Back in 1996 my wife and I went to Newfoundland and I got me moose boy, but he was a bullwinkle, 7 pointer about 30 inches wide.

He was the only moose I had a shot at an the only bull that was killed among the hunters I was in camp with.

I really would like to go kill a little bit larger bull. In fact that is the only animal I have ever killed that I want to kill a larger one of.

I still ain't that picky, anything with a 40 to 50 inch spread and some actual palmation, without spending an arm and a leg.

Realistically would prefer a hunt where only ground transportation would be involved and I could bring out the meat.

The three provinces I am interested in are Alberta/Saskatchewan and Manitoba.

Does anyone have any suggestions on which of the three offers the best chance for what I am looking for?

I would say northern Alberta or northern BC and Yukon would be the best pics unless you goto Alaska.

Being from Alberta and have guided before, good chance of 45"+ with an Outfitter. One the I know of for sure is Chinchaga River HUnts with Bob Freeland. A good friend of mine previously guided for Bob.....Great Outfit.

I personally got a 40" bull last season, but our hunting group are meat eaters first with families to feed. If the first bull seen is legal, its taken...whether its a 5" spike or 50"+.

There are probably a few others....best bet would be goto the APOS website (Alberta Professional Outfitters Society) and look for outfitters with moose allocations.

Have fun !!

In 2007 I hunted with Burntwood Lake Lodge out of Snow Lake Manitoba. The week I was in camp 4 moose were taken a 57", 44", my 40.5" and a 30". The only hunter who didn't take one missed several shots at a 40+ incher. My hunting partner took the 30" and we brought both home. We drove to Snow Lake and then a short float plane trip to camp. It was a very nice trip and the camp was cabins with meals at the main lodge. Food was very good and they even had a computer there so I could e-mail the wife to keep her up to date on the hunt.

PS success was 10 for 14 that year for moose.

I am leaving next month to visit my new Outfitter in Alberta, He has some great area and some good moose, Let me know if you want me to give you a hollar about him and hunts when I return.

In Alberta contact Wild Kakwa Outfitters.I have no connection to them but was amazed at the quality of moose they take. In BC give Tom Vince at Turnagain Adventures a call. I can personally vouch for Tom et al. I shot a 58" 202 B&C bull there in 2008.

Many Thanks for all the replies folks.

I will be sticking with one of the three provinces I listed.

I could be wrong but from what I have seen over the years BC is too expensive as is the Yukon, and I ain't about to attempt a D-I-Y in Alaska.

I spent some time in Alberta back in 2000 and really liked what I saw.

Have visited with some folks that have hunted both Saskatchewan and Manitoba and they had good hunts.

If I can get this hunt put together, my first goal is getting a chance at a bull 40 inches or larger with some palmation on each antler.

My second goal is to haul as much meat back to Texas as possible, my wife and I love the stuff.

For a meat hunt call Bob Freeland at Chinchaga River in Alberta

Check out this outfitter!

http://www.omineca.bc.ca/hunt/canadamoose.html

Was there on a bear hunt in 2009. Nice camp, great people!

Thanks for posting that link, I was under the impression that hunting in BC was higher than that.

PM Sent

Thanks
Tom

The Omineca outfitter seems like a reasonable price, although I must admit that I've never hunted with a guiding outfit. There are A LOT of good areas around here in Prince George that range from minutes to hours away. I've seen moose greater than 11 points a side throughout my travels, but have never been lucky enough to get a draw for such a beast.

Now that I look at the map on the Omineca site, you would probably be based in Ft. St. James which is about an hour and a half away from PG. The fort doesn't have a major airport so I'm guessing that's why they list PG as their 'home'. I haven't hunted the area, but had acquaintances that used to. There is a lot of bush up there and they used to be quite successful.

Have you made any decisions as to where you're going just yet?

No, it will be a while before I get to the decision making part of the equation.

Right now I am just gathering information, as not all guides/outfitters advertise everywhere.

I am looking at this hunt for 2013.

I am trying to get a coues deer hunt in Arizona put together for this next October. Then for 2012, my wife and I are looking at doing a trip up to the Seattle area.

She was born and lived the first two years of her life on Whidbey Island. It will be a 50th. birthday trip for her and a 20th. wedding anniversary for the both of us.

Trying to work up a salmon fishing trip and then a stop on the way back to Texas for a weeks bear hunt in Idaho.

That puts a possible moose hunt behind door number 3, so I want to gather as many contacts for guides as possible.

I am leaning toward Alberta since Lora and I have been there before and really liked the beauty of the land there.

