Just returned last night from a 6 day archery moose hunt with Savage Encounters in Alberta Canada. Left early Sunday morning from Bluffton,SC with a layover in Dallas. The final leg of the trip got me to Calgary mid afternoon where I met my buddy Sam Roberts from Broxton,Georgia. Sam and I developed a friendship a few years ago when we shared a moose camp in Newfoundland.

half way there!

Calgary

Beautiful lodge full of animals taken by outfitter Chad Lenz and his wife, Rebecca. Chad is a well respected outfitter and guide with clients the likes of which include the Mathews brothers and Tom Miranda.

don't know why these pics are turning up sideways

Looks awesome. Any stories to tell on your experiences there? Hope so.

I'd love to go on a Moose hunt, heck I'd just like to go and see the country even if I wasn't hunting.

Larry

Sam enjoying a cup of java before the first morning hunt

Although the weather report looked great for our week,Mother Nature had other plans.Light snow started to fall the afternoon of our arrival and continued throughout the night and into the next day. The first morning we were looking at 5" of snow and listening to winds howling at 40mph.

A mid-day stop at Medicine Lake for lunch and a snooze! The day pretty much followed the same pattern. Up at 4:45, breakfast at 5:30,in the truck at 6:00 for a two hr. drive to the lease property. We called for 3+ hrs and then hit the roads to try to cut a track and locate bulls. We started calling again around 5:00 and continued until 7:30. Then back to the truck in the waning evening light for the nearly 2 hr. drive back to the lodge.

Dang, I wish the pics weren't sideways!!!

Boy, this looked good at the end of a 12 hr. day!

To be continued.....

All I want to know is the two of you came through Dallas and didn't call? After all the time we spent together at Deer Lake??

Wait, maybe I just answered my own question...

Been wondering about this Mike how you did.

Alberta is prob one of my fav places. Great pics!

Hope that FORTUNE favored Y'ALl and Y'ALL got some MOOSES???

Cant wait for the rest....

Hey Tim, How's it going buddy? Didn't have much time to socialize, Sam and I were on a mission. LOL... Anyway, this trip was a world apart from the one we experienced in Newfoundland. Our guides actually recognized a longbow as something other than a walking stick.

Hey Glen, hope you're feeling well and looking forward to a good season this year.

Keith, plan on continuing the story after some friends end their visit to our new home in SC. Man,I'm struggling here with no place to hunt in 90 degree weather. Missing my 23 acre spread in TN for sure! Might end up a full time fisherman and part time bow hunter since we're only 15 minutes from the Intercoastal Waterway... NOT!

Bowfish stingrays if they have them there.

Where are you loading the pictures from?

There are issues with loading pics from smartphones, which would make them stupidphones I suppose!

I have a MacBook Pro and after I transfer images from my Android phone via email I need to open the images in Preview and orient them properly, even if they already are, then save them. That corrects the orientation for me.

Thanks Pdiddly. Yup, I have a stupid Samsung Android.

Day two, cold and windy with early morning temp at 14 degrees. Wind still howling at 40mph lessening as the day progresses but still windy and cold! Hunted all day but no responses and no sightings. Tough!

Day three: Up early and out at 6:00 am. Called all morning until 11:00 then hit the roads looking for tracks. Plenty of tracks but no moose sightings or responses.

That afternoon we setup early, adjacent to a wide stream with banks nearly 12' deep. It was several hours later when we heard the first grunt response in the distance. "Did you hear that?" was the immediate response from Stacy, my guide. Yeah, I did was my enthusiastic reply. He positioned himself about 40 yards behind me, along the creek, as I stood waist high in a cluster of bramble bushes waiting for the bull to come in. A marginal cross wind kissed my right cheek as I stared laser-like in the direction of the grunt. He was coming!

Phones are like cameras, if you want upright photos, you take them in the landscape mode, not portrait mode. You will have to flip them in your computer file.

Thanks for sharing PS I had to reduce the size of the pictures to get them "right"

Yeah.... I think the way that this site is programmed, it defaults to landscape - maybe to keep the overall page “length” (vertically) as low as possible.

When I crop my image do they’re wider than they are tall, I don’t have problems....

Hmmmm...

At forty yards out the bull circles above me and catches my wind... game over! Disappointed, Stacy asked me if I wanted to move to another spot and call in that location for the last two hours. I decided to stay, feeling the previous two hours of calling might still have another bull on his way.

