Hunts On Outfitting Podcast

Moose, Family, And A First Tag

• Kenneth Marr • Season 2 • Episode 87

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A lake ringed with muskeg, four cows drifting out at last light, and then—finally—the bull everyone swore had to be there. We’d spent days wrestling with warm weather and quiet woods, calling into still air and second-guessing our plan, when a rookie shooter and a steady rest on a beaver lodge turned patience into a 49 1/4-inch New Brunswick bull. The path to that moment wasn’t glamorous: a rangefinder that lied, quick adjustments out to 600 yards, and the discipline to back out at dark when adrenaline said push. Morning brought a canoe, heavy breath, and the kind of scale you don’t forget when you walk up for the first time.

We unpack everything we learned: how heat dampens rut behavior and forces new timing, why lake edges can reveal what timber hides, and how to build confidence for longer shots without drifting into wishful thinking. We talk gear that actually matters—steady tripods, good glass, redundant rifles, and a mobile 8x8 cooler built on skids with a window AC and Inkbird controllers that saved our meat in 20°C days. There’s family woven through it all: a dad finding his voice as a caller, an 82-year-old grandfather who cares more about full freezers than inches, and the quiet handoff of a Browning .338 Win Mag that says “keep going.”

If you’re searching for practical moose hunting tips, long-range shooting judgment, and real talk on pack-outs, meat care, and patience under pressure, this story delivers. It’s a reminder that the best hunts aren’t easy—they’re earned with scouting, restraint, and the kind of camp camaraderie that keeps you laughing even when the woods stay silent. Hit play, then tell us your hardest-earned lesson from a warm-weather rut. And if the story resonates, subscribe, share it with a hunting partner, and leave a quick review so more folks can find the show.

Check us out on Facebook Hunts On Outfitting, or myself Ken Marr. Reach out and Tell your hunting buddies about the podcast if you like it, Thanks!

SPEAKER_00:

This is Huntsun Outfitting Podcast. I'm your host and rookie guide, Ken Mayer. I love everything hunting, the outdoors, and all things associated with it. From stories to how-tos, you'll find it here. Welcome to the podcast. Hey guys, thanks for tuning in and lending me your ears again this week for the podcast. So, family. For a lot of us, that's part of what hunting season is about. Being able to get off work and get a little break from the hustle and bustle of life and spend time with family. All while being in the outdoors and pursuing the game we love to eat. Well, today's podcast episode definitely focuses on that. Avid hunter and returning guest Caleb Jones, along with his brother-in-law, who recently got into hunting, Jacob, tell us about their past successful moose season that they had from at the family camp this year. Great moose and great story. So we're in for a treat. Some can't handle foods with chicken or corn in it. My male coon hound has such a problem. So we switched from a Nookshuk 2616 blend to their marine 2616 blend and not one single issue since. They offer lots to choose from for all kinds of dogs' needs. Guys, check out their website, learn a lot more. Uh if you're wanting to get a hold of me for any reason, whether it be to maybe come on the show or talk about a past podcast, you can at uh email us hunts on outfitting at gmail.com or find us on Facebook, Hunts on Outfitting, or myself, Ken Mara. I always enjoy hearing from you guys, uh the ones that do reach out and stuff. So shout out anytime. So we got Jacob, Caleb, Caleb, uh returning to the podcast for what we were just saying, fifth time.

SPEAKER_02:

Yep, fan favorite.

SPEAKER_00:

What sure, we'll let the fans decide. And then uh this is your brother-in-law, Jacob. Jacob, uh, this is basically my first time meeting you. So good to meet you. Good to meet you. Don't be nervous, because like I said, if you get nervous, I'll get nervous, freak out, uh, and then you don't know what it's gonna sound like. No, it'll be fun. Um, before we get started, though, I just need you to fill out this waiver standard for podcasts, you know, social security number, uh first pet's name, the street you grew up on. Perfect credit card number. Yeah, that's right. Um, so you guys, you guys had a moose hunt. Yeah, yeah, we didn't. And a very successful one. But before we get into that, uh I know you've been on a few times, Caleb, but people want to know who they're listening to. So, Caleb, if you could sum yourself up in a positive way, uh how would you do it?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, you really put me on the spot there.

SPEAKER_00:

You're a carpenter currently in school.

SPEAKER_02:

I am a carpenter currently in school, trying to get through the the program to be certified as Red Sealed. And yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And you're an avid hunter in uh New Brunswick, Canada. And guide, yeah. And you've guided your brother-in-law Jacob before. And I don't think we had that story in the podcast, the bear.

SPEAKER_02:

Not yet. That was one of one of his friends. But Jacob was there. I was I was there, but I wasn't shooting.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, well, we've got time to tell that story, and then we're gonna meet Jacob. Okay. We'll run through that story because it was kind of entertaining.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, this story takes us way back to I think it was the first or second time you, Jacob and I met, and uh my sister bringing home her first boyfriend at the time.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay. I thought the one you're going with?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, that one.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Uh my sister bringing home her first boyfriend, and uh, you wanted to go bear hunting. You had a buddy that had been wanting to shoot a bear.

SPEAKER_00:

You figured what better way to get rid of my sister's new boyfriend than bear hunting?

SPEAKER_02:

Take them in the middle of the woods and go. Oh, yeah, I'll take them. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00:

You just gotta know this barrel's for you to sit in. I'll go up in the tree and let you know when the bear comes.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. So this this store was quite a while ago, so I might be a bit rusty. So Jacob, correct me if I'm wrong on some of these things. But uh we got in there and my bait sites were set up for bow hunting. And so it's close. So close range. I think we're sitting like 10 or 11 yards away from the barrel. And at the time I only had uh one one stand set up, like one two-man stand.

SPEAKER_00:

So if he sat on your lap, you guys got to get to know each other more than a little bit.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, there was there were three of us, and we're all one stand? No, not in one stand. You gotta slow down here. All right. All right. So there we had a two-man stand, and it was kind of in a big pine tree out in the open, and they were situated further in front of me. And I had to set up a single-man stand, uh, tucked back in the woods behind them a little ways. So they were right out in the open, and I was tucked back in. And I took them to a bait site that uh I hadn't had pictures of like a sow cubs yet. Hoping we wouldn't get into that, but uh sure enough, we had uh a sow with first year cub show up. And uh yeah, we watched them for I don't know, probably four or spring, you couldn't shoot them. Uh we watched them for forty or fifty minutes and uh it started to get dark. So I was like, well, let's try and chew her out of here with her cubs.

