May 13, 2025 • 44 mins
When patience meets preparation, magic happens in the wilderness. After twenty painstaking years of waiting in New Brunswick's moose lottery system, Jesse Ells' father finally received his coveted tag—and what followed was nothing short of extraordinary.
Jesse takes us deep into the Mountains of northern New Brunswick, where three generations of his family embarked on this long-awaited hunt. With meticulous planning that began months in advance—salt blocks strategically placed in spring, trail cameras monitoring activity—they were ready when opening day arrived. Within just twenty minutes of legal shooting time, their patience was rewarded with a magnificent bull moose that dressed out at exactly 900 pounds.
But the story doesn't end there. What makes this tale remarkable is what happened next: despite having filled their personal tag, Jesse and his father immediately transitioned to guiding others. By the end of the brief five-day season, their camp had achieved perfection—seven tags, seven successful hunts. Jesse shares the triumphs, the challenges of extracting enormous animals from difficult terrain, and the lessons learned when clients don't heed their guides' expertise.
The most memorable moment comes as Jesse recounts "the one that got away"—standing just 15 yards from the largest bull he's ever seen, watching helplessly as it slipped away before a shot could be taken. His vivid storytelling puts you right beside him in the field, feeling both the exhilaration of success and the sting of missed opportunity that keeps hunters coming back year after year.
Whether you're planning your own moose hunt or simply enjoy authentic wilderness adventures, Jesse's experiences offer valuable insights and pure entertainment. Listen now to experience the highs and lows of chasing giants in the Canadian wilderness—and don't forget to subscribe and leave a review if you enjoy the episode!
Check us out on Facebook and instagram Hunts On Outfitting, and also our YouTube page Hunts On Outfitting Podcast. Tell your hunting buddies about the podcast if you like it, Thanks!
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
this is hunts on outfitting podcast.
I'm your host and rookie guide,ken mara.
I love everything, hunting, theoutdoors and all things
associated with it.
Stories to how to's you'll findit here.
Welcome to the podcast.
Hey, thanks for listening in tothis podcast.
(00:32):
We're happy to have youlistening in, as always.
Also, if you guys had the time,it'd be great to leave a rating
or review on Apple or Spotify.
It's much appreciated.
So this week on the podcast weare talking to forestry
technician extraordinaire JesseEls.
Jesse is a past guest of thepodcast, talking about some
(00:54):
guiding before for bear and alsotrivia.
He's been on this week, though.
Jesse is recapping his 2024moose season, and it was a great
one.
He's got some awesome stories.
He talks about going with hisdad, whose dad has waited 20
years to win the lottery to gethis moose tag.
He gets it.
They make it happen spoileralert, but it's a great story to
(01:17):
go with it, and not only that.
They then get out, hammer downand start guiding.
This is only a five-day seasonand they make the most of it and
they do a great job, and well,I'll let Jesse tell you.
So, jesse, thanks again forcoming out.
You were here last year on thepodcast and you were here for
(01:38):
the bear hunting trivia.
If someone hasn't listened tothat, go check it out.
Jesse, you guys ended upwinning, but it's interesting.
So, when you're not startingnew chapters for Delta Waterfowl
, you guide bear and you guidemoose, and last year you guys
you and your dad had a greatyear.
You ended up well, I'll let youtell it.
(01:59):
You guys had a good mooseseason.
You got yours and you gotguiding.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah, we had seven tags in the camp and we filled
seven tags.
Seven, yeah, so it was a busyweek.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
So, jesse, you're hunting, you're guiding in new
brunswick, canada, yeah uh,northern brunswick, which is in
brunswick up by mount carltonarea, christmas mountains that
area okay, yeah, yeah, so it'sso in the middle of nowhere.
I mean walk me through.
You know who got their tag yourdad, yeah, my father got his
(02:29):
tag after 20 years of applying20 years.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
So in New Brunswick it's a lottery system, yeah, and
once you hit the 20-year markwith no tag, you're pretty much
a guarantee.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
That's crazy, though, and then you know you and I
both know people that it seemslike they get theirs every five.
If that, oh yeah it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Every year he was hoping to get it, and then this
was his milestone 20 years.
So he had the max amount ofballots into the draw.
Yeah, so we kind of knew it wasgoing to happen this year.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Let's see, I find that hard.
Uh, it's hard, you know, whenthey go hunting it's all about
the experience and it's notabout the kill and all that.
You wait 20 years to getsomething.
You want to kill it.
Oh yeah, you know.
So it puts so much pressure on,I find that the hunt can be
harder to enjoy.
I know when I went on my moosehunt with my uncle because, I
mean, you never know, it couldbe another 20 years before you
get your tag again.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
You kind of don't of that pressure.
I find For us it's nice that weget to guide every year,
because we definitely got theexperience.
And you're around the moose andaround the moose, we got to go
through hunts for quite a fewyears now.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
So once we got our tag, we pretty much kind of knew
how to run a moose hunt.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
You got each other, yeah, yeah, so walk me through
that.
So you guys knew he got his tag, you knew that.
You guys knew you're going tobe guiding, so you're like, all
right, how are we going tojuggle all this?
Because here in new brunswickit used to be a three-day season
, now it's five, yeah, um, whichis still relatively short
compared to some places in thestates and you know this and
that, and even Canada.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
It's a short season, but it's a long week.
Yes, when you're out there thewhole week, it's a long week.
Well put, jesse.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Very well put.
Yeah, you've practiced sayingthat before because you've lived
it.
So what were you guys thinkingLike?
All right, you guys had an idea.
You weren't guiding and huntingyourselves in the same area.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
So last, the season before he got his tag, we were
guiding moose, so we were outthere the week of the moose hunt
and we got to go check out,like lots of spots, and I found
one spot.
I marked it on my maps.
We knew that my father would begetting his moose tag the next
year.
It was pretty much a guarantee.
So I like, I really liked thisspot, it was perfect, which I
(04:45):
guarantee.
So I like I really liked thisspot, it was perfect.
So once he got his tag drawn,first thing I said I said we're
going to shoot a moose down atthe spot we found last season.
So we went down there probablythree weeks before the season
opened up and set out a camera.
We put salt blocks out in thespring and everything.
And then check the camera theday before the hunt, two days
before the hunt, and there weresome bulls, lots of cows,
(05:07):
everything.
So we knew that it was goodenough to hunt.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
we're gonna try her out.
It's game time, see you.
So the season starts in uh,september yeah, I think it was
september 24th you guys put saltblocks out in the spring.
Yeah, so you guys were.
You guys were planning it out.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Yeah, long in advance oh yeah, okay, we knew we were
going to be hunting the area, soyou want to get, you want to do
a little bit of inventory oh,yeah, I guess it doesn't like.
Putting cameras out for moosedoesn't do anything for you
except give you a littleexcitement like, yeah, you don't
see those moose in the season.
Honestly, yeah, it doesn'thappen.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
You finally, try you find they once they're running,
they're going around everywhere,yeah yeah, well, it's like you
and I talking about uh, you knowwe're just talking about turkey
season.
You know, the turkeys, everyonesee these big flocks and all
that and right now our seasonstarts in three, four days and
the turkeys are completelyspread out.
They're completelyunpredictable right now.
They're just everywhere becausethey're running right now and,
(06:04):
uh, it's anybody's guess wherethey're going to pop up and
start gobbling.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah, they could be anywhere.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Yeah, so it's similar to moose.
Yeah, I've heard a lot ofpeople compare turkey hunting to
moose hunting, Calling theinteracting, or they call it a
poor man's elk hunt, I guess,but I think that's because more
people hunt elk than moose.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
But same idea?
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
So he got his tag and you guys knew the area, so you
guys were hunting a swamp area.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
It was actually a clear like there was three
different clear cuts and thenthis center section that was
made for a buffer for a smallbrook, so it was 30 meters
basically both sides and thatwas just like a gateway for the
moose to access all these clearcuts.
Yeah so anyways, it was aperfect funnel, perfect
situation.
(06:52):
You park down the hill, youwalk up the hill and then you're
basically on top looking downand calling into this valley,
and then at the next hill overit was provincial park so nobody
could hunt the north side of it.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
So you're basically you've got the whole area.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Yeah, yeah, Huh.
So were you guys hunting out ofa blind or you guys were kind
of spot in stock?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
We talked about putting blinds up.
We kind of made a makeshiftblind in the woods but I kind of
knew we weren't going to beusing that.
I I figured we weren't going tobe using it you're going to be
walking and calling.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yeah, yeah, is that how you guide yeah most?
Speaker 2 (07:34):
of the time we go and we walk into a spot, kind of
sit at the edge of the cut orwhatever call over it and then
try to get the moose out infront of us.
Yeah, some places we got standsbut don't use them very much
okay, yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
You guys want to keep it uh, versatile yeah, for sure
um.
So what are you guys shootingfor guns?
Speaker 2 (07:54):
so I had a seven mil rem mag.
It's a browning x bolt nice anduh, father had a trophy.
I don't know who makes it.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah, it's like a custom-built gun.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Yep, what caliber.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
It's a .300 Win Mag.
Okay, yeah, perfect, moose guns, pretty big guns yeah yeah, all
right, so walk me through.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
You guys were scouting, you knew roughly.
I mean the moose that you guysshot, was it on camera?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
knew roughly I mean the moose that you got shot.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Was it on camera?
No, never had.
Okay, all right really.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah, even after having the cameras out that long
, we had probably about honestlythree different bulls on camera
, so it didn't look good yeahlike with the trail cameras
didn't look good like a goodspot well, three bulls, though
it's not yeah bad, but oh yeahyeah and uh.
So basically the way we play thehunt the morning of the morning
, we get out there about an hourearly before the sun comes up.
(08:50):
We had, uh, two side-by-sidesUh.
We drove into the spot, parkedabout three, 400 meters away
from the area we're going tohunt, yep, and then parked there
, got out of the side the sideby sides and just stood around
and listened.
So right away we heard a mooselike to the left, probably about
(09:12):
15, 20 yards in the cut stormoff that close, yeah, like it
was a nice bull.
You could hear the stickshitting the boards and stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Really, oh yeah, wow, you guys were that close to him
.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
That close Accidentally Mo and stuff.
Really oh yeah.
Wow, you guys were that closeto them, that close Accidentally
Moose up, there are like micebasically.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
They're everywhere.
So then we started justlistening to that moose go off.
We could hear a cow down at thespot where we wanted to get to,
right in the bottom of thevalley.
She was bawling and there wasbulls everywhere Trying to call
at her.
Yeah, you hear them all goingtowards her.
So then about half an hourbefore like legal shooting time,
(09:53):
we started to walk super slowover there because it was kind
of fire, but not that bad, yeah.
So, anyways, legal light comesup.
We're just about to crest overthe hill to go down to the
valley and, uh, we hear most tothe right side of the road.
We all stop.
You can hear walking around.
(10:14):
Anyways, I didn't hear no, no,like boards or nothing hitting
the trees.
Everybody's like standing therelooking at it.
And then I was like, well,let's keep going and I'll tell
you if people that are not usedto hunting up there, it's hard
to leave that moose.
