Moose, Family, And A First Tag

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A lake ringed with muskeg, four cows drifting out at last light, and then—finally—the bull everyone swore had to be there. We’d spent days wrestling with warm weather and quiet woods, calling into still air and second-guessing our plan, when a rookie shooter and a steady rest on a beaver lodge turned patience into a 49 1/4-inch New Brunswick bull. The path to that moment wasn’t glamorous: a rangefinder that lied, quick adjustments out to 600 yards, and the discipline to back out at dark when adrenaline said push. Morning brought a canoe, heavy breath, and the kind of scale you don’t forget when you walk up for the first time.

We unpack everything we learned: how heat dampens rut behavior and forces new timing, why lake edges can reveal what timber hides, and how to build confidence for longer shots without drifting into wishful thinking. We talk gear that actually matters—steady tripods, good glass, redundant rifles, and a mobile 8x8 cooler built on skids with a window AC and Inkbird controllers that saved our meat in 20°C days. There’s family woven through it all: a dad finding his voice as a caller, an 82-year-old grandfather who cares more about full freezers than inches, and the quiet handoff of a Browning .338 Win Mag that says “keep going.”

If you’re searching for practical moose hunting tips, long-range shooting judgment, and real talk on pack-outs, meat care, and patience under pressure, this story delivers. It’s a reminder that the best hunts aren’t easy—they’re earned with scouting, restraint, and the kind of camp camaraderie that keeps you laughing even when the woods stay silent. Hit play, then tell us your hardest-earned lesson from a warm-weather rut. And if the story resonates, subscribe, share it with a hunting partner, and leave a quick review so more folks can find the show.

Check us out on Facebook Hunts On Outfitting, or myself Ken Marr. Reach out and Tell your hunting buddies about the podcast if you like it, Thanks!

Episode Transcript

SPEAKER_00 (00:10):
This is Huntsun Outfitting Podcast.
I'm your host and rookie guide,Ken Mayer.
I love everything hunting, theoutdoors, and all things
associated with it.
From stories to how-tos, you'llfind it here.
Welcome to the podcast.
Hey guys, thanks for tuning inand lending me your ears again

(00:32):
this week for the podcast.
So, family.
For a lot of us, that's part ofwhat hunting season is about.
Being able to get off work andget a little break from the
hustle and bustle of life andspend time with family.
All while being in the outdoorsand pursuing the game we love to
eat.
Well, today's podcast episodedefinitely focuses on that.

(00:55):
Avid hunter and returning guestCaleb Jones, along with his
brother-in-law, who recently gotinto hunting, Jacob, tell us
about their past successfulmoose season that they had from
at the family camp this year.
Great moose and great story.
So we're in for a treat.

(01:18):
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(01:41):
Uh if you're wanting to get ahold of me for any reason,
whether it be to maybe come onthe show or talk about a past
podcast, you can at uh email ushunts on outfitting at gmail.com
or find us on Facebook, Hunts onOutfitting, or myself, Ken Mara.

(02:03):
I always enjoy hearing from youguys, uh the ones that do reach
out and stuff.
So shout out anytime.
So we got Jacob, Caleb, Caleb,uh returning to the podcast for
what we were just saying, fifthtime.

SPEAKER_02 (02:16):
Yep, fan favorite.

SPEAKER_00 (02:18):
What sure, we'll let the fans decide.
And then uh this is yourbrother-in-law, Jacob.
Jacob, uh, this is basically myfirst time meeting you.
So good to meet you.
Good to meet you.
Don't be nervous, because like Isaid, if you get nervous, I'll
get nervous, freak out, uh, andthen you don't know what it's
gonna sound like.
No, it'll be fun.
Um, before we get started,though, I just need you to fill
out this waiver standard forpodcasts, you know, social
security number, uh first pet'sname, the street you grew up on.

(02:41):
Perfect credit card number.
Yeah, that's right.
Um, so you guys, you guys had amoose hunt.
Yeah, yeah, we didn't.
And a very successful one.
But before we get into that, uhI know you've been on a few
times, Caleb, but people want toknow who they're listening to.
So, Caleb, if you could sumyourself up in a positive way,
uh how would you do it?

SPEAKER_02 (02:58):
Well, you really put me on the spot there.

SPEAKER_00 (03:01):
You're a carpenter currently in school.

SPEAKER_02 (03:04):
I am a carpenter currently in school, trying to
get through the the program tobe certified as Red Sealed.
And yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (03:12):
And you're an avid hunter in uh New Brunswick,
Canada.
And guide, yeah.
And you've guided yourbrother-in-law Jacob before.
And I don't think we had thatstory in the podcast, the bear.

SPEAKER_02 (03:23):
Not yet.
That was one of one of hisfriends.
But Jacob was there.
I was I was there, but I wasn'tshooting.

SPEAKER_00 (03:28):
Okay, well, we've got time to tell that story, and
then we're gonna meet Jacob.
Okay.
We'll run through that storybecause it was kind of
entertaining.

SPEAKER_02 (03:34):
Well, this story takes us way back to I think it
was the first or second timeyou, Jacob and I met, and uh my
sister bringing home her firstboyfriend at the time.

SPEAKER_00 (03:45):
Okay.
I thought the one you're goingwith?

SPEAKER_02 (03:47):
Yeah, that one.

SPEAKER_00 (03:48):
Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (03:48):
Yeah.
Uh my sister bringing home herfirst boyfriend, and uh, you
wanted to go bear hunting.
You had a buddy that had beenwanting to shoot a bear.

SPEAKER_00 (03:56):
You figured what better way to get rid of my
sister's new boyfriend than bearhunting?

SPEAKER_02 (04:00):
Take them in the middle of the woods and go.
Oh, yeah, I'll take them.
Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 (04:02):
You just gotta know this barrel's for you to sit in.
I'll go up in the tree and letyou know when the bear comes.

SPEAKER_02 (04:08):
Yeah.
So this this store was quite awhile ago, so I might be a bit
rusty.
So Jacob, correct me if I'mwrong on some of these things.
But uh we got in there and mybait sites were set up for bow
hunting.
And so it's close.
So close range.
I think we're sitting like 10 or11 yards away from the barrel.
And at the time I only had uhone one stand set up, like one

(04:31):
two-man stand.

SPEAKER_00 (04:32):
So if he sat on your lap, you guys got to get to know
each other more than a littlebit.

SPEAKER_02 (04:35):
Well, there was there were three of us, and
we're all one stand?
No, not in one stand.
You gotta slow down here.
All right.
All right.
So there we had a two-man stand,and it was kind of in a big pine
tree out in the open, and theywere situated further in front
of me.
And I had to set up a single-manstand, uh, tucked back in the
woods behind them a little ways.
So they were right out in theopen, and I was tucked back in.

(04:57):
And I took them to a bait sitethat uh I hadn't had pictures of
like a sow cubs yet.
Hoping we wouldn't get intothat, but uh sure enough, we had
uh a sow with first year cubshow up.
And uh yeah, we watched them forI don't know, probably four or
spring, you couldn't shoot them.

(05:17):
Uh we watched them for forty orfifty minutes and uh it started
to get dark.
So I was like, well, let's tryand chew her out of here with
her cubs.

SPEAKER_00 (05:26):
So we could get grab one cub and run, and then we'll
we'll get out of here.

SPEAKER_02 (05:30):
Yeah, so we made uh we made a little bit of noise
trying to get her to justgracefully, gracefully take her
cubs off and leave us alone sowe could get over.

SPEAKER_00 (05:39):
Those bears are noted to be graceful.
Yes.

