We got Meese .... !!!

[PJ Hardtack]

I sit at breakfast, lunch and supper watching our resident cow meese across the lake 200- 250m away. One has twins, t'other a single calf. That means the bulls will show up ere long, and I didn't get a draw - again.

These meese are so tame that the barking of my dog doesn't bother them in the slightest. I enjoy putting the x-hairs of my Sharps rifle on them.

The country they are in across the lake is Crown land (like the US BLM forests) with no habitation. It is pure jungle, a tangle of wind fall trees and overgrown trails. I will be paddling over there next week to check things out, looking for deer and bear. As long as I don't put anything down more than 200 yds from shore, I can drag it out and put it in the canoe, in pieces if necessary.

The rifle I'll be taking will be my 50-70 Shiloh carbine. Wish me luck!

[Blair]

You have my best wishes.
My best,
 Blair

[PJ Hardtack]

Thanks, Blair!

I've been over there before several times and what I like about it is it's isolation. Only access is by boat. I hate walking in anyone else's boot tracks.
Doesn't matter to me if I take game or not. I'm top of the food chain in virgin territory. It only gets better if I connect with game.
Not many people get a chance at that without flying to the Yukon or Alaska.

[Advertising]

[PJ Hardtack]

While I was at the community hall stacking a load of firewood and building a fire for the ladies quilting group, a Mule Deer doe and her fawn crossed the road and walked in front of me not 50 yds away. Time was 11:00 am.

I gave my usual sharp whistle blast and she stopped to check me out. Satisfied that I constituted no threat, she and her fawn began to graze. Not happy being ignored, I whistled again and this time she shot me a look that said - "What? Can't a deer feed without being whistled at?"

I got home to find my wife looking through binos at one of our resident cows and her calf feeding in the lake 225 yds away. Time was coming up 12:00 pm. I'm trying to make sense out of the times we see our two resident moose and their calves (one has twins) and am baffled.

I've heard all the 'expert' talk about when deer and moose are active and I say 'moose pellets!'! I've sat at the table having breakfast, lunch and supper and watched these cow meese and their calves feeding in the lake. I've seen them on evening walks and I believe that they have appeared nocturnally, if I am to believe the ruckus the dogs make.

Most of the Mule Deer I've seen and/or shot have been taken between 10:00 and 11:00 am, but the last one was taken mid-afternoon. This isn't just because that is when I was there at those times, because I've hunted in pre-dawn darkness to dusk.

[dusty texian]

Mr. PJ Hardtack , you live in a paradise . Would love to watch some moose /meese at the end of the day across the lake. My part of the world differs from yours a bit. The SouthWest deserts of Texas and Old Mexico! A very large wildernes full of oddities . Its funny how when you live amongst the critters . You see them do all sorts of things that they aint supposed to do.,,,,DT

[PJ Hardtack]

I just got back from the range at 4 pm and again, what do I see across the lake - Miz Moose, her off spring lurking in the bush.

Speaking of oddities .... I've seen the cow (the one with twin calves) fully submerge in the lake for several minutes. There were times she was walking on the bottom with just her hump above water. Looked Like a beaver swimming.

What puzzles me is - where are the bulls? They're usually around by now.

[PJ Hardtack]

Nudder moose story ....

We walk our dogs 2-3 times daily and on weekends take them on a real hike. Today after lunch we decided to walk on a logging road I haven't been on for a couple of years. Right from the get-go we were seeing wolf tracks and scat and my concern was that the dogs would find a wolf.

Well into the walk on a beautiful sunny day, we heard what sounded like a human voice coming from a bend in the road 25 yds away. Then we heard hoof beats and we presumed it was a rider.
Seconds later, we see both dogs in high gear being pursued by an irate cow moose with her head down! When she was 6 long paces away, she raised her head, saw us and made a sharp left turn into the bush, the dogs in hot pursuit, the only time there was any barking.

It's no trick for a moose to out run a dog in any terrain and within minutes the dogs were back with us, panting and happy to be with us.

In the past, they have brought a couple of bears back to us, one charging three times as close as 15 yds, but this is the first time they have brought a moose to us.
I was carrying my 50-70 carbine and had the moose not made that quick 90* turn, I would have presumed she was going to steamroller us and fired.
There is no open season on cow moose and I didn't get a draw in any case, so had I done so, I would have abandoned the carcass to the wolves.

Never a dull day in Cariboo country!

PS: During supper, the cow moose with the twin calves showed up across the lake to amuse and entertain us.

[Gabriel Law]

I well know your lake PJ, having spent summers for about 25 years on your neighbour lake, Puntchesakut.  Post a picture for us, if you will.

[PJ Hardtack]

We need a better camera. Our current one makes the meese look like large dogs.

Puntatenkut (say that in polite company after a few beers ...) is the native name of the lake we live on. It's a brown water lake ever since they blew the earthen dam that once generated power back in the 60's.

Now the beavers have dammed the outflow from the lake and it is several feet higher than the norm. We are considering demolishing the dam. If we don't, spring run off will raise it even higher to the detriment of some properties.