Last year, my 10 year old son and I went to Alberta for a moose hunt on a 6 day hunt. We had a great time together and made a lot of memories, but we never saw a bull moose. It ended up being pretty sad driving home 2 days with no bull taken or seen.
I knew I had to some day make it back on another moose hunt, but didn't know when it would happen.
At the end of August, I got a call from the owner of Kawdy outfitters in Norther BC. They had a cancellation hunt that I would need to leave on in 2.5 weeks from that date. I thought about it and took the opportunity.
Kawdy operates in far northern BC just below the Yukon border. This is in the Cassiar mountains. The moose are politically Canadian moose, but are a bit of a hybrid with Yukon moose and are therefore quite large on average.
On September 12th, I flew to Whitehorse, Yukon. The next day, I woke up and met 3 other hunters in the hotel lobby (I didn't know them beforehand) to get a taxi ride to the air charter place. I would fly in on a Beaver float plane with 1 other hunter:
The flight in had amazing scenery.
The flight was 1.5 hours. About 1 hour into the flight, I was enjoying the scenery when all of a sudden the engine unexpectedly turned completely off and the plane began to decelerate! My heart dropped to my feet. I was sitting behind the pilot, who took a half second to look at the instrument panel and then began quickly pushing buttons and pumping something. The pilot was working furiously and told us "It will be ok, it'll start". All I could do was watch in panic as he worked. The engine tried to start (imagine trying to start a lawn mower that starts for a second then turns off). It did that twice, then fortunately it started on the third go. There is no such thing as peace and quiet on a Beaver. If it's quiet, it's not peaceful! The pilot explained to us that the plane has 3 gas tanks. When 1 gas tank is out, the pilot has to manually switch to another tank. There is a light that tells him when to do this, but he was charting when the light went on and he missed it. Apparently it's somewhat common on Beavers and is called "blowing a tank". Landing on the water 30 minutes later safely was very welcome!
We had been in basecamp for about 30 minutes when I spotted some caribou on the mountain above camp. I didn't have a caribou tag, but the other hunter did, so they waited a few hours (have to wait 6 hours from flying) and went after them. They found the bull at last light, but was too far.
I spent the evening fishing the lake in front of base camp and caught 1 grayling and 1 small lake trout. I threw both back.
The next morning was officially Day 1 of my hunt. The guide and wrangler got the horses ready and we rode to our spike camp (about a 6 hour horse ride).
We had just enough time that evening to ride up to the glassing ridge. The guide almost instantly spotted a very nice bull that we called "ole long bell". He was in thick timber and we weren't able to do anything about it.
We saw that bull on hunting days 1-5 and every time he just hung out in the thick timber/willows. We tried calling him out multiple days and he never responded. We saw numerous other smaller bulls also.
On the evening of day 4, we were glassing when the guide said "Oh, there's a grizzly bear". I thought to myself, "Oh cool, I'd like to see that". Then he quickly scrambles to his feet and yelling "Oh F#*$...". The wrangler and I interpreted this sequence of motion and words as "we have a grizzly bear on top of us". My rifle was laying on the ground about 10 feet away towards where the guide was looking - but I ran over and grabbed my rifle chambering a round as quick as possible. The wrangler didn't have a rifle and was closer to where the guide was looking - he went running passed me. Pretty quickly, after I got my rifle, the guide explained that the "grizzly bear" was actually a wolf. He had actually said "Oh F$*# it's a wolf!" - but I hadn't heard that part. His excitement was due to his (and all those guide's) love of hunting wolves. We worked down the ridge to try to get on the wolf, but it disappeared and got dark very fast. I never even saw the wolf that night.
