November 21-24, 2013 Moose Hunting 2.0: (28 Photos)

 

28.   Having been unsuccessful in my Moose Hunting attempts so far this year, Andrea Bassan (from the Rod and Gun Club) invited me to join him, his father Peter, Troy Coldwell, and his father Blaine on their annual moose hunting trip in Trepassey. I graciously took them up on their offer and loaded Project Foreman aboard my Pickup for the drive down the Southern Shore to the Bassan Hunting Lodge in Trepassey.

Over the last couple years, I have been helping Andrea with his own ATV project , a 1997 Foreman 400 and I was looking forward to see how our hard work panned out. There were new tires, new disc brakes and a new winch to try out! Troy had his 1988 TRX300 4x4, Peter his 1996 TRX300 4x4, and Blaine had a lend of a 2008 TRX420, so it was definitely a Honda Power weekend! We had three moose licenses to fill, mine, Troy's and the Gun Club not for profit group License, luckily they were all either sex.

 

27.   We arrived in Trepassey Thursday morning and wasted no time in getting the vehicles unloaded and the bikes ready for our first day hunting. By lunch time we were on the trails, with backwoods expert Eddy leading the way. It was about a 40 minute ride to our first hunting area near Doctor's Pond where the three license holders set up strategically while Peter and Eddy walked the woods. In less then 10 munities I heard 3 rifle shots, and over the radio it was confirmed that Troy and his 30-06 Browning BAR had the first Moose of the trip knocked down. Troy, Blaine, Peter, Eddy and I headed over to the kill site and dressed the nice size cow. Meanwhile Andrea was on the next bog spotting two more Moose and noted where they entered the woods.

 

26.   With the first moose cleaned and halved, Andrea and I set up in strategic locations to hopefully knock down another animal. With Peter and Eddy walking the woods, I only had a short wait when my moose presented herself.

 

25.   The moose came out of the woods crossing a 15' wide ATV trail less than 60 yards from where I was standing. I reacted quickly and raised my Tika 300 winmag and made a successful shot sending tufts of fur everywhere!

 

24.   Waiting a few minutes in case the animal wasn't fully expired, we followed the blood trail and found the animal expired no more then a dozen yards into the woods! One shot, one kill! I was super stoked and we had the second animal cleaned and halved in short order.

 

23.   We strapped both halves of my animal to my Foreman, then went out to Troy's moose and loaded half aboard his TRX 300, and the other half on Andrea's Foreman.

 

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21.   The guys both had fantastic boxes made that easily held half a moose and incorporated a mount for a gun boot. I'll be having one for next year, there's no fooling around with straps or rope and it keep the animal clean for the ride out.

 

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18.   That evening was quite busy hanging the two moose in Eddy's shed where we skinned, quartered, and washed down the meat all while enjoying a few bubbly beverages!

 

17.   Friday morning was another early rise as we had breakfast and headed into the country in search of our final moose. It was cold and wet this day with snow on the ground on the higher country, I was very very appreciative of my newly installed Heated Grips and Thumb Warmer on project Foreman! We travelled a trail well back into the country stopping and hunting various drokes of woods throughout the day.

 

16.   They guys caught a fleeting glimpse of two bull moose just before lunch while walking a trail through dense woods. There was no chance of a successful shot and the moose were heading deeper into the country. We stopped an had a boil up near one of Eddy's old hunting camps and continued on our way. That afternoon Andrea got to try out his new winch when both he and Troy sunk their bikes in a rather large bog. We had the bikes out in no time and were hot on the moose hunt once again. The trail we were following ended up on the same bog we shot both moose yesterday. We hunted the area again, this time unsuccessfully before heading back to the house for supper.

 

15.   Saturday morning the decision was made to head out to Cape Mutton.

 

14.   Its a rough trail to get there, but the chances of getting a moose were supposedly pretty good. The trail began near the cemetery and we headed in on bikes crossing a river and some tangly bogs!

 

13.   It was a great run on bikes and we got everyone through the rough places with little trouble.

 

12.   We hunted a bunch of areas all along the way and were quite a ways out on the headland by lunchtime.

 

11.   That afternoon Andrea, who was standing in a cutover, made an amazing 400 yard shot (which could be 600 yards by now if you ask him) with his Browning .308 knocking down our third and final moose. Unfortunately the un-amazing part was that this cow fell in a bit of a tangly area (Eddy made this very clear! LOL), and we couldn't get the bikes right to it.

 

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9.   We all trekked in and got the moose cleaned and quartered for the lug out.

 

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7.   With some cursing and swearing (mostly by yours truly) we managed to get the animal carried out to the bikes following tangly old Moose Path to the closest bog.

 

6.   That evening we hung, skinned and cleaned the moose in Eddy's shed and found exactly where Andrea hit the moose with his long shot. Suffice it to say, one rear quarter was turned mostly to soup meat, but he did a good job.

 

5.   With our licenses filled, Sunday was spent cleaning the house, rinsing the worst of the bog off the bikes and loading the vehicles for our drive back to town.

 

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3.   We put all 12 quarters in the back of my truck loaded Project Foreman on my trailer and hit the southern shore highway to Troy's house in St. Phillip's where we would hang the meat before processing.

 

2.   The following weekend, Troy, Blaine, Andrea and I got to work deboning and cutting up the roasts on all the quarters of meat. This was my first time processing meat myself and I really enjoyed it.

 

1.   I learned a lot and under Troy's direction learned how to properly separate the individual muscle groups for roasts, and then debone the rest of the meat. Its a very clean efficient way to process meat, we bagged everything in Medium and Large zip lock bags identifying the contents with permanent marker. We use three categories, Roasts, Soup - which is choice but smaller pieces of meat, and Ground which is everything else and will be used mostly for sausages. 

All in all it was a very successful and enjoyable trip. I learned a lot of new hunting tricks and meat processing techniques and a great time was had by all. I look foreword to future trips with the Rod and Gun Club Crew!!!

 

Cheers, MIKE

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