My MN Moose Hunt Story

[ducksnbucks]

First off, thanks to those who helped me prep for the hunt and for any and all advice. Sorry for the delayed post but things have been a bit busy over the past week. Overview: I shot a 53" bull opening morning at 7:45am, here is the story (sorry for the length).

Scouting Trip: We drove up to the BWCA on Thursday Sept. 13th and spent the night at a resort and got up bright and early Friday morning and paddled in. After hours of scouting via google and bing maps as well as hard maps we located an area 6 lakes, 5 portages and about 6.5 miles into the BWCA that looked “Moosey”. It took us about 3.5 hours to get there, another hour to set up camp and it was off to scout. We scouted some swampy areas attached to the lake and a few portages that lead to other lakes. We found tracks from what looked to be 4-5 different moose, with one swamp/woods having lots of fresh tracks and droppings. On Saturday we scouted a connecting lake where a friend of mine had shot a 51” bull 7 years ago, the areas on this lake looked great but showed only little sign. We proceeded to check other small areas with limited success in finding anymore sign of moose. However, while trying our luck at fishing later that evening (no luck) a cow called from the opposite shore which was encouraging to hear, knowing that if cows were near, there should be bulls come the rut. We packed up Sunday morning and paddled out, not seeing a moose all weekend.

Hunting Trip: Myself and two friends were on the tag and we had each taken off two full weeks to allow us to hunt the entire season if necessary. After much planning, packing 2 weeks’ worth of food, and gathering of gear we headed up Thursday Sept. 27th and spent the night at the lodge. We proceeded to go to the neighboring bar and have “one last” full meal and some beverages before going in for 16 days and eating tortillas, granola, Cliff bars, and spaghetti. On Friday we awoke to calm conditions and 40 degrees, perfect for our trip in. After a 3.5 hour paddle/portage we began setting up camp. The rest of the day included cutting firewood for the next 2 weeks, hanging clothes lines, tarp for rain shelter, and making everything comfortable around camp. We grilled T-Bones as our one good meat meal, had a few cocktails and went to bed early.

The alarm went off at 5am Saturday and we woke to clear skies, no wind, and roughly 35 degrees….perfect. My two hunting partners decided they wanted to sit on a tiny island overlooking the west ½ of the lake and a marsh on that end of the lake and I decided to go sit overlooking the swamp that had all the sign during scouting. They dropped me off and I was in place 20 minutes before shooting time. At 6:35 (shooting time) I gave out a few bull moose grunt calls and got something moving about 300 yards to my west that proceeded to break big trees and walk around for nearly 45 minutes but I never saw it and it never called back. About 6:45 I gave out my first cow call…..holy dump a bull answered with 5 grunts off to my east….then another bull further behind him……and another bull to my north!! I stood in disbelief to what I was hearing. The closest bull to my east immediately started coming my way and sounded like a truck coming through the woods. He would stop every 1-2 minutes and rake trees with his antlers for a few minutes and then just stand there. After 2-3 minutes of him just standing there I would give another cow call and immediately him and the two others would grunt back and he would come closer again. This went on for nearly an hour until he was within 75 yards of me but I still couldn’t see him through the thick trees. Then at 50 yards I saw antlers and watched him walk through the one shooting lane I had. I passed as I didn’t get a good look at the antlers and we said we were not going to shoot a small bull the first day. He proceeded to walk and stand 60 yards behind me and rub trees for the next 5 minutes. While he was doing this a cow called to my north and the bull with her grunted again. In addition the furthest east bull was now getting much closer as I could hear him breaking trees and grunting too.

Back to this bull, instead of calling since he was so close I decided to sound like a moose walking around so I began to break branches and shake a small birch tree next to me. This got him fired up and he came back down the same trail grunting like crazy, but this time turned and walked towards me at the 50 yard mark. At this point I can see he is big enough, however my only shot was between the eyes which I wasn’t going to do. So I waited…and waited…..and waited until finally at 15 yards he turned broadside! The 30.06 did its job and he fell 10 yards from me, time 7:45am! What a rush it was as if he got any closer I didn’t know what I was going to do.

After my meeting my buddies back out by the lake and telling the story they told me a bull down by them started grunting and coming my way through the woods too which I never heard, making that 4 bulls and a cow in less than 1 hour! So, after lots of pictures and celebrating, the real work began. Cleaning him took 2 hours, paddling/portaging him out took 4.5 hours, and putting the meat in coolers and getting ice took another hour. We were shot at the end of day so we went back to the bar, had a few celebration drinks and slept at the lodge. Sunday morning we got up, paddled back in and took down camp and then paddled back out.