Day 5 found us at the same spot glassing for moose. I got up to take pee. As I was standing there, I heard a long whine noise. I thought maybe my stomach was making a noise, but looked at the horses and they had their ears perked up looking out into the valley. It was the wolf! At that point, I thought we'd never find it since the willows are so tall. But we heard the howl again, this time closer in the valley. Then the wrangler spotted the black wolf cruising around in the bottom of the valley in some shorter grass. We again worked down the ridge. The wolf walked up the ridge and sat down looking straight at us. I laid down over my pack and got the wolf in the scope. The guide told me the range was 280. I said "there's no way it's 280, range it again". He ranged it again and got 400 yards. I dialed the scope turret for 400 and then shot. A wolf sitting down looking right at you presents a very small profile - and I missed. I'll tell myself it was due to the wind which I didn't account for. The wolf ran maybe 10 yards and presented a perfect broadside shot. This time I hit it and it went straight down.
As we rode back to camp, a storm blew in. Day 6 was stormy and no moose were seen. Day 7 morning was windy and rainy and miserable. We glassed for an hour and decided to call it quits and pack up spike camp and ride to base camp. Got back to base camp in the late evening with no time to do an evening hunt. At this point I was pretty depressed. Shooting the wolf was great, but I came there for a moose. To that point, I had 0 opportunities at a mature bull and now only had 3 days left.
Day 8 we rode about 2 hours away from base camp and started to glass from a high ridge. After about 30 minutes, the guide spotted a bull half a mile away. We got the spotting scope out and he looked like a nice bull. Definitely one I would not pass up on day 8/10. The bull was coming towards us even. He got into some thick timber at about 1000 yards away. We sat and waited but he bedded down. Then he must have smelled us. He took off pretty quick going straight away. I was heart broken. I thought this was my chance. We watched him walk and walk and walk for maybe 2 miles. He walked through a giant willow/alder valley. I kept willing him to bed down in there so we could put a stalk on him. He kept walking to the other side of the valley where he'd be safe in the thick timber. There was a little island of 6 trees maybe 40 yards from the thick timber. He walked behind those 6 trees and we couldn't see him anymore. Surely if he kept walking we would have seen him. We waited 30 minutes and he never left that little patch of trees. Remember, this is 2 miles away or so. So we packed up and rode to about 600 yards away from that spot. That took about an hour. We walked another 200 yards or so and got setup on a bare patch on a little bluff. The patch of trees was 350 yards away. Making the bull potentially at 360 yards or so laying down.
We glassed and glassed, but we couldn't spot him. It was entirely possible that he got up and left during the hour it took us to get over there. So we didn't even know if he was there still. The guide and I discussed and we decided he should do a cow call and see if he'd get up. He did that and painfully a minute or 2 went by with no sight of the bull. Then I caught a flashing glimmer of white antler moving quickly behind a large willow. The bull was trotting for the thick timber. He slowed down, but was still walking to the timber. There was no way I was going to let him get there. I shot and wasn't sure I'd hit him. But he stopped with his butt hanging out of the thick timber. I shot again. Then he backed up and gave me an even better shot. I shot the third time. He very quickly tipped over at that point. There was so much relief at that point. I was already laying down to shoot, but I rolled over on my back and took a deep breath. My 14th total day of moose hunting and I finally got it done. The bull is a bit smaller than "Ole long bell", but I'm very happy with him. He is old and worn down, meaning he doesn't have a ton of points. I didn't have a tape measurer, but I think he's 52-54 inches wide or so. A pretty great Canadian Moose.
All 3 bullets hit. We found 2 of them on the offside under the hide. The 2 I found performed quite well. These are 180 grain barnes ttsx. My rifle is a Seekins Havak PH2 300 win mag with a 2.5x10 Nightforce NXS.
We worked on him for about 3 hours that day and then rode back to camp. Day 9 was spent going back and getting all the meat and antlers and riding back to base camp.
On Day 0, I had bought a bonus goat tag also. I hadn't had a chance to hunt for those yet. After 9 days of hunting, riding, cutting, packing - I was very tired and I was about 50/50 on maybe just staying at base camp on day 10. But I decided that was entirely stupid and we headed out to go try for a goat. We rode about 2.5 hours to glass a mountain known for having goats on it. Unfortunately, we didn't see any goats.
I felt no disappointment at the lack of goats on the 2.5 ride back to camp. I had finally gotten a bull moose and I basked in the moment of a hard but successful hunt.
The next day we flew out of camp and the engine stayed on the whole time!