My main parameters are accessing the camp, ability to get as much of the meat as possible back to Texas, odds of getting a bull with a larger rack than the one I shot in Newfoundland, and of course cost.

If you are willing to consider Newfoundland again, you might want to check out Patey and Sons, in the NW corner of the Island. He has a dozen or so fly-in camps.

I hunted with him in 2008, and if you could halfway walk and shoot, you got a moose. Most of the hunters had tagged out by the third day of a 6-day hunt. I enjoyed it immensely.

He posts pictures on his web site of all the moose taken each year, so the results are easy to check out. I think he will be considerably cheaper than Western Canada. Just Google "Patey Moose" to find him.

We really enjoyed the time we spent on Newfoundland in 1996, but the logistics we had to work out for that hunt, is something that I do not really want to do again.

I am not really all that crazy about flying. In fact the only flights I have ever been on were the ones in 2000, going from Edmonton, Alberta to Cambridge Bay and then into Musk Ox camp and the associated return flights.

I appreciate everyone's input and I am getting some good leads on guides/outfitters that will be able to put me on to the size moose I am wanting.

Check out Gene Plihal. He has unreal bear hunting and does moose hunts as well. I don't know the specifics on his moose hunts but he is the real deal for bears.

Save your money and go to BC or the Yukon for a big moose. You cannot go wrong. Northern BC or the Yukon are as good as it gets in my opinion. Been to both and would go back tomorrow.

Saving my money for just one hunt ain't my thing.

I just want a bigger moose than the Bullwinkle I shot, and have been getting some really good leads from folks off of AR.

For the money to go one a hunt to northern BC or the Yukon, at the prices I have seen listed, I could get in two hunts for other species, and still do a moose hunt.

Many Thanks for the info though.

I know 2 outfitters in Manitoba for moose. Big Sand Lake Lodge, and Nueltin Lake Lodge. Check them out. Make it a combo hunt with caribou, for more meat.

Thanks for the info, I will check them out, and call me stoopid if you want, but I have shot two caribou, a woodland and a central canada baren ground in Nunavut, and those critters are dumber than a rock and the meat did not impress me all that much.

I admit that making judgement calls from limited experience is not really intelligent, but having hunted and killed one moose, I enjoyed both the hunt and the quality of the meat a whole lot better than the two caribou hunts and the table qualities of same.

I do appreciate the information on the outfitters and will check into their operation.

Crazy,
You should consider towing a trailer with a freezer (chest type)on it. You can run it with a small Honda generator and bring back all the meat you want.
Even if you shut it down at night the meat will stay frozen for quite a while.
I love to hunt Norther BC by horseback and this year my son, son-in-law and myself will be there for moose and elk. I'll pull an enclosed trailer to haul all the meat back.

I lived in Alberta and Saskatchwewan for 17 years and did a LOT of hunting there every year. If I wanted a nice "typical" adult moose, I would mark Saskatchewan off my list unless I was willing to fly for at least the last few hundred miles in and out.

Saskatchewan has great hunting in the southern half for antelope, elk, white-tail and mule deer, and is probably the best remaining place in North America for upland game and certain kinds of varmints.

But for a strong chance of getting a decent 45 or 50-inch moose, I would pick either Alberta or Manitoba over Saskatchewan in a heart beat.

For really good moose hunting in Northern Saskatchewan, I would want to fly into a camp either north or east of Lac La Ronge, up either close to Uranium City in the North or over right next to Manitoba in the east. There are almost no roads in those areas, dirt or otherwise. Other than flying, the only practical way to see much of Saskatchewan's north is by canoe...over a seemingly endless series of small pothole lakes, with a LOT of portaging in between each and every one.

Personally, I would choose Northern Alberta, up in Big Game Zone 1 where you are allowed to hunt on Sundays. When I lived there, the "no Sunday hunting" rule was strongly enforced everywhere south of there in that province.

Though there are very few maintained public roads in north-central Alberta (the Athabasca Delta), there are lots of them in NW Alberta, including into the Peace River country.

Desite the oil boom in Alberta, and the resultant influx of zillions of American oil workers, who disobey game laws all the time, and kill as many as 4 or 5 moose at a time and leave them lay when they come on them near a road, it is still pretty good hunting.

Good luck, wherever you choose.

