to the cabin to eat lunch and get the butchering equipment. We got back to her around 2 and she was dead about 5 yards where she walked into the bush. It then took about 3 hours to get her skinned, butchered, and back to the boat. I'd say she was a 2-year-old and about 600'ish pound. I thought that was big until we got the bull.
The pic of us drinking the Canadian Molson is when we were heading back to the cabin knowing we had a dead moose somewhere in the bush.
The pic of the rock across the field is where I shot her from. The pic was taken where she entered the bush.
My buddy Rob packed the whole thing out aside from the straps, loins, and trim meat. He really enjoys it, so I let him have at it!!
We did put a trial cam over the carcass. When we came back to get it 5 days later the carcass was completely GONE! No bones, nothing. Assumed a bear, but then saw wolf crap. We were excited about the trail cam, but I had positioned it aimed too high and we just got a few parts of wolves and a bunch of ravens dropping in.
Give me a minute and I'll get the bull story pasted in.
Some background - this hunt started about 3 years ago. My buddy Rob was at the local sports show back in 2019 and stopped by the 'Walsten Outposts' booth to see about a moose hunt. They are mainly a fly-in fishing operation out of Kenora, Ontario but do have an allocation for a few moose tags every year (only 4 bull tags this year, along with several cow tags). So he booked a hunt for us for in 2020. Well then covid hit and the Canadian border was closed, so we rescheduled for 2021. Then in 2021 there were record wildfires in that part of Canada and the hunt was cancelled again. The outfitters were not even allowed to fly due to all the smoke, and large southern portions of the lake we were on (Snowshoe Lake - western Ontario, right on the Manitoba border) were burnt. Rob is pretty much a do-it-yourselfer kind of guy, so we booked the hunt as unguided and 10 days in duration.
We left here (Marion, IA) the morning of Friday 9/23. Drove 12 hours to Kenora and spent the night in a hotel for our 10am flight in on the 24th. After getting settled in at the cabin on Saturday we did hunt the tributary river on the very east end of the lake that afternoon with no luck or responses to our calls.
For those who are not familiar with archery moose hunting, the most important thing to have is cool/cold/still conditions with no or very low winds. This allows your calls to be heard for miles as of course moose are not as plentiful as whitetail, but will come from a loooong ways off to a call.
Well Sunday was forecasted to be high winds (35mph+) which is less than worthless for moose calling. But we set the alarm for well before dawn and got up anyway. The forecast was right and we could see whitecaps on the lake in front of the cabin. We decided we didn't want to drown in the dark, so went back to bed. We got up a bit later (still super windy from the north) and decided to head to some spots we had scouted with satellite images and set up our calling spots/cut shooting lanes for the rest of the week. We decided to take a bow (mine) 'just in case'. Well, good thing we did as the first place we stopped (around 9:30 am) as I climbed on top of a rock where we parked the boat, I saw a cow about 100yds north of me and heading east. If I would have got on top the rock 30 seconds later, she would not have still been in the clearing and we would not have known she was even there.
So Rob and I paddled the boat back east a few hundred yards along the back of the rock ridge in hopes we could cut her off. She was heading into sort of a small bay area so couldn't go much farther east anyhow. We climbed back on top of the rock ridge and could hear her sloshing around in the muck to our NW. We continued N and dropped to the bottom of the other side of the rock ridge. We could still hear her sloshing around and it was apparent she wasn't coming further east, so I decided to climb back onto the rock ridge and see if I could stalk her. The wind was perfect for it. Rob stayed back as we knew one person would make less noise. To make a long story longer, I got on top of the rock ridge and went back west about 100 yards. I peeked back to the N where there was a small muck hole/pond and saw BIG ripples. So knowing I had her position, I slipped a bit farther W down the ridge, then N straight at her. It was an absolute perfect setup. She was to my N with a strong N wing and I was about 10 feet above her on the rock ridge. I crouched and crawled toward her and soon saw the hair on her back's hump. Then she picked up her head so I froze. She put her head back down to take another bite and I moved up another couple yards and prepped for a shot. She picked her head up one more time, then when she dropped it I stood/drew and shot her right behind the shoulder at about 10 yards. I couldn't believe it!! She then proceeded to trot out of the muck hole to the east and towards Rob. I kept waiting for her to fall, but she didn't. A whitetail hit there would have dropped within 15 to 20 seconds. She then proceeded to walk north across the clearing and about 35 yards in front of Rob. I was shooting video at this point (see YouTube link) and you can see Rob in the background. Rob was filming at this time also. He of course didn't have his bow and was not even aware I had shot her, but rather assumed I had just spooked her. Guess he didn't have faith in my ninja deer stalking skills!! lol
To try and wrap this part up, I shot her about 10:10 am, We didn't look for her at that time, but rather headed directly back to the cabin to eat lunch and get the butchering equipment. We got back to her around 2 and she was dead about 5 yards where she walked into the bush. It then took about 3 hours to get her skinned, butchered, and back to the boat. I'd say she was a 2-year-old and about 600'ish pound. I thought that was big until we got the bull.
The pic of us drinking the Canadian Molson is when we were heading back to the cabin knowing we had a dead moose somewhere in the bush.
The pic of the rock across the field is where I shot her from. The pic was taken where she entered the bush.
My buddy Rob packed the whole thing out aside from the straps, loins, and trim meat. He really enjoys it, so I let him have at it!!
We did put a trial cam over the carcass. When we came back to get it 5 days later the carcass was completely GONE! No bones, nothing. Assumed a bear, but then saw wolf crap. We were excited about the trail cam, but I had positioned it aimed too high and we just got a few parts of wolves and a bunch of ravens dropping in.
Give me a minute and I'll get the bull story pasted in.