Yeah, like it really is.
But you could hear a bunch ofmoose down the valley.
(10:35):
So we kept on going, probablymade about 50 yards, another
moose on their left side of theroad, walking in the bushes.
This time you could hear theantlers here like dinging off
the trees and stuff.
So we kind of stood there for abit and that cow kept on
bawling, kept on bawling and themoose were just like going to
(10:57):
her quite quickly and we had toget there, cut them off so that
moose wasn't coming up the road,it was going down the cut.
So I said, well, let's getgoing, let's get in front of
this thing and it's going tocome across the road to get to
her.
So we got down to thatintersection and there was a cow
standing on the road down there, just a small one.
(11:17):
I looked at her for a bit.
She walked off the road rightin the perfect spot where our
camera was.
She walked off the road rightin the perfect spot where our
camera was.
It was probably about a minute.
I had nothing going on.
You could hear moose walking inthe trees and stuff, and then
you could hear a bull comingthrough, grunting, just coming
(11:40):
on the left side of the road,and, anyways, was to stand there
, had the rifles ready.
We were just waiting to see himpop up and then, right behind
us, that moose that we heardcoming through on the way by
started to catch up to us and hewas going to cross the road
right because we were on a Tintersection.
He was about to cross the roadthere and he was coming on us
real fast.
(12:01):
So I turned around and all Iseen was one board.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
You knew like this is a good bull, just on that one
board, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
I'd just seen the board and I turned around,
pointed the gun that way, forgotabout the other moose.
And then my father come rightnext to me and it was like a
slope down the road.
So I said man, we've got to getdown there about 20 feet or
whatever, because it was kind ofa bad shot where we were at.
So we walked down the road alittle bit, set up.
(12:32):
This moose was coming and rightat that time you could see like
just the head and the boards.
It's pretty nice moose.
And so my father told me hesaid it's your choice if we're
going to shoot moose or not.
Anyways, I said yeah, it's yourchoice if we're going to shoot
moose or not.
Anyways, I said yeah, it's ashooter.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
So, anyways, the thing come out broadside and, uh
, he told me take the shot.
He wanted me to take.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
The first shot he said put it right through the
lungs and then I'll do the rest,like I've waited 20 years for
this, so don't miss yeah, yeah,so I was pretty confident in my
gun yeah and it was about 60yards away at this time.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
So I said, all right, got it lined up.
As soon as it walked out, likenothing in the way, put it right
through the lungs and we openedfire.
It was like a war zone oh yeah,we were like 20 minutes into
the hunt, like maximum, yeah,anyways, I had three shells in
my gun, he had four and uh, youguys were empty and we were
(13:29):
empty.
If I had another one, I wouldhave put in it.
I tried, I mean, that's what.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Because remember, when I was with my uncle on the
moose hunt, I was told just keepshooting until they're down.
I mean they are big and thefurther they go.
I remember him and I did theold one, two, three right shot
and it was a good shot.
We found out later.
We did hit him in the heart andit took off reloaded and just
shit luck and a hair trigger andI popped him right behind the
(13:55):
ear yeah and that piled him upthere.
But I mean, yeah, because I wastold that just keep shooting.
If he went, say, another 50yards, I bet you would have
added almost an hour to gettinghim out, because it was so it
was so wet?
Speaker 2 (14:07):
definitely right.
That's why you want to get himdown as quick as possible you
guys did that.
You guys were just so yeah,first shot I put through the
lungs and then I was so excitedjust start shooting, basically,
yeah, I didn't know like.
I was aimed at the neck, I wasaimed for the shoulder, I was
going for everything yeah andthen, uh, so my grandfather was
behind me, my uncle, uh, it wasa, actually a family event.
(14:28):
We put on like, yeah, threegenerations there, yeah and uh,
anyways, grandfather's in theback, stop shoot, stop shoot
ceasefire yeah, the moose wasfalling over and we're still
shooting at him yeah I putanother, I put the scope up on
the back of his neck, and then Ididn't have another bullet, so
it went click really yeah, Imean your dad waiting as long as
(14:51):
he's did for the tag.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
You guys were like it's not getting away no I,
we're piling it up.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
First shot would have killed it.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
But why take that chance?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
So then, we had a nice celebration there A bunch
of hugs and a road.
I'm sure the people on the nextmountain over thought we were
crazy.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Thinking you guys had about 10 moves piled up.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
All the shots and then a little bit of scream and
celebrating I thought you'resighting in your guns the day of
yeah, yeah.
So it was a pretty specialmoment to have, like absolutely
yeah, yeah and then we went overto the moose uh, checked him
out.
It was pretty, pretty nicerealized it was indeed a moose,
thankfully yeah, pretty nicebully piled up like right on the
(15:35):
edge of the woods.
So yeah we could drive the sideby side right into them
actually that's helpful yeah,because that's the big thing.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Some people don't realize how hard it is to get
these things out.
You know you got like what?
14, 1500 pound live weightmoves it's uh that's a pole.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Yeah, he dressed out to exactly 900 did he?
Speaker 1 (15:56):
yeah, that's a big one, yeah he was pretty big.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
He was the second largest weight at the camp
actually oh really, yeah, wowyeah, there the other largest
one moose yeah I think thespread on it was oh, I can't
remember.
I want to say it was likeprobably around 15 spread on it.
Okay, I think it was a littleover.
So it was a large moose, yeah,yeah and it, uh, it weighed
(16:20):
about six pounds more.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Oh really, yeah, six pounds, yeah, well, you know,
every pound counts.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Um, and that's with the rocks in it but uh, yeah,
actually, Actually those guysdon't clean up their moose very
well.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
No, Well, there you go.
So it was great, you know, youguys, first morning, 20 years,
20 minutes in 20 shots orwhatever and it was great family
events and you guys werehigh-fiving, hooting and
hollering, awesome.
And then you and your dadlooked at each other like all
right now the rest of the seasonbegins for us.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Now we can go have some fun.
Yeah, because the hunt'sstressful.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Yes, so who do you guide for, jesse?
You guys, your dad guides aswell, yep we guide for Lakeville
Outfitters.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Yep, and that's who I help guide bears and moose and
everything.
So that day we spent the daycleaning up the moose.
We quartered it up.
My father built a portablefreezer or whatever, yeah, so we
hung the moose in that and thenmy uncle took the moose back
(17:25):
home and then so we could startgetting it all done up Like we
did the whole moose.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
We grabbed it all ourselves.
Yeah, if you could do ityourself, that's best.
It saves a ton of money.
It saves a ton of money in thebutcher shops.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Some of them fill up quick oh yeah, and you have to
reserve it.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yeah, oh yeah season and then, yeah, it costs a
fortune.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Yeah, you know so so my father and I decide we're
gonna stick around because wehelp guide and we definitely
wanted to help out the outfitter.
So the first day we justrelaxed.
We were pretty tired.
Second morning slept in becausewe had quite a few early
mornings, because we were doingscouting days before going
calling moose and all that stuff.
(18:06):
So later on the afternoon wewere helping everybody drag
moose out, because second day ofthe season is another busy day.
Everybody's getting moose thatday.
Season is another busy day.
Yeah, Everybody's getting moosethat day.
And by Wednesday a lot of theguys are basically out of the
woods.
So there was one guy that wewere supposed to guide or help
(18:27):
guide.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
He still had a tag.
He'd never seen a moose yet inhis hunt.
So we offered to take him outthe evening and go call him.
So we took him out in theafternoon.
As you know, hunting in theafternoon is not great.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
No, especially for a big black animal that.
It's and it's hot, yeah, Duringmoose season, and it runs.
It's either two things it'seither blistering hot, yeah, or
it and it runs.
It's either two things it'seither blistering hot or it's
pouring rain.
Yep, that's how it works.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
So the moose, you don't see them in the in the
afternoon, hardly at all.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
No.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Um, so we just tried calling, no luck.
Uh, it was about an hour and ahalf, two hours before dark.
We were going to go call a spotthat I saved because I knew it
was a good area.
We shot moose there last yearand I knew we had already called
moose out there before the huntand stuff.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Now you guys still hunting like clear cuts and
stuff, or you're hunting morebog, or this is all clear cuts.
We're in pretty high countryhere, yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Like some, some areas out there.
We do hunt bogs, but we didn'tthis past season For some reason
.
The moose just weren't there.
They were in the cuts a lot.
So anyways, at that time theguy decided he wanted to go
drive the evening.
So we're like all right, noproblem.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
You were guiding a resident, yeah, resident, okay,
yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
So he wanted to go drive.
He had the guy there that didall the driving.
That's all he did for the firstcouple of days of the hunt
anyways.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
So my father and I we went out called um that evening
.
We probably seen, I think,three bulls and two cows.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
So we had another good evening of hunting.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Yeah, but you guys weren't guiding anyone that
you're scouting.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
We just did that because we were going to go do
it with the guys anyways.
Yeah, just did that because wewere going to go do it with the
guys anyways, yeah, so wedecided to just go in for
entertainment for us, yeah, anduh anyways decided that we told
them that the next morning uhtook them out Should have come
with us.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Yeah, you told them that, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
So called them up that night, told them about it
Next morning they wanted to comeout.
Of course, of course, yes.
So we went out to the same spotthat we called that evening,
went to the edge of the cut aswe normally do, park way out,
get there an hour early, walkedin, called, no answer.
So I started walking down theroad and trying to act like a
(20:48):
moose walking down the road Callon, call and no answer.
And I got to the end of theroad and it's a really steep
valley down to like anotherbrook at the bottom, whatever.
And uh, all I all I seen wasjust like a black spot about 60
yards down the hill in front ofme oh yeah and so I was like
whoa.
I said I think there's mooseright there.
(21:08):
And anyways, it turned its headand they seen a board go up and
hit the trees.
I said, oh yeah, it's a nicebull.
And all I could see was a blackpatch like the size of a soccer
ball.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
60 yards yeah, that's not too far.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
It's just a steep hill, so and with a lot of
bushes and stuff, yeah.
And I was trying to point it tothe guys Like I got a pretty
funny video of this, actuallylike somebody else video in it
oh yeah I'm like over the guy'sshoulder, like the moose is
right here, 60 yards in front ofus.
Just look for that black spotand then like let your eyes
adjust and you'll be able totell it's a moose.
Yeah, and then, once you figureit out that it's a moose,
(21:43):
figure out where you can put,like the crosshairs, the shoot
at it.
It was about three, fourminutes what they couldn't see
it never seen it.
The guy started losing faith inme, started walking all over
the road like there wasn't amoose there?
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Did you try to explain to him like on the guide
?
Speaker 2 (21:59):
listen to your guide right, I didn't say nothing.
It's not my hunt.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Yeah.
So anyways, I was like, I waslike, just like, all right,
let's walk down into this ditch.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
I would like grab the back of his head and like just
point it in there, Like I'llhave to show you the video of it
after.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
It basically was.
So I, we walked down the ditchlike going real quiet, and the
guy still doesn't believe me.
There's moose there, so he'snot cautious, walks down the
ditch up the other side of itand then I'm standing there
behind like a maple clump, likeyoung maple.
