Stories from Minnesota’s Firs...

This story, “Minnesota’s First Moose Hunt,” appeared within the September 1972 difficulty of Outside Life.

“I HAD TO RUB my eyes earlier than I may consider what I noticed,” Paul Parks informed me. “Moments earlier than, I’d heard a twig snap,” he continued. “Then one other twig broke and a thick department cracked. Proper after that, a giant bull moose stepped out of a draw fifty yards under me. He was shifting at a trot, and snow was flying from his hoofs. The odd factor was that he was developing the snow­ lined ridge towards me.

“I used to be so stunned I stood as nonetheless as a stuffed owl. By the point I shouldered my Remington .270, the bull’s antlers seemed six-feet vast. Once I received him in my 2-to-7X Redfield scope, all I may see was hair.

“He was so shut,” Parks continued, “that I made a decision I couldn’t miss his head, and I knew a bullet within the head wouldn’t smash any meat. I held dead-center and touched off the primary 130-grain Norma load. The bull didn’t even flinch. He saved coming straight at me as if nothing in any respect had occurred. My second shot didn’t faze him both.

“I used to be pretty effectively hid in a stand of small spruces. I’m certain the bull didn’t see me. He wasn’t charging. I believe he was simply decided to comply with his chosen route. “By the point I used to be prepared to fireplace the third shot, I knew I used to be at risk of being run over. That’s when a loopy thought flashed via my thoughts. I puzzled how I had managed to get so near a trophy moose. For 2 months, I’d tried desperately to get inside rifle vary of a good bull, however in my wildest imaginings I had by no means needed to be that shut.”

Parks’ statements are much more dramatic when you understand the background of his hunt. Within the spring of 1971, Minnesota introduced its first open season on moose in trendy occasions, and Parks determined to use for a allow. He’s a plastic-mold maker in Hopkins, Minnesota, and had hunted deer and small recreation each fall for a few years. However he had by no means had the chance to strive for a moose.

He knew that possibilities of drawing one of many celebration per­mits for Minnesota’s first moose season in 49 years had been slim, and he was greater than stunned when he realized that his four-man group had been drawn. Solely 400 celebration permits had been issued for the 1971 hunt. The party-permit system had been stipulated by the state legislature when it licensed the moose season. Right here is the way in which that it labored.

One moose (both intercourse, any age) might be taken by every four-man group. That association allowed extra hunters to take part. The entire licensed kill was restricted to 400 moose, so just one,600 moose hunters can be within the woods. It was realized that 37,056 hunters had utilized for permits.

Parks and his celebration — Bob Erickson, Walt Johnson, and Paul Ylitalo, all neighbors in Hopkins — ran out of luck in a rush after they acquired their licenses. They hunted the primary half of the break up season, October 2-17, in wild nation north and east of Isabella. They didn’t see a single moose. They didn’t even see recent tracks. 

Earlier than the second half of the season, December 4-19, Parks and his companions did some scouting. A forest ranger informed them the moose had been working farther west of Isabella. Earlier than daybreak on the morning of the second opener whereas they had been driving into their new looking space, they noticed a giant cow moose alongside the highway. Their spirits soared.

Parks started looking in a giant cutover space among the many ridges and attracts alongside the Little Isabella River. He wasn’t greater than two miles from the Boundary Water Canoe Space. Lastly he determined to climb a ridge and look ahead to moose that is likely to be moved by different hunters. 

“I’d simply settled down when a rifle roared 3 times,” he informed me. “My first thought was that anyone was banging away on the cow we’d seen.

No person in my group needed a cow. We had agreed that we weren’t going to blow the prospect of a lifetime. If we couldn’t rating on a good bull, we wouldn’t rating in any respect.

“I stood immobile as a result of I figured the capturing would possibly stir one thing up. There was three inches of snow on the bottom, and the morning air was useless nonetheless. Moments later I heard that first twig snap. I assumed the sound got here from farther away than it did. That’s why I used to be so stunned after I noticed the bull coming straight on solely 50 yards away.

“Once I fired my third shot, I used to be extra eager about saving my neck than in killing a moose. I believe that bullet missed the bull’s head, however the blast of the shut­ vary shot will need to have turned him. He swerved away from me, and I put the subsequent bullet into his neck. The moose stumbled_once after which went down in a heap. He was useless when he hit the bottom.

