Hunt Dates: Sept 29 - Oct 6, 2019
Outfitter: DADG MacDonald
Guide: Lewis Hann
Booking Agent: Bowhunting Safari Consultants (Jay Osting)
Firearm: CZ 550 .375H&H with handloaded Barnes TTSX 250gr

This trip has been roughly a year in the making. One of the doctors I work with is an avid traditional bowhunter and has booked through BSC numerous times. An friend of his was turning 50 and was looking for a trip to celebrate. I count myself lucky enough to have been invited to go along. A group of 4 of us departed from various airports in the country on Sept 28 and had a few hours to enjoy a first cocktail together in the Halifax airport while waiting for our flight to Deer Lake that evening. I flew out of Newark (NJ) into Halifax on United. I found the airport staff at Newark to be very pleasant in handling my firearms check in.

Deer Lake Motel was confortable and convenient. We were picked up by the outfitter Sunday morning for a two hour drive to Peter Stride's (essentially a turn around on the side of the one road running between Corner Brook and Burgeos) to store our hard cases, sign our licenses, and wait for a helo ride. The pilot attempted to get us into camp on two occassions, one of which getting us within 5 minutes of camp, but had to abort both times due to fog. There were hunters at the heliport waiting 2 days for a flight due to poor weather. With 2 of the 4 of us having worked on/out of helicopters for portions of our careers, we understood and had no intentions on taking risks with bush flights in a rotorwing. We ended up staying at the outfitter's parents cabin down the road for the night.

The next morning was almost equally as dicey on the weather, and rather than risk it, we packed into two Argos for a 3 hour ride to Rocky Ridge Pond where two boats awaited us to cross the pond to camp. The Argo ride was fantastic. Those things are absolute tanks and we got to see a lot of country traveling by them. Camp was extremely comfortable for off grid, with generators for hot water and lights, good wood stoves, comfortable bunks, a camp dog, and most importantly - the outfitter's aunt as the cook! She had hot moose stew waiting for us on our arrival and was in staunch competition with the guides over which faction was going to make me lose weight (guides) versus gain weight (Aunt Violet). Three of the four of us took a short walk up the hill out of camp that afternoon (late) to smoke a cigar, do a bit of glassing, and relish in the fact we were there.



Tuesday morning brought 40-50mph winds and not many moose. Two of us and our guides hiked up to a ridge and glassed and called to no avail. The moose were bedded down in the timber and not giving us a look at them due to the wind.

Wednesday brought 2" of snow in the morning and eased up on the wind. After a day of glassing (and seeing!) moose from ridges and a few unsuccessful stalks, we popped down off a ridge heading towards a river and saw a great bull about a mile away up river, in a timber stand 100yds across the opposite bank we were on. Lewis was off like a shot and I did my damnedest to keep up with him. For those who have not had the pleasure of hunting Newfoundland, it's like running on wet mattresses with random 2' holes, and strewn with rocks. Lewis and I covered the mile+ in about 30 minutes, crossed the stream (topping my Muck boots), and got into position with a small berm to our backs. Lewis told me to "get read to shoot" (of which I heard "shoot"), and when the moose broke the treeline I shot. He went 20 yards and piled up. The shot landed just behind the onside shoulder with the moose quartering slightly away from us, and exited just in front of the offside, taking both lungs and the aorta. Other than ribs, no bones were hit and there was very little meat damage. His rack measured 36" wide with good paddles, and 13 points. We lased the shot at 287 yards after we field dressed.





It was 5pm by the time we got to my moose and almost 6 by the time we had him dressed out. We left him for the night and came back in the morning with an Argo to recover him. I thought I was going to die on the 2 mile hike back to the boat Wednesday night. That terrain kicked my butt. Thursday night we enjoyed inside loins, which were absolutely delicious. One of our other hunters had a rather close (10yd or so) stand off with a young bull who came RUNNING into a call in the timber. All ended without a shot, and later that day he took a 40" bull.

The two bowhunters in the group never got shot opportunities. Friday and Saturday both brought high winds and passing snow squalls. Regardless, we all had a good time. Sunday brought BEAUTIFUL weather (of course, we were leaving), and a pleasant flight out of camp on a Bell 206. We dropped our two bulls off at the butcher for cutting/packaging/shipping.

Flights home were uneventful and CBP staff in Halifax was very pleasant to deal with regarding reimporting my rifle. The four of us left very fond of Newfoundland, and eager to go back after woodland caribou in the future. DADG was a solid outfit with very hardworking guides. I would hunt with them again.