SPEAKER_00:

So we could get grab one cub and run, and then we'll we'll get out of here.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so we made uh we made a little bit of noise trying to get her to just gracefully, gracefully take her cubs off and leave us alone so we could get over.

SPEAKER_00:

Those bears are noted to be graceful. Yes.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah and and very good mothers. Anyways, so we made a little bit of noise, and sure enough, those those two I think there's two or three cubs. I think just the two. There was two cubs. They uh they scurried up a tree, and uh and Mama Bear she just kept eating. Well, it started to get darker and darker, and then it mama bear knew that Jacob and his friend Micah were there because she would she would reach into the barrel, grab a Vashon cake, take a bite of it, and then she'd be looking at them in the eyes while she's eating it. But I was tucked back a little more, so she wasn't looking at me, so I was safe. I never had to worry about myself. She didn't know I was there.

SPEAKER_00:

I'll meet you guys back at the house, best of luck.

SPEAKER_02:

And they were surprisingly calm, too. I would have been, you know, shitting my pants.

SPEAKER_00:

They were new, did you tell them that? They were new to hunting, so they're like, Well, Caleb's not worried, we shouldn't be.

SPEAKER_02:

Caleb had a rifle, so I I felt safe. They were fighting. Right. I was safe and they thought they should be, but no, I wasn't. Well, were they wrong? They were yeah, they were always in good hands. Um so, anyways, it w it got it started getting darker and darker, and it got to a point it was like a switch flipped in Mama Bear's head, and she she would start making a couple bluff charges towards the base of their tree stand. Anyways.

SPEAKER_00:

Were you guys still feeling secure? Jacob?

SPEAKER_02:

I felt alright. Okay. And when she'd make these bluff charges, she'd bluff charge toward them, towards them, she'd and then she'd veer off into the thicket, and you wouldn't be able to see her, and then she'd bluff charge from a different angle. And every time she bluff charged, she got closer and closer to the bottom of their tree stand, and it's it's like we're right on dark. So I called I called my father, and I was like, I told him the situation, I was like, Do you think you can come with a side-by-side and chainsaw and just make some noise out at the road, maybe help spook him out or whatever? And we had probably like an 80-yard dash to uh power lines to get through like to the woods. So he couldn't get the bike right into the base of the stand at the time. So he brought the bike and shined the lights in the woods, started up chainsaw, started making a bunch of noise. And all this time we're waiting for him to show up. The this Sal with her two cubs is keeps bluff charging, getting closer and closer to the base of their stand. So I looked at Mike, I was like, this isn't gonna be good. He also had a gun. I was like, this isn't gonna be good. Like, we should uh she's getting really close to the bottom of her stand. We'll have to be careful when we get down.

SPEAKER_00:

Then you you looked at Jake and be like, Oh, my sister's gonna be mad. You're the third boyfriend this has happened with.

SPEAKER_03:

Me with my flashlight. Yeah, you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

It's like we're still safe, right, Jake? Uh right, Caleb? Like, uh, yeah, pretty much. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

When dad showed up, uh, the sh the that Sal had just finished bluff charging us, and she was almost standing at the base of their tree stand. Yep. So dad started chainsawing. He's like, If if you guys are coming, you better come now, because I'm not standing here forever. So we jumped out of our tree stands, and uh crying. I'm standing right where right where she was just standing, and they're fiddling around up in the tree stand in what feels like forever. And I'm I'm just waiting to feel this sow, this angry sow on my back. But luckily we never I never had that problem. So they got they got out of the tree stand, and uh I was I was gonna take one last sweep behind me with the flashlight and make sure she wasn't right there and run with them out to the truck. Well, I turn I turn around, make my sweep, and nope, she's not there. I look back and they're already standing sitting in the side by side, I think. Really? Yeah, quick feet. Yeah, they left me behind.

SPEAKER_00:

Your sister like good men are hard to find. Like, yeah, because my uh brother keeps having them eaten at the bear's dead. But um, all right, so good. So that so you felt obviously confident enough to go hunting with Caleb again because here we are about to talk about a moose hunt.

SPEAKER_03:

Survive the first one, might as well go with the second.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. What are the odds that'll happen again? Exactly. Uh so Jacob, tell us about yourself. Uh you're married to Caleb's sister. Um hunting experience prior to the family.

SPEAKER_03:

Almost zero. Shot a partridge a couple years ago, and that sums it up.

SPEAKER_02:

Jump from partridge to moose to it.

SPEAKER_03:

Elephant next, I think.

SPEAKER_00:

So what do you do for work, Jacob?

SPEAKER_03:

Uh so my family has a convenience store in Moncton, Air Convenience, and so I just kind of help run that and keeps me busy.

SPEAKER_00:

Nice. All right. So now that we know you guys a bit, um, let's jump into the beginning. You, Jacob, you put in for your moose tag. Caleb, you told him where to put it in. Yeah. Uh, what wildlife management zone. And then uh you won the moose lottery. And then did you have any second guesses on who to bring, or you knew right away Caleb's like, Oh, yeah, you know, you have to bring me, or I'm gonna tell mom, then you're gonna look bad at family dinners.

SPEAKER_03:

I I was thinking it already, but there was there was the pressure. Yeah, it was pressure if I didn't pick him, you know. Yeah, make it a little tense.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Uh no, no, no.

SPEAKER_00:

The story wouldn't end that well next time.

SPEAKER_03:

Pretty easy because like I said, I never shot a rifle before. So really, oh yeah. So it's like I'm gonna pick someone that you know can can make up for my lack of everything.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. So, I mean, where did you guys did you own a rifle going into this?

SPEAKER_03:

No, so I own an old shotgun that actually they had got me for Christmas a couple years ago. Oh, really? That's a good gift. Didn't own rifle, didn't never shot one. It was just the summer this summer actually with with Caleb and Spencer. They were kind of doing some target practice, and so it was okay, sure shoot from 50 yards, shoot from 200 yards. If you do that, you're golden. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, well what what rifle?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, we started him out on a 22. Yeah. Just to kind of get him into the groove and make sure he didn't create any bad habits. Try and keep him from flinching the best we could. Every once in a while, load in a blank shell or whatever, see if he flinches.