SPEAKER_02 (05:42):
Yeah and and very good mothers.
Anyways, so we made a little bitof noise, and sure enough, those
those two I think there's two orthree cubs.
I think just the two.
There was two cubs.
They uh they scurried up a tree,and uh and Mama Bear she just
kept eating.
Well, it started to get darkerand darker, and then it mama
bear knew that Jacob and hisfriend Micah were there because

(06:05):
she would she would reach intothe barrel, grab a Vashon cake,
take a bite of it, and thenshe'd be looking at them in the
eyes while she's eating it.
But I was tucked back a littlemore, so she wasn't looking at
me, so I was safe.
I never had to worry aboutmyself.
She didn't know I was there.

SPEAKER_00 (06:20):
I'll meet you guys back at the house, best of luck.

SPEAKER_02 (06:22):
And they were surprisingly calm, too.
I would have been, you know,shitting my pants.

SPEAKER_00 (06:25):
They were new, did you tell them that?
They were new to hunting, sothey're like, Well, Caleb's not
worried, we shouldn't be.

SPEAKER_02 (06:30):
Caleb had a rifle, so I I felt safe.
They were fighting.
Right.
I was safe and they thought theyshould be, but no, I wasn't.
Well, were they wrong?
They were yeah, they were alwaysin good hands.
Um so, anyways, it w it got itstarted getting darker and
darker, and it got to a point itwas like a switch flipped in
Mama Bear's head, and she shewould start making a couple
bluff charges towards the baseof their tree stand.

(06:53):
Anyways.

SPEAKER_00 (06:54):
Were you guys still feeling secure?
Jacob?

SPEAKER_02 (06:57):
I felt alright.
Okay.
And when she'd make these bluffcharges, she'd bluff charge
toward them, towards them, she'dand then she'd veer off into the
thicket, and you wouldn't beable to see her, and then she'd
bluff charge from a differentangle.
And every time she bluffcharged, she got closer and
closer to the bottom of theirtree stand, and it's it's like
we're right on dark.
So I called I called my father,and I was like, I told him the

(07:18):
situation, I was like, Do youthink you can come with a
side-by-side and chainsaw andjust make some noise out at the
road, maybe help spook him outor whatever?
And we had probably like an80-yard dash to uh power lines
to get through like to thewoods.
So he couldn't get the bikeright into the base of the stand
at the time.
So he brought the bike andshined the lights in the woods,
started up chainsaw, startedmaking a bunch of noise.

(07:41):
And all this time we're waitingfor him to show up.
The this Sal with her two cubsis keeps bluff charging, getting
closer and closer to the base oftheir stand.
So I looked at Mike, I was like,this isn't gonna be good.
He also had a gun.
I was like, this isn't gonna begood.
Like, we should uh she's gettingreally close to the bottom of
her stand.
We'll have to be careful when weget down.

SPEAKER_00 (07:59):
Then you you looked at Jake and be like, Oh, my
sister's gonna be mad.
You're the third boyfriend thishas happened with.

SPEAKER_03 (08:05):
Me with my flashlight.
Yeah, you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (08:06):
It's like we're still safe, right, Jake?
Uh right, Caleb?
Like, uh, yeah, pretty much.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (08:11):
When dad showed up, uh, the sh the that Sal had just
finished bluff charging us, andshe was almost standing at the
base of their tree stand.
Yep.
So dad started chainsawing.
He's like, If if you guys arecoming, you better come now,
because I'm not standing hereforever.
So we jumped out of our treestands, and uh crying.
I'm standing right where rightwhere she was just standing, and

(08:33):
they're fiddling around up inthe tree stand in what feels
like forever.
And I'm I'm just waiting to feelthis sow, this angry sow on my
back.
But luckily we never I never hadthat problem.
So they got they got out of thetree stand, and uh I was I was
gonna take one last sweep behindme with the flashlight and make
sure she wasn't right there andrun with them out to the truck.

(08:54):
Well, I turn I turn around, makemy sweep, and nope, she's not
there.
I look back and they're alreadystanding sitting in the side by
side, I think.
Really?
Yeah, quick feet.
Yeah, they left me behind.

SPEAKER_00 (09:05):
Your sister like good men are hard to find.
Like, yeah, because my uhbrother keeps having them eaten
at the bear's dead.
But um, all right, so good.
So that so you felt obviouslyconfident enough to go hunting
with Caleb again because here weare about to talk about a moose
hunt.

SPEAKER_03 (09:18):
Survive the first one, might as well go with the
second.

SPEAKER_00 (09:20):
Yeah.
What are the odds that'll happenagain?
Exactly.
Uh so Jacob, tell us aboutyourself.
Uh you're married to Caleb'ssister.
Um hunting experience prior tothe family.

SPEAKER_03 (09:30):
Almost zero.
Shot a partridge a couple yearsago, and that sums it up.

SPEAKER_02 (09:38):
Jump from partridge to moose to it.

SPEAKER_03 (09:40):
Elephant next, I think.

SPEAKER_00 (09:41):
So what do you do for work, Jacob?

SPEAKER_03 (09:43):
Uh so my family has a convenience store in Moncton,
Air Convenience, and so I justkind of help run that and keeps
me busy.

SPEAKER_00 (09:50):
Nice.
All right.
So now that we know you guys abit, um, let's jump into the
beginning.
You, Jacob, you put in for yourmoose tag.
Caleb, you told him where to putit in.
Yeah.
Uh, what wildlife managementzone.
And then uh you won the mooselottery.
And then did you have any secondguesses on who to bring, or you
knew right away Caleb's like,Oh, yeah, you know, you have to

(10:11):
bring me, or I'm gonna tell mom,then you're gonna look bad at
family dinners.

SPEAKER_03 (10:16):
I I was thinking it already, but there was there was
the pressure.
Yeah, it was pressure if Ididn't pick him, you know.
Yeah, make it a little tense.

SPEAKER_00 (10:21):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (10:22):
Uh no, no, no.

SPEAKER_00 (10:23):
The story wouldn't end that well next time.

SPEAKER_03 (10:25):
Pretty easy because like I said, I never shot a
rifle before.
So really, oh yeah.
So it's like I'm gonna picksomeone that you know can can
make up for my lack ofeverything.

SPEAKER_00 (10:34):
Right.
So, I mean, where did you guysdid you own a rifle going into
this?

SPEAKER_03 (10:38):
No, so I own an old shotgun that actually they had
got me for Christmas a coupleyears ago.
Oh, really?
That's a good gift.
Didn't own rifle, didn't nevershot one.
It was just the summer thissummer actually with with Caleb
and Spencer.
They were kind of doing sometarget practice, and so it was
okay, sure shoot from 50 yards,shoot from 200 yards.
If you do that, you're golden.

(10:59):
So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (11:00):
Yes, well what what rifle?

SPEAKER_02 (11:03):
Well, we started him out on a 22.
Yeah.
Just to kind of get him into thegroove and make sure he didn't
create any bad habits.
Try and keep him from flinchingthe best we could.
Every once in a while, load in ablank shell or whatever, see if
he flinches.

SPEAKER_00 (11:17):
Really?

SPEAKER_02 (11:18):
We did a couple times, I think, yeah.
So yeah, we started him out withuh 22 and he got comfortable
with that, and then uh we movedhim up to I think we went to
like a 308, is what he used for.
Okay, yeah.
Yeah.
Borrowed one of Spencer's guns,my brother.

SPEAKER_00 (11:32):
Perfect caliber for moose, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (11:34):
Yeah, and it had a muzzle brake on it, so it was
good.
Oh, did it?
Okay, yeah.
Not much, not much cook, uhkick, good uh beginner gun, I
guess.