(22:36):
And uh, I like young mabel, yeah, and uh, I could see the moose,
like the full head now, justjust the head, and I could see
the antlers, yeah, and anyways,I was like all right, you see
him.
Now he's like no, no, and allof a sudden you can see a click.
He just throws the gun up tohis shoulder, yeah, and then he
puts it up to his shoulder.
He's like freehand that itthere Trying to get a good shot.
And then I'm sitting therewatching the moose and then the
(22:58):
moose, like sees him throw thegun up Of course, because he
wasn't real subtle about it.
And it looks right up at us andjust takes one step.
And one step that moose isAnother, like couple feet down
the hill, out of our sight.
As soon as that thing goes down, boom, the gun goes off.
I turned around and I knew likeDid the guy think that he hit
(23:22):
it.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
He thought he hit it Really and you knew for sure.
I knew it was a guarantee yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Because the moose wasn't there when he pulled the
trigger.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
He was just shooting through trees.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
You knew for sure, like that didn't even come near
it.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
So, anyways, everybody wanted to see.
I said, well, go look.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
So I walked down to the spot.
You humored them a little bitLike oh, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
So I walked down to the spot.
You can see all the tree budschewed off right where you're
standing.
You can see like where thehoofs like scooped out the dirt
and everything.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Then you like tell them, like I told you, he was
here for a little bit.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Yeah, did you.
You kind of rub it in a littlebit, you guys are kind of idiots
.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
I'm not going to lie.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
At that time you look down the valley.
It was probably about 500, 600yards across the valley.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
So he motored and you could see the moose booking her
.
Yeah, well, he got shot at.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
He was going full tilt and I said well, there he
goes.
He said he's not coming back.
He was a nice bull.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Oh, he was a beautiful bull Really.
Yeah, he was a nice bull.
Oh, he was a beautiful bullReally.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Yeah, it was about the same size as our bull that
we shot Dave for.
Yeah, probably a little bitsmaller, but right around the
same class.
Anyways, nice one.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Yeah, probably like a 14-inch, spread or something.
Yeah, sure, that'd be, reallygood.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
I mean New Brunswick.
With the short season, a cow isa trophy.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Really.
Oh, yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
So anyone listening to this listen to your guide,
because chances are your guide'sa guide for a reason.
Yeah, it's not their first day.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
No, in the woods for a while.
Yes, I spend every day of mylife basically in the woods.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Yeah, you're a forester.
Forestry tech.
Yeah, forest technician, foresttechnician.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Okay, yes, technician yeah, or a technician Okay.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Yeah, so you spend a lot of time in the woods.
But yeah, that's the thing.
It doesn't matter if you're inArizona, nevada or New Brunswick
.
If you're hunting with a guide,your guide's a guide for a
reason.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Trust them.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Yes, trust them, that's right.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Yeah, they do it, they're there.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Oh yeah, so this guy, he me and he was kind of uh,
acting pretty casual like likeyou're like all right, let's
stick up here, and he's likefarting and burping and going on
.
I just like yeah didn't like ohyeah, okay, it's not a moose
year yeah, so he was kind of uhdid he come around to like with
himself, with himself yeah,whatever, and I don't know he's
(25:40):
frustrated.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
He didn't really want to do call on anymore, so he
spent the rest of his daydriving the road sulking.
Yeah, probably he's frustrated.
He didn't really want to docalling anymore, so he spent the
rest of his day driving theroad Sulking.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Yeah, probably he's playing that song.
He's like how could this happento me?
He's like what you think?
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Did he say anything to you after Like oh?
Speaker 1 (25:56):
yeah, I should have listened to you.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
I can't remember what he said.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
No, sorry or anything like that.
No, I didn, he said no sorry oranything like that.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
No, I didn't hear too much about it.
No, okay, yeah, it was one ofthose guys.
Yeah, so they wanted to spendthe rest of their day driving
around pouting.
So, like we, that's not reallyour style.
Another guy took him outdriving the roads and they shot
a cow that evening they did okay, yeah so we went out, helped
them get the cow out of thewoods.
It was a long ways and a cutand it took about probably about
(26:32):
400 yards of cable that we hadin Winchester.
Really yeah, wow it was quite ahard spot to get out.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Yeah, that sounds it Jeez.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Yeah, so at this point he shot his moose.
There was one moose left andthat came down to the final day
of the season.
Final day of season came around.
We went and hunted the spotwhere we shot our moose.
We got there in the morning uh,this guy wasn't like it was the
end of the week.
(27:02):
He didn.
He wasn't really into the huntas much anymore.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
He got there like an hour after shooting light
basically.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
So it's kind of it's still good hunting, but not the
best.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Now why the delay you ?
Couldn't get out of bed or hewouldn't get out of bed.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Just when he showed up, really yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
So he was like he lost faith.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Yeah, basically he figured the hunt was over.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Yeah, Not a sports player, I'm guessing you know
how the team pulls it back.
You see that?
And this guy maybe didn't playsports, he's never experienced
it.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
I wasn't complaining because I like to sleep in yeah.
I was up early that morning,ready because I thought they
would be.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
That he'd be out.
Yeah, of course he got his.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
I walked down to the spot, parked the side-by-side
same spot, started walking downthe road there's a cow balling
right at the same spot and I waslike telling him getting all
hyped up like this, is it Likethis is going to be perfect?
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Giving him the old shoulder massage.
Just sit, man.
This is going to be your day,right.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
So the calls are sounding real good.
I'm walking down this road likeroad being all sneaky.
I'm like turn to my father.
He's like sounds like a person.
And we said the same thing themorning.
We shot our moose.
We were talking to each other.
He's like sounds like aperson's calling and we were
like wow.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
And that is a possibility.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Yeah, we were like that's probably just the cow
again, sounds really good.
Got over the hill, there wastwo guys calling at the end of
that route, so we turned aroundand left and it was like to me.
In my head it was like well,this like season's over for this
guy.
Like yeah, now we gotta travelwho knows where and try to call
(28:37):
a moose out, and it's gettinglater and your gut feeling was
you thought it was people.
Yeah, yeah it sounds so good,yeah, but cows do sound really
good as well sometimes.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Yeah, I can tell.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
So we did the little driving around thing, calling
different areas, and there wasone spot we found we were
driving around really freshtracks on the road.
So we tried calling there a bitno answers.
Called some different valleysparked side by side.
Another spot did one call, gotan answer.
(29:12):
So we were all getting excited.
This is like probably about 10in the morning, so it's getting
later on and anyways, anotheranswer.
It's getting later on and,anyways, another answer.
And so I got up on like a stumpto try to see if I could see
over this cut.
Anyways, I seen something likemoving in the distance.
(29:33):
I was like, oh, I see it,everybody's getting all excited
ready.
I said, oh there, it's a canoepaddle, there's a guy raking the
trees.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
There's somebody else .
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Somebody was raking trees, calling back forth to
each other, yeah, yeah.
It's like what are the odds?
We're like you never see peopleout here.
So we we packed her up again.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
And decided let's spend our day in that spot.
We've seen the fresh tracks.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
It's a good thing you verify many years, final day,
like all right, I'm going toshoot.
You know like it's good becauseI mean it happens.
Oh, it got the heart pumping itwas great.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
So final day we went out, started calling this spot
right around the area.
We seen the fresh tracksprobably around 11 o'clock.
We got answers after callingfor about 20 minutes.
There was two moose down thisvalley.
You would never shoot a moosedown there.
This is all.
(30:29):
Tree Never been not cut ornothing.
If you did shoot a moose downthere you'd probably get it out
next week.
Okay yeah, it'd be a chore.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
It's a tough spot yes .
Speaker 2 (30:39):
So we had to call these moose up the hill.
So we called, called, called,called.
They were answering all timebut not moving.
So anyways, we heard one waybehind us, like just heard like
a small grunt and about an hourof calling getting these ones
answered back trying to coachthem up the hill.
All he hears right behind us,like right behind us probably
(31:04):
about 50 yards, everybody turnstheir focus right around and
we're all standing in the middleof the road, side by sides in
the road, everything.
So we walk up to the edge ofthe road and you just hear whoa.
It didn't sound like a person.
This didn't sound like a person.
You could tell this was a moose, yeah yeah, like it was in the
trees coming through.
You could hear it crashing.
(31:24):
So, anyways, I stood myself ina spot where I could see a small
strip, because it was verythick, and then the guy with the
rifle went down, sat in theditch to the right side of me
and this moose come along, comeright up in front of me, and it
was the biggest moose I've everseen in my life.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Really.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Largest spread ever.
Like it was quite a moose itcome through, walked right
across the path I was lookingdown into the thicket and buddy
down there at the gun did alittle movement trying to get
set up.
Moose stopped dead.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
He caught it.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
It was 10, 15 yards right in front of us wow, so
that moose, in order for thatguy to shoot it would had to be
right in front of him like madehe away basically because it was
quite thick in there and thismoose stood there for so long
that you thought like I imagineit did the thing, walk away and
(32:24):
didn't even notice.
It's probably about close to 10minutes and I'm standing there
like I lost hope.
I was like I don't think themoose is there anymore.
And then the moose turnedaround, finally walked right in
front of this path and thenturned down and started bolting
the other way.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Oh, really, so it caught like wind or something.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Yeah, yeah, turned down and started bolting the
other way, oh really, so itcaught wind or something of us.
And I tell you, when I seen themoose flip its antlers back and
push through those trees, itwas unreal.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Are you telling me, this is the one that got away?
Speaker 2 (32:54):
That's the one that got away.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
No way.
I thought you'd be like justbefore he bolted, but he brought
up the gun and made a perfectshot and just really he got away
.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
So the owner of the Outfitters was standing right
next to me.
He's seen the moose too.
He's blown away by that moose.
I'm sure this year that's wherehe's going to be like that one
for sure.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
I wonder if anyone found his sheds or anything.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
It'd be pretty cool to find them.
I seen a pair of big shedsfound up there three years ago
with the outfitter.
They were crazy.
The guy put it over his backand it was down to his legs like
super long.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
You come across a lot of sheds when you're out in the
woods doing forestry tech stuffNot as much as I should
probably.
Yeah, yeah, I figured you wouldNot as much as I should
probably.
Yeah, yeah, I figured you would.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
But I've got a few moose antlers, like a couple of
deer antlers, but not a wholelot.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
No, no you spend every day out there.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Yeah, Probably moose antlers.
I got around seven or eight orsomething like that.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Yeah, hmm, I suppose you're focusing on your job,
that you know.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
But yeah, depends on the time of year.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
I'm looking for antlers quite a bit, but I mean
it's funny.
I uh last week when I wasfollowing it looked like this
turkey trail in this field.
I'm just walking along like, ohshit, there's a nice you know
buck shed, right, yeah, and Igot that and I was talking to my
buddy, ryan.
He's been on here and ryan wassaying like he was doing
fertilizer, that day must havecovered about 300 acres or more.
And he said he like just thatyou know day or two and he's
(34:27):
never seen a buck shed really ina field.
And he I mean all the corn theyplant inside, all this stuff
never come across.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
When I think you would think you'd find one.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Yeah, I found most of mine just sitting in a field
really but yeah, yeah, he does.
