Yippee, I have been finally selected for the Moose draw, after only 30 or more years of applying, I used to apply when you could still hunt moose on the mainland. So, come along with me on a virtual moose hunt in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. I applied in the spring of 2007 as I have for thirty years. I studied the odds by reviewing who applied for what area and what season.
The Natural Resources website, tells you how many applied in the past, for what season ,and for what area, I studied the odds and applied for the first week in area 3, I was picked, did my study of the odds pay off? Yes! Was it just luck ?, who knows.

A person has two choices once your name is picked, you can go moose hunting by yourself and if you are lucky enough to score , then the work starts, one man cannot drag a moose out of the woods, and transport it home. Second best is the best, your allowed two other hunters along with your tag and if one of them harvest the moose first , your hunt is ended. All three hunters must stay within shouting distance of each other. No matter who harvests the moose, for purposes of this narration , it will until the end, be referred to as "my moose"! I have shot moose before , in another province, so I don't care who shoots my moose, I will be accompanied by Brian & Brent , from Chester. Brent will hunt with his bow, I would like nothing better than to see him get my moose with an arrow, Brent has shot many deer with a bow, I have shot a few deer with bow. I mentioned I had been drawn ,sitting at the table in the legion ,and Brian said he would like to go, I asked who else he would suggest, he immediately said, brother Brent, he owns a truck! And Brian cooks, so I've covered all bases. Our guide is a good friend of Brians. Accomodations, ATV's are covered. We only have to take groceries and libations.
There are many horror stories of people who go , get their moose and then the meat spoils because they try to do it themselves. You do not haul a moose out of the woods by the antlers. (Go elsewhere on this blog and read the joke about Jim Flynn dragging a deer the wrong way.)
All arrangements for getting the animal out of the swamp, transporting it home in a cooler, etc. should be made long before you harvest the animal. The moose tags arrived in the mail today, everyone asks me how excited I am, I tell them I'm not ! Only because I have shot a moose before, Brian has been hunting with the same guide for years, and I fully understand that a successful hunting trip doesn't necessarily mean harvesting a animal. I have went on Spring bear hunting trips often, while my companions and once my wife have got a bear ,I have yet to have one come to my bait. Those hunts were successful in that I shared the elation of my friends, the company of the guides and the wonderful meals at the lodges. We will soon be going to the range to sight in our rifles, just a fun day, because I hope Brent harvests " my moose" with his bow and arrow. I told you I have applied for more than 30 years for this hunt. I have "friends" who have got their permit, gone to Cape Breton early, drank so much they didn't even get out to hunt and then come home early because everyone was sick. I told my "friend", that makes me sick, a wasted tag.
September 17th, we went to the rifle range to sight in all rifles, why?,if we are going to get it with a bow and arrow? Oh well, the scopes are all set, just in case Brent needs back-up. Brent tells me he can practice with the bow every Wednesday evening at the Captain Kidd Rod & Gun, I hope he is there now ,as I write this.
We also got the fish box that evening, cleaned it all up and will fill it with ice from the fish plant before we leave. I'm telling you, we are prepared! Brent stated he had the haddock and scallops already and Brian is to take care of getting the lobster, I can smell the Chester chowder now, goes well with the Lunenburg County wine I plan to take. We're off, the Sunday drive to North River is great, many a story was told on the drive ,but Brent topped them all with his story about being bit on the dick by a Black Widow spider while working in the California oil fields, lunch at Mother Webb's was wonderful, five hours, two stop's for Tims' and we were settling into the trailer, to be our home for a week. We are not the only group with a fish box, but the only one with chipped ice from the fish plant, one other group has got a fish box full of frozen water in ice cream containers. We meet our guides, Darren Barron, Mike Cann, Mike MacEachern, Jim/Linda Powers,, we are introduced to the electronic calls, remote controlled and can imitate any type of moose call or the call of any other animal in the Nova Scotia woods, very impressive.
