The Adventure begins… it was just a few weeks ago… October 2019.

Our Drive from Southern New Hampshire to Newfoundland with my hunt partner,Oliver Ford and his new Chevy Pick-up, went without a hitch. We rotated driving often. 

The road trip was very straight forward until we hit the Canadian Border with, Passports in hand, created Gun Ownership Card at US Border, Rifle Import Registry with Canadian Customs forms we had already filled out, and Canada Criminal DB Check by customs officials.

Note; Oliver just turned 80 and I just turned 70 years young. For our age we were in  good health for the most part but taking our  med’s. Our wives reminded us. Some might say.. “An Old Man’s Moose Hunt”.

We were excited as all-get-out for this hunt with visions of massive antlered moose dancing in our head as if it were Christmas Morning.

In Moncton, New Brunswick, just prior to crossing into Nova Scotia, we stopped at the Bass Pro Shop. Oliver and I made a few hunting purchases. We were looking for moose antlers like posted in the image below.

 

We waited with dozens of other moose hunters below to take the  overnight (7 hour) ferry with Marine Atlantic over to Newfoundland, affectionately called “The Rock”. Moose hunters either had coolers or real freezers and gas powered generators with them. The came from all parts of US as far as Indiana and Ohio, eager for a moose hunt. Like Us!

We drove the truck onto the ship Highlander and down a ramp to the bottom of the cargo area 1st  Floor (seemed like a football field size room)  where most cars were stored for the crossing. We had a small cozy cabin with a bathroom and small shower up on the 8th floor. Nice! We slept…

 

We ate a delicious eggs and bacon/sausage and bologna breakfast in the ships restaurant an hour before the ship docked. Seems Newfoundlander’s love their fried bologna.

 

We Landed at Port Au Basques, Newfoundland

Another three hours to drive to Peter Strides lake along RT 480 The Caribou Highway. Note: We saw no Caribou on the highway but later we saw many at our camp. Good Bulls! Just need $11,000 for that hunt!

Morning images as we drove just outside of Port Au Basques.

We arrived at the Helicopter Pad and the Main Lodge of Rock Pond Outfitters three hours later.

The stove was our only heat source. We learned fast to keep it stoked as the wind was blowing 20 to 30 knots outside and hovering around 30 to 40 degrees F.

Spiral Stairs to bunk room above. Nice Caribou Rack!

We arrived on a Sunday. Weather prevented the Helicopter from taking us to the remote camp. And we lost a half day Monday to bad weather and the Helicopter.

We met two other hunters in camp Chris and Jaye from Ohio (both into heavy equipment  ownership) , going to an outpost camp even more remote than ours. Both were great to know and have some fun talking about hunts and rifles and growing up. Jaye, I recall, said his Daddy, a very big and solid man, who Jaye loved, had a size 17 ring finger. Jaye said, “When he pointed his big finger into his chest, which was rare, “I knew I better listen up”.

I asked Jaye about his rifle and caliber. He loved his Browning Mountain Rifle in stainless (5 lbs bare) in 300 WSM. The bolt glided like silk. Ill bet it packs a nice kick at that weight but really easy to carry. A great all weather rifle for long range goat hunting at 8000 ft or moose at 1000 ft above sea level like us.

My Rifle, a Ruger M77 African in .375 Ruger with Nosler 300 grain AccuBonds exiting the barrel at 2515 fps and 4200 ft-lbs at the Muzzle with  Leupold VX-6 3-18x44mm on top. It weighed in at 10 pounds with the scope.

Oliver is shooting a 7mm Rem Mag with 160 grain X-Barnes bullets. Shoots sub MOA all day long.

Ok time to cut the jabber. 

Finally we headed to the Chopper to load and head to the remote camp where our guides and Theresa (the owners wife) and Cassie a cousin did all the cooking.

THE HUNT

Date: October  2, 2019  9:30 AM Area 11 Southwest Newfoundland

Owners: Rock Pond Outfitters run by Trevor Keough and Family. Six days at $5900 each. Paid $1000 to book in December, $1900 by March, and $3000 on arrival.

Hop in the Helicopter with me! Lets Go. It took a few minutes to warm up the Helicopter. It was a longer ride than shown.

 

This is Rock Pond Camp – Our home base for the hunt. It is in the middle of a million unnamed lakes and ponds and glacial regolith…boulders and rocks.

Kitchen and Dining area below. This cabin is open only for 6 weeks a year, during the Moose and Caribou Hunt season.

