Scored a few hundred pounds of fresh meat for $50

[low-1]

VERY LONG POST, my apologies up front.

Yesterday, about 45 minutes to quitting time, my friend called me in the office. We had been talking about going for a canoe ride during the day. He got home a few hours before me and decided last night would be a good night to take the canoe down the rapids at the diversion and back into town.

So I left work a little early, we loaded up the truck and got our shuttle vehicle lined up, and since hunting season is open for moose, we decided to take our tags and rifles (and hunter orange, a knife and some rope).

We drove down the road to the boat launch, and set out down the river to Cache Lake, where a man-made diversion was cut to drain the Butnau River into the Kettle River. When they built the dams up here, they built dams and dykes where the Butnau used to flow, so they had to cut a channel so it would drain somewhere. It's a shallow, fast channel with a few good drops and rapids at the end. This was my first time trying it in a canoe, I'd been down in a 14 ft tin boat a couple of times.

We were heading across Cache Lake, and doing some moose calls along the way. We were honestly not expecting to see anything at all, although we joked that since neither of us had a camera, we would see something for sure. We got into the diversion and tied off our gear to the canoe, and started floating down.

We made it past the first set of rapids no problem, right underneath the train bridge. Then, we were coming around a corner and my friend grabs his rifle, thinking that a big black root from a fallen-over tree on the other side of the river was an animal. While still looking through the scope at it, we continued further around the corner to see a big bull moose about 100 ft away. A couple of shots later, and the fun began.

So not really expecting to see anything, we were pretty under-prepared. We didn't have a saw or axe to quarter him up, so we decided we would tie him off to the canoe and float him back to town. There was lots of water, so we didn't think that a) there would be any problems or b) that it would take too long.

For the first while, things were going really well, the current was taking us at a good pace and things were going smoothly. We really wanted to reach the end of the diversion and hit the Kettle River before dark, because we knew there were some tricky rapids near the end.

It didn't take too long before we started hitting shallow spots and getting stuck. The moose's antlers were constantly dragging on the bottom. We tried pulling up the rope and tying him closer, but that didn't work. After taking about an hour to make it 300 yards, we decided that the antlers had to come off. We didn't have a saw or an axe though, and the knife wasn't going to cut it. What we did have was rifles and bullets. So we pulled him close, lined up the shot, turned our heads and made loud noises and big splashes.

So here we are, with a moose without antlers, happily floating again and making good time. But by now it's starting to get dark, and we haven't hit the big rapids yet. No worries though, because things are going pretty smoothly. Then it gets really shallow and rocky.

So we get hung up time after time, most often in the big rapids that we were nervous about under good circumstances, not dragging a small car behind us. He kept on getting stuck, we'd keep on pulling ourselves back to him and lift/pry/tug to get him moving again, sometimes being stuck for 45 minutes at a time. A couple of times we had to ferry to shore, wrap a ratchet strap to a tree and pull him out that way.

The biggest and fastest rapid of the entire diversion, we were going pretty good, right until we stopped dead RIGHT in the middle of it. Old Moosey was hung up on a stump in the middle of the river. We spent a little over an hour trying to hold onto the moose hide while digging and cutting away at the stump until it would move again, all the while narrowly avoiding flipping the canoe. We did take on a lot of water, and were getting wet, cold and grumpy. It was even snowing for a while.

Finally we got him through, worked our way through a few more shallow spots and hit the Kettle River. Pitch black cloudy sky with no moon. Awesome. Only a LONG way to go before we get back to town. The Kettle is a lot deeper with more water flowing, though, so we didn't get hung up. There are a few long straight flat sections that meant we had to paddle, again towing a 1000 lb moose behind us, if we wanted to move.

We made it to town around 1:00 am. Not bad for just deciding that we were going to go for a quick canoe ride to play in some rapids. Incidently, canoeing through rapids is much more fun in the daylight, without towing anything, and getting stuck every 10 minutes.

So we made it back to town. Yippee. Now all we had to do was drag this big monster out of the river, field dress it, quarter it and hang it. We got the shuttle vehicle, drove back to the truck, drove back to my house and picked up the trailer, then drove back to where we left the canoe and the moose. Loadin' time.

We didn't have a winch or anything, so the plan was to use ratchet straps to pull him up. It was a horrible idea. BUT, while we were doing this, we heard music from around the bend at a little clearing by the weir. Some kids were having a Thursday night party. One of the guys walked up to see what we were doing, and tried helping us with the ratchet straps for a while. After going nowhere fast, I suggested he get his truck and a tow rope, and we would use it to pull the moose up the ramp onto my trailer on my friend's truck. Worked awesome, best thing we dd all night.

Then it was off to field dress the moose. We decided to go to the dump where the wolves hang out anyway and it would all be cleaned up in no time at all. Working by flashlights and headlamps, we dressed him out. Being in the water for so long meant he was starting to stiffen up, so it was no easy task. Never mind the fact that moose are pretty big animals.

After dressing him, he had to be quartered up and hung before we were done for the night. Long, tedious work in the dark, and cold night.

So, about 40 minutes ago (7:10 am), we finally finished up. My friend was supposed to be at work by 7:30, so he dropped me off and went home to shower, and here I am. Not likely going to make it into work today, but I have a lot of bank time that I need to use up anyway.

