Winter 2008

November 11-14, 2015 Moose Hunting: (22 Photos)

22. Fall arrived well over a month ago but it doesn't truly feel like it until our annual Moose Hunting trip arrives! Each year the Bassan crew waits until November when the weather is cooler before starting the annual moose hunt in Trepassey. Once again we had the Gun Club's NFP license to fill, which will provide at no cost to the club a years worth of meat for our shooting groups to utilize throughout the year for lunches. It's an either sex party license, Bassan also had an Either Sex license himself for our hunting group.

21. Wednesday was Remembrance Day and a holiday, so Bassan, Troy, Blaine and I planned on driving to Trepassey early that morning. Troy didn't fully compute the instructions, thinking 6am was 6pm so he left town at 9pm Tuesday night headed for Trepassey LoL. Luckily Peter was already at camp with the wood stove going.

20. Andrea and I arrived at the Bassan hunting camp in Trepassey around 9am Wednesday, we unloaded our gear and got ready to head in the woods. We had had Bassan's 1997 Foreman 400 and his fathers 1996 TRX300 4x4 in tow while Project Foreman was in the box of my trusty Silverado, a fine load indeed.

Today brought almost ideal hunting conditions, beautiful clear sky, cool temps and no wind. Andrea, Peter, Troy, Blaine, Eddy and I headed in the old road on the bikes to our first destination.

19. Our first setup near Doctors pond had a Cow come out of the woods, but it was nowhere near either of us shooters. She quickly turned around and vanished like a fart in the wind.

18. Our next setup was up near Blackrock, while all of us were in position it was Andrea who connected a shot successfully filling the first set of tags for our trip. It was a beautiful dry Cow, but as usual it was knocked down in a tangly spot.

17.

16. Having carried out a Moose a couple years ago I told the byes come hell or high water Project Foreman was getting to this Moose. The ground was all dry tuck, which is low brush grown over boulders. I picked my way along, down over a tricky descent, and punched a path through the trees and all the way to the moose, a ride not for the faint of heart.

15. I brought the animal out to the other bikes in two trips. Coming back up the hill of tuck, brushes and crap with the half moose aboard I managed to roll Project Foreman onto its side. Not missing a beat we shoved her back over and carried on. We put the first half on Andrea's bike and ventured back for the 2nd half. The second trip went off without a hitch with some careful manoeuvring and creative riding. All in all way better than manual labour and a task exactly for which I built this bike to to.

14. With the hard work done, we stopped for a quick lunch of sandwiches.

13. The last true work bikes getting work done!

12. We hunted our way out of the country and paused our trip close to Doctors Pond having spied three Moose enter the woods. Eddy and I circled them while the boys waited. Unfortunately they never showed and must have took off in a different direction. Not 20 minutes later we spotted two of the Moose crossing the big bog. At the very end of the legal shooting light, I made a clean ear shot and filled our Charity NFP tags.

11. Even with a late start to the day we managed to fill all of our licenses on the first trip!

10. With four hard working Honda bikes hauling our two Moose we headed directly to Eddy's to hang the quarters.

9. Celebratory Turkey Stew.

8. Thursday morning we went about skinning, quartering and washing down the moose.

6. With the moose hunt over, we took advantage of another beautiful day and wrangled four rabbit dogs into the woods for the afternoon. Low rabbit numbers have been reported all over the island this year, and we certainly felt it on this trip. The dogs started only two rabbits all afternoon, they never came close to any of us.

4. Friday morning Andrea, Troy and I headed down the road to pickup Peter's old Big Red which had been kept at a fella's house and stored outside under a tarp for a number of years. Looks like we may have another project to get working on back in town. While Troy & Blaine headed back to town, Peter, Andrea, Eddy and I headed back in the woods with the rdogs for another afternoon of rabbit hunting. This time we were not skunked and came home with a couple rabbits. One of Eddy's' dogs successfully stalked and nearly came home with a piece of Andrea's leg!

3. On Saturday we were met with miserable wet weather and Sunday's forecast wasn't much better. With our Moose hunt successful Peter, Andrea and I decided to pack up and head for home.

2. For a years now the Bassan crew elects to not use a butcher and instead process and debone the meat ourselves. It's a very relaxing job, and a great way to ensure the highest quality of your harvest.

1. All in all it was another fun, memorable and successful trip which was very much enjoyed by all.

Cheers, MIKE