Our main guides were the two Mikes, they showed us video of three moose they had previously seen on the powerline, and we were settled on that powerline when the sun rose on Monday morning . The tramp in was a little exausting for this senior citizen. Monday evening we changed venues and went to 'the pond', moose seen here earlier in the week also. The hours spent calling and waiting are very special, watching deer jays, blue jays, kingfishers, beaver, ducks and just listening for that answer to our continous calling. Brent also hunted many afternoons while Brian and I rested for the evening hunt. The older Mike had to return to his business in North Sydney, then we hunted with the younger Mike, I had someone new to relate all my many stories and jokes to, I had exausted Mike senior with them on Monday and Tuesday. Young Mike had stories of his own, and became very good at repeating some of my jokes when we returned to the trailer. The Chester chowder lasted for two days then we visited Jim and Linda a few evenings, they live in Paradise, a cottage on the North River. One evening Linda barbequed mackeral in tinfoil with all the fixings, naturally washed down with Keith's, lots of Keith's. Another evening she served colossal cheeseburgers, we thought that was supper, but no, a little later she served up steak with onions and mushrooms, we all said, we already ate, but somehow found room for more. One night, Darren's stepdaughter Rebecca, whipped up some hot dogs, baloney and cheese and another night fried chicken, we did not starve. Far from it!
Daren had six clients booked for the week ,including us, by Saturday morning five of them
had their moose and had gone home, Saturday evening seen a special effort to satisfy the sixth client. Young Mike and I had just settled in to call for the last hour of the evening , when he spied a bull ,two-hundred yards away. At first I could not see the animal, but a little movement finally had me looking at a fine bull. I like to think of myself as a seasoned hunter and not a bad shot, but I think I let the excitement get to me, I rested against a sturdy birch and decided to fire, the first shot missed, the second shot, the bull went down, I turned to Mike to say I got him! What a mistake, Mike pointed, the animal got up and ran away. We both seen the bull fall when I shot the second time, we decided he was wounded and went looking for a blood trail. We searched for over an hour and found no evidence of blood. Darkness was coming on, we decided to go home and call game wardens to come back with us on Sunday morning. A lot of speculation accompanied our conversations on Saturday night. Sunday morning a half dozen of us met two game wardens near the previous evenings events. As we got ready to go look for a blood trail or wounded animal, young Mike again spotted an animal exactly where it was the evening before, it was a cow. Everyone except me hiked to the spot, I was still tired from all the searching the night before and lack of sleep from dreaming of a wounded bull. When the group arrived near where the cow was seen, a bull got up and ran away, the wardens immediately decided it was not wounded and would not let Brent shoot. My hunt was over, I had spoiled Darren's record, but felt good that the bull was not wounded and lying somewhere dying while we drove home. In the second paragraph of this story I state, that a successful hunt doesn't necessarily mean shooting an animal. I have always felt this way. I had a wonderful week and a successful hunt in my books, I met some nice people, went with some great companions, ate well, hunted hard and will never forget "my Moose" hunt in the Highlands!

Co-incidently, one of the game wardens who accompanied us on Sunday morning is also a guide, on Monday he took a client in, got their moose and then discovered "my moose" while hunting for the other, apparently when my moose fell it did not get up again , it was another bull that Mike and I saw running away. Two bulls in the same area caused the confusion , had we looked a little harder on Sunday morning, we would have found "my moose". The coyotes and crows in Cape Breton had a great feast that week!

I still feel it was a good week hunting, but feel disappointment at the final outcome.


PS: I must repeat a story Mike MacEachern told me on the hunt. He said his grandfather was a game warden many years ago with a sense of humour. One story Mike particularily remembers was his grandfather asking hunters he met, if their rifle was loaded, if they said no, he would ask to see the rifle and sometimes manage to get a shell in the rifle from his pocket, then he would ask the guy again, if it was loaded, the answer being no again, he would squeeze the trigger and of course the gun would fire.