SPEAKER_00:

Really?

SPEAKER_02:

We did a couple times, I think, yeah. So yeah, we started him out with uh 22 and he got comfortable with that, and then uh we moved him up to I think we went to like a 308, is what he used for. Okay, yeah. Yeah. Borrowed one of Spencer's guns, my brother.

SPEAKER_00:

Perfect caliber for moose, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, and it had a muzzle brake on it, so it was good. Oh, did it? Okay, yeah. Not much, not much cook, uh kick, good uh beginner gun, I guess.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So uh so you got the tag, knew the z you knew the area, because you guys have a camp up in the management zone that you guys were in, right? Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_02:

We were hunting up in zone five.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_02:

So that's like uh northern New Brunswick, I guess is the best way to put it. Yeah. You don't have to get real specific.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Um so you guys did that uh so you were comfortable, you're shooting the guns, you know, getting a feel for it.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, we were we were very impressed to see how much ground he made up over the summer shooting and his confidence and it's a lot of things.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, well that's good that you practice, because I mean it'd probably scare the pants off you how many people shoot a rifle once before the hunt or something. If that some people like it's like uh you know, you you kind of owe that to the animal, your due diligence to uh practice and make sure that it's hitting, you're hitting. Yeah. It's yeah, you're not flinching and stuff. Like yes, that's good. That's really good. Um so then uh I'm you know, after the sheep hunt, I'm a bit of a gear connoisseur now. So what were you guys bringing for gear? Just a rough overview on the moose hunt.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh I guess the the daily carry, uh binoculars, gun, bunch of ammo, uh bipods, tripods, sorry. I had tripods.

SPEAKER_00:

What are you guys wearing for footwear?

SPEAKER_02:

You wearing like hiking boots, ducking boots, rubber boots, rubber boots, rubber boots, okay. The little hundred dollar special, yeah, Canadian tire, whatever.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, whatever theirs is. Okay, yeah. So um, all right. So then uh let's well let's let's walk me through the first day. You guys had the area scouted out, you're feeling good on the rifle.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so so uh I started scouting a spot that uh I'd been in the year prior, and we had seen last year we had pretty good success on the road. We'd seen five moose, we didn't end up shooting our moose off that road. And uh yeah, so I was I was planning to go back into that same road. I set a salt lick up and I had pretty good action there considering it was such a like a new mineral site. Yeah, it'd only been set up for a couple months, and I'd I had moose like I don't know, probably every other day of the week. So it was hit pretty consistently, nothing big, but just like you know, kind of the same cow with calf and a couple cows, and I had a couple small bulls in there and stuff like that. So we we were going into the hunt with kind of like a pretty high expectation for the area. Uh I had scouted it uh two days before the hunt, too, and both days we were in there. One day I seen a cow, the cow with calf, another day I seen a cow in there, and uh all kinds of scrapes and fresh and old sign like from years prior. Wallows. Yeah, I found uh like a good size nine-point shed in there when we were scouting the summertime on the same road. So uh and it was right on the road too, so it just goes to show where we were hunting, people clearly don't go into very often, just because once you get back so far, it thickens up for a little while. It kind of keeps people out of their truck.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's right.

SPEAKER_02:

Anyways, so so yeah, we were going into the hunt with pretty high expectations. I was seeing a cow with uh with a bull right at the end of the camp driveway the night before. And uh yeah, I guess then we got into moose season first morning. We woke up bright and early.

SPEAKER_00:

What was your expectation, Jacob, going into the hunt?

SPEAKER_03:

So yeah, so I'd been up to their camp quite a few times, and you know, every time you see moose. Like just so I was like, okay, this is gonna be a quick hunt first morning, get it done, and then just kind of relax all week. So I I had high expectations and also just a little bit selfish too. I was like, you know, I'm only gonna get a big ball. Oh, okay. I'm gonna see calves, I'm gonna see small bulls, I'm gonna pass them all just because there's so many up there.

SPEAKER_00:

From a partridge to being picky. Oh, I know.

SPEAKER_03:

I just too too selfish, but yeah, it uh it it definitely turned out to be a little bit different and uh a little bit more patience involved.

SPEAKER_00:

But having have you seen anything killed of any size besides a partridge? Because I mean that part, if you're not used to it, it's different. You know, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

I was with Micah for when he did Kill the Bear.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

That was pretty much it.

SPEAKER_00:

Because I remember uh one time my wife's then girlfriend, uh, I was gonna shoot a cow on pasture, they're taken to the butcher shop, like killing them out on pasture, so they're not all stressed out, you know, on the cattle trailer and the butcher shop and all that. So, anyways, I I had the gun. I just told her, I was like, I gave her the knife. I said, I'm gonna shoot it. I said, Then I'm gonna hand you the gun, you hand me the knife, I'm just gonna slit through bleed. And I I'd never thought, like, she's never seen anything bigger than a fly killed, right? So I I just never thought anything of it because just used to it, right? So anyways, the cows there grazing, drop it. We're standing right there too, because they're fairly tame. And then she just like, uh, just like hands me the knife and the gun slip. I'm like, oh, right on. And then she's like kind of looking like, oh shit. I'm like, are you okay? She's like, Yeah, no, I know it's okay, it's normal. She's like, I just never seen anything that big drop dead in front of me before. I'm like, oh, okay, well, now you have, so let's carry on.

SPEAKER_02:

No, but that's not where I thought that story was going at first. I thought you said you were gonna hand you handed her the knife and wanted her to slip the throat. No, I should have.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, I I thought you thought I was gonna say to her, like, oh, I can't believe she brought a knife to a gunfight. No, no, I wouldn't make her uh kill finish it off, no. It's bleeded out, but uh yeah, I guess I should have looking back, that would have like really broker into it, right? But uh yeah, so I mean, that's something though, but if you haven't grown up branded or anything, right, Jacob, it's it's different. I mean, the moose are massive. Yeah, so um, so your expectation that was high. Because Caleb probably taught Caleb's like, oh, I'm an expert god.