“My hair crawled after I checked him over. My first two photographs had hit virtually at level of goal. One had hit simply above the animal’s nostril. The opposite hit the facet of the top. I assume they glanced off. They didn’t do a lot obvious harm. Once I calmed down, I taped the bull’s antlers. The widest unfold measured 47 inches.

“We had a prearranged sign in case anyone in our group killed a moose,” Parks went on, “so I fired two fast photographs into the air to let the remainder of the fellows know we had our bull. It wasn’t lengthy earlier than my three associates arrived. Imagine me, we would have liked 4 males to show that animal on his again in order that we may intestine him out.”

The massive drawback, after they’d discipline­ dressed the bull, was to get the carcass again to the highway and into Park’s pickup truck so they may register it on the Isabella checking station. An identical drawback confronted virtually all of the suc­cessful moose hunters throughout Minne­sota’s break up season.

“I requested Bob Erickson to stroll again to the pickup and get our meat noticed so we may noticed via the chest cavity,” Parks recalled. “I additionally requested him to take a look at a faint path operating alongside the ridge. I assumed there is likely to be an opportunity to drive the truck near the bull.

“Effectively, Bob walked that previous logging path again to the highway. He put chains on the pickup and drove it proper as much as my moose. We had a cable-ratchet hoist on the pickup, so we looped the cable across the moose’s antlers and hoisted the animal onto the truck. We had been headed for house lengthy earlier than midday.”

So ended one success story made pos­sible by the primary Minnesota moose season since 1922.

The season was hailed by sportsmen and recreation officers as an impressive success. Remaining figures confirmed that 93.5 p.c of the 4­ man looking events went house with a moose. Hunters bagged 374 animals out of a complete of 1,430 that they noticed throughout each segments of the break up season. Because it turned out, 63.6 p.c of the harvest consisted of grownup bulls. A few of them had been giants. The most important bull checked in had an antler unfold of 56% inches, and the reside weight was esti­mated to have been 1,500 kilos. That animal was killed simply after daybreak on the primary morning of the October half of the season by Howard Dittmer of Inexperienced Isle.

Was the state’s moose inhabitants hit too laborious?

“We’re certain we may have permitted a bigger harvest,” mentioned Roger Holmes, who’s now supervisor of the sport sec­tion of the Division of Pure Re­ sources. “We performed an aerial cen­sus of the herd after the December portion of the season ended.”

When the state was first settled, moose had been comparatively widespread in most of its northern forests. Beginning within the early 1900’s, most of Minnesota’s moose vary was logged off. A lot of it subse­quently burned. With this transformation of habitat, the moose herd declined. Moose had been seldom seen after the logging period ended. Searching the massive animals was outlawed in 1923. About that point, whitetail deer started growing dra­matically because the logged-over pine lands grew up in aspen, birch, maple, balsam, spruce, and different second-growth bushes. In recent times, the second development matured. Circumstances for whitetails de­teriorated as a result of the overhead cover fashioned by massive bushes prevented the expansion of the low brush that’s ideally suited deer habitat. Moose — largely Canadian animals — moved again into the mature forest in nice numbers.

Aerial-census work over the previous 12 years confirmed that the state’s moose inhabitants fluctuated between 5,000 and eight,000 animals. That’s greater than twice the quantity that ranged Minnesota in 1922.

“Our moose inhabitants is now not growing,” Roger Holmes informed me. “It leveled off a number of years in the past. Which means that pure mortality is excessive. Analysis on the Agassiz Nationwide Wild­ life Refuge within the northwest a part of the state signifies that the moose dying fee is now equal to the excessive start fee.” 

Consequently, the Division of Nat­ural Assets believed {that a} moose harvest by hunters might be substituted for a big variety of pure mor­talities. In different phrases, hunters may and may take surplus animals that will in any other case die of hunger and different pure causes.

These included liver fluke, woodtick infestations, spherical­ worms within the mind, and lungworms, which trigger “moose illness.”

For a number of years the D.N.R. at­ tempted to steer the Minnesota leg­islature to authorize a moose season to carry the herd right down to the carrying capability of the habitat. The 1971 legis­lature lastly did so. It agreed to au­thorize a complete kill of 400 animals, the quantity prompt by the D.N.R. as an affordable harvest. Permits had been is­ sued solely to residents.

