PAUL SMITH: Adventures in retrieving a moose from a bog

It’s a very typical autumn day today. There’s a light breeze of south-westerly wind, and the temperature is steady at about eight degrees. I have my salt cod outside drying on my flake.

It’s a good day for drying fish, and it would also be a good day for moose hunting if we had a license.

But we do not.

But despite having no license, I have a nice hindquarter hanging in my butcher’s chill room. My cousin Boyd Winsor had a license for the Placentia area, and he shot his moose a few days ago. And he made a dandy long shot. I was impressed when I saw where he shot it from, and it was a one-shot kill right in the vitals. Good job, Boyd.

Boyd called me when he shot the moose and told me that he had a moose, but it was in a hell of a hard spot for getting it out to the road. So he asked me to round up my buddy Robert and see if we could help with the game retrieval. I did, and Rob and I headed across New Harbour Barrens in my old Ford to undertake the operation.

Goldie asked me how long I would be — and she knows the difference, but I suppose she just had to ask, like any good spouse. Because after all the years she’s been with me, she well knows that when you have a moose down in the woods, there is absolutely no way to know how long it will take to get the job done. There is so much that can go wrong, and most times, something does. This retrieval turned out to be pretty typical.

Rob and I met up with Boyd and Frank at Boyd’s house in Whitbourne. Boyd shot the moose from a high knoll overlooking a marsh and had to walk a fair distance through thick woods to get at the moose.

Frank stayed on the hill and guided him to the moose because Boyd has been hunting long enough to realize how different everything looks from marsh level. He got to the moose and made the incision to bleed it out.

So when Rob and I arrived, the job was to load Boyd’s Argo on a trailer and start the process. This was really interesting for me because I have never been involved with using an Argo to haul out a moose. I’ve heard they are great for this application, but now I’d see for myself firsthand.

Boyd had the six-wheel Argo with rubber tracks. Of course, there’s no way to get that stuck.

I should not dare to be so bold — indeed we did get the Argo stuck, and stuck good. You can get anything stuck in a bog. Boyd was telling me that he had a hard time getting to where the moose was without going over his boots. Not good.

In the meantime, Boyd had remembered a trail we could use to get down to the bog with the Argo without having to cut a trail through the thick woods. So in no time, we were on the bog and heading for the moose. Here goes, and in goes the Argo into the soupy bog and brook combination that nearly filled Boyd’s boots.

Down she went to the tops of the tracks, and she wasn’t coming out, at least not under normal engine power.

Out came the winch cable, and we got the end secured around a stout tree. The winching worked and the Argo came out the other side of the swampy mess.

Boyd drove on over to the moose, but we would have to make alternate arrangements for getting the moose out. Coming back there would be no tree to attach the winch to, and we didn’t want to risk it anyway.

Robert became the designated trail cutter. Adjacent to the bog hole, there was a patch of solid ground with good-sized trees. So while we started working on the moose, Robert went to work cutting a go-around trail and used the trees he cut to bridge another soft spot. Mission accomplished.

Rob came over and he and I quartered the moose and threw all four quarters in the back of the Argo. It all worked out fine, and Boyd drove all the way to the trailer waiting roadside. Perfect.

So now I’ll tell you my thoughts on the Argo.

It’s quite a good rig for hauling out moose. I was very impressed. I’m not sure what it would be like on very rocky terrain, but in bog country, I’d say it’s hard to beat. And we took the whole moose in one trip. Could we have done it with our quads? Absolutely, but not as easily.

And don’t forget, Argos are amphibious. You can cross a pond to get at a moose, or whatever it takes. I can see why most of the hunting camps use them.

I’d love to hear your experiences with hauling out moose. What do you think of Argos?

Paul Smith, a native of Spaniard’s Bay, fishes and wanders the outdoors at every opportunity. He can be contacted at flyfishtherock@hotmail.com or follow him on Twitter at @flyfishtherock