SPEAKER_02:

No, no, tooting his own horn. Hell yeah, yeah, like always. No, I'm a new hunter when it comes to moose, moose hunting. So uh but that was the same.

SPEAKER_00:

Your dad was out there, right, Caleb? Yep. And and your brother? Or no, he stayed home. Uh my brother, yeah, he was possible.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, my father was out there too. He's not really much of a hunterman or a hunter, he's more of a fisherman, so kind of a first generation hunter in my family. So figure it out on your own type of deal.

SPEAKER_00:

I find a lot of people that aren't into like my father-in-law's and like not really into hunting and stuff, my dad either, but uh not that they're against it, it's time consuming, right? And a lot of people it's hard to sometimes commit that that time to it, you know.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. So yeah, well, for dad, I think moose hunting would be the one thing that he would he is really interested in. Oh, yeah. He's always like up there calling moose and whatever else he thinks he can do. Yeah, yeah. He actually's gotten pretty good at it too.

SPEAKER_00:

What's he called them? Fat cows. Um, yeah, so uh all right, so your expectations are high because Caleb talked himself up and stuff. Um Caleb's like, well, you never get killed on the bear hunt, so this is gonna go well too. Um yeah, so you but the moose that you guys ended up getting, which we don't get into that, you didn't have any pictures of them, right? Because you had the salt like the mineral and you had cows, calves, stuff like that. No bull, massive bull, really.

SPEAKER_02:

No massive bull. We had like a small five or six-point bull, but it wasn't really uh on the hit list for the first couple days, that's for sure.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. So uh all right, so you guys are at the camp. Jake, we know your expectations, Caleb, we know your abilities. Uh continue on the story. First morning.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so first morning we went into our road that we had high expectations set for. Uh, and the the way the wind was laid out with the road that day, uh, we we actually drove the bike in and then we were gonna hunt our way out because it worked better for the wind. And we got w at the back of this road, and we sh and we got there probably about like an hour, hour before first light. So we were just kind of chilling there, and I had to go use the washroom. So I went to the woods, made a bunch of noise. When I come back.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, what did I eat last night? Like that.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Nervous shits. Anyways. So when I come back, it was it was probably like 10 or 15 minutes that went by, and then we heard a bull not far away at all, and he was barking at us, and he barked at us probably six or eight times.

SPEAKER_00:

Did you do the imitate the bark?

SPEAKER_02:

I cannot know. Let's try it.

SPEAKER_00:

Like, what? Well, I did it earlier before the podcast. You're like, oh, it wasn't like that.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, let's let's hear it again. Let's see if you've altered it at all. Or no, it wasn't it anyways. All right, we'll do it then. The best the best way Jacob, you do it if you really if you really want to know what it sounds like, is just to go on YouTube and look it up. Because it's like you can't so at first we we thought it was gunshots. Like we're gonna do it. But it was it was kind of the echo of it.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02:

Anyways, and then we heard it a couple more times, and I'm like, no, that I've heard of bulls barking, and I've obviously have never heard it in person before. I was like, that's gotta be a bull moose barking. When we went back after that morning's hunt, we looked it up and I was like, that's exactly what that was. And it didn't sound like he was far away. I mean he was close. It could be deceiving, I guess, how close he was, but right. Anyway, so that was pretty interesting. We thought we were gonna get it done right quickity split the first morning. After hearing that, we were all excited for first light. But uh yeah, we we could not we had a hard time up there this year calling Moose out.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I heard it was a year like that, but it was a bit warmer. So I was just talking uh tonight before the podcast to Terrence Boss with Boss Outfitting. He was on the podcast, he's in northern Alberta. They've got what'd he say, ten moose this week? But I was telling him that that here a lot of people had trouble with calling. And I mean the temperature can ha can have a lot he he figures quite a bit to do with that stuff, right? So did you what was the temperature?

SPEAKER_02:

Well, it w it was warm. Yeah, I think I think nights were like right around 10 degrees Celsius.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay, so that's that's fairly warm.

SPEAKER_02:

And days days were like between like 17 and 20.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's what that's what he was saying. I think they're you know, they're both that. I was in Maine during the week of that, but um yeah, that's what he said. He said you gotta call them at night a bit, call them at night to locate them, yeah. Sort of thing, because yeah, it's too warm, they're just it they're overheating, right? They're so big.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. And we seen a lot of cows while we were up there too, so I wonder how much that has to play. Like if they're all on cows, they're not really gonna be responding as much, maybe. But like I said, I'm also quite new to moose hunting, so uh like what kind of cows?

SPEAKER_00:

Holsteins or jerseys.

SPEAKER_02:

Jerseys, yeah. Oh, yeah. So where were we? We were talking.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so you heard the barking.

SPEAKER_02:

So for yeah, we heard the barking, thought we were gonna get done right first thing, and uh couldn't call them out. So we worked our way out of the road, didn't have any anything else really responding. So uh yeah, that was that morning hunt. It was pretty uneventful. We went to camp, ate lunch, went back out in the evening, and uh more of the same.

SPEAKER_00:

What was for lunch?

SPEAKER_02:

Uh not looseburgers. No, sandwiches probably from air convenience. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Shout out. Um, yeah. All right.

SPEAKER_02:

Uh went back in the evening and it was a real quiet evening. Uh didn't see or hear nothing. So we went back to what I my my strategy was was I was gonna give everything a day and a half where we hunt so that way Oh the area. The area, right. If if nothing was gonna come in after a day and a half, we'd move on.

SPEAKER_00:

Because in New Brunswick here and people have listened to the podcast for it have heard it's it's only five days for moose season. Right. Five.

SPEAKER_02:

So yeah. So you're you're limited on time.

SPEAKER_00:

You are, yeah. Pressure's on.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So, and not to mention it's a lottery tag, so you're not gonna be able to hunt it every year. Yeah. So uh we went in there the next morning and uh we heard a grunt in the woods. It sounded like it was a long ways away, so we figured, well, we may as well try it. That's the first real grunt that we had tried.

SPEAKER_00:

Jacob probably thought it was you using the bathroom again.

SPEAKER_02:

Not following that.

SPEAKER_00:

That sounds like yesterday morning.