SPEAKER_00 (11:41):
Yeah.
So uh so you got the tag, knewthe z you knew the area, because
you guys have a camp up in themanagement zone that you guys
were in, right?
Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_02 (11:48):
We were hunting up in zone five.

SPEAKER_00 (11:50):
Okay.

SPEAKER_02 (11:51):
So that's like uh northern New Brunswick, I guess
is the best way to put it.
Yeah.
You don't have to get realspecific.

SPEAKER_00 (11:57):
Yeah.
Um so you guys did that uh soyou were comfortable, you're
shooting the guns, you know,getting a feel for it.

SPEAKER_02 (12:04):
Yeah, we were we were very impressed to see how
much ground he made up over thesummer shooting and his
confidence and it's a lot ofthings.

SPEAKER_00 (12:10):
Yeah, well that's good that you practice, because
I mean it'd probably scare thepants off you how many people
shoot a rifle once before thehunt or something.
If that some people like it'slike uh you know, you you kind
of owe that to the animal, yourdue diligence to uh practice and
make sure that it's hitting,you're hitting.
Yeah.
It's yeah, you're not flinchingand stuff.

(12:30):
Like yes, that's good.
That's really good.
Um so then uh I'm you know,after the sheep hunt, I'm a bit
of a gear connoisseur now.
So what were you guys bringingfor gear?
Just a rough overview on themoose hunt.

SPEAKER_02 (12:43):
Uh I guess the the daily carry, uh binoculars, gun,
bunch of ammo, uh bipods,tripods, sorry.
I had tripods.

SPEAKER_00 (12:53):
What are you guys wearing for footwear?

SPEAKER_02 (12:54):
You wearing like hiking boots, ducking boots,
rubber boots, rubber boots,rubber boots, okay.
The little hundred dollarspecial, yeah, Canadian tire,
whatever.

SPEAKER_00 (13:02):
Yeah, whatever theirs is.
Okay, yeah.
So um, all right.
So then uh let's well let'slet's walk me through the first
day.
You guys had the area scoutedout, you're feeling good on the
rifle.

SPEAKER_02 (13:12):
Yeah, so so uh I started scouting a spot that uh
I'd been in the year prior, andwe had seen last year we had
pretty good success on the road.
We'd seen five moose, we didn'tend up shooting our moose off
that road.
And uh yeah, so I was I wasplanning to go back into that
same road.
I set a salt lick up and I hadpretty good action there
considering it was such a like anew mineral site.

(13:33):
Yeah, it'd only been set up fora couple months, and I'd I had
moose like I don't know,probably every other day of the
week.
So it was hit prettyconsistently, nothing big, but
just like you know, kind of thesame cow with calf and a couple
cows, and I had a couple smallbulls in there and stuff like
that.
So we we were going into thehunt with kind of like a pretty
high expectation for the area.

(13:56):
Uh I had scouted it uh two daysbefore the hunt, too, and both
days we were in there.
One day I seen a cow, the cowwith calf, another day I seen a
cow in there, and uh all kindsof scrapes and fresh and old
sign like from years prior.
Wallows.
Yeah, I found uh like a goodsize nine-point shed in there
when we were scouting thesummertime on the same road.

(14:18):
So uh and it was right on theroad too, so it just goes to
show where we were hunting,people clearly don't go into
very often, just because onceyou get back so far, it thickens
up for a little while.
It kind of keeps people out oftheir truck.

SPEAKER_00 (14:31):
Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_02 (14:32):
Anyways, so so yeah, we were going into the hunt with
pretty high expectations.
I was seeing a cow with uh witha bull right at the end of the
camp driveway the night before.
And uh yeah, I guess then we gotinto moose season first morning.
We woke up bright and early.

SPEAKER_00 (14:46):
What was your expectation, Jacob, going into
the hunt?

SPEAKER_03 (14:50):
So yeah, so I'd been up to their camp quite a few
times, and you know, every timeyou see moose.
Like just so I was like, okay,this is gonna be a quick hunt
first morning, get it done, andthen just kind of relax all
week.
So I I had high expectations andalso just a little bit selfish
too.
I was like, you know, I'm onlygonna get a big ball.
Oh, okay.
I'm gonna see calves, I'm gonnasee small bulls, I'm gonna pass

(15:12):
them all just because there's somany up there.

SPEAKER_00 (15:14):
From a partridge to being picky.
Oh, I know.

SPEAKER_03 (15:16):
I just too too selfish, but yeah, it uh it it
definitely turned out to be alittle bit different and uh a
little bit more patienceinvolved.

SPEAKER_00 (15:25):
But having have you seen anything killed of any size
besides a partridge?
Because I mean that part, ifyou're not used to it, it's
different.
You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (15:34):
I was with Micah for when he did Kill the Bear.

SPEAKER_00 (15:37):
Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (15:38):
That was pretty much it.

SPEAKER_00 (15:39):
Because I remember uh one time my wife's then
girlfriend, uh, I was gonnashoot a cow on pasture, they're
taken to the butcher shop, likekilling them out on pasture, so
they're not all stressed out,you know, on the cattle trailer
and the butcher shop and allthat.
So, anyways, I I had the gun.
I just told her, I was like, Igave her the knife.
I said, I'm gonna shoot it.
I said, Then I'm gonna hand youthe gun, you hand me the knife,
I'm just gonna slit throughbleed.

(15:59):
And I I'd never thought, like,she's never seen anything bigger
than a fly killed, right?
So I I just never thoughtanything of it because just used
to it, right?
So anyways, the cows theregrazing, drop it.
We're standing right there too,because they're fairly tame.
And then she just like, uh, justlike hands me the knife and the
gun slip.
I'm like, oh, right on.
And then she's like kind oflooking like, oh shit.
I'm like, are you okay?
She's like, Yeah, no, I knowit's okay, it's normal.

(16:21):
She's like, I just never seenanything that big drop dead in
front of me before.
I'm like, oh, okay, well, nowyou have, so let's carry on.

SPEAKER_02 (16:29):
No, but that's not where I thought that story was
going at first.
I thought you said you weregonna hand you handed her the
knife and wanted her to slip thethroat.
No, I should have.

SPEAKER_00 (16:37):
Oh, I I thought you thought I was gonna say to her,
like, oh, I can't believe shebrought a knife to a gunfight.
No, no, I wouldn't make her uhkill finish it off, no.
It's bleeded out, but uh yeah, Iguess I should have looking
back, that would have likereally broker into it, right?
But uh yeah, so I mean, that'ssomething though, but if you
haven't grown up branded oranything, right, Jacob, it's

(16:58):
it's different.
I mean, the moose are massive.
Yeah, so um, so your expectationthat was high.
Because Caleb probably taughtCaleb's like, oh, I'm an expert
god.

SPEAKER_02 (17:06):
No, no, tooting his own horn.
Hell yeah, yeah, like always.
No, I'm a new hunter when itcomes to moose, moose hunting.
So uh but that was the same.

SPEAKER_00 (17:15):
Your dad was out there, right, Caleb?
Yep.
And and your brother?
Or no, he stayed home.
Uh my brother, yeah, he waspossible.

SPEAKER_02 (17:21):
Yeah, my father was out there too.
He's not really much of ahunterman or a hunter, he's more
of a fisherman, so kind of afirst generation hunter in my
family.
So figure it out on your owntype of deal.

SPEAKER_00 (17:31):
I find a lot of people that aren't into like my
father-in-law's and like notreally into hunting and stuff,
my dad either, but uh not thatthey're against it, it's time
consuming, right?
And a lot of people it's hard tosometimes commit that that time
to it, you know.

