42.   Moose hunting Season in Area 36 - Southern Shore opened on October 7th. It was going to be a very busy couple months because there were a lot of licenses to fill. Harry, Andrew, Pietro, Dad, myself and even the St. John's Rod and Gun Club all had either sex tags.

41.   On September 30th French, Matthew and I loaded up French's 2017 Argo Huntmaster and headed down the shore to scout out some new hunting ground as hunting season was set to open the following weekend.

40.   This particular area was new to our crew, previously we hunted closer to town in the Tors Cove & Mobil First Pond areas.

39.   Moose sign was incredible with fresh tracks and scrapings all over the countryside.

38.   Of course the best sign you can find on a scouting trip is to lay eyes on actual Moose! This cow and young bull were a long way away, had no idea they were being watched and were definitely in a mating way. These photos were taken with my cell phone camera through my Leupold 10x42 binoculars.

37.  The two animals were sniffing and prancing around each other like two young claves! It was a spectacular sight to witness, creating a lasting memory for this trio of hunters.

36.   Moose were plentiful and so were berries. There were handfuls of blue berries and partridge berries everywhere!

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34.   Of course no outing is complete until we have a boil-up!

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32.   In the early morning hours of opening day, Saturday October 7th, our crew consisting of Harry, Matthew, Andrew, French, George Andrews and I met at Tim Horton's to head down the Southern Shore. French had his 2017 Argo Huntmaster in tow while I had loaded up Project Foreman for the first day of hunting.

31.   Harry, George and Matthew set up on the pole line where we saw two animals the previous weekend.  Andrew, French and I headed further out the road to another meadow where we had found a lot of fresh sign.

30.   The weather opening day was absolutely beautiful, sunny, calm, although maybe a little warm for some hunters.

29.   Not spying any animals we headed back to the pole line mid morning and found a great view point on top of a knob.

28.   After lunch we separated for awhile, French and Andrew scouted trails in the Argo while I hopped on project Foreman and did the same aiming to get a better lay of the land. I spent a couple hours finding trails, and learning how they connected through the country both on bike and on foot.

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26.   For the afternoon/evening hunt French and I headed to a bog at the top of a very rocky meadow, Andrew & George took up a position on the pole line near the gravel road, while Harry and Matthew went further in the pole line to the overlook we all met at mid morning.

25.   Just after sunset a pair of animals walked onto the pole line about 400 yards from Harry. He connected a successful shot with his Remington 7mm harvesting a lovely young bull!

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23.   Of course the hunt is the fun part, now the work begins. Under flashlights we field dressed and halved the animal, in no time we had it loaded in the back of French's Argo for the ride back to the trucks.

22.   The Argo and enclosed trailer combination is by far the most convenient and effective way to retrieve big game!

21.   We hung the moose in Harry's Garage in Portugal Cove and had it skinned, quartered and washed down in short order.

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19.   The boys made couple more trips opening weekend on Sunday evening and Monday morning, I had other commitments but joined French and Andrew Thursday morning. We loaded up the Argo and headed back to our hunting grounds setting up on the same knob where Harry made his successful shot from.  Again the weather was nearly perfect, sunny, calm, and a little cooler than opening day.

18.   About 10 minutes after sunrise a dandy bull made his appearance on a small bog about 300 yards away. Andrew connected two successful shots with Matthew's Browning BAR 7mm. We waited about 10 minutes, the boys kept overlook from the knob while I walked in and found our harvest expired just out of sight behind a clump of trees.

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15.   Mark and I got to work and had the animal field dressed up in record time. I used for the first time my Outdoor Edge Swingblade knife which is by far the most handy tool for cleaning up big game. It features a nicely shaped standard blade that flips over to an attached gut hook blade especially made to open the animal without fear of piercing anything inside.

14.   Again French's Argo made short work of transporting our harvest, three hunters and all of our gear in one quick trip back to the truck!

13.   With two animals down I had began sorting out a meat hanging solution in my own garage. When I finished the inside of my garage a few years ago I totally forgot to include a means to hang game from the roof trusses. Using 3 -  4"x4" posts and a length of Unistrut I created a system that is quick to setup and easy to store away when not in use.

12.   The actual weight of the game is supported by posts installed perfectly plumb. I tagged a couple screws through the top support into the ceiling and installed barrel bolts that drop down into holes bored into the concrete floor. These are not load bearing but prevent the posts from being accidently knocked/kicked out of plumb and collapsing. The length of uni-strut runs though the three posts to hang game with stainless steel meat hooks.

11.   The following day (Friday) Dad, French and I headed back down the shore for another hunt. This time we headed the opposite direction on the pole line in over a large hill to a great vantage point overlooking a meadow nearby and a huge bog in the background. We had a great day in the woods and Dad had a shot at a beautiful big trophy bull but unfortunately didn't connect the 300+ yard shot.

10.   The next day (Saturday) forecasted more beautiful fall weather. Sunny skies, zero wind, and cool October temperatures enticed French and I to load up the Argo and head back to our hunting area early in the morning. We headed to the same location as the previous day where dad shot at the beautiful big bull hoping that he or some of his cows were still in the area. As dawn broke I walked down the trail and out into the meadow to get a better vantage point of the bottom area  which was hidden from French's vantage point. About 10 minutes later I get a call From French that there was at least one animal in the woods less than 50' away from him. French successfully drove the woods and two animals came out onto the meadow.

9.    I was 100% exposed standing in the open meadow, however wind was in my favour & moose cant see well. I stood perfectly still and the two cows trotted straight towards me, I connected a successful shot with the larger of the two animals with my Browning BAR 30.06 filling my tags for the season!  It's too bad Dad couldn't make Saturday's hunt because we easily could have taken both animals, but that's where the luck side of hunting comes into play.

8.   Since there were only two of us on this hunt we had to get creative when it came time to clean up our harvest. The Argo once again exceeded our expectations providing tie-off points to hold the animal open while completed our work with precision and ease.

7.   Lifting our field dressed game up into the Argo posed a challenge at first, but we manoeuvred the machine backing it into a hollow. This made the lifting height much lower and we slung both halves into the machine with relative ease.

6.   Back at my garage the big game hanging station worked out very well. Bassan, French and I had the animal hung, skinned and quartered in short order.

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3.   Once the skin was removed I washed the quarters down twice with cold water, vinegar & coarse salt using a micro fibre cloth. This removed dried blood, most of the hair, and prevents bacteria from forming and destroying the meat. A 2nd wash had the quarters looking just amazing and free of any hair. Also any flesh damaged from the bullet was cut out set aside.

2.   After hanging Bassan and I cut up and de-boned all the quarters categorizing the meat into three categories: good roasts, fry meat/roasts and stuff to be ground. There are four people in our hunting pool so we divided all of the bagged meat evenly amongst Bassan, his Father Peter, Roger and myself.

1.  With three Moose down we still have three to go and are all set for our annual November trip to Trepassey. Stay tuned for Moose Hunting 2017 Part 2!

Cheers, MIKE

Copyright © 2025 Michael Smith