A few more pics from Moose hunting...

Here's a few more pics from Dad's camera from our great outing for moose last week.

Next on the agenda, bird hunting!

The Mother Of All Blinds or MOAB for short..

In my last 2 posts I referred to the MOAB which is short for 'Mother Of All Blinds'... last year we needed to rebuild Tom's number 1 blind so we decided to make one that was big, comfortable and would last a long time. The first version of this blind was build up at our deer hunting camp and it has stood the test of time so we decided to make a mirror image of it 8'x8' and 12 to 14 feet to the floor up on moose mountain. Here's a few pictures of the process.

We prefabricated it at home and folded it up and brought it to Tom's in a trailer:

And that's the deal on the Mother Of All Blinds.

Moose Season or: How I learned to stop worrying and Love the Hunt - the conclusion

We were almost back to the camp when Rick's phone rang, it was Tom and he had a moose down, he was also out of shells! Ha! So we headed up the hill to the MOAB - everywhere you go on the mountain is up hill in both directions - even when you go down hill you still end up walking up somewhere along the way!

As Rick and I reached the MOAB we looked to our right and this is what we saw:

He was right where Tom emptied his rifle into him, about 30 yards from the blind! As we skinned the old brute we saw that 1 shot would have more than likely done the job but as my grandfather always told me, do what you got to do to knock him down -- even if there's only enough left for hoof soup!

Tom excitedly told us the story about what had happened and this fellow came down right from where the neighbors are -- which was a bit of poetic justice really, based on the previous day's shenanigans of them driving all over the place calling within earshot of our 2 blinds -- take that, neighbors! =)

Yours truly:

Tom and Art:

Rick and Art  are father & son -- a couple of really great fellas too - i'd hunt or fish with them anyday!

Dad, Tom and I:

The view from the blind of where the moose dropped:

The view from the blind of where he came from:

Tom and his John Deere:

Genuine Ford Parts -- and he sure is!

Dad, Tom and I:

Worn out hoof:

It was a great hunt, spent with a good old friend and a couple new ones. I look forward to spending time at Tom's place and wish I had more time to go more often. He's always an incredible host and makes us feel right at home. Thanks again, Tom! Art and Rick, it was a pleasure to meet you gents and get to hunt with you. I'd jump at the chance to do it again!

Now that the hunt is officially over I have to say how lucky we were to have a day like Friday... the weather was perfect, the neighbors had screwed off somewhere and that old bull cooperated. A lot of things had to happen just right for the day's events to turn out the way they did. As with most things in life there are no guarantees, especially on a moose hunt. If you look at the weather for this years 3 day event, Thursday was windy as hell and Saturday was windy AND rainy all day. Thank goodness for Friday!

I'm not sure how the hollywooders on the base made out, but I am both relieved and happy that Tom was able to connect at his place instead of having to join them.

What a great hunt! And I never thought of salmon fishing the whole time =)

Moose Season or: How I learned to stop worrying and Love the Hunt.

It was back up to moose mountain this year for the annual 3 day New Brunswick season, which ends today. We were once again staying with our dear friend Tom to help out with Art and Rick's hunt. As our season is so short you have to make the most of it and even then success is not guaranteed. Our plan was simply to hunt hard and see if we could meet with success.

It rained quite a bit on Wednesday but the forecast showed things settling down for the opener on Thursday. The wind was up which really hindered our calling efforts. The rain on the previous day also lessened the impact of Dad and Tom's scent drag which is performed every year that serves as an olfactory trail of bread crumbs back to our static hunting positions: MOAB 1 and Tom's new tower right beside a babbling torrent of raging whitewater.... I'm sure that part wasn't a factor during the summer drought when it was constructed...

The story of Day 1 was no moose spotted or heard but during a scouting walk we found many fresh and promising signs out on the power line -- as per usual this place was tramped and munched to hell. Young hardwood tops were all chewed off and we found several very fresh bedding spots.

Our first view of the powerline - the mighty Saint John river in the distance:

Some fall colours:

Pictures do not do this place justice as to how steep it truly is...

Sunset on Day 1:

Another big factor on day one was Tom's neighbors from the adjacent hilltop were also up hunting only they weren't sticking to their traditional hunting spot, rather they were driving up and down the hills on their wheelers and calling from random spots, some of which were very close to our hunting locations... with friends like these... well you know how the rest of that old saying goes....

So we regrouped back at camp and began discussing plans for day 2. All along, Art was determined to go drive the roads in CFB Gagetown if we weren't successful on day 1 - which is fine but not mine nor Dad's idea of hunting. In moose season though, you have to often times do what you have to do to be successful in the very limited and time constrained 3 days... 3 days... such crap, but that's another  topic which I may delve into some other time but not today....

When the discussion came up about plans for day 2 I stated that we should be focusing our efforts one last time on the blinds in the morning as there was frost in the forecast for overnight and the next morning was to be clear and calm. Our calls would really be effective and reach out and touch any potential suitors. It was agreed that day 2 would start out in the blinds one last time and if necessary, the lads would head to the base immediately following the first couple hours of the second morning.

Sunrise on day 2:

After watching this amazing sunrise and not getting any replies to our calls we decided it was time to head back to camp so the guys could be on their way to the base and that's when we heard the shots!

To be continued.....