matt_3479
Well-Known Member
My dream ever seen being a little boy was to hunt and kill a moose with my father. For the past 30 years my father and his best friends have gone up to northern Ontario to hunt moose. Before that, his best friends father went up to the same place to hunt moose for the past 50 years. And this year it was my turn. Im 17 years old and my father and i both drew bull tags for area 22 in Northern Ontario. My father called up the old gang and we headed up. There were 8 guys between 2 bull tags, one being my father, one being his best friend, another being his father and his son.
It was a long, cold 10 day hunt that consisted of hunting in clear cuts, hunting the roads, and hunting the river. I sat in a clear cut for the first 7 days of the hunt seeing only 1 cow and a wolf. My father loved to hunt the river and he saw 5 cows and 2 calves. After the first 7 days have gone by with no one seeing any bulls yet everyone around us were bringing home bulls i decided to hunt the river with my dad.
We went out early morning before light, loaded the boats and took off down river. Hunted every swamp, every bay, every lake and every stretch of water we could find. We even landed the boat to walk back into other swamps, lakes and clear cuts. Still no bulls. near the end of the day my dad decided we had better go back to the one lake they had spotted the calves and try to get one of them for meat. We troll up the river to the entering of the lake and i stand up to look around the weeds and i spotted a monster bull. We shut the motor off to glass him. I ranged him at 687 yards with two cows staying close to his side so right away i knew we needed to get closer. As we are slowly getting closer we hit ice which scared the two cows away so i knew he had to get a steady rest and just shoot. we got to some rocks, jumped out of the boat and set up. i lasered the big bull at 544 yards, my father shooting a 270. win with 150 grain and i was shooting a 300. wsm 180 grain bullets. I squeezed the first shot off and heard a wallop which my dad said it looked to be just in front if not close to the vitals and the big bull stumbled. My dad squeezed a shot off and shot high and the bull ran towards the water due to the sound of the bullet hitting the bush. I squeezed two more off and missed both as well as my father. I loaded the clip while my father ran back to the boat to get more shells and fired another. Another stumble and the moose almost fell over i fired my last 2 in the clip and i missed both. My father returned and fired and hit the moose high in the shoulder and the moose just stood there and all of a sudden his back end fell. The moose got back up and walked into the bush. My father has shot a few moose in his life but nothing of this size, and this being my first moose i was just blown away. This moose was estimated 50" is what it looked to be, and that was at 544 yards. The fact i got to spend it with my father was the best thing in the world. My father told everyone that night it was the most amazing experience and he would never forget it because he spend it with me.
This is were we made our mistake. We rushed into the bush thinking with all those shots the moose must have been dead. It took 20 mins before we hit the bush due to trolling speeds. When we got in the bush the moose jumped up from where it lied down and ran like there was no tomorrow. We left the bush and came back the next day due to dark. We brought all 8 guys back one of them being 78 years old. We tracked the moose for 2.2km. The blood was vibrant red which usually indicates oxygenated blood (lung shot), there was foamy tissue (lung shot), and there was meaty tissue (gut shot). the 78 year old man started having chest pains and he needed to lay down so we realized then we had to get out and take him home in case. We lost the moose. I was extremely upset that we lost my first moose, and my fathers biggest moose but i was more upset that even though we hit the moose a few times, even made 2 good shots, we lost it and it went to waste.
Best experience of my life, favorite memory, yet a disappointing ending.
It was a long, cold 10 day hunt that consisted of hunting in clear cuts, hunting the roads, and hunting the river. I sat in a clear cut for the first 7 days of the hunt seeing only 1 cow and a wolf. My father loved to hunt the river and he saw 5 cows and 2 calves. After the first 7 days have gone by with no one seeing any bulls yet everyone around us were bringing home bulls i decided to hunt the river with my dad.
We went out early morning before light, loaded the boats and took off down river. Hunted every swamp, every bay, every lake and every stretch of water we could find. We even landed the boat to walk back into other swamps, lakes and clear cuts. Still no bulls. near the end of the day my dad decided we had better go back to the one lake they had spotted the calves and try to get one of them for meat. We troll up the river to the entering of the lake and i stand up to look around the weeds and i spotted a monster bull. We shut the motor off to glass him. I ranged him at 687 yards with two cows staying close to his side so right away i knew we needed to get closer. As we are slowly getting closer we hit ice which scared the two cows away so i knew he had to get a steady rest and just shoot. we got to some rocks, jumped out of the boat and set up. i lasered the big bull at 544 yards, my father shooting a 270. win with 150 grain and i was shooting a 300. wsm 180 grain bullets. I squeezed the first shot off and heard a wallop which my dad said it looked to be just in front if not close to the vitals and the big bull stumbled. My dad squeezed a shot off and shot high and the bull ran towards the water due to the sound of the bullet hitting the bush. I squeezed two more off and missed both as well as my father. I loaded the clip while my father ran back to the boat to get more shells and fired another. Another stumble and the moose almost fell over i fired my last 2 in the clip and i missed both. My father returned and fired and hit the moose high in the shoulder and the moose just stood there and all of a sudden his back end fell. The moose got back up and walked into the bush. My father has shot a few moose in his life but nothing of this size, and this being my first moose i was just blown away. This moose was estimated 50" is what it looked to be, and that was at 544 yards. The fact i got to spend it with my father was the best thing in the world. My father told everyone that night it was the most amazing experience and he would never forget it because he spend it with me.
This is were we made our mistake. We rushed into the bush thinking with all those shots the moose must have been dead. It took 20 mins before we hit the bush due to trolling speeds. When we got in the bush the moose jumped up from where it lied down and ran like there was no tomorrow. We left the bush and came back the next day due to dark. We brought all 8 guys back one of them being 78 years old. We tracked the moose for 2.2km. The blood was vibrant red which usually indicates oxygenated blood (lung shot), there was foamy tissue (lung shot), and there was meaty tissue (gut shot). the 78 year old man started having chest pains and he needed to lay down so we realized then we had to get out and take him home in case. We lost the moose. I was extremely upset that we lost my first moose, and my fathers biggest moose but i was more upset that even though we hit the moose a few times, even made 2 good shots, we lost it and it went to waste.
Best experience of my life, favorite memory, yet a disappointing ending.
I was 21 years old at that time.