I had a great trip. I highly recommend Kawdy. My guide and the other guides I met were all great. Their area is top notch. We saw moose, caribou, grizzly, wolf, and stone sheep. I didn't see goats, but at least 2 other hunters shot goats during my hunt. If I had another day or 2 to focus on goats, I'm sure we could have gotten it done.
I knew I had to some day make it back on another moose hunt, but didn't know when it would happen.
At the end of August, I got a call from the owner of Kawdy outfitters in Norther BC. They had a cancellation hunt that I would need to leave on in 2.5 weeks from that date. I thought about it and took the opportunity.
Kawdy operates in far northern BC just below the Yukon border. This is in the Cassiar mountains. The moose are politically Canadian moose, but are a bit of a hybrid with Yukon moose and are therefore quite large on average.
On September 12th, I flew to Whitehorse, Yukon. The next day, I woke up and met 3 other hunters in the hotel lobby (I didn't know them beforehand) to get a taxi ride to the air charter place. I would fly in on a Beaver float plane with 1 other hunter:
The flight in had amazing scenery.
The flight was 1.5 hours. About 1 hour into the flight, I was enjoying the scenery when all of a sudden the engine unexpectedly turned completely off and the plane began to decelerate! My heart dropped to my feet. I was sitting behind the pilot, who took a half second to look at the instrument panel and then began quickly pushing buttons and pumping something. The pilot was working furiously and told us "It will be ok, it'll start". All I could do was watch in panic as he worked. The engine tried to start (imagine trying to start a lawn mower that starts for a second then turns off). It did that twice, then fortunately it started on the third go. There is no such thing as peace and quiet on a Beaver. If it's quiet, it's not peaceful! The pilot explained to us that the plane has 3 gas tanks. When 1 gas tank is out, the pilot has to manually switch to another tank. There is a light that tells him when to do this, but he was charting when the light went on and he missed it. Apparently it's somewhat common on Beavers and is called "blowing a tank". Landing on the water 30 minutes later safely was very welcome!
We had been in basecamp for about 30 minutes when I spotted some caribou on the mountain above camp. I didn't have a caribou tag, but the other hunter did, so they waited a few hours (have to wait 6 hours from flying) and went after them. They found the bull at last light, but was too far.
I spent the evening fishing the lake in front of base camp and caught 1 grayling and 1 small lake trout. I threw both back.
The next morning was officially Day 1 of my hunt. The guide and wrangler got the horses ready and we rode to our spike camp (about a 6 hour horse ride).
We had just enough time that evening to ride up to the glassing ridge. The guide almost instantly spotted a very nice bull that we called "ole long bell". He was in thick timber and we weren't able to do anything about it.
We saw that bull on hunting days 1-5 and every time he just hung out in the thick timber/willows. We tried calling him out multiple days and he never responded. We saw numerous other smaller bulls also.
On the evening of day 4, we were glassing when the guide said "Oh, there's a grizzly bear". I thought to myself, "Oh cool, I'd like to see that". Then he quickly scrambles to his feet and yelling "Oh F#*$...". The wrangler and I interpreted this sequence of motion and words as "we have a grizzly bear on top of us". My rifle was laying on the ground about 10 feet away towards where the guide was looking - but I ran over and grabbed my rifle chambering a round as quick as possible. The wrangler didn't have a rifle and was closer to where the guide was looking - he went running passed me. Pretty quickly, after I got my rifle, the guide explained that the "grizzly bear" was actually a wolf. He had actually said "Oh F$*# it's a wolf!" - but I hadn't heard that part. His excitement was due to his (and all those guide's) love of hunting wolves. We worked down the ridge to try to get on the wolf, but it disappeared and got dark very fast. I never even saw the wolf that night.