SPEAKER_02 (17:44):
Yeah.
So yeah, well, for dad, I thinkmoose hunting would be the one
thing that he would he is reallyinterested in.
Oh, yeah.
He's always like up therecalling moose and whatever else
he thinks he can do.
Yeah, yeah.
He actually's gotten pretty goodat it too.

SPEAKER_00 (17:56):
What's he called them?
Fat cows.
Um, yeah, so uh all right, soyour expectations are high
because Caleb talked himself upand stuff.
Um Caleb's like, well, you neverget killed on the bear hunt, so
this is gonna go well too.
Um yeah, so you but the moosethat you guys ended up getting,

(18:17):
which we don't get into that,you didn't have any pictures of
them, right?
Because you had the salt likethe mineral and you had cows,
calves, stuff like that.
No bull, massive bull, really.

SPEAKER_02 (18:25):
No massive bull.
We had like a small five orsix-point bull, but it wasn't
really uh on the hit list forthe first couple days, that's
for sure.

SPEAKER_00 (18:32):
Right.
So uh all right, so you guys areat the camp.
Jake, we know your expectations,Caleb, we know your abilities.
Uh continue on the story.
First morning.

SPEAKER_02 (18:41):
Yeah, so first morning we went into our road
that we had high expectationsset for.
Uh, and the the way the wind waslaid out with the road that day,
uh, we we actually drove thebike in and then we were gonna
hunt our way out because itworked better for the wind.
And we got w at the back of thisroad, and we sh and we got there
probably about like an hour,hour before first light.

(19:04):
So we were just kind of chillingthere, and I had to go use the
washroom.
So I went to the woods, made abunch of noise.
When I come back.

SPEAKER_00 (19:10):
Oh, what did I eat last night?
Like that.

unknown (19:13):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (19:13):
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Nervous shits.
Anyways.
So when I come back, it was itwas probably like 10 or 15
minutes that went by, and thenwe heard a bull not far away at
all, and he was barking at us,and he barked at us probably six
or eight times.

SPEAKER_00 (19:27):
Did you do the imitate the bark?

SPEAKER_02 (19:30):
I cannot know.
Let's try it.

SPEAKER_00 (19:32):
Like, what?
Well, I did it earlier beforethe podcast.
You're like, oh, it wasn't likethat.

SPEAKER_02 (19:35):
Well, let's let's hear it again.
Let's see if you've altered itat all.
Or no, it wasn't it anyways.
All right, we'll do it then.
The best the best way Jacob, youdo it if you really if you
really want to know what itsounds like, is just to go on
YouTube and look it up.
Because it's like you can't soat first we we thought it was
gunshots.
Like we're gonna do it.
But it was it was kind of theecho of it.

SPEAKER_00 (19:57):
Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02 (19:58):
Anyways, and then we heard it a couple more times,
and I'm like, no, that I'veheard of bulls barking, and I've
obviously have never heard it inperson before.
I was like, that's gotta be abull moose barking.
When we went back after thatmorning's hunt, we looked it up
and I was like, that's exactlywhat that was.
And it didn't sound like he wasfar away.
I mean he was close.
It could be deceiving, I guess,how close he was, but right.

(20:19):
Anyway, so that was prettyinteresting.
We thought we were gonna get itdone right quickity split the
first morning.
After hearing that, we were allexcited for first light.
But uh yeah, we we could not wehad a hard time up there this
year calling Moose out.

SPEAKER_00 (20:34):
Well, I heard it was a year like that, but it was a
bit warmer.
So I was just talking uh tonightbefore the podcast to Terrence
Boss with Boss Outfitting.
He was on the podcast, he's innorthern Alberta.
They've got what'd he say, tenmoose this week?
But I was telling him that thathere a lot of people had trouble
with calling.
And I mean the temperature canha can have a lot he he figures
quite a bit to do with thatstuff, right?

(20:54):
So did you what was thetemperature?

SPEAKER_02 (20:57):
Well, it w it was warm.
Yeah, I think I think nightswere like right around 10
degrees Celsius.

SPEAKER_00 (21:02):
Okay, so that's that's fairly warm.

SPEAKER_02 (21:05):
And days days were like between like 17 and 20.

SPEAKER_00 (21:08):
Yeah, that's what that's what he was saying.
I think they're you know,they're both that.
I was in Maine during the weekof that, but um yeah, that's
what he said.
He said you gotta call them atnight a bit, call them at night
to locate them, yeah.
Sort of thing, because yeah,it's too warm, they're just it
they're overheating, right?
They're so big.

SPEAKER_02 (21:24):
Yeah.
And we seen a lot of cows whilewe were up there too, so I
wonder how much that has toplay.
Like if they're all on cows,they're not really gonna be
responding as much, maybe.
But like I said, I'm also quitenew to moose hunting, so uh like
what kind of cows?

SPEAKER_00 (21:39):
Holsteins or jerseys.

SPEAKER_02 (21:41):
Jerseys, yeah.
Oh, yeah.
So where were we?
We were talking.

SPEAKER_00 (21:46):
Yeah, so you heard the barking.

SPEAKER_02 (21:47):
So for yeah, we heard the barking, thought we
were gonna get done right firstthing, and uh couldn't call them
out.
So we worked our way out of theroad, didn't have any anything
else really responding.
So uh yeah, that was thatmorning hunt.
It was pretty uneventful.
We went to camp, ate lunch, wentback out in the evening, and uh
more of the same.

SPEAKER_00 (22:08):
What was for lunch?

SPEAKER_02 (22:09):
Uh not looseburgers.
No, sandwiches probably from airconvenience.
Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (22:15):
Shout out.
Um, yeah.
All right.

SPEAKER_02 (22:17):
Uh went back in the evening and it was a real quiet
evening.
Uh didn't see or hear nothing.
So we went back to what I my mystrategy was was I was gonna
give everything a day and a halfwhere we hunt so that way Oh the
area.
The area, right.
If if nothing was gonna come inafter a day and a half, we'd
move on.

SPEAKER_00 (22:35):
Because in New Brunswick here and people have
listened to the podcast for ithave heard it's it's only five
days for moose season.
Right.
Five.

SPEAKER_02 (22:42):
So yeah.
So you're you're limited ontime.

SPEAKER_00 (22:45):
You are, yeah.
Pressure's on.

SPEAKER_02 (22:46):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (22:47):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (22:47):
So, and not to mention it's a lottery tag, so
you're not gonna be able to huntit every year.
Yeah.
So uh we went in there the nextmorning and uh we heard a grunt
in the woods.
It sounded like it was a longways away, so we figured, well,
we may as well try it.
That's the first real grunt thatwe had tried.

SPEAKER_00 (23:04):
Jacob probably thought it was you using the
bathroom again.

SPEAKER_02 (23:07):
Not following that.

SPEAKER_00 (23:08):
That sounds like yesterday morning.

SPEAKER_02 (23:10):
So so we tramped our way probably half a kilometer
back in the woods, and we wouldgrunt and it would grunt, and
then we went back and forth fora little while, and I don't know
we got if we got too close to itor if eventually it just warmed
up too much and it stoppedcalling, but eventually, yeah,
it just went silent on us.

SPEAKER_03 (23:28):
Yeah, oh yeah, never saw him or anything.

SPEAKER_00 (23:29):
I thought that's but it is that what you said it it
could have warmed up enough thathe was like, nah, it's too hot.
I'm done.
Right.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (23:34):
So here we are.
We're coming, we were on daytwo.
We had finished the best hunt ofday two.
Normally the mornings are thebetter hunt out of the mornings
between mornings and evenings.
Starting to get a little bitdiscouraged already on day two
because we so quiet.

