My firearms moose hunt was for calves only as has been the case in recent years. This year we had several guys applying for adult tags, but when we were unsuccessful in the draw our numbers quickly declined from 8 to 3.
In general, it was a slow hunt. We saw lots of moose track, but seldom did we come across calf tracks, and our efforts to follow-up on those were unsuccessful. We spotted a dozen deer and three wolves, but before Saturday morning the only moose sighted was by me. It was clearly an adult, but I couldn’t tell its sex.
Saturday morning opened with a steady rain, and none of us were keen to get going. We all went back to our bunks, figuring we’d get out if conditions improved.
I had a “call of nature” a little after 7:00 AM, and when I got to the door, I looked out the window and saw a young bull moose standing in the swamp in front of camp. I watched him through the window for a while, and then finally had to step outside. Even then he didn’t leave, just casually looking my way. Finally he move out through a stand of evergreens south of camp. I checked my watch when I saw him, and we were 8 minutes into legal shooting light.
About 11:00 AM we had another young bull do almost exactly the same thing. I’m convinced these were different moose, because the first one seemed taller than the second, and it seemed to have a bit of palmation on the right antler that was missing on the second. The light wasn’t the greatest when I saw the earlier moose.
Both moose left the clearing at the same spot, and my guess is that before I got up, a hot cow moved through the clearing exiting at that spot, and these two young guys were trailing her scent.
It seems the best place to hunt this year was our bunks.
On the second sighting, I grabbed my camera and took a few shots. The first few were taken through the dirty camp windows, while the later ones were through the open door.
