Dan and Jim, First I want to say thanks for making this trip possible, When you guys called me this spring, I thought you were pulling my leg, you weren’t!! I’ve seen these big trips like this on your site but said no way will that ever be me. I started out by calling Gregg Samms the owner of Lake Douglas and letting him know who I was, and he let me know he would send me some information for the hunt later on, things like when it would be, what I would need to bring, and different information depending on whether I drove or flew in. I decided to drive, as I didn’t want to go through the hassle of flying my meat and antlers home if I did get an animal. Finally, after what seemed like forever Gregg e-mailed me with my info. and the hunt was scheduled for September 13th – 19th, the opening week for rifle in Newfoundland. He also let me know that I could
have brought friends to hunt with me, or bring some one as a non-hunter, I decided to have my wife come with me for a little vacation time together without the kids, and he let me do this at a discounted price from what was on the website. (She didn’t hunt).
So now the wait began, and the summer really seemed to fly by, In the meantime I took care of some of the things I needed to do to prepare for the hunt. My wife and I got our enhanced driver’s licenses for crossing the border, scheduled the ferry ride to and from the Island, and our hotel for the Saturday night when we arrived. And of course I had to get some new hunting things, and this was a perfect excuse.
Finally, it was time to leave! We left Friday afternoon, arrived in North Sydney, Nova Scotia the next morning about an hour before we had to board the ferry, Thank God for the Tom-Tom. The ferry was the size of a cruise ship, and they really can pack on some vehicles. Cars, trucks, campers, tractor-trailers. It was a smooth crossing, and we got to Newfoundland Saturday evening about five. We didn’t mess around, we got something to eat and right to our hotel room and slept, we were both pretty tired after being up for over 36 hours.
Sunday came and we got up, feeling a lot better, got some coffee and headed For Deer Lake. This was where we met with Gregg, the owner, to head to the lodge. We both decided driving was the way to go because Newfoundland is absolutely beautiful with all its mountains and lakes, Gregg called us along the way to make sure we were alright, and to see how far out we were, which was about 20 minutes at that time. We met up with him and his three other hunters and headed to the lodge which was about two hours from Deer Lake. Finally, we got there, and I have to tell you the lodge is very nice as well as comfortable, and has a stunning view of the lake behind it.
We got settled and waited for the guides to get to the lodge, so we could be paired up with them. In the meantime, we had a great supper of moose stew, which was incredible! The lodge has a full time cook, Judy, and she sure can cook. Every night was great, and we always got up to a nice hot breakfast in the morning. Finally, all the guides were there, and we were paired up with Steve, A great guy who it turns out, really knows his stuff, or is really lucky, I guess the verdict is still out on that one. It was getting late so Gregg had us fill out our licenses and talked to me a little on what my expectations were on the kind of moose I was looking for. I told him I’d like to look for a nice one for a day or two anyway, then after that, I didn’t care, I just wanted to come home with some moose meat. Boy would I be surprised!
We got up at 4:30 the next morning, and I was glad because I sure couldn’t sleep because I was actually going moose hunting for the first time. The weather decided it didn’t want to cooperate, and it was rainy and windy, and all the guides didn’t seem to be too optimistic because they say these weren’t the best conditions, cool and clear being the best. After a great breakfast, and a lot of coffee for my wife, away we went. It took about 30-40 minutes to get to our spot, which was decided by a coin toss, because our guide Steve said we had a couple of options, where he knew some nice bulls to be. Heads it was.
Good Call!! We got to our spot and the rain seemed to have let up, and Steve asked my wife and I if we were ready for a little walk, naturally we were. We walked for about 15 minutes and were looking around when Steve asked us if we soaked yet, we told him no, and he said good, he just wanted to go through the clear-cut a little more to see down onto this one bogs. We got to it and we didn’t see anything, so we talked for a couple of minutes and knew we couldn’t cow call as the rain and wind had kicked into high gear now. We were seconds from leaving to go to another spot when I noticed 2 moose walk onto the bog about 400 yards away, I got excited, got Steve’s attention, and we both pulled out the binoculars at the same time, the cow was first and the Big bull was right behind her, Steve said “We have to get closer, that’s a big bull!” So we made a button hook around and went along some thick alders and cut the distance down to about half. We run out of cover, and
Steve told me to get to this one tree, so I could rest my rifle on it, it wasn’t much, but it was enough. I made it to the tree, took the scope caps off, pulled my rifle up, and there he was, looking right at me, he knew we were there but with the wind and rain I don’t think he knew what we were.
So there I sat my cross-hairs on him, and him facing right at me. I didn’t have a shot right away because of a couple of trees in front of his chest, but after an eternity, or a couple of minutes, I’m still not sure, He turned broadside and gave me my shot, that at this point I gladly took, because I do believe I was starting to develop a strong case of “Moose Fever”. Nevertheless, I hit him, tried a quick follow up shot, But Steve told me my shot was good. It was then we noticed there wasn’t just that Bull and cow. There were 4 bulls and 3 cows! Moose everywhere! I had to shoot my moose 3 more times before he went down, we wanted to make sure he went down there, and that we didn’t lose him because of the rain. I got to my moose on some very shaky legs, and the reality started to set in, that not only had I shot a moose, I shot a really big moose. So we took some pictures and Steve started breaking the moose down to ship out of there on the Argo which we had to go back to the lodge to get. What a chore, but Steve made it look easy, and Denise, my wife got right in there and got her hands dirty and helped out. What a woman! With that done we headed back to the lodge to dry off and get the Argo. When we got back to the lodge, two of the other hunters were back there already with their moose, another bull and a cow, What a morning! We went up and congratulated them, and they asked how we did, so we showed them the pictures and their jaws dropped, I tried not to rub it in but I’m sure the smile on my face gave me away. They finished cleaning up the other two moose and off, we were again to get my moose. Gregg, the owner/guide, and Gregg, one of the other guides went with us to see it and get more pictures because the rain had finally stopped. I didn’t lose any of my awe when I walked up to that moose for a second time, what a beautiful animal! After another round of pictures back to the lodge to clean my moose up and put it in the cooler. The lodge has a huge cooler, for hanging up of the animals, and the guides do an excellent job of cleaning them up for the trip to the butcher on Thursday.
By Wednesday the last hunter in camp got his moose, another nice bull and the lodge was at a nice even 100 percent success on taking of moose, I got a bear license and spent the next evenings in a stand, but no bear, the sign was all over, but they didn’t want to cooperate, but in the end it didn’t matter, because at the end of the week I came home with a trophy of a lifetime, memories that will last just as long, and got to share this whole experience with my wife, who loved the whole week as much as I did. We have probably seen 30 moose the week we were there, including the one right outside the lodge, and a caribou and took many pictures and some incredible video. Finally, I just want to say thanks again to Dan and Jim, for creating this fine organization and giving people like me a chance to go on a trip like this. I want to say thanks to Gregg Samms the owner of Lake Douglas Hunting and Fishing again for donating this hunt to USOC and for having a world class hunting outfit. I want to give special thanks to Steve Regular, my guide, for putting me onto that moose, whether it be by luck or skill I don’t care, he got me there. And last but not least I want to say thanks to the other guides, Greg and Pius, for helping out, And Judy the Cook for the outstanding food, and to everyone for making us feel like family while we were there!! THANKS!! Scott