SPEAKER_00 (23:48):
Well, I'm done.

unknown (23:50):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (23:50):
My expectations changed.
At this point, I was like, okay,maybe not a big boy as long as
we get up.

SPEAKER_00 (23:54):
Maybe Caleb's not all that I cracked him up to be.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (23:58):
So uh Tuesday, uh Wednesday evening, we uh we went
into a new area, uh, a lake, andwe we'd just gotten in there and
we were just getting things setup, and I looked across the
lake, and I was like, hey guys,there's there's a nice cow over
there on the opposite side ofthe lake.
Anyway, she was she was a longways away.
I think she was she was aboutlike 630 yards.

(24:22):
She was actually standing rightwhere we ended up shooting the
bull moose.
Yeah.
But uh yeah, we seen her, andJacob's like, Well, you tell
him, Jacob, you're like, like Isaid, my expectations they were
just going down and down anddown and down.

SPEAKER_03 (24:33):
Yeah.
And so I was just like at thispoint, I'd take a chickadee.
That I that was also sad.
So we were like cows good enoughfor me.
And my grandfather was with me,and he's all about the meat.
He's yeah, you know, doesn'tcare about trophies, just the
meat.
And and he was just like, That'smy boy, kind of thing.
And Caleb was like, That is themost proud I've ever heard your

(24:55):
grandfather.
So so yeah, we just startbucking it to try to get close.

SPEAKER_00 (24:59):
To get that cow, because you guys see you guys
made a unanimous decision, it'sabout the meat, let's shoot the
cow.
Yeah, okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (25:04):
And we were what, 30 minutes away from end of Yeah,
yeah, we were getting down onlight, and the cow was
positioned in a cove, and she itlooked as if she was working her
way out to the point, and for usto get close enough, the only
spot that we could really seeher to shoot her would be if she
worked her way around the point.
Anyway, so yeah, we worked ourway like 200 yards away from

(25:26):
her, and uh she never worked herway around the point.
She ended up going in the woods,so that was day two.
Yep.
And then uh the morning of daythree, like it we went back in
there, and it was it was a realnice morning.
But uh yeah, there was nothingon the lake that morning.

SPEAKER_00 (25:40):
So morale was starting to.

SPEAKER_02 (25:42):
Yeah, we were we were excited, we were excited
that we had seen something inmove season.
Right.
So but then of course the nextmorning, nothing there.
So of course morale starts to godown again pretty not not
drastically, but you know, youget down.

SPEAKER_00 (25:56):
Jake's like, I can't believe I'm married into this
family.
Like stuff was being said thatwasn't meant.
Yeah.
So yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02 (26:01):
Yeah, the hunt definitely wasn't meeting our
expectations that going intothat we we had had set.
And uh yeah, so that brings usto Thursday night.
We we went into this lake realearly.
We were probably there at threeo'clock in the afternoon.
And we this this lake, it's gotmusk egg around it that's like
growing over the lake.

(26:22):
So it's real hard to walk aroundthe edges of it.
But we worked our way around oneedge of it and just kind of
walked in and did some cow callsand whatnot, seeing if we get
anything to respond or come outto the lake.
And dad was the one calling, anduh yeah, we had been there for
probably like two or three hoursand nothing nothing had come out

(26:42):
yet or anything like that, andlike it was warm.
So I was like, well, I don'tknow, maybe we should go drive
some roads or whatever.
So we started walking out, andit's quite a thick walk out.
We were walking around the lake,and I just had to run in to grab
a bag to like at the lake, andeverybody was already like on
their way out of the lake.
They could like they weren'tlooking at the lake or anything

(27:03):
anymore.
So I went to go grab the bag,and I turned around, and there
was a cow standing like probably200 yards away from where we
just had left.
So if we had stayed there likefive more minutes, we would have
had a real easy shot at a cow.
Yeah.
So I went, I went and grabbedJacob and everybody there.
Everybody but Jacob'sgrandfather, because he was
ahead of everybody and he hadalready made it back to the

(27:23):
bikes.

SPEAKER_00 (27:24):
Oh, he his morale was like I was a disappointment.

SPEAKER_02 (27:29):
Yeah, so uh we're we start Jacob and I started making
a stalk back around the laketowards the cow.

SPEAKER_04 (27:35):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (27:36):
And it turned out it was like a cow with last year's
calf, and then she was actuallyrunning off a second cow.
So there were three cows on thelake.

SPEAKER_00 (27:46):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (27:47):
So we were working our way over, and we probably
got 300 yards away from the cow.
And I look across the lake towhere we had seen the cow the
night before, and I was like,Jacob, you wouldn't believe it.
There's another cow over there.
And we were watching, and thethe her calf popped out from
last year.
I was like, Holy frig.
Then another cow popped out fromlast year.

SPEAKER_00 (28:05):
Really?

SPEAKER_02 (28:06):
Or not from last year, but another cow popped
out.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (28:08):
So that at this point Well, she's probably
around last year too.

SPEAKER_02 (28:11):
Yeah, yeah.
At this point, there's four cowsaround the lake and and two
calves.

SPEAKER_00 (28:17):
It's a good show.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (28:18):
And I was like, I don't know how there's not a
bull out here, you know?
Besides us.
Yeah, exactly.
Um, so and then sure enough,another couple minutes went by
and I looked over it.
I was like, Jacob, you wouldn'tbelieve it.
There's a massive bull on theother side of the lake.
And we're getting down to likeprobably 45 minutes of daylight

(28:39):
left.
And there's no way we're gonnamake it around the lake to where
this to get a shot on thismoose.
And and it's either A, still belight, or B still be still be
there, like the moose is stillout.

SPEAKER_00 (28:52):
Anyway, so Did did you believe in Jacob or the
morale was so low?
Like when you when Haley's soyou're not gonna believe it,
you're like, I you're right, Iprobably don't.

SPEAKER_03 (28:59):
Well, it was actually funny.
Yeah, I I went and I was likelooking at all four of them, and
I was like, Are you sure I don'tsee one?
And he's like, No, no, no, thatone.
I was like, which one?
You you have to see it.
And I was like, so he's like thefar left one.
So I'm just looking like, Idon't see a rack on that, like
that's a cow.
And then I think he was justeating or something because he
lifted his head, and then all ofa sudden I was like, Yep, okay,
yeah, yep, we're good.

(29:20):
See big paddles on them.

SPEAKER_04 (29:21):
Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (29:22):
Yeah, yeah.
So we we made our way to therewas a beaver lodge on the edge
of the lake.
Uh Jacob, he had he was using mybog tripod, so real good tripod,
really steady.
And I just had one that had likea V notch in it, so not really
steady for making a long shot.
Yeah.
So I laid down on the beaverhouse, the beaver lodge.

SPEAKER_00 (29:43):
Uh wouldn't you know what if the beaver came out?

SPEAKER_01 (29:46):
The beavers were out, yes.
They weren't flapping the wateryet.
Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (29:50):
Better than slapping you, I guess.
Yeah.
This is just like the bear hunt.
Dad.
Get the chainsaw.
Yeah, get the chainsaw, thebeavers are pissed.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (30:00):
Yeah, so uh I had like a shitty rangefinder and
it's not really accurate outsideof like 400 yards.

SPEAKER_00 (30:07):
I like how all the excuses come out.
Like, well, he had the betterbipod, and I didn't even have
much of a rangefinder.
I was laying on this beaverhouse and they were coming out
at me.
Well the beaver house.
No, it's all right.