He doesn't all the time hespends too.
So I mean, yeah, it's justweird luck sometimes.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
But yeah, I found.
I found a set one time.
Nine point under an apple treeand one time I found working
just a little deer antler it wason ryan's property, actually,
like oh yeah that's why hedoesn't find them yeah, you're
getting them first.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Uh, oh yeah, I remember hearing about that when
you were looking through to getthe forestry plan done up.
Yeah, yeah, he's going to havea good deer spot out there.
So the guy didn't get one.
I thought this was not going tobe one of those stories Like,
yeah, he pulled it off, you know, we got to.
No, he didn't get it.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Should have got up earlier.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Yeah, there was another spot we had planned for
the evening and this was a spotthat my uncle had found, uh,
quite a few years ago he,because he passed away just in
the past couple years.
So, uh, we wanted to go to thisspot real bad, like my father
did, yeah.
So we went to the spot set upin the evening.
(35:41):
My father sat on one side, uh,looking down one valley with one
guy, and I sat on the otherside looking down another valley
to another guy.
Anyways, we were sitting thereand then, all of a sudden, we
heard boom, boom, boom, becausewe couldn't really see each
other.
We were real close but couldn'tsee each other, just because it
was the knoll or whatever.
And sure enough, they droppedthe moose about 400 yards down
(36:08):
the bottom of this hill, really,yeah, it was the guy that your
dad was with, oh yeah.
So you have second gun stuff orwhatever.
And yeah, they dropped it rightthere.
So anyways, You're just like.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Well, that's going to be a bitch to get out yeah, I
didn't know where it was.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Like I stood up I was like, did you get him?
He's like, yeah, he's layingdown way over there and it it
was like big boulders andeverything, like it's in a rough
spot.
Like every.
We always looked at this placeand always thought like if we
shot a moose here, it would needa helicopter yeah, it would not
be good, but anyways, I said,well, I'll go get my
(36:48):
four-wheelers over at the camp.
So I got my four-wheeler.
I had one guy like trying towalk me a path down, Got down
there and I bought one of thosemoose sleds.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Yes, those are very slick Amazing.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
Yeah, so I hooked the moose in.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
So if somebody asked how would you describe it?
The moose sled.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
It's a big piece of plastic, basically, yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
It's like a heavy, like a heavy duty toboggan,
would you say yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Or crazy carpet, or whatever.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Yes, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
So we used that for quite a few of the moose and
this was the last one.
This was the last take we hadin the camp and it was probably
about 30 minutes before orprobably close to an hour, I
guess, before the hunt was overfor the season, and it took me
probably about half an hour toget the bike down to the bottom
(37:36):
of the moose from the road.
Yeah, it was like just poking myway through and uh, it was a
steep hill up, a lot of rocks, alot of stumps, and we ended up
getting the thing up there witha bike one bike yep one bike.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
Can him 800, 850.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
I'm sorry um he got him out that you took like an
hour yeah, I've just like,because you'd have to like get a
little run for it, get up on aledge, yep, and then you get
another run, get up on anotherledge, get stuck a lot, have to
unpin the moose from the bikeknock the bike up or pull the
(38:14):
moose back onto the sled.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
But it was pretty good, but you made it happen.
Yeah, it was a pretty goodexperience.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
My father wasn't convinced that the Can-am was a
a good purchase.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
But after that you, you should.
I think he liked it a littlebit more, I know, because you
never know, with the belt driveI mean, most bikes are belt
drive.
Now I think it's just hauntedthat has the shaft that you
can't beat um I'll tell you Idid burn up the belt a little
bit you did, yeah, yeah I got amaverick belt on.
It's a little heavier, but okay,yeah, yeah, that would do it.
(38:46):
Um, yeah, so, like you said,the beginning, short season,
long week, it's a long week,sounds it yeah yeah, you guys
said, but you had a good oneyeah, it was every year.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
It's a good year, like, yeah, you can't beat it.
Uh, it's a great time.
By the end of it, you want togo home for sure, yeah yeah, I
mean to our moose season fallson um hurricane season here.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Basically new brunswick's got a uh small
hurricane season that we get thetail.
I mean we call it the hurricane, we get the tail end of
whatever the hell florida gets,or things like that.
But I mean, it can usually giveus a bit of a thrashing, and
that seems to be when mooseseason.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
I think three years ago there was quite a good
hurricane in the last few days.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
Yeah, so it's a tough week, or it's really hot, or
the bugs are so bad andeverything.
Yeah, so you guys, you made ithappen.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Yeah, it was the perfect season.
Yeah, it really was.
It wasn't pouring rain thewhole season.
It wasn't pouring rain thewhole season.
It wasn't blistering hot mostof the time either.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Yeah, so you guys got big plans for this year.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
to top it, well, we're going to go after that big
fella yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
Yeah, hope that he's still kicking around.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Hopefully Nobody should have shot him yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
So he's smart though.
Yeah, he almost slipped up.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
You guys were close.
Yeah, If I had a rifle in myhand I could have shot him.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
Yeah.
So your takeaway from thisseason was, you know, listen to
your guide, I guess, is the bigone.
Yeah, what'd you say?
And that the Can-Amfour-wheelers are capable of the
belt, drive bikes and get thosebig boys out.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
Yeah, fell in love with the bike right there.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
Yeah, yeah, it paid off, um, and then yeah, so then
you you're guiding uh for thesame outfitter.
Uh, what do you guys next weekfor bear?
Speaker 2 (40:31):
uh at the end of the month end of may.
At the end of may yeah, andthen the second week of june
because you find that's when therut here kicks off.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Yeah, pretty good, seems to be a pretty good time
like that's probably the besttime to hunt them where we do oh
yeah, yeah, end of may, earlyjune yeah, for the, for the
spring season anyways yeah, Ifind once the uh well, I mean I
haven't had much hitting mybaits and then, uh, the bugs got
bad yesterday.
Yeah, like you hear differentpeople say, once the bugs get
(41:02):
bad, yeah, the bear hunting getsbetter.
And uh, sure as shit went inyesterday and the bear had tore
up the bait and everything andhe was in there yeah that must
have been that morning, so, andI pulled my camera out of there
because I was putting it up indifferent areas for turkeys,
because our turkey season startson monday, and uh, so I didn't
get what was going on, but Ifound the plug like he had his
you know butt plug in there, anduh, anyways, I think it was the
(41:26):
bears yeah, that nosy neighborno, um, but uh, yeah, he had his
plug in there and all that, sohe's.
Uh, yeah, I got.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
I moved the camera to there now, so yeah, probably
ready to hunt there pretty soon,yeah yeah, um.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Yes, as soon as the bugs get bad and they were bad
yesterday, yeah, so that reallygets things going.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
It really started up yesterday and today they started
biting quite a bit.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
Yeah, I know I was happy when the wind picked up.
Yeah, that saved the day to bea little more enjoyable.
But yes, how many guys?
So your first group of huntersthat are coming in for the bear
hunt?
I think?
Speaker 2 (42:02):
there's supposed to be six.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Six.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
And you said they're from.
New Hampshire Scattered allover around New England.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
States yeah.
Vermont area Okay yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
And then the second group.
I can't remember where they'recoming from.
It might be the same guys fromFlorida from last year, but I oh
yeah, from Florida.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
Really they were really good fellows.
Oh, yeah, yeah, huh liketalking with them.
Yeah, yeah, I know it's cool.
Like you know, when I went downto florida on a boar hunt wild
boar hunt that was really cool.
But uh, them coming up here tohunt bear or black bear, they
think you know that's equally ascool really them.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
Like these guys, they actually owned like a deer farm
oh yeah they and they're usedto shooting like big bucks.
They traveled to ohio andshooting like a deer farm.
Oh yeah, they and they used toshoot in like big bucks.
They traveled to ohio and shootlike on deer there and they
said they would pass up shootinglike 150 inch deer, 200 inch
deer, any day to come for a bearhunt really yeah, they said
(42:57):
they don't get a rush like doing.
It was their first bear huntever, so yeah, yeah so.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
See, I mean here in New Brunswick we can residents
and on residents you can legallyshoot two bear a year and then,
if you look at the statisticsand all that and the numbers,
residents don't take advantageof that whatsoever, oh no, and
non-residents do.
But I mean, it's like us goingdown, me going down to Florida,
and hunting wild boar, likeright pumped up about it, like
(43:29):
hunting wild boar, like rightpumped up about it, like this is
awesome, but they, you know,probably feel the same way,
something they've never donebefore, yeah, yeah.
And then they come here andthey're all that crazy.
But this bear that you know, wedefinitely could shoot more and
do our perks.
I mean, the bear population isuh, I say it's more than healthy
to say the least really they'rea little slower moving this
year.
I think that's just because thegrass is slow and it's still in
cooler nights and stuff.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
I think by the end of the month it's going to be
really good.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Yeah, because there's a pile of bear around.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
So your hunters are in for a treat.
I definitely agree that they'reslower this year.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
Yeah, everyone I've talked to people have had I mean
, the baits that I have thisyear are brand new but people I
know that have had the same bearbait five, six years in a row.
It was slow.
It was slow kicking things off.
So, yeah, jesse, thanks forcoming out.
We'll have you again.
We'll do another trivia nightsoon, that we'll have you out on
stuff, and that was good.
I've been waiting to hear thismoose story Because you alluded
(44:21):
to it a little bit the othernight and I was like, well, just
wait, just wait, we're going todo a podcast, I want to hear
all about it.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
So glad I could tell you it.
Yes, yeah, it was good, and, uh, I'm sure you'll be back on to
tell about this year's newseason.
So, yeah, all right, thanks.
this is hunts on outfitting podcast.
I'm your host and rookie guide,ken mara.
I love everything, hunting, theoutdoors and all things
associated with it.
Stories to how to's you'll findit here.
Welcome to the podcast.
Hey, thanks for listening in tothis podcast.
(00:32):
We're happy to have youlistening in, as always.
Also, if you guys had the time,it'd be great to leave a rating
or review on Apple or Spotify.
It's much appreciated.
So this week on the podcast weare talking to forestry
technician extraordinaire JesseEls.
Jesse is a past guest of thepodcast, talking about some
(00:54):
guiding before for bear and alsotrivia.
He's been on this week, though.
Jesse is recapping his 2024moose season, and it was a great
one.
He's got some awesome stories.
He talks about going with hisdad, whose dad has waited 20
years to win the lottery to gethis moose tag.
He gets it.
They make it happen spoileralert, but it's a great story to
(01:17):
go with it, and not only that.
They then get out, hammer downand start guiding.
This is only a five-day seasonand they make the most of it and
they do a great job, and well,I'll let Jesse tell you.
So, jesse, thanks again forcoming out.
You were here last year on thepodcast and you were here for
(01:38):
the bear hunting trivia.
If someone hasn't listened tothat, go check it out.
Jesse, you guys ended upwinning, but it's interesting.
So, when you're not startingnew chapters for Delta Waterfowl
, you guide bear and you guidemoose, and last year you guys
you and your dad had a greatyear.
