Sherri’s Corner – Shared Excitement

It’s been 6 years since my brother James and I were lucky enough to draw a Saskatchewan moose tag (Sidenote: we were skunked in 2010!) The early season opened the first week in October when the weather was entirely too warm to be out hunting, we went anyway. The season shut down just in time for a quick duck hunting week and then resumed at the beginning of November. We found signs of moose, we found their tracks and we came across lots of scat in the bushes and pasture but no actual moose. To say we were discouraged is a nice way of putting it! James lives 2 hours away from me and he seen moose before the season opened, and in between the 2 seasons. The amount of moose sightings up there was the very reason we applied for that zone. However, It was the “during” the season we were having the sighting issues with! In my neck of the woods I knew where the moose were feeding, sleeping and hanging out during the day, that didn’t help us when our tags were drawn several zones over.

The last weekend I was able to hunt I packed my bags and went to stay at James’. We hunted Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon was quite warm again and I think that’s what made up our minds that we would just have some extra decorations on the Christmas tree this year. I had made plans to go for supper in the city on my way through so I got all cleaned up and packed all my hunting gear into my bag, put the .270 in it’s case behind the seat and put the gun clip in my backpack. I headed out around 3:30 and since I was in no particular hurry to be anywhere, I zig zagged my way towards the highway from my brother’s acreage, listening to the radio and drinking my coffee. As far as I was concerned, moose season was over.

That’s when I saw her, she was standing all alone in a hay field along a tree line. I quickly recounted how many zigs and how many zags I had made on my way here, and backed up into a field approach on the other side of the trees. Shaking with excitement already without even knowing if I was still in the correct zone, I called James. I told him where I was and asked him if I was still good to go. He informed me that I was still within our allowable shooting area and said if I wanted to take the shot that he would come help me.

As I mentioned earlier all my gear was packed away, all of it! So here I am ripping through my bag to find my orange jacket and head gear, unpack my gun and find the clip which had somehow made it all the way into the black hole depths of my back pack. Once I had all my duds on I started walking the treeline. I got to the edge and could see that the moose was still standing in roughly the same spot. I closed our distance by another 20 yards and then decided I would take my shot. I found a tree with a handy branch off of it that served as my rest and after calming myself for a minute, I squeezed the trigger and she fell an instant later!!! I was SO excited!! I ran back to my truck, which now seemed much further away, and called James!

After what felt like an eternity, James pulled up with his truck and trailer and we went and loaded my very first moose! I started the season off by firmly stating that I wasn’t taking anything but a bull, it’s funny how that statement changed when the opportunity presented itself! I think one of my favorite things about tagging this moose, was when we pulled back into my brothers yard and were greeted by the 3 smiling faces in my photo. My nieces and nephew were so excited that we had a moose on the trailer! The phrase “kids say the darndest things” rang true when James said something about the meat tag and my nephew (He’s 5) paused and looked at me and said “There’s meat inside that moose???” We then went through how soft the hair was, how smooth the hooves were and a variety of other questions that seemed to be never ending. I’m proud to have been able to share this moment with my Brother and his crew. The stories might happen because of the animal, but the memories are made with the people you share that animal with!