In a 50 Square Mile uninhabited valley and 20 miles from the nearest outfitter, we began our Moose hunt ( two guides, two hunters, one 8 track ARGO Avenger).

Low Bush Blueberries were everywhere.

Oliver taking a nap.

Day one – afternoon we saw caribou but no bull moose. We saw a  huge female cow on the side of a far off hill. She looked like a walking barn door.

Sunrise at Camp.

Day Two – Tuesday at 6:30  AM we had breakfast of eggs and bacon and toast and tea and coffee and headed out to a site that had promise but saw no moose but lots of Caribou.

I set up my rifle on BOG’s new “Death Grip®” tripod. I promised to test it and I was very pleased with it. It was on the heavy side to lug around, but in the ARGO, it was easy and nearby. I had that whole valley covered to 250 yards MPBR with the Death Grip which is more like a “Bench Rest” on a Swivel.  What a great tripod!! See below.

Day Three – We woke to Snow and Wind!

It was 30º F snowing sideways at times on day three, and windy ( wind-chill at 20 mph wind is 17 degrees F)  as we approached our first Moose stand in the Argo Avenger 8 track. The wind cuts like a knife as Oliver tries to stay warm. 

My camo face mask worked great!!

Age? It’s just a number!

The ARGO was essential to our success and essential in beating the tar out of us at every venture sitting in the back and sideways to the direction of travel. Next time, if there is one, I will take the front seat!

We found out that this area according to guides Germain and Chris is known for smaller horned bulls but that was not in the outfitter literature when we booked. Yes some big racks show in the literature along with smaller racks.

I prefer to believe that these are younger bulls, but at at age 5 to 6 would have much larger racks just like a mature whitetail buck would.

But I am not willing to let the moose pass given the time, effort and expenditure. As they say in the Arbys TV commercials. “WE HAVE THE MEAT!” All 300 pounds of it. Each!

Here I am all smiles with this 4 point bull. Not what I came for but happy to be successful from a meat standpoint.

The wind blew at us as if to say “So you want to hunt Moose in Newfoundland, eh!”

The wind cut like a knife into our lighter camo jackets, robbing us of necessary body heat. Below the moose approaches but the guide shut of the camera when it began to blizzard. All the guide saw was white!

Video above – Our guides spotted a bull on a far hillside more than a mile away. We began a loud electronic caller which mimicked a mating Cow Call. It sounds like a loud cow moan.  As soon as the Cow call was started, one of the guides shouts, “he’s coming”! The guide stopped filming with my camera when all he could see was white! 

I was disappointed, I have no shot footage to share.

It was a text book single 100 yard shot, front quartering on a moving target with my 375 Ruger with Nosler 300 grain heads. He was trotting facing us when he veered to the right, thus giving me that quartering shot. The rifle was mounted on the BOG Death Grip and it was easy to get a solid bead on the moving bull. Boom! went the 375 rifle!

The bull stood for just a few seconds, wondering what had just happened and then fell “dead as a door nail” with a resounding thud! Congratulations said Chris and Germain and Oliver. 

Oliver hunted the next day with the two guides and saw no bulls but when a big cow showed up in a gnarly patch of black spruce he changed his mind for meat instead and shot her at 200 yards in the spine and she went down in the midst of the spruce.

It took axes to cut her from the tangled spruce.

He too was successful in taking an adult moose.

Both of us kept the hides and sent them for tanning with fur on.

The guides made fast work of removing the meat, and hide below.

The Chopper took us back with part of our game meat and had to stay another day for them to retrieve it all. 

Sunset at Camp

We drove back to take the midnight ferry to Nova Scotia. We slept in large reclining chairs.

We stopped for gas and bathroom breaks but made it back home in time to start the butchering process.

What you see for meat below, we did for each quarter of the moose in our kitchen. My wife  helped, but she admitted that she never saw that much meat in one place in her whole life. I kept some of the last of it in the freezer so it was cold and fresh to cut. We added 20 pounds of beef pot roast full of fat to help bind the burger as it had no fat.

It took 4 full days for us to process, cut, and grind and vacuum seal steaks,back strap,moose tips, stew meat and over 100 pounds of moose burger. 

If you are after a big Moose rack, I do not recommend this area to hunt.

 

But if you are after adventure and lots of meat, this hunt does that well and it was great family fun!

Here is to a tasty END!

Good Hunting!!

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