CANADA: Northern British Columbia Moose Hunt With Horseshoe Creek Outfitters October 2021

[375 Ruger Fan]

I am sitting at home tonight, instead of flying to Vancouver, British Columbia. American Airlines cancelled my flight today, I am guessing due to the severe weather in the Dallas area. So along with my two hunting buddies who are going on this hunt, we spent several hours today rebooking flights and hotels. A few text messages back and forth with the outfitter and we'll try it all over on Thursday. We have to get another COVID PCR test and then redo the ArriveCan app and also the VeriFly app that American Airline uses.

A couple of years ago, I went to the Houston Safari Club expo and that is where I met Ray Jackson, with Horseshoe Creek Outfitters (https://www.horseshoecreekoutfitters.com/ ). After discussing with Ray about his hunts, I checked out several references and had a few more questions for Ray. During one of the phone calls, we figured out that one of Ray's long term, repeat clients was a guy I worked with a few years ago. I checked with that guy and he gave Ray and his operation a glowing report. So together with a good friend of mine, a guy I have done several elk hunts with, we booked a moose hunt with Ray for Oct 2021.

With all the COVID related issues, I wasn't sure this hunt was going to happen this year. When we got about a month away from the hunt, Ray told me he had several cancellations, as many US hunters weren't willing to get the vaccine, which is required to enter Canada. I got the J&J shot and my buddy got the Moderna shot, so we are good to go. With all the cancellations, I asked Ray if I could see if another one or two hunters might be interested in coming, as long as we could keep the 1x1 guide-hunter ratio. Sure enough, another friend of mine jumped on the opportunity. The real attraction to this hunt is we'll have moose, elk, black bear, deer and wolf tags. I had originally booked this as a 10 day hunt, but one of my daughters decided to get married the end of October and it would be cutting it a little close for me getting back. Regrettably, I cut it back to a 6 day hunt.

Two of us are flying out of Shreveport, LA and the other out of New Orleans. We will meet in Dallas and then fly to Vancouver, BC on American Airlines on Thursday night. The flight options are terrible, so we are overnighting at the Vancouver airport and then continue onto Fort St John the next morning, Friday, on WestJet. The lodge is a little over an hour west of FSJ, near Hudson's Hope. The weather forecast looks like 45F for the highs and 30s for the lows. A few days of rain/snow in the forecast too. Good hunting weather!

Full report when I return.

 

[Shootist43]

375 Ruger Fan, this sounds like it has the makings of a good hunt. What kind of "iron" will you guys be "totin?"

 

[Firebird]

Good luck sir! Looking forward to a successful report when you return-

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

375 Ruger Fan, this sounds like it has the makings of a good hunt. What kind of "iron" will you guys be "totin?"

338 WM and using 225 gr Swift A-Frames.

All 3 of us just got another COVID PCR test and redoing the ArriveCan forms. Major PIA

 

[MarkB]

Good luck on your hunt. I know that area very well, taken a few moose, elk and 2 wolf myself there. Being a resident its much easier. A 6 day hunt would worry me, being with an outfitter he should know where the bulls are. Good luck. Waiting for a report.

MB

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

I've been back a few days now and need to get on with this report. Details for my daughter's wedding this Saturday have been taking precedence. So oh with the report.

Quick summary:

Everything about the travel (airline flights, COVID tests, hotels, etc) was terrible.

Everything about the hunt (outfitter, guides, game seen, hunting area, accommodations, food, etc) was outstanding.

Oct 14
We (Jimmy, Kim and I) flew to Vancouver and overnighted. American flight left late out of DFW and we got to our hotel, the Fairmont which is located in the airport terminal, around midnight.

Oct 15
We did our WestJet check in online for our 10 am flight to Fort St John and went to breakfast. The hotel restaurant required seeing our COVID vaccination card. After breakfast, we got an update from WestJet that our flight was rescheduled to depart 3 hours late, now 1pm. I sent a quick text message to Ray Jackson, notifying him about the delay. Ray texted me back that the Outfitter/owner, Frank Miles, would pick us up and the delay wasn't a big deal. We walked to the WestJet check in counter and once we got to an agent, we were told our flight was moved to Air Canada. So we had to go get in another line. When did Canada go Africa???????????

We finally arrived at FSJ and was met by Frank. Getting our bags and rifles quickly, we loaded up into Frank's truck, made a few stops in town and then headed west towards Hudson's Hope. After about an hours drive, we pulled into the new hunting lodge and cabins. Wow! Extremely nice place. All three of our guides, Ray, Connor and Luke were there to meet us and helped to carry our gear to the cabins. Frank's daughter and granddaughter, Holly and Dillion, also came out to greet us.

We all went a few miles down the road to shoot our rifles and then came back to the lodge for a fine welcome dinner. Frank was the grill master and did a great job with the steaks. The plan was for Jimmy and his guide, Connor, to drive to the remote cabin after dinner. It was about an hour away. Ray and I were going to drive in the morning about halfway to the cabin and Kim and his guide, Luke, would hunt closer to the lodge.

Oct 16 Hunting Day 1

It's snowing and cold. Ray and I drove to an old, grown over gas well location. The area we are hunting is rolling foothills with lots of logging and oil & gas well roads crisscrossing in all directions. Ray mentioned that for some reason, game seemed to like this one, old well location. Ray thought maybe some salt had been dumped on the location during the original drilling operations. Anyways, we sat in the truck, which was parked on an elevated road, and could view the grown over area a few hundred yards in each direction. Within about half an hour, a Lynx came walking across the area and was very cool to watch. About an hour later, a cow and calf moose came slowly across the location and sure enough, stopped and licked the ground in a couple spots. So far, I was impressed with the area. The rest of the day it continued to snow, but wasn't really sticking to the ground. Late afternoon, we moved on, back towards the lodge. We spotted another cow/calf moose combo.