You ended up well, I'll let youtell it.
(01:59):
You guys had a good mooseseason.
You got yours and you gotguiding.
Speaker 2 (02:05):
Yeah, we had seven tags in the camp and we filled
seven tags.
Seven, yeah, so it was a busyweek.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
So, jesse, you're hunting, you're guiding in new
brunswick, canada, yeah uh,northern brunswick, which is in
brunswick up by mount carltonarea, christmas mountains that
area okay, yeah, yeah, so it'sso in the middle of nowhere.
I mean walk me through.
You know who got their tag yourdad, yeah, my father got his
(02:29):
tag after 20 years of applying20 years.
Speaker 2 (02:32):
So in New Brunswick it's a lottery system, yeah, and
once you hit the 20-year markwith no tag, you're pretty much
a guarantee.
Speaker 1 (02:39):
That's crazy, though, and then you know you and I
both know people that it seemslike they get theirs every five.
If that, oh yeah it's crazy.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
Every year he was hoping to get it, and then this
was his milestone 20 years.
So he had the max amount ofballots into the draw.
Yeah, so we kind of knew it wasgoing to happen this year.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Let's see, I find that hard.
Uh, it's hard, you know, whenthey go hunting it's all about
the experience and it's notabout the kill and all that.
You wait 20 years to getsomething.
You want to kill it.
Oh yeah, you know.
So it puts so much pressure on,I find that the hunt can be
harder to enjoy.
I know when I went on my moosehunt with my uncle because, I
mean, you never know, it couldbe another 20 years before you
get your tag again.
Speaker 2 (03:25):
You kind of don't of that pressure.
I find For us it's nice that weget to guide every year,
because we definitely got theexperience.
And you're around the moose andaround the moose, we got to go
through hunts for quite a fewyears now.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
Sure.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
So once we got our tag, we pretty much kind of knew
how to run a moose hunt.
Speaker 1 (03:42):
You got each other, yeah, yeah, so walk me through
that.
So you guys knew he got his tag, you knew that.
You guys knew you're going tobe guiding, so you're like, all
right, how are we going tojuggle all this?
Because here in new brunswickit used to be a three-day season
, now it's five, yeah, um, whichis still relatively short
compared to some places in thestates and you know this and
that, and even Canada.
Speaker 2 (04:05):
It's a short season, but it's a long week.
Yes, when you're out there thewhole week, it's a long week.
Well put, jesse.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
Very well put.
Yeah, you've practiced sayingthat before because you've lived
it.
So what were you guys thinkingLike?
All right, you guys had an idea.
You weren't guiding and huntingyourselves in the same area.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
So last, the season before he got his tag, we were
guiding moose, so we were outthere the week of the moose hunt
and we got to go check out,like lots of spots, and I found
one spot.
I marked it on my maps.
We knew that my father would begetting his moose tag the next
year.
It was pretty much a guarantee.
So I like, I really liked thisspot, it was perfect, which I
(04:45):
guarantee.
So I like I really liked thisspot, it was perfect.
So once he got his tag drawn,first thing I said I said we're
going to shoot a moose down atthe spot we found last season.
So we went down there probablythree weeks before the season
opened up and set out a camera.
We put salt blocks out in thespring and everything.
And then check the camera theday before the hunt, two days
before the hunt, and there weresome bulls, lots of cows,
(05:07):
everything.
So we knew that it was goodenough to hunt.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
we're gonna try her out.
It's game time, see you.
So the season starts in uh,september yeah, I think it was
september 24th you guys put saltblocks out in the spring.
Yeah, so you guys were.
You guys were planning it out.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Yeah, long in advance oh yeah, okay, we knew we were
going to be hunting the area, soyou want to get, you want to do
a little bit of inventory oh,yeah, I guess it doesn't like.
Putting cameras out for moosedoesn't do anything for you
except give you a littleexcitement like, yeah, you don't
see those moose in the season.
Honestly, yeah, it doesn'thappen.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
You finally, try you find they once they're running,
they're going around everywhere,yeah yeah, well, it's like you
and I talking about uh, you knowwe're just talking about turkey
season.
You know, the turkeys, everyonesee these big flocks and all
that and right now our seasonstarts in three, four days and
the turkeys are completelyspread out.
They're completelyunpredictable right now.
They're just everywhere becausethey're running right now and,
(06:04):
uh, it's anybody's guess wherethey're going to pop up and
start gobbling.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah, they could be anywhere.
Speaker 1 (06:09):
Yeah, so it's similar to moose.
Yeah, I've heard a lot ofpeople compare turkey hunting to
moose hunting, Calling theinteracting, or they call it a
poor man's elk hunt, I guess,but I think that's because more
people hunt elk than moose.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
But same idea?
Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1 (06:26):
So he got his tag and you guys knew the area, so you
guys were hunting a swamp area.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
It was actually a clear like there was three
different clear cuts and thenthis center section that was
made for a buffer for a smallbrook, so it was 30 meters
basically both sides and thatwas just like a gateway for the
moose to access all these clearcuts.
Yeah so anyways, it was aperfect funnel, perfect
situation.
(06:52):
You park down the hill, youwalk up the hill and then you're
basically on top looking downand calling into this valley,
and then at the next hill overit was provincial park so nobody
could hunt the north side of it.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
So you're basically you've got the whole area.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Yeah, yeah, Huh.
So were you guys hunting out ofa blind or you guys were kind
of spot in stock?
Speaker 2 (07:21):
We talked about putting blinds up.
We kind of made a makeshiftblind in the woods but I kind of
knew we weren't going to beusing that.
I I figured we weren't going tobe using it you're going to be
walking and calling.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
Yeah, yeah, is that how you guide yeah most?
Speaker 2 (07:34):
of the time we go and we walk into a spot, kind of
sit at the edge of the cut orwhatever call over it and then
try to get the moose out infront of us.
Yeah, some places we got standsbut don't use them very much
okay, yeah, that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
You guys want to keep it uh, versatile yeah, for sure
um.
So what are you guys shootingfor guns?
Speaker 2 (07:54):
so I had a seven mil rem mag.
It's a browning x bolt nice anduh, father had a trophy.
I don't know who makes it.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah, it's like a custom-built gun.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
Yep, what caliber.
Speaker 2 (08:10):
It's a .300 Win Mag.
Okay, yeah, perfect, moose guns, pretty big guns yeah yeah, all
right, so walk me through.
Speaker 1 (08:18):
You guys were scouting, you knew roughly.
I mean the moose that you guysshot, was it on camera?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
knew roughly I mean the moose that you got shot.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Was it on camera?
No, never had.
Okay, all right really.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah, even after having the cameras out that long
, we had probably about honestlythree different bulls on camera
, so it didn't look good yeahlike with the trail cameras
didn't look good like a goodspot well, three bulls, though
it's not yeah bad, but oh yeahyeah and uh.
So basically the way we play thehunt the morning of the morning
, we get out there about an hourearly before the sun comes up.
(08:50):
We had, uh, two side-by-sidesUh.
We drove into the spot, parkedabout three, 400 meters away
from the area we're going tohunt, yep, and then parked there
, got out of the side the sideby sides and just stood around
and listened.
So right away we heard a mooselike to the left, probably about
(09:12):
15, 20 yards in the cut stormoff that close, yeah, like it
was a nice bull.
You could hear the stickshitting the boards and stuff.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Really, oh yeah, wow, you guys were that close to him
.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
That close Accidentally Mo and stuff.
Really oh yeah.
Wow, you guys were that closeto them, that close Accidentally
Moose up, there are like micebasically.
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (09:29):
They're everywhere.
So then we started justlistening to that moose go off.
We could hear a cow down at thespot where we wanted to get to,
right in the bottom of thevalley.
She was bawling and there wasbulls everywhere Trying to call
at her.
Yeah, you hear them all goingtowards her.
So then about half an hourbefore like legal shooting time,
(09:53):
we started to walk super slowover there because it was kind
of fire, but not that bad, yeah.
So, anyways, legal light comesup.
We're just about to crest overthe hill to go down to the
valley and, uh, we hear most tothe right side of the road.
We all stop.
You can hear walking around.
(10:14):
Anyways, I didn't hear no, no,like boards or nothing hitting
the trees.
Everybody's like standing therelooking at it.
And then I was like, well,let's keep going and I'll tell
you if people that are not usedto hunting up there, it's hard
to leave that moose.
Yeah, like it really is.
But you could hear a bunch ofmoose down the valley.
(10:35):
So we kept on going, probablymade about 50 yards, another
moose on their left side of theroad, walking in the bushes.
This time you could hear theantlers here like dinging off
the trees and stuff.
So we kind of stood there for abit and that cow kept on
bawling, kept on bawling and themoose were just like going to
(10:57):
her quite quickly and we had toget there, cut them off so that
moose wasn't coming up the road,it was going down the cut.
So I said, well, let's getgoing, let's get in front of
this thing and it's going tocome across the road to get to
her.
So we got down to thatintersection and there was a cow
standing on the road down there, just a small one.
(11:17):
I looked at her for a bit.
She walked off the road rightin the perfect spot where our
camera was.
She walked off the road rightin the perfect spot where our
camera was.
It was probably about a minute.
I had nothing going on.
You could hear moose walking inthe trees and stuff, and then
you could hear a bull comingthrough, grunting, just coming
(11:40):
on the left side of the road,and, anyways, was to stand there
, had the rifles ready.
We were just waiting to see himpop up and then, right behind
us, that moose that we heardcoming through on the way by
started to catch up to us and hewas going to cross the road
right because we were on a Tintersection.
He was about to cross the roadthere and he was coming on us
real fast.
(12:01):
So I turned around and all Iseen was one board.
Speaker 1 (12:05):
You knew like this is a good bull, just on that one
board, oh yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
I'd just seen the board and I turned around,
pointed the gun that way, forgotabout the other moose.
And then my father come rightnext to me and it was like a
slope down the road.
So I said man, we've got to getdown there about 20 feet or
whatever, because it was kind ofa bad shot where we were at.
So we walked down the road alittle bit, set up.
(12:32):
This moose was coming and rightat that time you could see like
just the head and the boards.
It's pretty nice moose.
And so my father told me hesaid it's your choice if we're
going to shoot moose or not.
Anyways, I said yeah, it's yourchoice if we're going to shoot
moose or not.
Anyways, I said yeah, it's ashooter.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (12:47):
So, anyways, the thing come out broadside and, uh
, he told me take the shot.
He wanted me to take.
Speaker 1 (12:56):
The first shot he said put it right through the
lungs and then I'll do the rest,like I've waited 20 years for
this, so don't miss yeah, yeah,so I was pretty confident in my
gun yeah and it was about 60yards away at this time.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
So I said, all right, got it lined up.
As soon as it walked out, likenothing in the way, put it right
through the lungs and we openedfire.
It was like a war zone oh yeah,we were like 20 minutes into
the hunt, like maximum, yeah,anyways, I had three shells in
my gun, he had four and uh, youguys were empty and we were
(13:29):
empty.
If I had another one, I wouldhave put in it.
