Anyone ever hunt with Jay Massey?

No such luck. I had his book in a box of my favourites after I moved house a few years ago, and when I went to get the box out the shed to unpack it I discovered that termites had got in and destroyed the book. That hurt. JayInOz

I talked to him on the phone once, if that counts. ;) Awesome, no nonsense kind of guy but had a heart of gold as his friends would attest to. Jay was a real, real deal.

I hunted the Moose John with Jay about 28 years ago. Didn't get a moose then, but close and had an excellent hunt. Jay was one fine fella. He walked the talk. Excellent ethics. Did get a moose on the Moose John 10 years later hunting with Ernie Holland, who took over the business after Jay's death.

Is anyone still doing hunts on the Moose John? As in guided hunts?

Don't know. I heard Ernie had a plane crash. I believe Yote Robertson was doing some guiding with Ernie. He or Ernie would likely know. Maybe they're on Facebook. I don't know. I don't do Facebook.

In the early days of the Bowsite, there was only one forum. Many of us noted that there were a lot of Michiganders on it and talked about getting together. The late Bob Clarady (Toppop)took things in hand and organized the first MI Bowsite Campout. Under a grey and cold sky in May, Gary Olsen and his partner, Mike Mish, ran a VCR tape of their hunt. They spent some time with Jay and the last part of the video had Jay knapping out an arrowhead.

Gary was selling DVDs for a while...not sure if he still is.

I treasure mine...and others that they made. Best hunting videos ever since there was none of the advertising of any products...just two hunters hunting even without any harvest.

I have a funny story that Jay relayed to us the year I floated the "Moose John" some years ago.

We stayed in base camp in Jay's big wall tent for a couple days before heading down river in our Avon inflatable rafts. In those days I snored quite loudly, in fact a friend had nicknamed me "Sleeps like thunder"

One morning as Jay was fixing breakfast for us he told us this story....it seems as I slept the night before I started snoring,.. so loud in fact that I woke Jay. As he lay there trying to get back to sleep, a bull moose somewhere out in the bush answered my slumbering music with a grunt...like a bull does when answering a hunter mimicking the moan of a cow moose. ...Jay was laughing as he told the story...."Ron would snore and the bull would grunt....snore....grunt...snore...grunt". He said,... "Ron I thought you were going to call that moose right into camp"

That’s funny, Ron. I’ll be disappointed if you don’t put a little “dueling moose” calls as background on your home page!

My brothers and I hunted with Jay back in 1996 - his last year. I actually did call a moose into camp with my snoring! His tracks were right outside our tent in the morning. It was a great hunt and we took a bull and a nice black bear. If we had known what we were doing, we could have added another bear and bull.

Great thread! This is why I step into the forum. How someone strung their bow, not so much.

I bought two of those VHS tapes that Ron was talking about. I can only imagine what it would have been like to be on a hunt with Jay though.

I remember Gary and Mike very well, and I saw that video. It's hard to believe that this forum, and the original Bowsite have been around so long.

Another funny Jay Massey story. In 1987 Jay came to Michigan to share a booth with me at Anderson's Bowhunters Clinic where he sold his books and booked hunts in Alaska.

While he was here he stayed at our house. One night Jay and I were watching TV and I popped a batch of Pop Corn. Jay commented how good the pop corn was and I told him I had popped it in bear oil to which he said, "Really?..."I'll have to tell Martha (his wife) about that"

I’ll tell ya what Ron. We used to render Bear fat down and use it for frying. Some of THE BEST fried potatoes I’ve ever had were fried in bear oil. Of course they were Michigan Bears too. :)

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