P.S. Though the season stays open later, I wouldn't book a hunt for later than the second week of October in Alberta, and preferably not later than the last week of September. After then, you MAY get some nice Indian Summer days, or you MAY get some that would freeze the cajones off a bronze indian...well below zero. The first 33 consecutive months I lived in northern Alberta, it snowed every single month!! Didn't stick in either July or August, but still was cold enough to snow the first week of July and the last week of August...and did for two years straight.

If you were willing to go elsewhere (and pay the price), I would recomend Alaska first, and B.C. second for moose.

Alaska Hunter, Alberta Canuck Many Thanks for the info.

On the moose hunt in Newfoundland, we did pull a trailer with a chest type freezer on it and brought home nearly all of my moose and woodland caribou. On this hunt I really just want to go after a nice moose, maybe do some fishing and if possble take my wife in to camp with me so she can do some fishing.

Alberta Canuck, while everyone that has responded has given me some great info, I was hoping you would chime in, I think you have a good idea of the type hunt I am wanting to do and I really appreciate your taking the time to respond.

quote:

Originally posted by Alberta Canuck:

Because of the oil boom in Alberta, and the resultant influx of zillions of American oil workers, who disobey game laws all the time, and kill as many as 4 or 5 moose at a time and leave them lay when they come on them near a road, it is still pretty good hunting.

Damn, if that's true then I'm ashamed. 20 years hard labor would be too easy a sentence for scumbags like that. Maybe it's just me, but majestic animals like moose have more value than poachers IMHO.

quote:

Originally posted by Crazyhorseconsulting:
I really just want to go after a nice moose, maybe do some fishing and if possble take my wife in to camp with me so she can do some fishing.

There are a couple of places I can think of which have really exceptional fishing for southern Canada.

One is in Alberta right against the Saskatchewan border, Grist Lake. Grist is actually two lakes, with a 3,000 ft. gravel emergency air strip running N/S in beween them. There is no tower, beacon, or radio contact at the strip there, and the strip is a bit dicey in the summer because after noon there are thunderstorm conditions nearly every day with a ceiling of 100-150 feet. The last rig I flew in there was a Cherokee-6, and we had a ton of room...long and wide strip. It is also just north of the Cold Lake bombing range, so one has to contact Cold Lake air traffic control to get permission to fly over the Cold Lake Range. (If you don't get permission, the best that can happen is a lot of official ass chewing and a substantial fine. The worst that can happen is that they may shoot you down with one of the many fighters stationed there. Highly unlikely, but depending on your flight path and their perhaps not being able to make radio contact (and you ignoring the jet jockey interceptor's directions to fly his way and then land) it COULD legally and theoretically happen.

BUT, by now they probably have built a road to Grist Lake from the north (from Ft. McMurray) It is the only place I know of that you WILL catch a Northern Pike on every single cast, with nothing more complex than a DareDevil spoon on the end of your line. from either the lake edge or a small boat. I like red & White Daredevils, but any colour works. The pike are in the northern of the two lakes...the one which is quite wide and long (maybe 500 acres or so?), but very shallow. Just don't be out in the middle in a small boat in the afternoon unless you enjoy fighting white-water. If you get bored with Pike, go out in the morning to the middle of the lake where there is a reef...plenty of 10-pound Walleyes there.

The smaller of the two lakes is the southern one (maybe 80-120 acres?), but it is very deep and very cold...and full of up to 40 pound Lake Trout. There is a nice free camping area on the west edge of the large shallow lake, with NO amenities provided. Just be careful not to camp next to any trappers who are summering their sled dogs there. (The dogs are chained to trees, separated from each other, 24 hours a day.) Those suckers would kill their owners, given half a chance. (Once when we recruited a doctor into Lac La Ronge, they DID kill his 4-year old son and partially eat him. We had warned him and his wife, but they let the kid out to play by himself, and he wandered out of the fenced yard to where the sled dogs could get at him.)

Now, for the second great fishing place, which is much easier to reach, but a lot farther from where you live...it is in NW B.C. If you go through Prince George and head west through Smithers toward Prince Rupert, you will eventually come to the conjunction of the Skeena and the Copper rivers. It is all paved highway, all the way. Mosquitos about the size of B-52s, but less friendly than the B-52s are to the Taliban mujihadeen.

At the junction with the Skeena (which is flowing roughly WSW there) the Copper is flowing N into the Skeena. Follow the Copper (on its east side) head south...again all paved road. Keep a weather eye out on the river and go 'til you see it come over a wide, but only about 20 feet high waterfall. (Only about three mles from the Skeena.)

Pull off the road, and rig up with a yarny wet fly. Spin it quartering upstream into the river just below the waterfall, and let the flow carry it downstream in an arc. Should get about a 20-24" rainbow about every third cast, on average.