SPEAKER_02 (30:16):
Make your excuses because the beaver house was
probably better than the uh thanthe tripod.
Yeah.
Looked nice.
It's pretty good rest.

SPEAKER_00 (30:22):
It's probably sturdier.

SPEAKER_02 (30:24):
Yeah.
Yeah.
Beavers built it well.

SPEAKER_00 (30:26):
Yeah, as they do.

SPEAKER_02 (30:27):
Red seal beavers.

SPEAKER_00 (30:28):
Yes.
You can learn a lot from them.

SPEAKER_02 (30:30):
I guess so, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (30:31):
Um crappy rangefinder.

SPEAKER_02 (30:33):
So crappy range finder.
So I pulled out my phone and onthe hunting app I use, uh, I
think it's iHunter is what I'musing.
Anyways, I measured the distanceand it was 430 meters.
And I was like, oh sweet.
Like I I do a lot of shootingand like shooting five or six
hundred yards.

SPEAKER_00 (30:51):
So what do you what are you shooting for your gun?

SPEAKER_02 (30:52):
I'm using a uh Tika T3 light and shoot 300 with mag.
Okay.
So, you know, uh a project abullet that's a caliber that's
capable of reaching out therefor sure.

SPEAKER_00 (31:04):
But does drop.

SPEAKER_02 (31:05):
Absolutely, yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
So so uh I said I said to Jacob,you know, he's like 430 yards
away, and I told him kind of theholdover, and I knew my
holdover, and we counted herdown, and we went three, two,
one, and we were gonna go onone, and we both waited for a
long second.

(31:26):
We both shot like basically atthe same time.

SPEAKER_00 (31:27):
Well, you guys go three, two, one.
I always go on zero.

SPEAKER_02 (31:31):
Yeah, well that's that's the issue.
Uh sometimes it's hard whenyou're the one counting down to
wait for one.
Yes.
When you're when you're trainedand you know when you're on your
target.
But uh yeah, we both waited along period of time after one,
but we shot pretty closetogether.
And from what I could tell, itwas hard because my ears were
ringing from Jacob's muzzlebreak if we didn't have ear

(31:53):
protection on.
But I could tell I thought I hitlow.
I was like, geez.
So I I I set my hold over for500 yards and I shot again.
And Jacob shot again.

SPEAKER_00 (32:04):
Did you guys count down?
This time we'll count up.
One, two, three, four, five.
What do you usually shoot on?

SPEAKER_02 (32:14):
After one, it was like, let's get some lead in
them, like whatever you gotta dowhen you're on.

SPEAKER_00 (32:18):
That is what you're supposed to do in a moose sign,
is just one make your goodinitial shot, and after that, it
basically kind of puts some leaddownrange.
Spray and prey.
No, kind of.
I mean, they're just so big, youdon't want them to be able to do
that.

SPEAKER_02 (32:30):
And that's why in New Brunswick they allow a
second gun, right?
Yeah.
So all all moose week, when wewere hearing shots, you never
heard like one or two shots.
You always heard like six oryeah, minimal five shots.

SPEAKER_00 (32:42):
Yeah, if they if you can.

SPEAKER_02 (32:43):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (32:44):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (32:45):
So yeah, I set my whole door 500 yards, and it
still looked like I hit low onhim, just the way he flinched
and you could see it through myscope.
So I set it up to 600, andthat's where I seemed to be
working.
So we shot him a couple timesfrom 635 yards, and uh he didn't
go down.
He laid he laid down on the edgeof the the woods before it got

(33:09):
dark and uh then he got up andhe went into the woods.
So I was like, well, we'llcircle around the lake and we'll
go we'll go see if uh we can seeany good blood or what we see
over there.
Not willing to go look for himat dark, but we were gonna see
what signs we seen.
We knew we had hit him good,obviously, because he had laid
down before he even went in thewoods and he was acting hurt and

(33:31):
yeah, probably just got shot afew times.
I got I actually I got overthere before Jacob did.

SPEAKER_00 (33:37):
And yeah, because you're like a built like a
stork.

SPEAKER_02 (33:40):
Long legged.

SPEAKER_00 (33:41):
It would be hard to keep up with them, Jacob.
Yeah, just like these quick.
Those listening, Caleb is talland lanky.

SPEAKER_03 (33:47):
I am short and not.

SPEAKER_00 (33:49):
You're you're average like me.
Caleb's just tall.

SPEAKER_02 (33:52):
We'll go with that.
Yeah.
Um, so I got over there and Icould hear him, I heard him once
like breathing it sound like hewas gurgling blood.
So that was another telltalesign that we had hit him good.
So we went over, we were lookingfor blood, and it was hot, and I
just rushed over there.
I was like, boys, we gotta, wegotta, I gotta take some layers

(34:12):
off here.
So I got my coveralls off, andmy it's dark at this point, and
we didn't really come preparedwith good flashlights or
anything like that.

SPEAKER_00 (34:20):
Kale's just flying around the side of the lake in
the musk egg in his boxers.

SPEAKER_02 (34:24):
Well, looking at it.
We're standing where he was whenwe shot him when I'm taking my
clothes off, like taking myextra layers.

SPEAKER_03 (34:30):
Too many clothes.

SPEAKER_02 (34:31):
Taking my extra layers off my coat, and I have
my coveralls down, my phone wasin my coveralls.
And as as I'm sitting there withall my stuff on the ground and
whatnot, we heard like it washard to tell.
It sounded like a cross betweena grunt and a cough just inside
the woods.
So I was like, Well, we bet wegotta make some some ground just

(34:52):
in case we didn't know what hewas gonna do.
You couldn't see him, we didn'thave good lights, we didn't know
if he was standing or but he wasclose.
He was close.
It sounded like he was justinside the bushes, and so we
made our way over to the edge ofthe lake to put some distance
just in case he decided he wasgonna come out where we were
just standing.
And of course, I was going withmy coveralls down, lost my phone
somewhere in the musk egg.

(35:14):
So we let things calm down alittle bit, and you could hear
the cows walking off through thewoods and sticks breaking.

SPEAKER_00 (35:20):
Cale gets up out of the muskeg.
Holy cow, does anyone see myphone or my boxers?

SPEAKER_02 (35:26):
So uh, so eventually we worked up the courage to go
grab the grab my gear and getout of there for the night.
We were just gonna let him lethim die.
We knew we'd hit him good.
So we went and grabbed my stuff,found my phone, got out of
there, went back to camp.
We talked about it with Jacob'sgrandfather.
He had he's got lots ofknowledge and deer hunting and
stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00 (35:46):
He he was on the bike, he didn't hear the shots.
He did hear the shots, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (35:50):
So so we sent him because we were leaving at the
time we were leaving the lake togo like look through some cuts
and stuff like that.
So we sent him out.
How old's your grandfather,Jacob?
Almost 82.

SPEAKER_00 (36:01):
Yeah.
Oh, okay.
So he's no spring chicken.
No, no, he You guys were gonnasend him off on his own.
That's we we sent him you you goalong there and find some moose.
We'll be back.
Near the trail.

SPEAKER_02 (36:11):
Yeah, we sent him out to the four-wheeler, the
side by side and four-wheelerfirst, and we were just gonna be
right behind him, but we didn'tend up being right behind him.
So he he heard the shots fromthe side by side, which kind of
sucks.
It would have been cool if yougot to see all the action.
But anyways, we you know, so wechatted it up with him when we
got back to the camp and toldhim everything was going on, and
he kind of figured that we hadhit it good, obviously.

(36:32):
Yep.
So it was a long, restful night.

