Roy Goodwin
Return to Newfoundland - Pt 7
By Roy Goodwin
Nov 18, 2005, 06:19
 

I hate to say it, but the trip is winding down!  We all got up and were at breakfast bright and early.  Plans were made and we all headed out in our respective directions.  I was still looking for my moose, but there was a little “wrinkle” in the plan this morning.  Lee wasn’t going to be able to get out and Ron needed someone to hunt with.  It was decided that he’d join Andy and I for the day.  We lost the coin toss, and therefore would be hunting on foot behind the camp, and not in the boats.  Billy and Mark needed one boat to get back to the far side of the lake to look for the stag they wounded yesterday, and Larry was going to the northeast corner to look for moose.  Kevin and Corey would be back near the stream where they’ve had close encounters with moose most days, leaving us three headed straight back to the south.

Andy and I have a few places to the south where we’ve come close with moose before, so we hit them first thing.  When we couldn’t get any moose action going early on we headed further out to where we usually find caribou.  On the way we did find a pair of cow moose, but after watching them for a while it was obvious there were no bulls near by.  The warm weather has delayed the rut it would seem and the bigger bulls are just no where to be found!

We had a couple options with respect to caribou.  One was to hunt straight back to the south from camp.  The guys had been there the past few days and reported seeing only a few small stags in this area.  Of course, caribou are always moving about and we might find some new ones had moved in.  Besides, if we didn’t find any where the guys had been hunting, we still had options.  We could strike out even further south, or we could swing to the west and loop around the pond toward where Mark and Billy were chasing over 50 caribou the day before.  I liked the west swing idea as Mark had seen two bigger stags than the one Larry shot, which made them “monsters”!  In any case we were resigned to a long walk but the prospects were good that we’d at least find Ron a stag that would make P&Y minimums.  That became our primary goal for the day once we realized the moose hunting wasn’t going to pan out.

An hour or so south we ran into the carcasses of Larry’s two stags.  There were the usual crows feeding heavily on them, but more interesting were the bald eagles.  We counted seven eagles all visible at one time around the area.  Three were mature and the other four were younger and didn’t have the white head feathers you only see on adults.  This means that there were at least two pairs of eagles in the area, and that they had raised two chicks per pair this season.  This is great news!

Passing the carcasses we kept on a southern heading stopping at the rock where I had glassed the big stag I took the very first time I hunted this camp six years ago.  It was fun to be back there again, although I was relieved to find caribou closer than where we had to go previously.  A small group was heading our way, and it included at least one stag.  Out came Ron’s spotting scope so we could get a better look.  It was soon decided that we’d try to work in close enough for a shot, as the largest stag was a certain P&Y qualifier and Ron was excited about the possibility of getting an arrow into him. 

It only took about fifteen minutes to work our way into the general path the caribou were taking as they fed down through the valley.  Once into position, Andy and I fell back so Ron could make the final approach alone.  This left us in position to watch the action, which was fun.  Ron worked his way into some short bushes in front of the small herd and waited for them to come to him.  This is a great way to get a close shot, but not as much fun as Andy’s “Full Frontal Attack”!  It seemed like only seconds later when Ron rose slightly from the bushes, drew his recurve and loosed an arrow at the stag that was just feeding by.  We saw the shot, but didn’t see the arrow strike.  We did see the bigger stag start spinning around wildly in tight circles however, which was unusual behavior to say the least.  After three or four quick turns he headed  right back toward him.  This was interesting!  Once the stag closed the distance to about half; Ron shot again.

This time both Andy and I saw the hit.  The arrow disappeared right behind the front shoulder at about heart level.  The stag turned and ran full tilt away from Ron, but only made about forty yards before his head went down and his back end tumbled right over his front end and he rolled to a stop.  Ron had his stag!  After “high fives” all around Ron retrieved all his arrows and the photo session began.  From there we broke for lunch, and then supervised Ron’s caping skills.  Just kidding, Ron doesn’t need any supervision!  From here the options were not that great.

Ron with his second stag, which green scored 241 net P&Y"

We kept glassing around, but couldn’t find any stags I was willing to chase.  Ron now had his second stag and was done except for moose.  The moose were not moving.  It was simply too far to hike to the west where Mark and Billy were, given Ron was packing antlers and a cape.  We couldn’t let Ron head back alone, so we decided after about an hour’s glassing to call it a day and head back with Ron’s trophy.  It was a nice sunny day with mild winds, and therefore a great day for a hike “in country”.  Getting back to camp early gave us time for showers and a mid afternoon snack, but not enough time to strike out again.  There is always tomorrow!

The stories around the diner table tonight were as interesting as usual.  Everyone was glad Ron had connected on a good one.  Larry hadn’t seen any bull moose, and neither had Kevin.  This proved out our theory that it was just too warm.  Mark and Billy had searched half the morning for the wounded stag before giving up.  There just wasn’t any sign of him in the valley, although they did find all the others that he was with yesterday.  Mid day they decided to try working in closer to the big herd to try to get with-in bow range of one of the two real monsters.  Mark claims they got close, but not close enough for his longbow.  He did get close enough to a bigger one than he shot yesterday, and let another arrow fly.  The distance was about 45 yards and a cross wind took the arrow astray.  They will be going back tomorrow to look for this stag!  Mark is not having very good luck.  Tomorrow is our last day, hope you join us as we still have several tags to fill.

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