SPEAKER_02:

So so we tramped our way probably half a kilometer back in the woods, and we would grunt and it would grunt, and then we went back and forth for a little while, and I don't know we got if we got too close to it or if eventually it just warmed up too much and it stopped calling, but eventually, yeah, it just went silent on us.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, oh yeah, never saw him or anything.

SPEAKER_00:

I thought that's but it is that what you said it it could have warmed up enough that he was like, nah, it's too hot. I'm done. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So here we are. We're coming, we were on day two. We had finished the best hunt of day two. Normally the mornings are the better hunt out of the mornings between mornings and evenings. Starting to get a little bit discouraged already on day two because we so quiet.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I'm done.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

My expectations changed. At this point, I was like, okay, maybe not a big boy as long as we get up.

SPEAKER_00:

Maybe Caleb's not all that I cracked him up to be. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So uh Tuesday, uh Wednesday evening, we uh we went into a new area, uh, a lake, and we we'd just gotten in there and we were just getting things set up, and I looked across the lake, and I was like, hey guys, there's there's a nice cow over there on the opposite side of the lake. Anyway, she was she was a long ways away. I think she was she was about like 630 yards. She was actually standing right where we ended up shooting the bull moose. Yeah. But uh yeah, we seen her, and Jacob's like, Well, you tell him, Jacob, you're like, like I said, my expectations they were just going down and down and down and down.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. And so I was just like at this point, I'd take a chickadee. That I that was also sad. So we were like cows good enough for me. And my grandfather was with me, and he's all about the meat. He's yeah, you know, doesn't care about trophies, just the meat. And and he was just like, That's my boy, kind of thing. And Caleb was like, That is the most proud I've ever heard your grandfather. So so yeah, we just start bucking it to try to get close.

SPEAKER_00:

To get that cow, because you guys see you guys made a unanimous decision, it's about the meat, let's shoot the cow. Yeah, okay, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And we were what, 30 minutes away from end of Yeah, yeah, we were getting down on light, and the cow was positioned in a cove, and she it looked as if she was working her way out to the point, and for us to get close enough, the only spot that we could really see her to shoot her would be if she worked her way around the point. Anyway, so yeah, we worked our way like 200 yards away from her, and uh she never worked her way around the point. She ended up going in the woods, so that was day two. Yep. And then uh the morning of day three, like it we went back in there, and it was it was a real nice morning. But uh yeah, there was nothing on the lake that morning.

SPEAKER_00:

So morale was starting to.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, we were we were excited, we were excited that we had seen something in move season. Right. So but then of course the next morning, nothing there. So of course morale starts to go down again pretty not not drastically, but you know, you get down.

SPEAKER_00:

Jake's like, I can't believe I'm married into this family. Like stuff was being said that wasn't meant. Yeah. So yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, the hunt definitely wasn't meeting our expectations that going into that we we had had set. And uh yeah, so that brings us to Thursday night. We we went into this lake real early. We were probably there at three o'clock in the afternoon. And we this this lake, it's got musk egg around it that's like growing over the lake. So it's real hard to walk around the edges of it. But we worked our way around one edge of it and just kind of walked in and did some cow calls and whatnot, seeing if we get anything to respond or come out to the lake. And dad was the one calling, and uh yeah, we had been there for probably like two or three hours and nothing nothing had come out yet or anything like that, and like it was warm. So I was like, well, I don't know, maybe we should go drive some roads or whatever. So we started walking out, and it's quite a thick walk out. We were walking around the lake, and I just had to run in to grab a bag to like at the lake, and everybody was already like on their way out of the lake. They could like they weren't looking at the lake or anything anymore. So I went to go grab the bag, and I turned around, and there was a cow standing like probably 200 yards away from where we just had left. So if we had stayed there like five more minutes, we would have had a real easy shot at a cow. Yeah. So I went, I went and grabbed Jacob and everybody there. Everybody but Jacob's grandfather, because he was ahead of everybody and he had already made it back to the bikes.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, he his morale was like I was a disappointment.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so uh we're we start Jacob and I started making a stalk back around the lake towards the cow.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And it turned out it was like a cow with last year's calf, and then she was actually running off a second cow. So there were three cows on the lake.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So we were working our way over, and we probably got 300 yards away from the cow. And I look across the lake to where we had seen the cow the night before, and I was like, Jacob, you wouldn't believe it. There's another cow over there. And we were watching, and the the her calf popped out from last year. I was like, Holy frig. Then another cow popped out from last year.

SPEAKER_00:

Really?

SPEAKER_02:

Or not from last year, but another cow popped out. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

So that at this point Well, she's probably around last year too.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah. At this point, there's four cows around the lake and and two calves.

SPEAKER_00:

It's a good show. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

And I was like, I don't know how there's not a bull out here, you know? Besides us. Yeah, exactly. Um, so and then sure enough, another couple minutes went by and I looked over it. I was like, Jacob, you wouldn't believe it. There's a massive bull on the other side of the lake. And we're getting down to like probably 45 minutes of daylight left. And there's no way we're gonna make it around the lake to where this to get a shot on this moose. And and it's either A, still be light, or B still be still be there, like the moose is still out.

SPEAKER_00:

Anyway, so Did did you believe in Jacob or the morale was so low? Like when you when Haley's so you're not gonna believe it, you're like, I you're right, I probably don't.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, it was actually funny. Yeah, I I went and I was like looking at all four of them, and I was like, Are you sure I don't see one? And he's like, No, no, no, that one. I was like, which one? You you have to see it. And I was like, so he's like the far left one. So I'm just looking like, I don't see a rack on that, like that's a cow. And then I think he was just eating or something because he lifted his head, and then all of a sudden I was like, Yep, okay, yeah, yep, we're good. See big paddles on them.

SPEAKER_04:

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, yeah. So we we made our way to there was a beaver lodge on the edge of the lake. Uh Jacob, he had he was using my bog tripod, so real good tripod, really steady. And I just had one that had like a V notch in it, so not really steady for making a long shot. Yeah. So I laid down on the beaver house, the beaver lodge.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh wouldn't you know what if the beaver came out?