Day 5 found us at the same spot glassing for moose. I got up to take pee. As I was standing there, I heard a long whine noise. I thought maybe my stomach was making a noise, but looked at the horses and they had their ears perked up looking out into the valley. It was the wolf! At that point, I thought we'd never find it since the willows are so tall. But we heard the howl again, this time closer in the valley. Then the wrangler spotted the black wolf cruising around in the bottom of the valley in some shorter grass. We again worked down the ridge. The wolf walked up the ridge and sat down looking straight at us. I laid down over my pack and got the wolf in the scope. The guide told me the range was 280. I said "there's no way it's 280, range it again". He ranged it again and got 400 yards. I dialed the scope turret for 400 and then shot. A wolf sitting down looking right at you presents a very small profile - and I missed. I'll tell myself it was due to the wind which I didn't account for. The wolf ran maybe 10 yards and presented a perfect broadside shot. This time I hit it and it went straight down.
Day 8 we rode about 2 hours away from base camp and started to glass from a high ridge. After about 30 minutes, the guide spotted a bull half a mile away. We got the spotting scope out and he looked like a nice bull. Definitely one I would not pass up on day 8/10. The bull was coming towards us even. He got into some thick timber at about 1000 yards away. We sat and waited but he bedded down. Then he must have smelled us. He took off pretty quick going straight away. I was heart broken. I thought this was my chance. We watched him walk and walk and walk for maybe 2 miles. He walked through a giant willow/alder valley. I kept willing him to bed down in there so we could put a stalk on him. He kept walking to the other side of the valley where he'd be safe in the thick timber. There was a little island of 6 trees maybe 40 yards from the thick timber. He walked behind those 6 trees and we couldn't see him anymore. Surely if he kept walking we would have seen him. We waited 30 minutes and he never left that little patch of trees. Remember, this is 2 miles away or so. So we packed up and rode to about 600 yards away from that spot. That took about an hour. We walked another 200 yards or so and got setup on a bare patch on a little bluff. The patch of trees was 350 yards away. Making the bull potentially at 360 yards or so laying down.
We glassed and glassed, but we couldn't spot him. It was entirely possible that he got up and left during the hour it took us to get over there. So we didn't even know if he was there still. The guide and I discussed and we decided he should do a cow call and see if he'd get up. He did that and painfully a minute or 2 went by with no sight of the bull. Then I caught a flashing glimmer of white antler moving quickly behind a large willow. The bull was trotting for the thick timber. He slowed down, but was still walking to the timber. There was no way I was going to let him get there. I shot and wasn't sure I'd hit him. But he stopped with his butt hanging out of the thick timber. I shot again. Then he backed up and gave me an even better shot. I shot the third time. He very quickly tipped over at that point. There was so much relief at that point. I was already laying down to shoot, but I rolled over on my back and took a deep breath. My 14th total day of moose hunting and I finally got it done. The bull is a bit smaller than "Ole long bell", but I'm very happy with him. He is old and worn down, meaning he doesn't have a ton of points. I didn't have a tape measurer, but I think he's 52-54 inches wide or so. A pretty great Canadian Moose.
All 3 bullets hit. We found 2 of them on the offside under the hide. The 2 I found performed quite well. These are 180 grain barnes ttsx. My rifle is a Seekins Havak PH2 300 win mag with a 2.5x10 Nightforce NXS.
We worked on him for about 3 hours that day and then rode back to camp. Day 9 was spent going back and getting all the meat and antlers and riding back to base camp.
On Day 0, I had bought a bonus goat tag also. I hadn't had a chance to hunt for those yet. After 9 days of hunting, riding, cutting, packing - I was very tired and I was about 50/50 on maybe just staying at base camp on day 10. But I decided that was entirely stupid and we headed out to go try for a goat. We rode about 2.5 hours to glass a mountain known for having goats on it. Unfortunately, we didn't see any goats.
I felt no disappointment at the lack of goats on the 2.5 ride back to camp. I had finally gotten a bull moose and I basked in the moment of a hard but successful hunt.
The next day we flew out of camp and the engine stayed on the whole time!
I had a great trip. I highly recommend Kawdy. My guide and the other guides I met were all great. Their area is top notch. We saw moose, caribou, grizzly, wolf, and stone sheep. I didn't see goats, but at least 2 other hunters shot goats during my hunt. If I had another day or 2 to focus on goats, I'm sure we could have gotten it done.