Long, long night, but after we cut and wrap it tonight and tomorrow, we should be looking at a few hundred pounds of moose meat each, including sausage and jerky, for the cost of a moose tag. We didn't even burn much gas in the process, although we were kicking ourselves for not having a motor for the long slow ride back.

Off to bed in a little bit.

[oheoh's momma]

Sorry It is a long post anyhoo congrats on the meat.

[Booklover]

What an experience! Congrats on the meat-wonderful! You really have a nice style of writing-very descriptive-I'll bet you could write short stories or something. I felt like I was right there!

[mommy2krj]

Now that is a good hunting story!

Glad you guys made it back...even if it did take forever!

Congrats on the moose!!!

[Contrary Housewife]

What an adventure! What can you do with moose besides sausage and jerky? Is it a lean meat like bison and deer?

[heartofmine]

You really told your hunting story well. I can just see you floating down the river in a boat with a moose without antlers. LOL Glad you got some meat. I've never had moose meat before. My dh told me yesterday that a friend of his is going hunting for moose and that he would bring us a mess. Told dh he best find out how to cook it too. LOL

[bonnotsm9]

Congratulations on your kill. My dad hunted antelope, deer, elk, and moose every year when we lived in Wyoming when I was a little kid. I can still remember using a pair of legs from a moose Dad had shot and butchered to drum on an overturned metal feed trough.

[Labontet]

You guys worked very, very hard for that meat.

I really enjoyed the story also. It would be a great short story if you were inclined to try to get it in a magazine or something.

Enjoy your moose meat, wish I could have the opportunity to get something like that.

Way to GO!

[Ali Lee]

In my younger days, we butchered a steer & a hog every year for the freezer. But I remember the halves hanging for a time. You don't need to do this with moose? and what does it taste like?

[shoiji]

What an ordeal. Sounds as if you had a great time. I will stick to the supermarket.

[low-1]

Thanks everyone, had a well-deserved (at least I think so) nap. It was stressful and tense for a while, but overall a great time. Wouldn't have been nearly as fun if he was standing by the road and fell into a trailer, lol.

What an adventure! What can you do with moose besides sausage and jerky? Is it a lean meat like bison and deer?

Very very lean meat. In a lot of people's opinion, it's the best meat there is, I rate it second only to caribou. Sausage and jerky is basically just what happens to the leftovers from butchering. We take roasts, steaks, stewing meat, ground, "fast fry" (small pieces of "steak" meat that come from between the silver skin and sinew, too good for stewing meat, so we use it in stir-fry type dishes), pretty much all the cuts you get from beef. My friend and I make moose pemmican as well, and I'm going to try moose soup (making stock from the bones). The hide is going to be used as a winter-camping tent liner, the antlers will be carved/shaped into knife handles and my friend turns pieces into nice pens on his lathe. My friend is taking the liver, his family loves it. We are splitting the heart, and the tongue is going to locals who really enjoy it. Butcher scraps generally go to people around town who run traplines for bait. I am also planning on using at least part of the femur bone to make a new nut and bridge for my bass guitar, it's apparently an almost accoustically-perfect material for that purpose. We really do try to use as much as possible, my friend is as much of a self-sufficiency nut as I am.

In my younger days, we butchered a steer & a hog every year for the freezer. But I remember the halves hanging for a time. You don't need to do this with moose? and what does it taste like?

It can be hung, but isn't really necessary unless it's an old, really big bull. And only 4-5 days tops, nothing like the 28 days of beef. Moose is very lean and typically very tender as it is. It tastes, well, delicious Different than beef or bison, kind of tough to describe, but definitely not disagreeable. Like most wild meat, the "gamey" taste comes from not trimming the fat or sinew, and leaving the bone in. When properly trimmed, it's not "gamey" at all, and with moose especially, the muscle groups are so big that you can get huge steaks and roasts from between the connective tissue.

You really told your hunting story well. I can just see you floating down the river in a boat with a moose without antlers. LOL Glad you got some meat. I've never had moose meat before. My dh told me yesterday that a friend of his is going hunting for moose and that he would bring us a mess. Told dh he best find out how to cook it too. LOL

I would say the majority of kids raised in the North are raised on wild meat, primarily moose, at least around here. No hormones or anti-biotics, pretty much as organic as you can get. A huge cooking tip with moose, as well as any wild game like deer, elk, etc, is to sear it properly before cooking. Wild game is so lean that if you cook it exactly like you would beef, it will dry out and be very tough and stringy. Get a pan really hot (cast iron works best), and using a set of tongs, put the steaks and roasts on the pan, probably only around 20-30 seconds on each side, then hold it with the tongs to sear the "edges" too, so that there is a cooked "crust" around the entire cut of meat. Then you can bbq or roast it as you would any similar cut of beef. Ideally you don't want to cook it past medium though. The searing makes a shell around the meat to keep the juices in, preventing it from drying out and getting tough.

[Trishagirl]

No I've never had moose but I've had deer meat & sausage & buffalo and love those meats so I'm sure your going to enjoy your meat!

[Spirit Deer]

That's the funniest thing I've read in a long, long time! Congrats on the moose harvest.

Do you read Patrick F. McManus? If you don't, you should.

[Debbie-cat]

Way to go!!! I agree, moose meat is one of the top meat I have ever eaten and moose sausage is THE best!! My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Great story!!! Made me giggle. I could picture the two of you perfectly.

[brainyblonde]

Great story! Congrats on your haul.