SPEAKER_01:

The beavers were out, yes. They weren't flapping the water yet. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Better than slapping you, I guess. Yeah. This is just like the bear hunt. Dad. Get the chainsaw. Yeah, get the chainsaw, the beavers are pissed. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so uh I had like a shitty rangefinder and it's not really accurate outside of like 400 yards.

SPEAKER_00:

I like how all the excuses come out. Like, well, he had the better bipod, and I didn't even have much of a rangefinder. I was laying on this beaver house and they were coming out at me. Well the beaver house. No, it's all right.

SPEAKER_02:

Make your excuses because the beaver house was probably better than the uh than the tripod. Yeah. Looked nice. It's pretty good rest.

SPEAKER_00:

It's probably sturdier.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah. Yeah. Beavers built it well.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, as they do.

SPEAKER_02:

Red seal beavers.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. You can learn a lot from them.

SPEAKER_02:

I guess so, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Um crappy rangefinder.

SPEAKER_02:

So crappy range finder. So I pulled out my phone and on the hunting app I use, uh, I think it's iHunter is what I'm using. Anyways, I measured the distance and it was 430 meters. And I was like, oh sweet. Like I I do a lot of shooting and like shooting five or six hundred yards.

SPEAKER_00:

So what do you what are you shooting for your gun?

SPEAKER_02:

I'm using a uh Tika T3 light and shoot 300 with mag. Okay. So, you know, uh a project a bullet that's a caliber that's capable of reaching out there for sure.

SPEAKER_00:

But does drop.

SPEAKER_02:

Absolutely, yeah. Yeah, for sure. So so uh I said I said to Jacob, you know, he's like 430 yards away, and I told him kind of the holdover, and I knew my holdover, and we counted her down, and we went three, two, one, and we were gonna go on one, and we both waited for a long second. We both shot like basically at the same time.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, you guys go three, two, one. I always go on zero.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, well that's that's the issue. Uh sometimes it's hard when you're the one counting down to wait for one. Yes. When you're when you're trained and you know when you're on your target. But uh yeah, we both waited a long period of time after one, but we shot pretty close together. And from what I could tell, it was hard because my ears were ringing from Jacob's muzzle break if we didn't have ear protection on. But I could tell I thought I hit low. I was like, geez. So I I I set my hold over for 500 yards and I shot again. And Jacob shot again.

SPEAKER_00:

Did you guys count down? This time we'll count up. One, two, three, four, five. What do you usually shoot on?

SPEAKER_02:

After one, it was like, let's get some lead in them, like whatever you gotta do when you're on.

SPEAKER_00:

That is what you're supposed to do in a moose sign, is just one make your good initial shot, and after that, it basically kind of puts some lead downrange. Spray and prey. No, kind of. I mean, they're just so big, you don't want them to be able to do that.

SPEAKER_02:

And that's why in New Brunswick they allow a second gun, right? Yeah. So all all moose week, when we were hearing shots, you never heard like one or two shots. You always heard like six or yeah, minimal five shots.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, if they if you can.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So yeah, I set my whole door 500 yards, and it still looked like I hit low on him, just the way he flinched and you could see it through my scope. So I set it up to 600, and that's where I seemed to be working. So we shot him a couple times from 635 yards, and uh he didn't go down. He laid he laid down on the edge of the the woods before it got dark and uh then he got up and he went into the woods. So I was like, well, we'll circle around the lake and we'll go we'll go see if uh we can see any good blood or what we see over there. Not willing to go look for him at dark, but we were gonna see what signs we seen. We knew we had hit him good, obviously, because he had laid down before he even went in the woods and he was acting hurt and yeah, probably just got shot a few times. I got I actually I got over there before Jacob did.

SPEAKER_00:

And yeah, because you're like a built like a stork.

SPEAKER_02:

Long legged.

SPEAKER_00:

It would be hard to keep up with them, Jacob. Yeah, just like these quick. Those listening, Caleb is tall and lanky.

SPEAKER_03:

I am short and not.

SPEAKER_00:

You're you're average like me. Caleb's just tall.

SPEAKER_02:

We'll go with that. Yeah. Um, so I got over there and I could hear him, I heard him once like breathing it sound like he was gurgling blood. So that was another telltale sign that we had hit him good. So we went over, we were looking for blood, and it was hot, and I just rushed over there. I was like, boys, we gotta, we gotta, I gotta take some layers off here. So I got my coveralls off, and my it's dark at this point, and we didn't really come prepared with good flashlights or anything like that.

SPEAKER_00:

Kale's just flying around the side of the lake in the musk egg in his boxers.

SPEAKER_02:

Well, looking at it. We're standing where he was when we shot him when I'm taking my clothes off, like taking my extra layers.

SPEAKER_03:

Too many clothes.

SPEAKER_02:

Taking my extra layers off my coat, and I have my coveralls down, my phone was in my coveralls. And as as I'm sitting there with all my stuff on the ground and whatnot, we heard like it was hard to tell. It sounded like a cross between a grunt and a cough just inside the woods. So I was like, Well, we bet we gotta make some some ground just in case we didn't know what he was gonna do. You couldn't see him, we didn't have good lights, we didn't know if he was standing or but he was close. He was close. It sounded like he was just inside the bushes, and so we made our way over to the edge of the lake to put some distance just in case he decided he was gonna come out where we were just standing. And of course, I was going with my coveralls down, lost my phone somewhere in the musk egg. So we let things calm down a little bit, and you could hear the cows walking off through the woods and sticks breaking.

SPEAKER_00:

Cale gets up out of the muskeg. Holy cow, does anyone see my phone or my boxers?

SPEAKER_02:

So uh, so eventually we worked up the courage to go grab the grab my gear and get out of there for the night. We were just gonna let him let him die. We knew we'd hit him good. So we went and grabbed my stuff, found my phone, got out of there, went back to camp. We talked about it with Jacob's grandfather. He had he's got lots of knowledge and deer hunting and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_00:

He he was on the bike, he didn't hear the shots. He did hear the shots, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

So so we sent him because we were leaving at the time we were leaving the lake to go like look through some cuts and stuff like that. So we sent him out. How old's your grandfather, Jacob? Almost 82.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Oh, okay. So he's no spring chicken. No, no, he You guys were gonna send him off on his own. That's we we sent him you you go along there and find some moose. We'll be back. Near the trail.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, we sent him out to the four-wheeler, the side by side and four-wheeler first, and we were just gonna be right behind him, but we didn't end up being right behind him. So he he heard the shots from the side by side, which kind of sucks. It would have been cool if you got to see all the action. But anyways, we you know, so we chatted it up with him when we got back to the camp and told him everything was going on, and he kind of figured that we had hit it good, obviously. Yep. So it was a long, restful night.

