MN Moose Tag - Big Game Hunting – Elk, Moose, Caribou - Big Game Hunting – Elk, Moose, Caribou

Well, like most hunts, this one started two years ago. I have been telling my hunting buddies to start applying for a Minnesota moose tag before they put a stop to the season here. A cousin of mine along with my Brother, Sister in-law and myself have been done with the once in a lifetime hunt for quite a few years. I shot a 48″ bull back in 1993 and my cousin shot a 51″ bull in 1994. So the only way for me to hunt moose in Minnesota again would be to offer to be a Sherpa for my friends. Well my Dad and one of my friends actually listened to me and took me up on the offer. They got their tag the second time they applied,(2010). I had studied all of the different maps and reports on the DNR website and Google Maps trying to figure out or play the odds on what zone to apply for. With my Dad being 71 years old, I wanted the option to use ATV’s if we needed them.

In June of this year, I got home from work one night and my Dad had left a message saying that he received the coveted MN Moose tag. You could tell by his voice on the machine that he was very excited. The complete opposite from the buddy of mine that applied with him. He was getting married in July and was all bent out of shape about the time it would take to pull this hunt off. He didn’t realize that his future wife would be willing to spend their honeymoon scouting for moose. She actually was more excited about the whole deal than he was. They spent a couple of days up there driving around in a Toyota Corolla marking “moosey” looking areas on map. I remember my buddy saying how thick it was up there and that you really couldn’t see very well on the ground. We were planning on going back up in early September to scout, but with the foilage still up we scratched that idea and planned to go up two days before the season.

We spent the week prior to heading up running around to borrow a canoe, generator, and a couple coolers that we thought we would need from friends and relatives. Add that to our 2 ATV’s, a small trailer, and a chainsaw. Oops! forgot to mention the food for ten days. Wow! I could not even imagine trying to get by without all of this extra gear in the Boundry Waters.

Anyhow, we packed up and headed north early September 30th. That would give us a full day and a half to look around again. The friend had his marked maps and we put on approximately 120 miles driving the logging roads and trails looking for what we needed in that time. We were looking for clear cuts and openings (swamps) back in the bush where we could sneak in and do some calling. We probably found about 12-15 areas that looked good with our plan to rotate through them and continue looking while we were hunting. We saw lots of tracks and droppings but only one moose. But it was a “BIG” moose. “Great” we have a starting spot. So opening morning we got down there early and snuck in as quietly as possible. We spread out about a hundred yards and waited for daybreak. As it started getting light we started cow calling a little to see if we could get any response. We had planned to sit there until about 8:30am and then head off to the next spot. Right about 8:00 I could see my buddy crawling along this ridge not far from where he was sitting earlier. I figured he saw something, so we just waited. Well, come to find out he hadn’t seen anything but had heard a bull grunting and raking his antlers in the popple slash. He just would not show himself. We waited for about a half hour after the noise stopped and snuck out of there. This was very encouraging for the first morning. For the next 3 1/2 days that was the only encouter we had. We would go from spot to spot and spend about 2 hours each. The weather was beautiful with lows in the 20’s and highs in the 50’s. but as the week wore on, it kept getting warmer and warmer. On Sunday evening my Cousin showed up to tag along for a couple days. He also brought us a sunflower heater to use. The person that was in charge of getting the generator (no names) didn’t start it to see how loud it was. We were camping in a state campground camper cabin and with other people around we couldn’t use it. Even inside my enclosed trailer it still sounded like an airplane.

Tuesday morning we thought we would start in a spot where we had spent a couple evenings and give the morning a shot. A small swamp with a meadow off of the west end. Again, we sat for a couple hours and head off to the next spot. As we were driving, we came across a grouse hunter and he asked if we were moose hunting. We told him yes and asked why. He said he had just seen a big one cross the trail about a quarter mile up. He then said that it was a cow. I thought to myself, “hmmmm”, there might be a bull following her. So we drove up the trail looking for a clearcut or swamp where would could do some calling. I drove about a mile up and nothing looked good, so I turned around and went back. Then for some goofy reason I thought, we should probably go back up that way and look around some more. We found one good looking area but it would require a canoe to get to it. So we kept driving. After a couple of miles, we came around a curve and there was a huge cow standing in the trail. I told my buddy to get out, load his gun and get off the trail a ways, there might be a bull following her. There happened to be a 30-40 yard wide powerline cut along one side the trail so he was able to sneak up towards the edge of the woods closer as the cow just stood there and watched. I backed my truck up about 100 yards, shut it off and grabbed my binoc’s. The cow was about 70 yards from my buddy and after a few minutes, she had had enough and crossed the trail and disappeared into the bush. A couple of minutes passed by and another cow stepped out of the bush. She didn’t seem to like the company as much and followed off in the same direction as the first cow. Then after a few minutes more, you could tell my buddy got all excited. There was another moose coming! I through up my binocs where the cows had come out and waited. Sure enough, another moose steps out and it’s a bull. I about got those words out of my mouth to my Dad and Cousin and boom down he went. My friend raised his arms in the air like he had just hit the game winning homerun in the world series. We all got out of the truck and went running up to him. All the while I am hollaring at him to make sure the moose stays down. If he got up and took off into the swamp it would be a ton of extra uneeded work. Fotunately, he stayed down for good. We were able to, after high fives,pictures and gutting him out, able to hook him up to my truck with a long tow strap and drag him up into the trail. Then with a little more help from the grouse hunter we had run into earlier, hook the strap to his ATV and drag him right into our trailer. All I remember is when I heard the gun go off, it was like somebody punched me in the gut. Even though we still had a few hours of work ahead of us, skinning and quartering, it was like it’s all over. It might not be the biggest bull, but it is a trophy to our group. My buddy is getting a european mount done and we are getting a couple of small oval shaped rugs made from the hide. That way we will all have something to remember the awesome time we had together. My Dad is 71 and still out there trying to hang with us. Hopefully, but I highly doubt, I will be moose hunting when I am 71.