SPEAKER_00 (36:35):
How were you like this is your first big game
hunt, and you guys have awounded, massive bolt?
Like, what were you thinking?

SPEAKER_03 (36:42):
Well, it was pretty crazy because like you know how
you get like buck fever and youstart shaking.
So it was funny.
I noticed at first, like, youknow, when we had it scoped, and
I was like, I feel like I shouldbe shaking, and I wasn't.
So we took our shots, but thenas soon as I went to reload, I
was shaking.
I could barely get my bulletsin.
I was like, oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 (36:59):
I was like that when we get our moose a few years
ago.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (37:02):
And so, you know, I'm just like pumped that we got
it, but then also, you know,it's like you know.

SPEAKER_00 (37:09):
Did you sleep that night?

SPEAKER_03 (37:10):
Uh a little bit less.
Yeah, a little bit less, justkind of thinking about it.
Yeah.
Buddha, my grandfather, he'slike, Well, you know, like
moose, they can they can stillrun like even hurt kilometers
and stuff.
So you know, our fear was likeokay.
Hopefully we find him in themorning, just kind of where we
left him.
And so there was a little bit ofare we gonna see him?
Are we not?

SPEAKER_00 (37:29):
Yeah, yeah.
What about you, Kale?
Did you sleep that night?

SPEAKER_03 (37:32):
I slept I slept very well that night.

SPEAKER_02 (37:34):
Really?

SPEAKER_00 (37:35):
You weren't worried.
You figured he was dead so inthe log.

SPEAKER_02 (37:38):
I I I had I felt like we hit him good.
So going basing it off of myinitial feelings, I I felt like
we hit him good, so I didn'tthink he was gonna go too too
far.
Yep.
But uh there's always that uhyou know doubt in your yeah, in
your head or in your gut thatyou know always scares you a
little bit, I guess.

(37:59):
Yeah.
So yeah, and this m next morningcome around.
We got to sleep in a little bitbecause we didn't have to be up
two hours before first light toget to her spot.
So it's kind of nice.
Yeah.
So we we loaded the canoe up thenext morning, figured we were
gonna canoe across the lake andnot uh run, not run around in a
bunch of musk egg and no onewanted to see you strip down
again.

(38:19):
Uh let's see a canoe.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Strip hunting.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we went in the next morningand we found him not too far
away from uh where we thought hewas.

SPEAKER_00 (38:30):
And how pumped were I mean, you've never been near
anything that big dead, but letlike a moose.
I mean, they're they're it'spretty cool.
Yeah.
It's pretty cool, they're big.

SPEAKER_03 (38:40):
Well, that's the thing, because we'd only really
seen them from across the lake.

SPEAKER_00 (38:43):
Yeah.
And so, you know, you know howbig moose are, but yeah, once
you come across one, like justlaying there, it was even people
that have like seen themalongside the road or whatever,
you don't know, but we are liketheir ears, their nose, they're
like, they are big.
It's really cool.
Yeah.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (38:56):
So it just kind of took a second to just be like,
oh my goodness, I guess wecouldn't get over it.
Yeah.
How big they were.
So no, it was Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (39:02):
The night before, I kind of said to Jacob, like, I'm
thinking like a 40-inch spreadon them.
Like, that's kind of what I wasfiguring from across the lake.
But obviously, it was a lotfurther than we had thought.

SPEAKER_04 (39:11):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (39:11):
Because we thought it was 430 yards and it was 635,
so it was a lot further.
Because we took a realmeasurement the next morning.
Yeah.
Kind of thing.
That night, I think, on my phoneis when I really took it.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (39:22):
Yeah.
Well, uh, so what was thespread?

SPEAKER_02 (39:24):
It uh ended up being 49 and a quarter.

SPEAKER_00 (39:27):
Yeah, that's big.
Yeah.
I know.
So your first hunt besides apartridge.
I mean, that's yeah, that'sincredible.

SPEAKER_03 (39:35):
Yeah.
So we were we were superexcited, and like I said, it
couldn't couldn't have gone anybetter.
Just kind of and and going intoit too, it was kind of like you
know, it's fun to get it on thefirst day.
You don't have to have that likedisappointment each day, but
then you don't get the hunt.
So we kind of saying that likeyou want to get it on your third
day, and so it's kind ofperfect.

SPEAKER_02 (39:53):
It actually worked out perfect because you got to
hunt and enjoy the process, eventhough it was a bit stressful at
the time.
Yeah.
And then you got your animalbefore it got down too too far
down to crunch time or down tothe wire.

SPEAKER_00 (40:06):
Like, yeah.
Well, I know it's uh well, youguys did have morel a little low
here saying.

SPEAKER_02 (40:11):
Yeah, they it was different.
Yeah, I remember it's like thatwith the not that low, but just
lower than we expected.

SPEAKER_00 (40:15):
Yeah, it wasn't quite as high.
But uh, I know it was like thatthis spring turkey season with
buddy of mine, like you know, weworked at the turkey, we thought
we'd get it done first morning,and then you know, calls and
misses and this and that.
And then finally, it was laterin the week, or maybe it was the
second week, it's only two weekseason, and he's called them out
and they came out like on astring and uh shot it.
And I I remember asking Kyle, Iwas like, if that had happened

(40:38):
the first morning, I said, Wouldthis feel as good right now to
have the turkey?
He's like, No.
You know, so that's the samething with moose, right?
If that had all happened rightaway first morning, would you be
like as pumped about it kind ofthing, right?
It's it's all the journey, youknow.
It's the journey.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (40:54):
Yeah, so that's not at all the end of the story
because we hadn't dragged himout yet or anything like that.
He was quite a ways from anyroad.
We we probably had to cut outhalf a kilometer of trail to get
him out.
Oh yeah.
We drug him out with uh and hehe crashed right in the middle
of like a cedar swamp and it wasalders, and it was it was brutal

(41:14):
thick.

SPEAKER_00 (41:15):
So that's when the uh Jacob when yeah, the like
holy shit, we got him to likeholy shit, we gotta get him out
of here.

SPEAKER_03 (41:22):
Yeah, because like yeah, I've seen some moose hunts
on on TV and stuff, and and youknow they always say the work
starts once he kills.

SPEAKER_00 (41:28):
But they don't show a lot of that to say they're
just like, Yeah, we they'll likeskip ahead like we quartered up
the moose and got it out andback to camp.
That's what I was hoping.

SPEAKER_03 (41:36):
I could go home and everyone kind of do it for me.
But no, it was uh it was a lotof work.

SPEAKER_00 (41:41):
Yeah, is that when your grandfather hopped on the
bike again that time?
Oh, meet you back at camp again.

unknown (41:45):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (41:46):
No, he was excited.
He really wanted to be there forthat process.
Oh yeah, good help, sure.
Yeah, so we we cut trail andobviously we uh we dressed them
before that, but we cut that wedressed them, cut trail, and
drug them out.
Probably took two or threehours.
It was on a trailer.

SPEAKER_04 (42:04):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (42:04):
We uh we we knew we wanted to come prepared this
year, so we built uh beforeMoose, we built a cooler.

SPEAKER_00 (42:11):
Right.

SPEAKER_02 (42:12):
We built an eight-byte cooler on skids that
we drag onto a flat deck trailerand you can take it anywhere.

SPEAKER_00 (42:16):
Oh, it is mobile.
Yeah, okay.
I remember you're sending mepictures of it when you're
building it, but I didn'trealize it was mobile.

