Successful Archery Moose Hunt in BC

by Denny
(BC)

Successful Archery Moose Hunt

We arrived at our usual camping spot on Thursday, October 29th in preparation for the archery season. It was cloudy with no rain so it was great weather to set up camp.

The first couple of days we got camp set up, cut wood and did a little scouting. We headed down past S**** lake Road to do some calling. The weather was quite mild with the lows around 2 degrees and the highest around 10.

We called four different spots and had no responses.

Sunday night the wolves were howling above our campsite and also Monday morning. We decided to head down Main to check out some new spots. We found a spot that had a few cow tracks that looked a coupe of days old so we decided to call there. We had not seen anything fresh since then.

It was foggy that morning and lightly raining. We called for two hours with no response. We decided to go back to camp and come back in the evening.

We started calling around 5pm with no response. We decide to leave early and as we were driving down the road Terry spotted a moose standing by the timberline. We backed up and pulled onto an old road.
As we started to drive up the road we spotted a big bull standing above the cow. Terry grabbed his range finder and the bull was 123 yards away.

I jumped out and grabbed my bow and cocked it. I started walking towards it and it starts to walk away so I let out a few cow calls and he stopped but when I tried to get closer he took off in a fast trot.

We went back the next day and we set up in two different spots to try calling. Terry on the low road and I was on the high road with a thick timberline in the middle of us.

It was a clear morning and I started calling at 7:20am and by my second set of calls I got my response! I was set up in the ditch along the old road that had grown over. I had range-finded the area around me so I knew my longest shot would be about 40 yards.

By this time I could hear the bull breaking branches and coming towards me so I let out a couple more calls and then I was able to see the tips of his antlers.

As I grabbed my bow the bull was trying to go around me. He was walking across the ditch that I was in and then he went up on the road and crossed through the ditch and up on the bank. I knew the shot would be about 30 yards.

He was moving slowly so I aimed my bow on his shoulder and the arrow hit just behind the shoulder. I knew that this was the big bull that we saw yesterday.

The bull went about 120 yards before he collapsed. The bull had 12 points on one side and 11 on the other. The inside spread was 50 1/4”.

We were so lucky to get this bull as there were lots of hunters on quads with limited entry but they must not have spotted him. The next couple of days we called in different areas off of Main but no responses.

I called again down by S**** Lake Road but just the wolves calling back. We must of heard the wolves 4 of the 6 days we were hunting.

The bull I shot and the cow were the only moose we saw. We saw 10 rabbits, one wolf, lots of grouse and only caught 2 trout.

I think they may have a wolf problem up there. I did not hear a cow call again this year… maybe the rut is happening earlier… I don’t know.

Like this page?