Well another unsuccessful ME moose drawing results has got me thinking. Where can I go in the eastern part of North America for moose hunting?

Maine, New Hampshire and New Brunswick are all lottery drawings. I thought ME offered the best percentage chance of getting a lottery tag of those three but I am not sure about that.

Newfoundland is out because of the expense in flying. I would like a place I could drive from the Carolinas. What about Ontario or Quebec? I have a friend that is a Sales Rep. for our company that lives in Thunder Bay and his family has a hunting cabin and they are avid moose hunters. He has offered to take me but said something about a party drawing and all I would be available for the first year is a calf tag. I think I have that right? But I am not interested in shooting a calf.

Anybody have any comments or suggestions? other than saving up money from the pickle jar and going to Alaska. Thanks.

C-ROY

You can drive to NewFoundland easily from the Carolinas. In fact if I lived where you did I'd probably go to NewFoundland a lot more. All you do is take the ferry to the Island, its easy, and you can sleep on the ferry.

Best of all you can take all your meat back cheaply. NewFoundland is your best bet, especially when you consider bonus Caribou and Black Bear.

I'd bet one can do a non-stop drive from Carolina to the ferry in NB if you leave the house at about 0300. Then you can sleep the 6 hours on the ferry, you dont need to rent a cot, I just unrolled a sleeping bag in between the seats. Make sure you time your roll thru NY and Boston tho, traffic at both citys really sucks....................J

C-Roy

I drove to Newfoundland last October from Southern Illinois. That's about the same distance as you are. Getting there was half the fun. We even stoped at LL Bean. The other half of the fun was shooting a big Eastern Canadian Moose.

Rich Elliott

Hi Rich,
I was in Southern IL last winter. I have a friend in Marion and I came out and deer hunted the 3rd season, the muzzleloader season. I did not have any luck. It was way to warm but I saw some deer and I saw signs of some monsters compared to the Carolina deer I'm familiar with. I plan on going back in a few years when I can squeeze in the hunt. Its funny how your hunting plans for the next couple of years are already made.

I'll look in to the Newfoundland hunt. Thanks.

C-ROY

What is the procedure for a Newfoundland license? is it over the counter? Do you need an outfitter? Are there places to hunt if you don't have an outfitter?

[ 06-19-2002, 22:05: Message edited by: 375hnh ]

License is purchased,no draw.
Nonresident aliens must use an outfitter.

Personal note,hire an outfitter that has fly in
hunts as opposed to drive to camp hunts.IMHO you
will have a better hunt.
Jeff

Quebec is also a possibility, they don't have a draw. But you do have to have two hunters to one moose

Rich I'd be really surprised if Southern IL. was "just as close" to the NF as the carolinas, especially NC.

If you live in the Carolinas you just zip up the cost, badda-boom-badda-bing. Comeing from IL. you have to decide on all kinds of ways to get there, where to cross into Canada, you can actually go in and out of Cnada a few times getting there.
Anyhow its a lot of tolls, the OH and Penn state police are murder, and some of those states seem to have a $150 toll every 10 miles.

Coming from NC. its right up the coast and cross over in Maine. The Maine/Canada border is hunter friendly and should pose no problems. I'd consider passing on the night driveing in moose country next time I go, especially dureing the rut. Hit one of those damn things and its curtains for you.

Other tips would be to make sure you book a spot on a chopper to get to your hunt cabin. "Your outfitter can set you up with this, probably out of Deer Lake NF, and probably get you to share the cost with other hunters". If you go for a light plane you run the chance of loseing hunting time due to bad weather, and the weather changes constantly up there. A chopper cna fly in much worse weather then float planes, they are instrument rated.

Be careful who you book with. Ive heard some real horror storys from other hunters , both on the forumns, and on the ferrys comeing back. I had a decent hunt when I was there but I dont recomend my outfitter anymore. One of the fellas here had a bad experience with some of his people.

I went early and while I only saw a few moose, the place is chock full of them. Ive heard that NF has the highest concentration of moose in the world and boy, did I see sign. I took a nice young bull that was the best tasteing animal I have ever killed. I took a decent woodland caribou but nothing like the place can produce. I also came to about 500 yrds of a 500lb class BLK bear but couldnt get closer on him. There are some monster bear on that Island.

Booking 1 on 1 is best, for a trophy I'd go in Oct. or Late Sept. Goodluck wherever you hunt, Moose hunting is a gas..............J