Organising the hunt was a tough and complicated process for recreation officers. Functions from 9,204 teams of 4 males every had been acquired. Every one needed to be checked to insure that information had been full and correct and that every one ap­plicants certified as residents.

A pc was used to pick the 400 fortunate teams randomly. The profitable teams needed to wait practically three weeks for affirmation whereas the D.N.R. checked for duplicate functions.

Of the 400 units of license types despatched to profitable events, all however two had been returned with the required notarized signatures and $100 license price per celebration. Every man was then despatched particular moose-hunting laws, zone maps, directions on field-dressing, numbered again tags, bottles for moose-blood samples, and several other different gadgets.

All moose taken needed to be registered and tagged at one of many seven examine stations. The stations had been manned by wildlife managers.

All hunters had been requested to get a blood pattern from every moose taken and to donate a tooth and a small tissue pattern from the animal. Throughout each segments of the season, recreation crews visited every kill web site to col­ lect abdomen samples and reproductive information from the interior organs of the animals.

All licensed hunters had been required to remain within the zone for which they’d a allow. They had been additionally required to put on a crimson or fluorescent-orange outer coat, and to show their figuring out again tags prominently.

Sport officers anticipated looking suc­cess to be excessive, particularly within the northwestern zones. These zones are comparatively open and simply accessible, and so they have the very best moose popu­lations. As anticipated, looking was greatest in Zone II, encompassing the Agassiz Nationwide Wildlife Refuge, and Zone III close to the Twin Lake Wildlife Space at Karlstad.

There, one hundred pc of the events took moose. In Zone I across the Pink Lake Wildlife Administration Space close to Baudette, 96.7 p.c of the par­ ties scored. Success within the northeastern areas was as follows: Zone IV, 90 per­ cent; Zone V, 84.5 p.c, and Zone VI, 83.6 p.c.

“These kill figures had been most welcome,” Roger Holmes commented later. “The herd was badly in want of thinning, and the excessive percentages are proof of high quality looking. Furthermore, the break up season allowed leisurely looking. You could possibly decide your moose should you hunted laborious sufficient, and a number of males did simply that. Most hunters handed up the cows and calves. Within the northwestern zones, moose had been operating far and wide. We heard of some looking events that noticed over 20 moose in a number of hours.”

One such celebration included Roger Hal­vorsen, a taxidermist from Fergus Falls; Walter Bergrud of Fergus Falls; and Harold and Dale Riggles, a father-and­-son group from Cass Lake.

“I personal some wind up across the Agas­siz Nationwide Wildlife Refuge northeast of Center River,” Halvorsen informed me. “We determined to hunt up there once we had been fortunate within the drawing. I had simply returned from a moose hunt in northern Saskatchewan, however I by no means noticed so many moose up there as we did in our personal state whereas driving east of Center River the evening earlier than the October opener.

“We noticed 35 moose alongside and cross­ ing the roads that night. We noticed one bunch of 11 in a flax discipline. I gained­dered in the event that they had been so hungry that they needed to eat flax stubble. We’d had 5 inches of rain earlier than the season opened. Many of the flax fields and different low spots had been flooded. There have been moose trails throughout that muddy nation. A few of them seemed like the paths you see close to cattle barns.”

The subsequent morning Halvorsen and his group had been out at dawn. A number of of the massive animals had been nonetheless within the flax fields.

“I seemed over twelve of them earlier than I picked the one I needed for a head mount,” Halvorsen continued. “I may have shot any one in all a number of, however I waited to identify one of the best bull as a result of we had a number of time to hunt.

“The one I chosen crossed a highway and disappeared right into a flooded blueberry swamp. I adopted him into the tangles. One way or the other or one other, I chased him again out. He was nearly to enter an­ different flax discipline after I shot him with my Sako .30/06. I nailed him at two-hun­dred yards with one shot.

“All we needed to do was again the truck as much as him and cargo him on. It was a little bit of a job getting the truck in there. The previous concrete highway was all damaged up and nearly deserted.”