I tried, I mean, that's what.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Because remember, when I was with my uncle on the
moose hunt, I was told just keepshooting until they're down.
I mean they are big and thefurther they go.
I remember him and I did theold one, two, three right shot
and it was a good shot.
We found out later.
We did hit him in the heart andit took off reloaded and just
shit luck and a hair trigger andI popped him right behind the
(13:55):
ear yeah and that piled him upthere.
But I mean, yeah, because I wastold that just keep shooting.
If he went, say, another 50yards, I bet you would have
added almost an hour to gettinghim out, because it was so it
was so wet?
Speaker 2 (14:07):
definitely right.
That's why you want to get himdown as quick as possible you
guys did that.
You guys were just so yeah,first shot I put through the
lungs and then I was so excitedjust start shooting, basically,
yeah, I didn't know like.
I was aimed at the neck, I wasaimed for the shoulder, I was
going for everything yeah andthen, uh, so my grandfather was
behind me, my uncle, uh, it wasa, actually a family event.
(14:28):
We put on like, yeah, threegenerations there, yeah and uh,
anyways, grandfather's in theback, stop shoot, stop shoot
ceasefire yeah, the moose wasfalling over and we're still
shooting at him yeah I putanother, I put the scope up on
the back of his neck, and then Ididn't have another bullet, so
it went click really yeah, Imean your dad waiting as long as
(14:51):
he's did for the tag.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
You guys were like it's not getting away no I,
we're piling it up.
Speaker 2 (14:57):
First shot would have killed it.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
But why take that chance?
Speaker 2 (15:00):
So then, we had a nice celebration there A bunch
of hugs and a road.
I'm sure the people on the nextmountain over thought we were
crazy.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
Thinking you guys had about 10 moves piled up.
Speaker 2 (15:14):
All the shots and then a little bit of scream and
celebrating I thought you'resighting in your guns the day of
yeah, yeah.
So it was a pretty specialmoment to have, like absolutely
yeah, yeah and then we went overto the moose uh, checked him
out.
It was pretty, pretty nicerealized it was indeed a moose,
thankfully yeah, pretty nicebully piled up like right on the
(15:35):
edge of the woods.
So yeah we could drive the sideby side right into them
actually that's helpful yeah,because that's the big thing.
Speaker 1 (15:42):
Some people don't realize how hard it is to get
these things out.
You know you got like what?
14, 1500 pound live weightmoves it's uh that's a pole.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Yeah, he dressed out to exactly 900 did he?
Speaker 1 (15:56):
yeah, that's a big one, yeah he was pretty big.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
He was the second largest weight at the camp
actually oh really, yeah, wowyeah, there the other largest
one moose yeah I think thespread on it was oh, I can't
remember.
I want to say it was likeprobably around 15 spread on it.
Okay, I think it was a littleover.
So it was a large moose, yeah,yeah and it, uh, it weighed
(16:20):
about six pounds more.
Speaker 1 (16:22):
Oh really, yeah, six pounds, yeah, well, you know,
every pound counts.
Speaker 2 (16:27):
Um, and that's with the rocks in it but uh, yeah,
actually, Actually those guysdon't clean up their moose very
well.
Speaker 1 (16:33):
No, Well, there you go.
So it was great, you know, youguys, first morning, 20 years,
20 minutes in 20 shots orwhatever and it was great family
events and you guys werehigh-fiving, hooting and
hollering, awesome.
And then you and your dadlooked at each other like all
right now the rest of the seasonbegins for us.
Speaker 2 (16:53):
Now we can go have some fun.
Yeah, because the hunt'sstressful.
Speaker 1 (16:56):
Yes, so who do you guide for, jesse?
You guys, your dad guides aswell, yep we guide for Lakeville
Outfitters.
Speaker 2 (17:05):
Yep, and that's who I help guide bears and moose and
everything.
So that day we spent the daycleaning up the moose.
We quartered it up.
My father built a portablefreezer or whatever, yeah, so we
hung the moose in that and thenmy uncle took the moose back
(17:25):
home and then so we could startgetting it all done up Like we
did the whole moose.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
We grabbed it all ourselves.
Yeah, if you could do ityourself, that's best.
It saves a ton of money.
It saves a ton of money in thebutcher shops.
Speaker 2 (17:37):
Some of them fill up quick oh yeah, and you have to
reserve it.
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yeah, oh yeah season and then, yeah, it costs a
fortune.
Speaker 2 (17:43):
Yeah, you know so so my father and I decide we're
gonna stick around because wehelp guide and we definitely
wanted to help out the outfitter.
So the first day we justrelaxed.
We were pretty tired.
Second morning slept in becausewe had quite a few early
mornings, because we were doingscouting days before going
calling moose and all that stuff.
(18:06):
So later on the afternoon wewere helping everybody drag
moose out, because second day ofthe season is another busy day.
Everybody's getting moose thatday.
Season is another busy day.
Yeah, Everybody's getting moosethat day.
And by Wednesday a lot of theguys are basically out of the
woods.
So there was one guy that wewere supposed to guide or help
(18:27):
guide.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
He still had a tag.
He'd never seen a moose yet inhis hunt.
So we offered to take him outthe evening and go call him.
So we took him out in theafternoon.
As you know, hunting in theafternoon is not great.
Speaker 1 (18:45):
No, especially for a big black animal that.
It's and it's hot, yeah, Duringmoose season, and it runs.
It's either two things it'seither blistering hot, yeah, or
it and it runs.
It's either two things it'seither blistering hot or it's
pouring rain.
Yep, that's how it works.
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
So the moose, you don't see them in the in the
afternoon, hardly at all.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
No.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Um, so we just tried calling, no luck.
Uh, it was about an hour and ahalf, two hours before dark.
We were going to go call a spotthat I saved because I knew it
was a good area.
We shot moose there last yearand I knew we had already called
moose out there before the huntand stuff.
Speaker 1 (19:19):
Now you guys still hunting like clear cuts and
stuff, or you're hunting morebog, or this is all clear cuts.
We're in pretty high countryhere, yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Like some, some areas out there.
We do hunt bogs, but we didn'tthis past season For some reason
.
The moose just weren't there.
They were in the cuts a lot.
So anyways, at that time theguy decided he wanted to go
drive the evening.
So we're like all right, noproblem.
Speaker 1 (19:43):
You were guiding a resident, yeah, resident, okay,
yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
So he wanted to go drive.
He had the guy there that didall the driving.
That's all he did for the firstcouple of days of the hunt
anyways.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
So my father and I we went out called um that evening
.
We probably seen, I think,three bulls and two cows.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
So we had another good evening of hunting.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Yeah, but you guys weren't guiding anyone that
you're scouting.
Speaker 2 (20:10):
We just did that because we were going to go do
it with the guys anyways.
Yeah, just did that because wewere going to go do it with the
guys anyways, yeah, so wedecided to just go in for
entertainment for us, yeah, anduh anyways decided that we told
them that the next morning uhtook them out Should have come
with us.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Yeah, you told them that, yeah.
Speaker 2 (20:26):
So called them up that night, told them about it
Next morning they wanted to comeout.
Of course, of course, yes.
So we went out to the same spotthat we called that evening,
went to the edge of the cut aswe normally do, park way out,
get there an hour early, walkedin, called, no answer.
So I started walking down theroad and trying to act like a
(20:48):
moose walking down the road Callon, call and no answer.
And I got to the end of theroad and it's a really steep
valley down to like anotherbrook at the bottom, whatever.
And uh, all I all I seen wasjust like a black spot about 60
yards down the hill in front ofme oh yeah and so I was like
whoa.
I said I think there's mooseright there.
(21:08):
And anyways, it turned its headand they seen a board go up and
hit the trees.
I said, oh yeah, it's a nicebull.
And all I could see was a blackpatch like the size of a soccer
ball.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
60 yards yeah, that's not too far.
Speaker 2 (21:21):
It's just a steep hill, so and with a lot of
bushes and stuff, yeah.
And I was trying to point it tothe guys Like I got a pretty
funny video of this, actuallylike somebody else video in it
oh yeah I'm like over the guy'sshoulder, like the moose is
right here, 60 yards in front ofus.
Just look for that black spotand then like let your eyes
adjust and you'll be able totell it's a moose.
Yeah, and then, once you figureit out that it's a moose,
(21:43):
figure out where you can put,like the crosshairs, the shoot
at it.
It was about three, fourminutes what they couldn't see
it never seen it.
The guy started losing faith inme, started walking all over
the road like there wasn't amoose there?
Speaker 1 (21:58):
Did you try to explain to him like on the guide
?
Speaker 2 (21:59):
listen to your guide right, I didn't say nothing.
It's not my hunt.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Yeah.
So anyways, I was like, I waslike, just like, all right,
let's walk down into this ditch.
Speaker 1 (22:11):
I would like grab the back of his head and like just
point it in there, Like I'llhave to show you the video of it
after.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
It basically was.
So I, we walked down the ditchlike going real quiet, and the
guy still doesn't believe me.
There's moose there, so he'snot cautious, walks down the
ditch up the other side of itand then I'm standing there
behind like a maple clump, likeyoung maple.
(22:36):
And uh, I like young mabel, yeah, and uh, I could see the moose,
like the full head now, justjust the head, and I could see
the antlers, yeah, and anyways,I was like all right, you see
him.
Now he's like no, no, and allof a sudden you can see a click.
He just throws the gun up tohis shoulder, yeah, and then he
puts it up to his shoulder.
He's like freehand that itthere Trying to get a good shot.
And then I'm sitting therewatching the moose and then the
(22:58):
moose, like sees him throw thegun up Of course, because he
wasn't real subtle about it.
And it looks right up at us andjust takes one step.
And one step that moose isAnother, like couple feet down
the hill, out of our sight.
As soon as that thing goes down, boom, the gun goes off.
I turned around and I knew likeDid the guy think that he hit
(23:22):
it.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
He thought he hit it Really and you knew for sure.
I knew it was a guarantee yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
Because the moose wasn't there when he pulled the
trigger.
Speaker 1 (23:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:30):
He was just shooting through trees.
Speaker 1 (23:32):
You knew for sure, like that didn't even come near
it.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
So, anyways, everybody wanted to see.
I said, well, go look.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
So I walked down to the spot.
You humored them a little bitLike oh, okay, yeah.
Speaker 2 (23:44):
So I walked down to the spot.
You can see all the tree budschewed off right where you're
standing.
You can see like where thehoofs like scooped out the dirt
and everything.
Speaker 1 (23:52):
Then you like tell them, like I told you, he was
here for a little bit.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
Yeah, did you.
You kind of rub it in a littlebit, you guys are kind of idiots
.
Speaker 1 (24:02):
I'm not going to lie.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
At that time you look down the valley.
It was probably about 500, 600yards across the valley.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
So he motored and you could see the moose booking her
.
Yeah, well, he got shot at.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
He was going full tilt and I said well, there he
goes.
He said he's not coming back.
He was a nice bull.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
Oh, he was a beautiful bull Really.
Yeah, he was a nice bull.
Oh, he was a beautiful bullReally.
Speaker 2 (24:22):
Yeah, it was about the same size as our bull that
we shot Dave for.