Equipment notes:
High top boots are a MUST. I brought Mucks as well as a pair of Kennetrek mountain extremes. I only wore the Mucks in the field.
Good rain gear is a MUST. I brought Sitka Cloudburst pants and jacket and they held up great. I was warm and dry the entire trip. I wore my rain pants over my boots, and a pair of Kennetrek gaiters over my rain pants and the rain pants survived without a tear. I ultimately liked that set up a lot.
We were completely off grid and I loved it for the most part. I did have a Garmin InReach for texting and rented an Iridium sat phone for voice. These both worked very well for staying in touch with my wife and son. The Garmins allowed the groups of hunters to communicate throughout the day as the guides' radios were quite unrealiable. I felt much better having my own comms.
I brought Swarovski EL 8x32 binoculars and probably would have been happier with 10x42's for the amount of glassing we did. The 8x32's were VERY clear, but I had a hard time distinguishing cow from bull at longer ranges.

A huge thank you to everyone here who answered my questions, provided me with advice, and even offered me equipment for this trip. You were all indispensable.

Congrats to you guys on a great hunt. Sounds like a very good outfit you hunted with. I really enjoyed your story and the pics. Thanks for sharing this bucket list hunt.

Congrats on the moose! Thanks for the report.

Congratulations on the nice bull. Got love those Newfoundlanders Eh. Bill

Fine reporting on your Newfie moose hunt. Congratulations

Brandon,

Well done! A very nice Newfie bull. Congrats!

Mark

Good hunt and nice bull moose!

Thanks, all. Now just trying to figure out where the next trip is. Really liked the group I traveled with on this trip. We all treat hunting very similarly and got along quite well.

Congrats!

Nice bull and Newfie report. Like you I found the hike in a lot easier than the hike out and sometimes just ended up in a haze counting steps that seemed to go on for ever.

Wonderful report. Your hike back to camp made me tired just reading about it. Any idea how many pounds of meat you netted from your bull?

Bill,

My Newfoundland bull butchered and vacuum packed made about 300# of steaks, roasts and burger.

Mark

Excellent, glad to hear it went well. And thanks for the gear rec. I've been holding off on buying expensive rain gear.

Norton,

Buy the HH Impertech. You'll be so glad you did. Forget this high tech crap.

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
Wonderful report. Your hike back to camp made me tired just reading about it. Any idea how many pounds of meat you netted from your bull?

215lb of boned-out meat on the scale at the butcher. That was minus the inside loins and ribs which we ate in camp during the week.

I have never hunted NF moose but based on bulls I have seen shot, that one is a stud. Congrats

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
Norton,

Buy the HH Impertech. You'll be so glad you did. Forget this high tech crap.

Mark

I'll check the HH out Mark.....I'm old school anyway!

quote:

Originally posted by AnotherAZWriter:
I have never hunted NF moose but based on bulls I have seen shot, that one is a stud. Congrats

Thank you. I am quite happy with it. I wasn't so concerned with overall width as I was with shape. This was just a great looking moose. I'm looking forward to getting the antlers into my office/trophy room.
Credit card just got hit for the shipping company last week, hopefully the meat and antlers will be shipping shortly. Then probably another few months for my taxidermist to complete.

quote:

Originally posted by Brandon.Gleason:

quote:

Originally posted by AnotherAZWriter:
I have never hunted NF moose but based on bulls I have seen shot, that one is a stud. Congrats

Thank you. I am quite happy with it. I wasn't so concerned with overall width as I was with shape. This was just a great looking moose. I'm looking forward to getting the antlers into my office/trophy room.
Credit card just got hit for the shipping company last week, hopefully the meat and antlers will be shipping shortly. Then probably another few months for my taxidermist to complete.

I have shot five moose, and trust me, width is overrated.

Congratulations Brandon, nice Moose.

Arjun Reddy
Hunters Networks LLC
30 Ivy Hill Road
Brewster, NY 10509
Tel: +1 845 259 3628
2020, DSC booth # 2350
2020, SCI booth # 3167

quote:

Originally posted by MARK H. YOUNG:
Norton,

Buy the HH Impertech. You'll be so glad you did. Forget this high tech crap.

Mark

Just for everyones information Heli Hansen donates to one of the most extreme anti hunting groups in BC, Wildlife Defense League. I would suggest not supporting them even though some of their gear is good.

Congratulations on the Newfie moose. It is better than average from the looks of it.

Good looking moose.

Thanks Doug no Heli Hansen me!

Good bull and report. I hunted Newfoundland in September, and none of the 4 bulls that I saw were as large as yours, so I came home with tag soup.

A late Uncle in the A/F was stationed
up there at some outpost for about 3 years.
Said they shot moose and caribou in camp
about anytime they wanted one.
That was in the late '50s. He sure had some
fine pictures to show us.

Congrats Brandon, am happy for you. That head
will look great on the wall.

George

that was a decent one ,but we get some good ones here ,this one was 45 dressed out just a touch over 500 ,my last one before this was 48 dressed about the same ...we have shot one 57 and one 60 but sorry no pics ,all that being said I'm more interested in the meat ,and have shot many with a couple points to fill the freezer

Nice mooze and killer lever action!

Thank you ,its a custom I did for myself built around a browning 1886 SRC IN 45-70