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A Hunter's First Moose Hunting Trip

By Dan Poitras

"He will never forget that day. He will tell that story as long as he hunts, probably as long as he lives"

The night before opening day,Oct.5th 2002 a hunter from another camp had visited our tent and told us that he had seen a small bull in the headlights of his truck.It was crossing the logging road near a hydro line.

"I know where that moose will be in the morning" Larry said. "There's a big open meadow with a creek running through it that's not far from the road and the hydro line. I've hunted there before. I know how to find it.

I said to Larry "why dont we go there tomorrow?", Larry said ok.

But when the morning arrived, our morning hunt was delayed because of an accident that happened to 1 of our hunting buddies. Back at camp we made ourselves a sandwich and had a coffee.

On our way to the meadow, for our afternoon hunt i spotted where the bull had crossed the road the night before. I said to Larry pull over here for a minute. I got out of the truck and erased the tracks the bull had left on the road. I did'nt want anyone else to know that there was a bull in the area.

When we arrived we parked the truck, Larry and I got our gear ready walkled to the open meadow, and I said to Larry i'll stay here, Larry said fine i'll walk around the bend and I'll be a few hundred yards from you.

I put myself on a watch where the treeline met the meadow so I could stand in the shadows of the slash behind me and see the sun-lit open space surrounding the creek in front of me.

As i sat there, I looked around and admired what nature had to offer it's beauty of fall colors birds singing and a squirrel playing in the meadow a few yards from me.

I looked at my watch and it was 4:00pm, I called with no response. I waited an hour and called again at 5:00pm. Then around 15 minutes later I heard this glooting sound, I stood up from behind the little shrub I was using to hide, I looked across the far side of the meadow, there he stood majestically approximately 325 yards away from me answering my call.

I shouldered my 30-06 browning semi-automatic put the crosshairs behind his shoulder took a deep breath and fired, the sound echoed across the open meadow. I looked through my scope and he was still standing, I continued to fire till i emptied my rifle.

Then as I put my second clip in my rifle, never taking my eyes off the bull, as I shouldered my rifle again but the bull fell. I stood there and watched for a good half hour never taking my eyes off the moose.

As i was sure the bull had expired, I walked to where the meadow started to bend and hollered to Larry to come over. I stood there waiting for Larry as he got within 40 to 50 yards from me "he asked did you get it?" I said yes he's laying down across the meadow. Larry looked over and said oh yes i see him.

Larry walked over to me shook my hand and congradulated me. As I stood there I said to myself I just got the the small bull the hunter had seen the night before. Larry started walking over to where the bull was laying down. I stood there suddenly i heard Ken another hunter from our hunting party that was nearby and heard me shoot come over. He asked did you get it? I said yes he's laying down across the meadow where Larry is. He hollered to Francis to go to camp and gather up the rest of the guys and the necessary equipment we needed to get the bull out.

Ken and I started walking over to where Larry was with the bull. As we got closer Ken and I were amazed at the size of the bull, I was surprised as I thought it was the young bull the hunter had seen. Ken looked at me and said we've been hunting here for 30 years and we never shot a bull that size, he turned around shook my hand, smiled and congradulated me.

After we were all gathered up where the moose was, pictures were taken then the work started. An amphibious all-terrain, off road vehicle at times, needed to be winched to a pair or four wheelers to drag the moose out across the meadow, through the creek. Then the amphibious had to be tied to the back of a 4x4 truck to get up a small ridge.The bull weighed approximately 1600 pounds and had a 52 inch rack. It was 9:30 at night before we got back to camp.

I've been hunting moose for many years, I was never sure if my call was good enough to entice a majestic animal like a bull moose to come out, well there's absolutely no doubt now.

I had my bull scored by an official scorer using the boone and crokett system the rack scored 169-5/8 and it will be registered and entered in the Big Game Records Books for Ontario.

Dan Poitras's moose story