When you get tired of catching fish, go back to the junction of the two rivers where there will be a big delta, and very carefully pick a SOLID, NON-SANDY place to camp. You can make a nice fire from driftwood, which is all over the place. Be VERY careful about pulling off the road, or you will sink right up to the axles in dry river sand and there will be nothing to hook on to, to winch yourself out!! A better bet for the night is to just turn west on the highway at that junction and head toward the Kitimat/Prince Rupert junction which is only about 30 or so miles farther on. There is a fairly sizeable city/town there (Terrace, B.C.).. Lots of motels, restaraunts, movie theaters, etc.

The Skeena itself is full of salmon and steelhead, but can't reasonably be fished from the bank. The water is big enough and swift enough that I personally wouldn't venture onto it with anything less than a 16' boat and at least a 30 horse outboard that I KNEW was dead reliable.

Anyway, have fun...all of northern Alberta and northern B.C. are a great adventure in the late summer and early fall.

That type of dsgusting waste is all too common here in BC and in AB as I witnessed during my years with the BC and Alberta Forest Services and the BC Fish and Wildlife. There are SOME workers in resource industries who have done this and they come from various countries; one was a Chinaman who later became a rabid antihunter and threatened BC hunters because he holds a "Black Belt" in Wing Chun Kung Fu.

He and his crew had shot Stone's rams and other rare BC game and just left them to rot; some years later, he joined one of the totally whacko "environmentalist" groups here and was often in the media, with his tough talk. He encountered a BC mountain boy and was severely shitkicked, with both eyes blackened and some major bruises.....shit happens...and, he was on the front page of the same Vancouver newspaper that he had earlier posed aggressively for, whining about the beating he had taken......typical little foreign pos.

However, while meat wastage is still a concern as it happens in various GO camps because many foreign tropy collectors do not want to pay to have the meat from their kills flown out, processed and transported, it is not nearly as bad as it was 20-30 years ago. Perfectly edible meat is still sometimes burned at season end and in some of the most famous GO camps in BC.

That said, the worst wastage of fine meat in BC and AB is by the "entitled" aboriginal "hunters" and I have witnessed this several times. They do this because it is their "right" under Canada's current racist and weak Constitution and the Supreme Court of Canada, full of '60s libs allows it....... They kill Moose, Elk and other animals anytime they wish to and leave them to rot and also slaughter fish and leave them to spoil....and, this is one way of dealing with "whitey".......

The time will come here when people will have finally had enough of such appalling behaviour and the results will NOT be "pretty". I guess it never fails, some have to spoil things for the majority and Canadian hunting today is an example of just that.

For a decent Moose and to take the meat home, there are several smaller, family operated outfits in central BC which will give you a good, safe hunt and you will get a decent Moose and can haul it home without any problem. I suggest PMing "Chilcotin Hillbilly" as Doug would know who is the best bet for a hunt of this type.

whatever you do, don't use a 6.5x55. we all now know that it can't be depended on to kill anything!

I have a 6.5x55 and while it is a great gun and I have no problems shooting stuff with it, if I get this hunt put together, I will be using either my 375 H&H with 250 grain Barnes bullets or my 35 Whelen with 225 grain Barnes bullets.

I am a wuss, and want to hit the critter with something that will make him lay down and hurt, not turn tail and head out.

just funnin ya. both of your choices sound very good. i would love to take my 9.3x62(with 286 grn NP's)for a moose hunt but for now i'll have to be satified with smacking pigs and yotes...see my post in the hog forum. good luck with your hunt and i am looking forward to seeing the pictures.

Like I say, this is just in the planning stage as hopefully I will be going out to Arizona in October to hunt Coues deer and then in 2012, Lora and I will be making a trip to do a little salmon fishing in Washington and a bear hunt in Idaho.

I just like getting things sorted out so that when things fall together we don't end up with surprises except maybe weather conditions and game movement.

I, for one, look forward to hearing who you settle on for an outfitter, Randall. Moose is on my bucket list and I would love to do exactly what you are doing in 2013 as well.

Lord willing, I'll beat this cancer I have and I can get to Canada on a moose hunt in the next couple of years!

Oe thing about it, everyone that has responded has made some really great suggestions and has given me some good leads.

My wife and I really enjoyed our trip to Newfoundland and the five days I spent trying to get my moose was the hardest hunting I have ever done, but I loved it and we both love moose meat.

Many Thanks for all the help and advice everyone.