After leaving Sartell on what could have been a 16 day moose hunt, we were back at home at 9:30pm Sunday after being gone for only 2.5 days. We spent the next 2 days making all of our own brats, sausage, burger, roasts and steaks and brought the head to the taxidermist for a shoulder mount! What an awesome experience and two tips for anyone going in the future: put in some time to scout and practice calling. Thanks again to those of you who offered advice from past hunts and gear lists and thanks to those who read the story! D&B

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[jerkbait]

WOW! What a dandy! Congrats D&B and gang!! Thanks for sharing your story.

[Surface Tension]

Very nice bull, congrats.

Thanks for the pictures and post too.

[leech~~]

Sweet! To bad you had to blow your two weeks of Hunting you had setup like that!

[NoWiser]

Awesome bull, Congrats!!

I was wondering about you and your group as we drove by the resort you stayed at on Friday. Looks like the scouting and prep work paid off big! 53" is an awesome bull for Minnesota! Let me know when you get that mount back, and if it's alright I'd love to stop by, meet you, and see that beast next time I'm in the area!

My dad had a memorable hunt as well. When I get all the pictures organized and get caught up with work, I'll post the story...

Congrats again!

[Living_The_Dream]

Great story, congrats on the moose. What zone were you hunting in?

[BoxMN]

Congrats to you and your buddies!

[hoppe56307]

Very Cool.

[Sorgy]

Great hunt - Great story and very nice bull.

Steve

[Bear55]

Awsome Bull - Congrats!

[leech~~]

Question? Can your two buddies still put in for future Moose permits or is their once-in-lifetime Moose hunt over because you got one? That would kind of su"k for them!

[BartmanMN]

Nice looking Moose and cool story. I love how they just plow through the trees. Sounds like you had them all in a frenzy.

[nbadger23]

Great Bull! Thanks for sharing the story. In my opinion, no hunting story is ever too long :-) I'd rather hear all the details like you did because it helps me picture the hunt in my mind and gives me much more enjoyment than a few sentences about a hunt.

I'm glad he didn't get much closer or you might have had some dirty underwear to deal with! As a side note, is a Moose's vision poor.. i.e. you can get away with the type of movement you did breaking branches and trees and not have to worry about them catching it and realizing it's not another moose?

[96trigger]

Congrats, that is great. Great story.

[CANOPY SAM]

That's a terrific Minnesota Moose! Congratulations. Great story and a very impressive trophy.

What about the previous question? I too wondered if the others in your party could ever apply again? Obviously someone has to take the shot, but what happens to the others in the party? Are they done forever?

With 14 days left I would've kept camp right where it was and fished, and hunted grouse for another 13 days! Not often one gets a two week kitchen pass to the BWCA!

[ducksnbucks]

Thanks for all of the replies, it was an experience I won't forget!

Answers to a few questions:

NoWiser, I will post again when the mount is complete and you are welcome to stop by for sure!

We were in area 61. Up the Gunflint Trail from Grand Marais about 30 miles or so.

The other guys in my group are done forever unfortunately. The MN Moose hunt is a once in a lifetime hunt for the party and its only 1 moose per party. So no matter who shoots the moose, the party is done.

I wish we could have stayed up longer but we wanted to get the meat butchered asap, and not taking two weeks off of work allows me some days to take off later in the season for ducks, pheasants, deer, and ice fishing!!

[matchset]

Great story bud! Good job on all the prep work too, you really have a lot of memories!

[matchset]

a dream come true!

[lungdeflator]

That is very awesome! Congrats! I can only hope to someday be in your position!

[slimngrizzly]

Great bull! It doesnt work out much better than that!!!

[ducksnbucks]

Hey All,

Well this past Friday I went and picked up the moose from the taxidermist. He did a great job with it and got it back to us in 4.5 months! Unfortunately my house doesn't have a whole lot of places to put an animal of such size but I managed to squeeze it into the entry way. Didn't take any pics when it was on the ground, should have, but did snap these two to give a general view. Only bad part about where it is, is that you caan't get a face on view but from the top of the stairs you get a good idea of the width. Picture quality isn't great here, but gives the view anyhow.

[monstermoose78]

Awesome!!

[NoWiser]

That is awesome!!

[mrklean]

looking good

[paceman]

Very cool! Congratulations!