SPEAKER_02 (42:21):
Yeah, so it's built around dad's flat deck trailer,
so you drag it on and drag itoff type of deal.
And it's just it's just uhwindow banger AC unit that runs
it and a couple of temperatureprobes that override the You
guys have the was it Inkbird?
Yeah, that's what the that'swhat these are, but you're
thinking of the cool bots.

SPEAKER_00 (42:39):
Yeah, the Inkbird's the cheaper version, but does
the same thing, right?

SPEAKER_02 (42:42):
Yeah, you have to have two of them.
You have to have two of theinkbirds.
But yeah, so so we uh we got wegot rigged up with a cooler, so
that made it a lot lessstressful after the animal's
down, knowing you had you had aspot for it because like you
said, it's like 20 degrees, youknow.
That's a whole added stress isafter you shoot a moose, like is
there gonna be butcher tops thatare gonna take it, or like you

(43:02):
know, can you get it therebefore it spoils and whatnot?
So knowing that there was acooler at camp that was already
cool and ready to go is yeah,yeah, you know that's a relief,
yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (43:12):
Huge relief.
Yeah, that's one less stressor.
Yes, what'd you think that wholeprocess changed?

SPEAKER_03 (43:17):
Oh, it was fun because like you said, I've only
ever seen the videos and stuff.
So you know, I I had Caleb thereto show me how to got it, and
you know, he did most of it, butI was still trying to get my
hands dirty.

SPEAKER_00 (43:27):
This is a lot more work than YouTube.
Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 (43:29):
Tried to make it educational, but there's also a
point where you gotta get itdone at the same time.

SPEAKER_00 (43:33):
So cut here, no, not there.
Give me the knife, don't get it.
Hold the carbon out hiseyeballs.
Yeah, yeah.
So there's your uh there's yourlearning lesson for the day.

SPEAKER_02 (43:42):
Yeah, don't get in the way.
Yeah, yeah.
Oh, that's great.
So we we got him back to campand we got them all quartered up
and hanging in the cooler, andthat's where he lies now.
Jacob's gonna get them allmounted, gonna get a brisket
mount done.
Yeah, yeah.
Are you?

SPEAKER_03 (43:56):
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Nice.
Rack's at the taxidermist rightnow and got the brisk brisket
up.

SPEAKER_00 (44:02):
Like, yeah, okay, cool.
That's really cool.

SPEAKER_03 (44:04):
I've got nowhere to put it in my house, so that's
the thing, me.

SPEAKER_00 (44:08):
They take up a lot of room.
It's not like a deer male.

SPEAKER_02 (44:11):
I mean, he definitely didn't realize how
big it's gonna be until we wentinside of the taxidermist house
and then we seen one, and itlike sticks out from the wall
four and a half or five feet.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (44:23):
Because I had seen them before, but every time I
see them, it's not like, oh,this is gonna be my house soon.
Yeah.
And so yeah, you never reallythink about it.

SPEAKER_00 (44:32):
That's why you see a lot of like Euromance on garages
outside.
But I mean, yeah, they do takeup a lot of room in the house,
and you want it well securedtoo.
Yeah.
Because I mean, you wouldn'twant it like above your bed and
then realize like it wasn'tquite quite screwed into a stud,
and you know, I think they'relike 100 or 120 pounds when
they're done too.
Like a heavy, you wouldn't wantit landing on you.

SPEAKER_03 (44:52):
Yeah.
So yeah, like you said, it'll goup in their their camp for now,
and you know, maybe way, waydown the future I'll have a
house that I can put it in.

SPEAKER_00 (45:00):
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (45:01):
And a wife that'll let you.
Yeah.
Yeah, that's part of it too.
That'll just take years ofconvincing brownie points.

SPEAKER_00 (45:07):
Or be like, well, if you don't like it, try to take
it down.

SPEAKER_03 (45:11):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (45:12):
Yeah, so uh are you hooked?
Oh, yeah.
Deer season?
Like, what are you you gearingup for that?
Are you excited?

SPEAKER_03 (45:18):
Well, I was originally planning to do deer
season, assuming we didn't get amoose kind of thing.
Like, I didn't get the lottery,but uh I think I'll I'll take a
break for now just because Imean we're gonna have way too
much meat and you know, Ialready took a week off worth.

SPEAKER_00 (45:31):
Do some small game hunting though?
Like, are you are you hooked onhunting?
Are you gonna be able to dothat?
I I really enjoy it, yeah.
I do it.

SPEAKER_03 (45:36):
I I want to kind of go bear hunting with Caleb and
stuff.
Really?
Okay.

SPEAKER_00 (45:40):
That's surprising.

SPEAKER_03 (45:42):
Can't can't get any worse, right?

SPEAKER_00 (45:44):
I mean, but the thing about the moose hunting,
uh normally big game hunting isuh, you know, just solitary sort
of thing, but uh the moosehunting is kind of the
camaraderie, it's like smallgame hunting.
That's what I I like.
I I probably like that part ofhunting more than anything.

SPEAKER_03 (45:57):
It's just the camaraderie and and stuff and
hanging out with people andyeah, because like I said, we
were able to get my grandfatherdown and one of my good friends,
he was there, he he had doneeven less hunting than me too,
and so he was kind of hooked andhe's like, Alright, this year
I'm I'm gonna enter.

SPEAKER_00 (46:11):
Yeah, yeah.
It was nice.
So Caleb could have his work itout for him.
Yeah, exactly.
Do it every year.

SPEAKER_03 (46:17):
And it was pretty cool.
Tell him about your grandfatherat the end of the hunt.
Oh yeah, so like I said, I Ididn't own a rifle or anything
like that, and so he had broughthis rifle, you know.
Never know if something isn'tworking or something, there's a
backup, and so after he he justgave it to me.

SPEAKER_00 (46:33):
Oh yeah, what is it?

SPEAKER_03 (46:34):
It's uh Browning 338.
Uh yeah, wind mag, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (46:38):
Yeah, that's uh that's a moose dropper.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
That's a big gun, yeah.
Wow.

SPEAKER_03 (46:43):
So hopefully I'll get another moose and use that
one in the future.

SPEAKER_00 (46:47):
Yeah.
Oh, that's awesome.
So you guys had uh you had agood hunt?

SPEAKER_03 (46:50):
Yeah, it was good.

SPEAKER_00 (46:51):
I know when I saw it, you sent me the picture,
Caleb.
I was like, holy shit, thatCaleb looks ugly there.

SPEAKER_03 (46:57):
We tried to blur it, but yeah, it didn't work.

SPEAKER_00 (47:00):
No, it's like that's a big moose, really big moose.
He's like just huge.
She said almost about a 50-inchspread.
Wow.
Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 (47:08):
Yeah, and even yeah, like flipping him over.
I mean, me, Caleb, and my bodywas a big guy.
I mean, we could barely get himonto his back to gut.
It was tough.

SPEAKER_00 (47:17):
Yeah, and that looks that's really handy too that you
have built the cooler and you'reable to take care of it
yourself.
Because I mean, that is thething, getting into a butcher
shop, like maybe there's room,maybe there's not, you know.
And some some of them fill upquick, really quick.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (47:30):
Yeah, so uh probably another week or so.
It's time, we're gonna cut themup.
We got all the grinders andeverything else ready to go.
So yeah, hamburger in thefreezer, and steaks and whatever
else.

SPEAKER_00 (47:42):
All right, boys.
Well, that's a good story, anduh we'll have you back.
We'll we'll have some morestories.
I'm sure.
I'm sure but you're hooked forlife.

SPEAKER_03 (47:49):
That's that is it.

SPEAKER_00 (47:50):
That's all right.
Thanks, boys.

SPEAKER_03 (47:51):
Thanks.