 

[gillettehunter]

Good start. Eagerly awaiting more.
Bruce

 

[Spooksar]

Your only 1-1/2 hours from where I live, beautiful area

 

[Bullthrower338]

I’m here!

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Oct 17 Hunting Day 2

After breakfast in the lodge, we loaded up a small cooler with sandwiches, drinks and snacks. Ray and I travelled by a Can-Am side by side, still before daylight, across the hay fields behind the lodge. We drove maybe half a mile and then got out and started walking and glassing as it slowly started to lighter. You could see both whitetail and mule deer all over. The mule deer aren't in season yet and Horseshoe Creek isn't hunting the whitetails in this area for a few years, to allow some big bucks to develop. We also saw some elk and they were a tempting target (take what Canada gives you, eh). However, moose was the primary target so we pressed on.

Ray walked back and got the side by side and we ventured further west from the lodge via logging roads. We intersected a straight as an arrow trail that went forever. Ray explained that it was an old seismic line that was cleared with a D8 Caterpillar and ran all the way to the Alberta border. It was a bit grown over and narrower, but made for an excellent trapline. We walked it for about 4 hours out, stopping every couple hundred yards or so and Ray would let out a cow call. No bull replied. The walking was fairly easy, on grade or very gentle slopes. There was only one steep area. Around 11am, we turned around and re-traced our steps at a brisker pace and got back to the side by side at 1 pm and ate our lunch.

While eating lunch, we received a text that Jimmy, hunting with his guide, Connor, got a moose. Jimmy later shared the story about how they were sitting on the upper ridge of a logging clear cut area and spotted the moose at about 1000 yards away. They closed the distance on foot, but could only get to 450 yards from the moose before running out of cover. They found a knocked over tree and used it for a shooting rest. Jimmy was able to use the trunk/root ball for an elbow rest and he said it was solid as shooting for a bench. One shot from his 7mm mag dropped the moose. One more Nosler AB kept it down. I guess it isn't luck when two bullet holes were found in the moose.

 

[Mike Van Horn]

Great start to the hunt. Spotting the Lynx had to be cool, we’re you able to get any pictures

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Great start to the hunt. Spotting the Lynx had to be cool, we’re you able to get any pictures

I didn't get a good photo of the Lynx on Day 1, but later in the hunter we had another encounter with a Lynx and I got a few photos of that one.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Right before we flew up to BC, Ray Jackson ask me if I could bring some Copenhagen snuff with me. It's $46/can Canadian (about $37 US) in BC, obviously taxing the crap out of it. It's $6 a can in the US. I wish I could have figured out how to pay for the entire hunt in Copenhagen, but Canadian customs limits a person to about 5 cans for duty free import.

Copenhagen, the BC Bitcoin alternative!

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Oct 18 Hunting Day 3

Since Jimmy had punched his moose tag, he rotated back down to the main lodge. He would hunt elk and black bear from there with his guide being Luke.

Kim and I headed up to the remote cabin, along with Ray. Kim would hunt with Connor. Frank was also up at the cabin, handling all the cooking and then scouting during the day. Frank cooked up wonderful meals and prepared all the sack lunches for in the field.

Frank and Ray: Let's make a plan

The remote hunting cabin. Ray told me this is where he set up his tent camp in years past, but when Frank bought the operation he upgraded it to an insulated cabin. Very comfortable!

Connor on the left and Kim at the sink. Kim and I have done several hunts together and I always tell the outfitter to put Kim's photo on their website and say that Kenny Rodgers hunted here. That's Frank in the background, cooking bacon eggs and hash browns for breakfast.

Being from Louisiana, I thought the gumbo pot looked a little small. Turns out that was the hot water pot, which sat on the wood stove all the time. The smaller pot, hanging on the wall, was used to dip out water as needed. The BC version of "on demand hot water."

Even though we were "roughing it" in the cabin, each evening we had a snack tray and a few beers, prior to dinner. All of us were worried about gaining weight on this hunt.

During our hunt on Day 3, we had some action. Kim and Connor found an old moose, but they thought they should have been here about a year earlier

Then we received a text from Jimmy, hunting with Luke. Luke had bugled in a 5x5 elk to 37 yards and Jimmy dropped it.

 

[Red Leg]

Could learn to hate Jimmy.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Could learn to hate Jimmy.

The ironic thing is, Jimmy was the last minute addition to our group. When we arrived at the lodge and were told the plan was for Jimmy to go up to the remote cabin first, he was a little hesitant because they said that's where the horses are. "You can ride a horse, right" was the statement from the head guide. (We had all filled out a questionnaire, prior to the hunt). I sensed Jimmy's reluctance and actually offered to go to the cabin the first night, but to his credit he manned up.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Oct 19 & 20 Hunting Days 4&5

Saw more cows & calf moose, Lynx and caribou, but no bull moose. The sky was crystal clear at night and we had a full moon, which did not help.

 

[Randy F]

Loving this. Keep it coming.

 

[375 Ruger Fan]

Not a great photo of the Lynx, taken through the windshield of a truck:

 

[BRICKBURN]

You got snow now, which should help.