SPEAKER_00:

How were you like this is your first big game hunt, and you guys have a wounded, massive bolt? Like, what were you thinking?

SPEAKER_03:

Well, it was pretty crazy because like you know how you get like buck fever and you start shaking. So it was funny. I noticed at first, like, you know, when we had it scoped, and I was like, I feel like I should be shaking, and I wasn't. So we took our shots, but then as soon as I went to reload, I was shaking. I could barely get my bullets in. I was like, oh my god.

SPEAKER_00:

I was like that when we get our moose a few years ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

And so, you know, I'm just like pumped that we got it, but then also, you know, it's like you know.

SPEAKER_00:

Did you sleep that night?

SPEAKER_03:

Uh a little bit less. Yeah, a little bit less, just kind of thinking about it. Yeah. Buddha, my grandfather, he's like, Well, you know, like moose, they can they can still run like even hurt kilometers and stuff. So you know, our fear was like okay. Hopefully we find him in the morning, just kind of where we left him. And so there was a little bit of are we gonna see him? Are we not?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. What about you, Kale? Did you sleep that night?

SPEAKER_03:

I slept I slept very well that night.

SPEAKER_02:

Really?

SPEAKER_00:

You weren't worried. You figured he was dead so in the log.

SPEAKER_02:

I I I had I felt like we hit him good. So going basing it off of my initial feelings, I I felt like we hit him good, so I didn't think he was gonna go too too far. Yep. But uh there's always that uh you know doubt in your yeah, in your head or in your gut that you know always scares you a little bit, I guess. Yeah. So yeah, and this m next morning come around. We got to sleep in a little bit because we didn't have to be up two hours before first light to get to her spot. So it's kind of nice. Yeah. So we we loaded the canoe up the next morning, figured we were gonna canoe across the lake and not uh run, not run around in a bunch of musk egg and no one wanted to see you strip down again. Uh let's see a canoe. Yeah. Yeah. Strip hunting. Yeah. Yeah. So we went in the next morning and we found him not too far away from uh where we thought he was.

SPEAKER_00:

And how pumped were I mean, you've never been near anything that big dead, but let like a moose. I mean, they're they're it's pretty cool. Yeah. It's pretty cool, they're big.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, that's the thing, because we'd only really seen them from across the lake.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And so, you know, you know how big moose are, but yeah, once you come across one, like just laying there, it was even people that have like seen them alongside the road or whatever, you don't know, but we are like their ears, their nose, they're like, they are big. It's really cool. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

So it just kind of took a second to just be like, oh my goodness, I guess we couldn't get over it. Yeah. How big they were. So no, it was Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

The night before, I kind of said to Jacob, like, I'm thinking like a 40-inch spread on them. Like, that's kind of what I was figuring from across the lake. But obviously, it was a lot further than we had thought.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Because we thought it was 430 yards and it was 635, so it was a lot further. Because we took a real measurement the next morning. Yeah. Kind of thing. That night, I think, on my phone is when I really took it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Well, uh, so what was the spread?

SPEAKER_02:

It uh ended up being 49 and a quarter.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's big. Yeah. I know. So your first hunt besides a partridge. I mean, that's yeah, that's incredible.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. So we were we were super excited, and like I said, it couldn't couldn't have gone any better. Just kind of and and going into it too, it was kind of like you know, it's fun to get it on the first day. You don't have to have that like disappointment each day, but then you don't get the hunt. So we kind of saying that like you want to get it on your third day, and so it's kind of perfect.

SPEAKER_02:

It actually worked out perfect because you got to hunt and enjoy the process, even though it was a bit stressful at the time. Yeah. And then you got your animal before it got down too too far down to crunch time or down to the wire.

SPEAKER_00:

Like, yeah. Well, I know it's uh well, you guys did have morel a little low here saying.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, they it was different. Yeah, I remember it's like that with the not that low, but just lower than we expected.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it wasn't quite as high. But uh, I know it was like that this spring turkey season with buddy of mine, like you know, we worked at the turkey, we thought we'd get it done first morning, and then you know, calls and misses and this and that. And then finally, it was later in the week, or maybe it was the second week, it's only two week season, and he's called them out and they came out like on a string and uh shot it. And I I remember asking Kyle, I was like, if that had happened the first morning, I said, Would this feel as good right now to have the turkey? He's like, No. You know, so that's the same thing with moose, right? If that had all happened right away first morning, would you be like as pumped about it kind of thing, right? It's it's all the journey, you know. It's the journey. Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so that's not at all the end of the story because we hadn't dragged him out yet or anything like that. He was quite a ways from any road. We we probably had to cut out half a kilometer of trail to get him out. Oh yeah. We drug him out with uh and he he crashed right in the middle of like a cedar swamp and it was alders, and it was it was brutal thick.

SPEAKER_00:

So that's when the uh Jacob when yeah, the like holy shit, we got him to like holy shit, we gotta get him out of here.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, because like yeah, I've seen some moose hunts on on TV and stuff, and and you know they always say the work starts once he kills.

SPEAKER_00:

But they don't show a lot of that to say they're just like, Yeah, we they'll like skip ahead like we quartered up the moose and got it out and back to camp. That's what I was hoping.

SPEAKER_03:

I could go home and everyone kind of do it for me. But no, it was uh it was a lot of work.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, is that when your grandfather hopped on the bike again that time? Oh, meet you back at camp again.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

No, he was excited. He really wanted to be there for that process. Oh yeah, good help, sure. Yeah, so we we cut trail and obviously we uh we dressed them before that, but we cut that we dressed them, cut trail, and drug them out. Probably took two or three hours. It was on a trailer.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

We uh we we knew we wanted to come prepared this year, so we built uh before Moose, we built a cooler.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_02:

We built an eight-byte cooler on skids that we drag onto a flat deck trailer and you can take it anywhere.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, it is mobile. Yeah, okay. I remember you're sending me pictures of it when you're building it, but I didn't realize it was mobile.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so it's built around dad's flat deck trailer, so you drag it on and drag it off type of deal. And it's just it's just uh window banger AC unit that runs it and a couple of temperature probes that override the You guys have the was it Inkbird? Yeah, that's what the that's what these are, but you're thinking of the cool bots.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, the Inkbird's the cheaper version, but does the same thing, right?

