38.   With October nearly gone we were now into our 4th weekend Moose Hunting on the Southern Shore vying to fill Matthew's either sex tags. We've had great success previously in our new favourite hunting area, and spotted lots of animals but to date have been unsuccessful in filling his tags.

37.   This weekend we stepped up our game as Mark and I were offered the chance to fill a not for profit/charity license for area 36-Southern Shore. These licenses are issued to registered not for profit organizations across the island so they can harvest an animal to process and use for meals within the charitable organization. They are Either Sex, Party licenses assigned to different areas across the island. This meant that Mark and I could both carry big game rifles following the party license rules set out in the 2018 NL Provincial Hunting Guide.

36.   Early Saturday morning Mark, Matthew, Michael Stroh and I headed down the Southern Shore. We began our hunt at daybreak watching the sun come up beautifully over the horizon. Matthew and Stroh went left on the pole line to the area George harvested his animal opening day. Mark and I planned to go to the top of the big hill but found another hunter already there so we headed further down the pole line to a totally different area under the hill.

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34.   Unfortunately we didn't see any animals that morning. I walked and explored a lot of new ground circling the head of the pond and back out to the pole line without seeing any fresh sign. Later that morning the guy came down off the hill so Mark and I headed up there for a look.

33.   By that time, Matthew and Stroh had walked back and met us for coffee poured from Mark's new Yeti Thermos. Mark stayed on as lookout, Matthew set up on a nearby long skinny bog, while Stroh and I walked an hour loop up the large clearing where I shot my moose last year, circling counter clockwise back an ATV trail through a bunch of cut-over's to the bog Matthew was set up on. This would drive anything in the woods out towards Matthew. Stroh and I did find very fresh tracks near the top of the big clearing meaning that a cow had crossed earlier that morning.

32.   Not seeing anything we all headed back towards Mark and the Argo at the top of the hill to prepare lunch. Matthew and I set about starting a fire while Mark & Stroh ran back to the truck to grab our lunch supplies.

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30.   Today I simply boiled the kettle for Tea & Coffee, Mark & Matthew were on lunch duty this trip.

29.   On the menu today were fresh codfish puddings & some blood puddings sliced and fried on a cast iron skillet. This was paired with a pan of moose sausages topped with 2 cans of baked beans.

28.   Matthew's Browning BAR Safari 7mm on the bottom, and my Browning BAR 30.06 on top, both paired with beautiful Leupold scopes.

27.   We were all starved and couldn't wait for everything to be cooked before devouring all of the puddings. They were amazing!

26.   Mark recently purchased a new Primus Classic Trail ISO gas stove, which is similar to my MSR superfly. Both are compact and work quite well! Like the MSR, the Primus has a wide burner and works well to simmer while cooking and can pump out 10,000 BTUs for rapid boil.

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24.   We were just about to dig into the beans & sausages when Mark spotted an animal crossing the large bog off in the distance headed left to right!

23.   The large bog right at the top of this pic is approximately 1100 yards away so a shot was impossible & highly unethical (unless you're a local young fella wearing sneakers and shooting a Lee-Enfield 303 with open sights!). We made a few calls with the caller but it had no effect this late in the year. We watched carefully and soon spotted the animal crossing over the pole line.

22.   We figured the animal was headed towards the head of the pond (the new area I explored that morning) so Stroh and I made a rapid descent of the hill and headed in an old ATV path to cut her off. If we could see her we would make the harvest, if not we would drive the animal back to the pole line where Matthew was now stationed. Mark stayed on top of the hill to oversee the entire operation.

21.   After waiting quite awhile and hearing some cracking in the woods, Stroh and I completed the loop of the ATV path ending up on the pole line near where the cow crossed earlier. On our way back the path we startled the animal back out on the pole line less than 100 yards from Matthew and he made a clean shot and quick efficient harvest!

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19.   Although our 2pm lunch was rudely interrupted we were happy to have Matthew's tags filled, even though we later learned Mark threw out the beans and sausages! Tip don't leave Mark in charge of an interrupted lunch!

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16.   We now have cleaning animals down pat using the Argo as a tie down point so nobody has to hold legs etc.

15.   In less than 15 minutes we had the animal dressed, halved and ready to load aboard the machine.

14.   This new Outdoor Edge knife I picked up last Christmas is absolutely fantastic. It uses a replaceable Exacto style blades that are razor sharp and lasts an incredibly long time. I gutted this animal in the woods and skinned half the animal at home before the blade stated to dull. The blades are easily changeable at any time, the knife came with 5 spares and replacements can be purchased at any local hunting shop. This knife also features the same swing out gutting blade as my other Outdoor Edge knife which works fantastic. Look for a product review on the Product Reviews Page!

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12.   With the animal loaded in the Argo, Matthew, Stroh and I walked out to the next bog to grabbing a few photos along the way before jumping aboard for the ride back to the truck.

11.   Mark's Argo hauled the moose, four of us, three rifles, 3 knapsacks & cooking gear back to the truck with ease in one trip!

10.   Back in town we hung the animal in Harry's garage and quickly set about skinning it.

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7.   Arch dropped down to lend a hand and lots of fellas stopped by throughout the evening to check out  the harvest and hear the story of an awesome hunt.

6.   On Monday evening we headed back to Harry's to process the animal. The boys dropped off 2 rear quarters to be butchered while we would take care of the 2 fronts which would be turned into ground.

5.   Matthew, Arch, Mark and I set about cutting up the two front quarters by separating the legs, separating out the individual muscle groups, and then trimming out all the tough connecting tissues. The boys make use of ground meat most often so we chose to grind all of the front quarters while roasts would be cut by the butcher from the rear's.

4.   Mark brought his Kitchen Aid stand mixer with meat grinding attachment and it worked great grinding the meat in no time. We used a medium disc and medium speed and had no trouble grinding all of the meat in short order.

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2.  Using a kitchen scale we bagged the meat in 2lb medium freezer bags which will make for great meal size portions. If you need more you grab a second bag.

1.  At the end of the night we netted 52lbs of fresh ground moose leaving only the well scraped bones behind. This year we are going to try our hands at making moose sausages, rounds and maybe a few hamburgers bagged up as prepared meals. All in all it was an excellent and successful hunt. Stay tuned as Bassan is hunting in Trepassey while Mark and I still have that charity licence to fill as well!

Cheers, MIKE

Copyright © 2011 Michael Smith