2014 Hunt is Over

Sadly, I had to clean the 35 Whelen and lock it into the safe today. Hunting season 2014 is over. It started out in September when a good friend of mine, my son, and I decided to chase elk in Central Saskatchewan. My friend has lots of bull elk to his name, I've got a few, but my son had none. Between initially being too young to hunt, then a stint in Afghanistan with the Canadian Forces, he'd missed some wonderful hunts.  Now he was with me again, Steyr 300 Win Mag in hand, and itching at a chance at an elk. We hunted for several uneventful days, then one evening a bull came to the call, and my son got his first elk. 

Next came moose season. In Saskatchewan there are draw seasons and regular seasons. We didn't get drawn, so had to compete with everybody else in the regular moose season. It was mid October, and the moose were just about done calling; furthermore, too many bulls had been educated by hunters in the draw season which had preceded. Every time we set up a call, bull moose tiptoed just out of sight, despite our best efforts to set up shooters downwind of the caller. Then, everything fell into place. One morning we set up a dawn call; and got nothing to respond or even sneak in. We moved about half a mile and ended up right in the moose palace. After my first call, a bull answered immediately and I could hear him crashing through water. Soon he was answered by another, then another. By the time the first shot rang out we had four bulls coming in. We ended up bagging two within 10 minutes of each other.