Yeah, probably a little bitsmaller, but right around the
same class.
Anyways, nice one.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
Yeah, probably like a 14-inch, spread or something.
Yeah, sure, that'd be, reallygood.
Speaker 2 (24:37):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
I mean New Brunswick.
With the short season, a cow isa trophy.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
Really.
Oh, yeah, you know.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
So anyone listening to this listen to your guide,
because chances are your guide'sa guide for a reason.
Yeah, it's not their first day.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
No, in the woods for a while.
Yes, I spend every day of mylife basically in the woods.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
Yeah, you're a forester.
Forestry tech.
Yeah, forest technician, foresttechnician.
Speaker 2 (24:58):
Okay, yes, technician yeah, or a technician Okay.
Speaker 1 (25:00):
Yeah, so you spend a lot of time in the woods.
But yeah, that's the thing.
It doesn't matter if you're inArizona, nevada or New Brunswick
.
If you're hunting with a guide,your guide's a guide for a
reason.
Speaker 2 (25:10):
Trust them.
Speaker 1 (25:11):
Yes, trust them, that's right.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
Yeah, they do it, they're there.
Speaker 1 (25:17):
Oh yeah, so this guy, he me and he was kind of uh,
acting pretty casual like likeyou're like all right, let's
stick up here, and he's likefarting and burping and going on
.
I just like yeah didn't like ohyeah, okay, it's not a moose
year yeah, so he was kind of uhdid he come around to like with
himself, with himself yeah,whatever, and I don't know he's
(25:40):
frustrated.
Speaker 2 (25:40):
He didn't really want to do call on anymore, so he
spent the rest of his daydriving the road sulking.
Yeah, probably he's frustrated.
He didn't really want to docalling anymore, so he spent the
rest of his day driving theroad Sulking.
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Yeah, probably he's playing that song.
He's like how could this happento me?
He's like what you think?
Speaker 2 (25:55):
Did he say anything to you after Like oh?
Speaker 1 (25:56):
yeah, I should have listened to you.
Speaker 2 (25:58):
I can't remember what he said.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
No, sorry or anything like that.
No, I didn, he said no sorry oranything like that.
Speaker 2 (26:09):
No, I didn't hear too much about it.
No, okay, yeah, it was one ofthose guys.
Yeah, so they wanted to spendthe rest of their day driving
around pouting.
So, like we, that's not reallyour style.
Another guy took him outdriving the roads and they shot
a cow that evening they did okay, yeah so we went out, helped
them get the cow out of thewoods.
It was a long ways and a cutand it took about probably about
(26:32):
400 yards of cable that we hadin Winchester.
Really yeah, wow it was quite ahard spot to get out.
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Yeah, that sounds it Jeez.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
Yeah, so at this point he shot his moose.
There was one moose left andthat came down to the final day
of the season.
Final day of season came around.
We went and hunted the spotwhere we shot our moose.
We got there in the morning uh,this guy wasn't like it was the
end of the week.
(27:02):
He didn.
He wasn't really into the huntas much anymore.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
He got there like an hour after shooting light
basically.
Speaker 2 (27:09):
So it's kind of it's still good hunting, but not the
best.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
Now why the delay you ?
Couldn't get out of bed or hewouldn't get out of bed.
Speaker 2 (27:18):
Just when he showed up, really yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
So he was like he lost faith.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
Yeah, basically he figured the hunt was over.
Speaker 1 (27:23):
Yeah, Not a sports player, I'm guessing you know
how the team pulls it back.
You see that?
And this guy maybe didn't playsports, he's never experienced
it.
Speaker 2 (27:30):
I wasn't complaining because I like to sleep in yeah.
I was up early that morning,ready because I thought they
would be.
Speaker 1 (27:35):
That he'd be out.
Yeah, of course he got his.
Speaker 2 (27:39):
I walked down to the spot, parked the side-by-side
same spot, started walking downthe road there's a cow balling
right at the same spot and I waslike telling him getting all
hyped up like this, is it Likethis is going to be perfect?
Speaker 1 (27:54):
Giving him the old shoulder massage.
Just sit, man.
This is going to be your day,right.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
So the calls are sounding real good.
I'm walking down this road likeroad being all sneaky.
I'm like turn to my father.
He's like sounds like a person.
And we said the same thing themorning.
We shot our moose.
We were talking to each other.
He's like sounds like aperson's calling and we were
like wow.
Speaker 1 (28:15):
And that is a possibility.
Speaker 2 (28:17):
Yeah, we were like that's probably just the cow
again, sounds really good.
Got over the hill, there wastwo guys calling at the end of
that route, so we turned aroundand left and it was like to me.
In my head it was like well,this like season's over for this
guy.
Like yeah, now we gotta travelwho knows where and try to call
(28:37):
a moose out, and it's gettinglater and your gut feeling was
you thought it was people.
Yeah, yeah it sounds so good,yeah, but cows do sound really
good as well sometimes.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
Yeah, I can tell.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
So we did the little driving around thing, calling
different areas, and there wasone spot we found we were
driving around really freshtracks on the road.
So we tried calling there a bitno answers.
Called some different valleysparked side by side.
Another spot did one call, gotan answer.
(29:12):
So we were all getting excited.
This is like probably about 10in the morning, so it's getting
later on and anyways, anotheranswer.
It's getting later on and,anyways, another answer.
And so I got up on like a stumpto try to see if I could see
over this cut.
Anyways, I seen something likemoving in the distance.
(29:33):
I was like, oh, I see it,everybody's getting all excited
ready.
I said, oh there, it's a canoepaddle, there's a guy raking the
trees.
Speaker 1 (29:42):
There's somebody else .
Speaker 2 (29:44):
Somebody was raking trees, calling back forth to
each other, yeah, yeah.
It's like what are the odds?
We're like you never see peopleout here.
So we we packed her up again.
Speaker 1 (29:53):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (29:53):
And decided let's spend our day in that spot.
We've seen the fresh tracks.
Speaker 1 (29:56):
It's a good thing you verify many years, final day,
like all right, I'm going toshoot.
You know like it's good becauseI mean it happens.
Oh, it got the heart pumping itwas great.
Speaker 2 (30:09):
So final day we went out, started calling this spot
right around the area.
We seen the fresh tracksprobably around 11 o'clock.
We got answers after callingfor about 20 minutes.
There was two moose down thisvalley.
You would never shoot a moosedown there.
This is all.
(30:29):
Tree Never been not cut ornothing.
If you did shoot a moose downthere you'd probably get it out
next week.
Okay yeah, it'd be a chore.
Speaker 1 (30:37):
It's a tough spot yes .
Speaker 2 (30:39):
So we had to call these moose up the hill.
So we called, called, called,called.
They were answering all timebut not moving.
So anyways, we heard one waybehind us, like just heard like
a small grunt and about an hourof calling getting these ones
answered back trying to coachthem up the hill.
All he hears right behind us,like right behind us probably
(31:04):
about 50 yards, everybody turnstheir focus right around and
we're all standing in the middleof the road, side by sides in
the road, everything.
So we walk up to the edge ofthe road and you just hear whoa.
It didn't sound like a person.
This didn't sound like a person.
You could tell this was a moose, yeah yeah, like it was in the
trees coming through.
You could hear it crashing.
(31:24):
So, anyways, I stood myself ina spot where I could see a small
strip, because it was verythick, and then the guy with the
rifle went down, sat in theditch to the right side of me
and this moose come along, comeright up in front of me, and it
was the biggest moose I've everseen in my life.
Speaker 1 (31:46):
Really.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Largest spread ever.
Like it was quite a moose itcome through, walked right
across the path I was lookingdown into the thicket and buddy
down there at the gun did alittle movement trying to get
set up.
Moose stopped dead.
Speaker 1 (32:02):
He caught it.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
It was 10, 15 yards right in front of us wow, so
that moose, in order for thatguy to shoot it would had to be
right in front of him like madehe away basically because it was
quite thick in there and thismoose stood there for so long
that you thought like I imagineit did the thing, walk away and
(32:24):
didn't even notice.
It's probably about close to 10minutes and I'm standing there
like I lost hope.
I was like I don't think themoose is there anymore.
And then the moose turnedaround, finally walked right in
front of this path and thenturned down and started bolting
the other way.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Oh, really, so it caught like wind or something.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Yeah, yeah, turned down and started bolting the
other way, oh really, so itcaught wind or something of us.
And I tell you, when I seen themoose flip its antlers back and
push through those trees, itwas unreal.
Speaker 1 (32:52):
Are you telling me, this is the one that got away?
Speaker 2 (32:54):
That's the one that got away.
Speaker 1 (32:56):
No way.
I thought you'd be like justbefore he bolted, but he brought
up the gun and made a perfectshot and just really he got away
.
Speaker 2 (33:03):
So the owner of the Outfitters was standing right
next to me.
He's seen the moose too.
He's blown away by that moose.
I'm sure this year that's wherehe's going to be like that one
for sure.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
I wonder if anyone found his sheds or anything.
Speaker 2 (33:17):
It'd be pretty cool to find them.
I seen a pair of big shedsfound up there three years ago
with the outfitter.
They were crazy.
The guy put it over his backand it was down to his legs like
super long.
Speaker 1 (33:36):
You come across a lot of sheds when you're out in the
woods doing forestry tech stuffNot as much as I should
probably.
Yeah, yeah, I figured you wouldNot as much as I should
probably.
Yeah, yeah, I figured you would.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
But I've got a few moose antlers, like a couple of
deer antlers, but not a wholelot.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
No, no you spend every day out there.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
Yeah, Probably moose antlers.
I got around seven or eight orsomething like that.
Speaker 1 (33:58):
Yeah, hmm, I suppose you're focusing on your job,
that you know.
Speaker 2 (34:02):
But yeah, depends on the time of year.
Speaker 1 (34:03):
I'm looking for antlers quite a bit, but I mean
it's funny.
I uh last week when I wasfollowing it looked like this
turkey trail in this field.
I'm just walking along like, ohshit, there's a nice you know
buck shed, right, yeah, and Igot that and I was talking to my
buddy, ryan.
He's been on here and ryan wassaying like he was doing
fertilizer, that day must havecovered about 300 acres or more.
And he said he like just thatyou know day or two and he's
(34:27):
never seen a buck shed really ina field.
And he I mean all the corn theyplant inside, all this stuff
never come across.
Speaker 2 (34:34):
When I think you would think you'd find one.
Speaker 1 (34:36):
Yeah, I found most of mine just sitting in a field
really but yeah, yeah, he does.
He doesn't all the time hespends too.
So I mean, yeah, it's justweird luck sometimes.
Speaker 2 (34:46):
But yeah, I found.
I found a set one time.
Nine point under an apple treeand one time I found working
just a little deer antler it wason ryan's property, actually,
like oh yeah that's why hedoesn't find them yeah, you're
getting them first.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
Uh, oh yeah, I remember hearing about that when
you were looking through to getthe forestry plan done up.
Yeah, yeah, he's going to havea good deer spot out there.
So the guy didn't get one.
I thought this was not going tobe one of those stories Like,
yeah, he pulled it off, you know, we got to.