No more than 20 minutes later we hear another bull crashing through the timber, this time from the opposite direction. I quickly moved to the only spot available to me, as the bull busted out from the timber and into an open area 40 yards from where I was crouching on one knee. He moved to the opposite side of the creek and stared directly at me as I stayed motionless and in what little cover was available. Eventually, he turned and moved off leaving me no ethical shot opportunity. Busted again!

The next two days provided several more opportunities as bulls frequently responded to Stacy's cow calls. Their grunts could easily be heard and at least two were estimated to be within 30 yards of us. Despite our efforts and in nearly every situation, the swirling winds alerted bulls to our presence and thereby eliminated any possibility for an ethical shot. Some of the younger bulls were extremely cautious and simply moved off when they couldn't see a cow,no doubt the result of a previous and not so favorable encounter with an older,larger bull.

With one more day remaining,we decide to hunt the last morning only. Sam and I would have to leave the lodge at 2:30 am for the Calgary Airport and the long trip back home.

The last morning was absolutely beautiful! The air was clean and crisp and the sunrise was spectacular. We chose to hunt an area where Stacy had never called in a bull. We had hunted the area earlier in the week and we both agreed it offered as good a possibility as any for filling my tag. After calling for several hours, the long awaited grunt response came in a low, faint tone...only one. After waiting for several minutes, Stacy decided to move in front of me and test the wind once again. Almost immediately, he found himself looking head on at a small bull some forty yards in front of us...checkmate, game over!

I would love to have ended this account of my Alberta moose hunt with a bull down and the requisite photo of me sitting proudly along side of it. Unfortunately,that did not happen on this trip. What I did experience once again, however was the beauty of God's creation. This time in the majesty of the Rockies, the incredible sunsets of Alberta and the beauty of a landscape which will remain indelibly imprinted in my mind. I give thanks to God for my good health and the opportunity to experience these things every time I am in the field!

Thanks for taking me along to Alberta. A nice moose would have been a bonus, but glad you had a good time and a safe trip.

Thanks for sharing, Mike! It looked like an awesome trip.

Hey...that's why it's called hunting.

I had exactly the same feelings after my elk trip to Colorado. Nothing was taken but it was an incredible experience matching wits with some very wary critters and they're natural instincts bested our reasoning.

Plus I, like you, was hunting in incredible surroundings and in excellent company! Thanks for sharing!

Great hunt and some beautiful scenery can't ask for more than that

Thanks for sharing, flat shooter. Jawge

Sounds like you had shot possibilities and that's all you can ask for. And a lot of action for a drive in moose hunt. A good adventure

Can I ask why you decided to go to AB this time instead of back to NF? East of Calgary is beautiful country. Haven't been to NF yet.

Not a good experience with outfitter in Newfoundland. Very swampy country with deep bogs where we hunted.

Thanks for sharing AWESOME ! Wish you had connected on a big bull but at least you the thrill of them coming in.Will you be heading back there again ?

This was an expensive hunt swampbowman, unfortunately not one I can afford to do on a regular basis. I'd love to go one more time though! Alberta has some incredible country and offers the opportunity to take most North American animals... whitetail, mule deer, moose, cougars, grizzly and black bears, most species of sheep, goats, moose and elk. It is truly a sportsman's paradise.

Thanks for the chance to see the beautiful country you were in via your photos and comments. I was with Pdiddly in CO so ditto his remarks. I'm sorry that after all that work and expense you had no animal to show for it, but regardless, I'm willing to bet you'll be smiling for the rest of your life talking about the adventure you had. Lance.

Thanks.

And don't forget the great bird hunting in the plains south of Calgary. Huns love the wheat fields as do the ducks and geese.

The price of hunts in Canada starting the west (higher) to east (lower). BC is very expensive for everything Bottoms out in Ontario but there's not as much game. Cross over to Quebec and the cost starts to climb again as you go east.

You're absolutely right Knifeguy! Had a great time and some very cool memories!!

Glad u had a fun and safe trip buddy. Did u find any sheds?

Asked my guide about that Keith. He told me they rarely find them and don't actively look for them. I suspect they try to avoid spooking moose after the season. He told me the moose generally settle in an area where they have plenty to eat and don't move very much in the 30-40 below winter temps.

Sounds like a great time. And you enjoyed every minute of it.

Thanks so much for sharing! Nice write-up and pics!

If you have already registered, please

sign in now

For new registrations

Click Here