It is 2024 now and near mid June. I took some time to reflect on my Newfoundland Moose Hunt.

Ed’s Moose taken Sept. 19, 2023

I was able to bring all 300 pounds of my frozen moose meat home on the back of our Subaru Ascent. On return home, we crossed over to Nova Scotia from the Port Au Basque side. An 8 hour Ferry ride. We had a ferry cabin, and 2 labrador retrievers with us.

I was hoping for a bull, but here along the Gander River, there were very few big racked bulls but never the less a decent quantity of moose live here. Given my senior age, I liked the hunt on the back of a Quad to get me close to bogs.

Cost of the hunt was in the $7000 range in total. Weather in October is storm prone, so be prepared.

So lets see, my moose meat costs $23 dollars a pound. Is it delicious? Absolutely the best! My wife goes bananas over the moose burger with a bit of pork mixed with it. This is my third moose and thoroughly enjoying the wild experience and the meat. We have shared meat with friends and family and still have plenty on hand. 

Below is the Moose hunt article.

Newfoundland Moose Hunt Sept 2023 With Gander River Outfitters

Good Hunting!

Next hunt is for black bear in Maine, in September 2024! 

I have successfully used Nosler Accubond bullets on bull moose and bison out of my .375 Ruger.

But I have not used the AccuBond Long Range (ABLR) bullet on big game yet. I have plenty of 7mm 175g Nosler ABLR’s left from my Newfoundland moose hunt last year. Note: Since, I was staying in Newfoundland for 6 weeks, Canada would not let me enter with my Browning 7mm rifle unless I was headed directly to my hunt.

Hopefully,that will soon to change this fall on my Foggy Mountain Maine bear hunt this September. 

The AccuBond ABLR is designed to expand faster than the AccuBond.  But will the bullet mushroom “too much” in my 7mm Rem Mag 175g ABLR at say 50 to 75 yards? 

UPDATE

Discussion with Nosler says the Nosler Partition will have more weight retention and will mushroom nicely at close range. Accordingly, my Nosler friends are sending some Nosler 160g Partitions for my bear hunt. See the video below. 

The biggest complaint from black bear guides is the difficulty of producing a good blood trail, with fat and hair plugging the hole, from smaller diameter bullets. Bears run till death, that may mean hundreds of yards and little blood. I am hoping for a large exit wound for blood trailing.

Fast game recovery means better meat quality!

Good Hunting!

Photo Courtesy Wikipedia

This fall I am hunting bears that have been hunted before, my research indicates that, in particular,  older larger bears are very reluctant to come to bait in daylight. Sometimes letting smaller bears go first to test the water as it were.

This reluctance is very likely because of mistakes we hunters make year over year. We are in fact teaching older bears how to avoid certain bait stands.

That said; This September, I will hunt with rifle from a further away ground stand or treestand site. 

There are many more shot opportunities with rifle than bow.

And I’m not getting any younger. 

On caliber, my master guide tells me that big bore fast 3000 fps rifle bullets from say 375 H&H exit but with a small hole and lack of mushroom. Many say slower big bore like the 45-70 are better.

Said, my 7mm Rem Mag was a better choice of rifles I own. The bullet will really mushroom and create a larger exit hole for blood trailing. 

Ok! So what are some of our mistakes? 

Not watching the wind. Say, you find the wind blows from your stand to your bait? Skip that bait hunt site till the wind shifts away. Else big bruins wont be coming. 

Not washing yourself and hair (even mouth) or clothes before the hunt. 

Clothes have collected camp scents like campfire smoke or cigarette/cigar smoke. 

Clean Boots – Inside the boot too.

Not Wearing Mosquito netting. 

Break up your facial outline. Use camo and a face mask. 

Hunting too close to your bait. 

Coughing or making noise in your tree or ground stand.  A real no no. Quiet that cough!!

Fast movement of head or hands. Like swatting mosquitoes. 

Big bears circle and wind the site. 

Metal on metal clink sounds.

Eliminate these mistakes and you will greatly increase your chances of bigger bear showing themselves.

I noted earlier, in retrospect that big bears will let little bears enter a bait site first. Another tip off. 

Secondly, smaller bears tend to watch their backtrail often due to a larger bear. That’s a tip off…

Thirdly, Big bears sometimes approach and circle from behind to the tree stand first and give it a good sniff before heading to bait. 

Good Hunting!

I killed my 800 lb cow moose with a new Browning X-Bolt in .270 Winchester with 150 grain Winchester Power Point bullets.

Ed’s Moose taken Sept. 19, 2023

The rifle was zeroed at 100 yards. The .270 is great on deer, good on elk and can easily kill moose broadside but has some distance and energy limitations. On the flip-side, the advantage of the .270 is lighter recoil and improved accuracy.

Distances are somewhat restrictive. Muzzle velocity form this bullet is 2850 fps, thus I calculated drop and energy on-line with JBM Ballistic Trajectory for this bullet before the hunt to determine my limits.

The JBM Ballistic calculation below provides data for the hunter to use in determining max range, energy and bullet drop.

Accordingly, I followed my own rules for energy.limits. I would not pull the trigger when terminal energy is under 1500 ft-lbs. In my case, under 1500 ft-lbs is at 300 yards. Luck would be in my favor with my guides laser distance at 240 yards. Energy was over 1600 ft-lbs and a broadside shot. I held 6 to 8 high from my BOG tripod rest and fired from a sitting position. A second later you could hear the bullet hit with a hollow drum-like thunk.

The moose never moved but you could see she was hit.

My guide says, “fire another shot.”  I aimed a bit higher near the spine and fired. She fell like she was pole axed. 

Examination of the wound sites showed 2 hits, one high and one low on the chest. The high hit was a few inches below the spine, my second shot. My first shot hit low in the chest. The lungs were a wreck, blood had filled the chest cavity. My guide Matt pulled heart and lungs from the chest along with the lower gut. I wanted to examine the heart. As you can see below the first bullet gashed the gallon-sized heart. This was not luck, it was understanding bullet drop and a good tripod rest. Well, maybe a little luck! We did not see any exit wounds but did not look for the bullets as we had work to do. 

For those readers interested in the Ballistics data below is the JBM Data for Drop and Energy. You can see velocity at 250 yards is 2196 thus the bullet will mushroom. Drop is 8 inches and delivered energy is 1606 ft-lbs and did great damage without an exit wound. 

Good Hunting!