No, he didn't get it.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
Should have got up earlier.
Speaker 2 (35:20):
Yeah, there was another spot we had planned for
the evening and this was a spotthat my uncle had found, uh,
quite a few years ago he,because he passed away just in
the past couple years.
So, uh, we wanted to go to thisspot real bad, like my father
did, yeah.
So we went to the spot set upin the evening.
(35:41):
My father sat on one side, uh,looking down one valley with one
guy, and I sat on the otherside looking down another valley
to another guy.
Anyways, we were sitting thereand then, all of a sudden, we
heard boom, boom, boom, becausewe couldn't really see each
other.
We were real close but couldn'tsee each other, just because it
was the knoll or whatever.
And sure enough, they droppedthe moose about 400 yards down
(36:08):
the bottom of this hill, really,yeah, it was the guy that your
dad was with, oh yeah.
So you have second gun stuff orwhatever.
And yeah, they dropped it rightthere.
So anyways, You're just like.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
Well, that's going to be a bitch to get out yeah, I
didn't know where it was.
Speaker 2 (36:26):
Like I stood up I was like, did you get him?
He's like, yeah, he's layingdown way over there and it it
was like big boulders andeverything, like it's in a rough
spot.
Like every.
We always looked at this placeand always thought like if we
shot a moose here, it would needa helicopter yeah, it would not
be good, but anyways, I said,well, I'll go get my
(36:48):
four-wheelers over at the camp.
So I got my four-wheeler.
I had one guy like trying towalk me a path down, Got down
there and I bought one of thosemoose sleds.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
Yes, those are very slick Amazing.
Speaker 2 (37:01):
Yeah, so I hooked the moose in.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
So if somebody asked how would you describe it?
The moose sled.
Speaker 2 (37:07):
It's a big piece of plastic, basically, yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
It's like a heavy, like a heavy duty toboggan,
would you say yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:12):
Or crazy carpet, or whatever.
Speaker 1 (37:14):
Yes, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
So we used that for quite a few of the moose and
this was the last one.
This was the last take we hadin the camp and it was probably
about 30 minutes before orprobably close to an hour, I
guess, before the hunt was overfor the season, and it took me
probably about half an hour toget the bike down to the bottom
(37:36):
of the moose from the road.
Yeah, it was like just poking myway through and uh, it was a
steep hill up, a lot of rocks, alot of stumps, and we ended up
getting the thing up there witha bike one bike yep one bike.
Speaker 1 (37:50):
Can him 800, 850.
Speaker 2 (37:53):
I'm sorry um he got him out that you took like an
hour yeah, I've just like,because you'd have to like get a
little run for it, get up on aledge, yep, and then you get
another run, get up on anotherledge, get stuck a lot, have to
unpin the moose from the bikeknock the bike up or pull the
(38:14):
moose back onto the sled.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
But it was pretty good, but you made it happen.
Yeah, it was a pretty goodexperience.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
My father wasn't convinced that the Can-am was a
a good purchase.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
But after that you, you should.
I think he liked it a littlebit more, I know, because you
never know, with the belt driveI mean, most bikes are belt
drive.
Now I think it's just hauntedthat has the shaft that you
can't beat um I'll tell you Idid burn up the belt a little
bit you did, yeah, yeah I got amaverick belt on.
It's a little heavier, but okay,yeah, yeah, that would do it.
(38:46):
Um, yeah, so, like you said,the beginning, short season,
long week, it's a long week,sounds it yeah yeah, you guys
said, but you had a good oneyeah, it was every year.
Speaker 2 (38:57):
It's a good year, like, yeah, you can't beat it.
Uh, it's a great time.
By the end of it, you want togo home for sure, yeah yeah, I
mean to our moose season fallson um hurricane season here.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Basically new brunswick's got a uh small
hurricane season that we get thetail.
I mean we call it the hurricane, we get the tail end of
whatever the hell florida gets,or things like that.
But I mean, it can usually giveus a bit of a thrashing, and
that seems to be when mooseseason.
Speaker 2 (39:26):
I think three years ago there was quite a good
hurricane in the last few days.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
Yeah, so it's a tough week, or it's really hot, or
the bugs are so bad andeverything.
Yeah, so you guys, you made ithappen.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
Yeah, it was the perfect season.
Yeah, it really was.
It wasn't pouring rain thewhole season.
It wasn't pouring rain thewhole season.
It wasn't blistering hot mostof the time either.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Yeah, so you guys got big plans for this year.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
to top it, well, we're going to go after that big
fella yeah.
Speaker 1 (39:52):
Yeah, hope that he's still kicking around.
Speaker 2 (39:54):
Hopefully Nobody should have shot him yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:00):
So he's smart though.
Yeah, he almost slipped up.
Speaker 2 (40:03):
You guys were close.
Yeah, If I had a rifle in myhand I could have shot him.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
Yeah.
So your takeaway from thisseason was, you know, listen to
your guide, I guess, is the bigone.
Yeah, what'd you say?
And that the Can-Amfour-wheelers are capable of the
belt, drive bikes and get thosebig boys out.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
Yeah, fell in love with the bike right there.
Speaker 1 (40:23):
Yeah, yeah, it paid off, um, and then yeah, so then
you you're guiding uh for thesame outfitter.
Uh, what do you guys next weekfor bear?
Speaker 2 (40:31):
uh at the end of the month end of may.
At the end of may yeah, andthen the second week of june
because you find that's when therut here kicks off.
Speaker 1 (40:41):
Yeah, pretty good, seems to be a pretty good time
like that's probably the besttime to hunt them where we do oh
yeah, yeah, end of may, earlyjune yeah, for the, for the
spring season anyways yeah, Ifind once the uh well, I mean I
haven't had much hitting mybaits and then, uh, the bugs got
bad yesterday.
Yeah, like you hear differentpeople say, once the bugs get
(41:02):
bad, yeah, the bear hunting getsbetter.
And uh, sure as shit went inyesterday and the bear had tore
up the bait and everything andhe was in there yeah that must
have been that morning, so, andI pulled my camera out of there
because I was putting it up indifferent areas for turkeys,
because our turkey season startson monday, and uh, so I didn't
get what was going on, but Ifound the plug like he had his
you know butt plug in there, anduh, anyways, I think it was the
(41:26):
bears yeah, that nosy neighborno, um, but uh, yeah, he had his
plug in there and all that, sohe's.
Uh, yeah, I got.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
I moved the camera to there now, so yeah, probably
ready to hunt there pretty soon,yeah yeah, um.
Speaker 1 (41:39):
Yes, as soon as the bugs get bad and they were bad
yesterday, yeah, so that reallygets things going.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
It really started up yesterday and today they started
biting quite a bit.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
Yeah, I know I was happy when the wind picked up.
Yeah, that saved the day to bea little more enjoyable.
But yes, how many guys?
So your first group of huntersthat are coming in for the bear
hunt?
I think?
Speaker 2 (42:02):
there's supposed to be six.
Speaker 1 (42:03):
Six.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
And you said they're from.
New Hampshire Scattered allover around New England.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
States yeah.
Vermont area Okay yeah.
Speaker 2 (42:12):
And then the second group.
I can't remember where they'recoming from.
It might be the same guys fromFlorida from last year, but I oh
yeah, from Florida.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
Really they were really good fellows.
Oh, yeah, yeah, huh liketalking with them.
Yeah, yeah, I know it's cool.
Like you know, when I went downto florida on a boar hunt wild
boar hunt that was really cool.
But uh, them coming up here tohunt bear or black bear, they
think you know that's equally ascool really them.
Speaker 2 (42:37):
Like these guys, they actually owned like a deer farm
oh yeah they and they're usedto shooting like big bucks.
They traveled to ohio andshooting like a deer farm.
Oh yeah, they and they used toshoot in like big bucks.
They traveled to ohio and shootlike on deer there and they
said they would pass up shootinglike 150 inch deer, 200 inch
deer, any day to come for a bearhunt really yeah, they said
(42:57):
they don't get a rush like doing.
It was their first bear huntever, so yeah, yeah so.
Speaker 1 (43:02):
See, I mean here in New Brunswick we can residents
and on residents you can legallyshoot two bear a year and then,
if you look at the statisticsand all that and the numbers,
residents don't take advantageof that whatsoever, oh no, and
non-residents do.
But I mean, it's like us goingdown, me going down to Florida,
and hunting wild boar, likeright pumped up about it, like
(43:29):
hunting wild boar, like rightpumped up about it, like this is
awesome, but they, you know,probably feel the same way,
something they've never donebefore, yeah, yeah.
And then they come here andthey're all that crazy.
But this bear that you know, wedefinitely could shoot more and
do our perks.
I mean, the bear population isuh, I say it's more than healthy
to say the least really they'rea little slower moving this
year.
I think that's just because thegrass is slow and it's still in
cooler nights and stuff.
Speaker 2 (43:46):
I think by the end of the month it's going to be
really good.
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Yeah, because there's a pile of bear around.
Speaker 2 (43:54):
So your hunters are in for a treat.
I definitely agree that they'reslower this year.
Speaker 1 (43:58):
Yeah, everyone I've talked to people have had I mean
, the baits that I have thisyear are brand new but people I
know that have had the same bearbait five, six years in a row.
It was slow.
It was slow kicking things off.
So, yeah, jesse, thanks forcoming out.
We'll have you again.
We'll do another trivia nightsoon, that we'll have you out on
stuff, and that was good.
I've been waiting to hear thismoose story Because you alluded
(44:21):
to it a little bit the othernight and I was like, well, just
wait, just wait, we're going todo a podcast, I want to hear
all about it.
Speaker 2 (44:25):
So glad I could tell you it.
Yes, yeah, it was good, and, uh, I'm sure you'll be back on to
tell about this year's newseason.
So, yeah, all right, thanks.
Popular Podcasts
Amy Robach & T.J. Holmes present: Aubrey O’Day, Covering the Diddy Trial
Introducing… Aubrey O’Day Diddy’s former protege, television personality, platinum selling music artist, Danity Kane alum Aubrey O’Day joins veteran journalists Amy Robach and TJ Holmes to provide a unique perspective on the trial that has captivated the attention of the nation. Join them throughout the trial as they discuss, debate, and dissect every detail, every aspect of the proceedings. Aubrey will offer her opinions and expertise, as only she is qualified to do given her first-hand knowledge. From her days on Making the Band, as she emerged as the breakout star, the truth of the situation would be the opposite of the glitz and glamour. Listen throughout every minute of the trial, for this exclusive coverage. Amy Robach and TJ Holmes present Aubrey O’Day, Covering the Diddy Trial, an iHeartRadio podcast.
Betrayal: Season 4
Karoline Borega married a man of honor – a respected Colorado Springs Police officer. She knew there would be sacrifices to accommodate her husband’s career. But she had no idea that he was using his badge to fool everyone. This season, we expose a man who swore two sacred oaths—one to his badge, one to his bride—and broke them both. We follow Karoline as she questions everything she thought she knew about her partner of over 20 years. And make sure to check out Seasons 1-3 of Betrayal, along with Betrayal Weekly Season 1.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.