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, you have to have two of them. You have to have two of the inkbirds. But yeah, so so we uh we got we got rigged up with a cooler, so that made it a lot less stressful after the animal's down, knowing you had you had a spot for it because like you said, it's like 20 degrees, you know. That's a whole added stress is after you shoot a moose, like is there gonna be butcher tops that are gonna take it, or like you know, can you get it there before it spoils and whatnot? So knowing that there was a cooler at camp that was already cool and ready to go is yeah, yeah, you know that's a relief, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Huge relief. Yeah, that's one less stressor. Yes, what'd you think that whole process changed?

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, it was fun because like you said, I've only ever seen the videos and stuff. So you know, I I had Caleb there to show me how to got it, and you know, he did most of it, but I was still trying to get my hands dirty.

SPEAKER_00:

This is a lot more work than YouTube. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02:

Tried to make it educational, but there's also a point where you gotta get it done at the same time.

SPEAKER_00:

So cut here, no, not there. Give me the knife, don't get it. Hold the carbon out his eyeballs. Yeah, yeah. So there's your uh there's your learning lesson for the day.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, don't get in the way. Yeah, yeah. Oh, that's great. So we we got him back to camp and we got them all quartered up and hanging in the cooler, and that's where he lies now. Jacob's gonna get them all mounted, gonna get a brisket mount done. Yeah, yeah. Are you?

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, yeah, yeah. Nice. Rack's at the taxidermist right now and got the brisk brisket up.

SPEAKER_00:

Like, yeah, okay, cool. That's really cool.

SPEAKER_03:

I've got nowhere to put it in my house, so that's the thing, me.

SPEAKER_00:

They take up a lot of room. It's not like a deer male.

SPEAKER_02:

I mean, he definitely didn't realize how big it's gonna be until we went inside of the taxidermist house and then we seen one, and it like sticks out from the wall four and a half or five feet. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Because I had seen them before, but every time I see them, it's not like, oh, this is gonna be my house soon. Yeah. And so yeah, you never really think about it.

SPEAKER_00:

That's why you see a lot of like Euromance on garages outside. But I mean, yeah, they do take up a lot of room in the house, and you want it well secured too. Yeah. Because I mean, you wouldn't want it like above your bed and then realize like it wasn't quite quite screwed into a stud, and you know, I think they're like 100 or 120 pounds when they're done too. Like a heavy, you wouldn't want it landing on you.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. So yeah, like you said, it'll go up in their their camp for now, and you know, maybe way, way down the future I'll have a house that I can put it in.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

And a wife that'll let you. Yeah. Yeah, that's part of it too. That'll just take years of convincing brownie points.

SPEAKER_00:

Or be like, well, if you don't like it, try to take it down.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so uh are you hooked? Oh, yeah. Deer season? Like, what are you you gearing up for that? Are you excited?

SPEAKER_03:

Well, I was originally planning to do deer season, assuming we didn't get a moose kind of thing. Like, I didn't get the lottery, but uh I think I'll I'll take a break for now just because I mean we're gonna have way too much meat and you know, I already took a week off worth.

SPEAKER_00:

Do some small game hunting though? Like, are you are you hooked on hunting? Are you gonna be able to do that? I I really enjoy it, yeah. I do it.

SPEAKER_03:

I I want to kind of go bear hunting with Caleb and stuff. Really? Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

That's surprising.

SPEAKER_03:

Can't can't get any worse, right?

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, but the thing about the moose hunting, uh normally big game hunting is uh, you know, just solitary sort of thing, but uh the moose hunting is kind of the camaraderie, it's like small game hunting. That's what I I like. I I probably like that part of hunting more than anything.

SPEAKER_03:

It's just the camaraderie and and stuff and hanging out with people and yeah, because like I said, we were able to get my grandfather down and one of my good friends, he was there, he he had done even less hunting than me too, and so he was kind of hooked and he's like, Alright, this year I'm I'm gonna enter.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah. It was nice. So Caleb could have his work it out for him. Yeah, exactly. Do it every year.

SPEAKER_03:

And it was pretty cool. Tell him about your grandfather at the end of the hunt. Oh yeah, so like I said, I I didn't own a rifle or anything like that, and so he had brought his rifle, you know. Never know if something isn't working or something, there's a backup, and so after he he just gave it to me.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh yeah, what is it?

SPEAKER_03:

It's uh Browning 338. Uh yeah, wind mag, yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's uh that's a moose dropper. Yeah, yeah, exactly. That's a big gun, yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_03:

So hopefully I'll get another moose and use that one in the future.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. So you guys had uh you had a good hunt?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, it was good.

SPEAKER_00:

I know when I saw it, you sent me the picture, Caleb. I was like, holy shit, that Caleb looks ugly there.

SPEAKER_03:

We tried to blur it, but yeah, it didn't work.

SPEAKER_00:

No, it's like that's a big moose, really big moose. He's like just huge. She said almost about a 50-inch spread. Wow. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, and even yeah, like flipping him over. I mean, me, Caleb, and my body was a big guy. I mean, we could barely get him onto his back to gut. It was tough.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, and that looks that's really handy too that you have built the cooler and you're able to take care of it yourself. Because I mean, that is the thing, getting into a butcher shop, like maybe there's room, maybe there's not, you know. And some some of them fill up quick, really quick. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, so uh probably another week or so. It's time, we're gonna cut them up. We got all the grinders and everything else ready to go. So yeah, hamburger in the freezer, and steaks and whatever else.

SPEAKER_00:

All right, boys. Well, that's a good story, and uh we'll have you back. We'll we'll have some more stories. I'm sure. I'm sure but you're hooked for life.

SPEAKER_03:

That's that is it.

SPEAKER_00:

That's all right. Thanks, boys.

SPEAKER_03:

Thanks.