Halvorsen’s bull had an antler unfold of 47 ½ inches, which nettled him just a little. “His rack seemed a lot larger than it actually was,” the hunter recalled, “however he dressed out at 940 kilos once we weighed him on the scales at Frank’s Mill again in Cass Lake. That’s a number of moose meat, and we’re going to have some effective dinners for a very long time.”

Dennis Weestrand, a constructing con­tractor in Plymouth, has a unique kind of story to inform. He dropped a bull with a 49½-inch rack approach again within the boon­ docks of Zone IV between Kawishiwi and Perent lakes. Different members of the celebration had been Weestrand’s brother Kenny, Norman Severson, and David Kolesar.

They drove a half-ton pickup and a four-wheel-drive jeep as much as Tofte on the north shore of Lake Superior the day be­ fore opening day in October. They automobile­ried two 16-foot aluminum canoes atop the pickup. From Tofte they turned north up the Sawhill Path.

“We took the canoes as a result of we wish­ed to keep away from the crowds everyone ex­pected in Zone IV,” Weestrand mentioned. “We figured we may get farther into the bush with the canoes.

“We drove inside two miles of the Kawishiwi Lake Public Campground after which we put the canoes in the place an previous wood bridge crosses Hog Creek. The creek flows via a bathroom that seemed very moosey, so we paddled on right down to Perent Lake with our equip­ ment and meals and a plastic sheet for a makeshift tent. It was getting darkish once we arrived on the opening into the lake. There we noticed our first moose — a cow standing belly-deep in rushes.

“We had no real interest in her. We’d agreed we’d take nothing however a trophy bull, even when we needed to come again for the December half of the season. We paddled out into the lake and camped that first evening on an island close to the mouth of Hog Creek.”

The subsequent day was opening day, so the group paddled canoes across the shores of Perent Lake searching for moose.

Within the late afternoon they discovered one other celebration of moose hunters in camp on the north shore of the lake. One member of that celebration had shot a fair-size bull in a bathroom again of the lake.

The celebration was breaking camp to maneuver out.

“I didn’t envy them,” Dennis informed me. “They’d are available by boat with a 10-horsepower motor and had portaged round all of the beaver dams in Hog Creek — dams we had simply shoved our canoes over. That they had two tents and a really elaborate outfit.”

Earlier than darkish Weestrand’s celebration scout­ ed a number of of the logging trails behind their campsite. The subsequent morning they’d breakfast earlier than daylight, put some salami sandwiches and chocolate bars into their pockets, and set out for the day. Every man took a unique logging highway into the wilderness north of their camp.

The group met for lunch after which went out once more within the afternoon. Norm Severson and Weestrand took up stands on stacks of pulpwood. Lastly Wee­ strand determined to hike down a path.

“Then I noticed this fellow in a crimson vest strolling via heavy balsam and as­ pen woods,” he recollects. “He seemed like my brother Kenny. I received nervous be­ trigger Kenny was speculated to be down close to our camp. I informed Norm I’d examine the hunter out and see what was occurring.

“I went over there and acknowledged one of many hunters we had met on the elaborate camp. He was mountain climbing out to his car, and he had a lot moose meat in a packsack that he couldn’t go any farther. He was ready for one in all his associates to catch up and assist him.

“I talked with him some time,” Wee­ strand informed me, “after which went off the path and climbed a hill. Once I topped out, I noticed a cow moose feeding under me. Then one thing occurred that actually threw me. I may hardly consider it after I noticed a automobile coming towards me alongside an previous logging path. A recreation warden received out of the car, seemed on the cow, and requested why I didn’t shoot her. I informed him I didn’t need a moose with out antlers.

“Effectively, the warden went over to his automobile, turned on his radio, and talked with one other warden who was up above in an airplane. Then he drove off alongside the path that seemed tough sufficient to shake his automobile aside. It actually upset me to know {that a} automobile may get into that wild nation. I didn’t study until later that recreation wardens and different officers had authority to drive alongside some logging roads and trails which can be closed to the general public.

“I sat down and watched the cow for some time. Then I heard a commotion ap­proaching in close by thickets. I stared till my eyes felt able to fall out of their sockets. About 100 yards away, I noticed a moose antler shifting in a thick stand of balsams. I may see just one antler. It saved arising and down. ‘That bull has just one antler’, I mentioned to myself. I wasn’t going to shoot a freak.

“I saved on staring on the unusual sight. All of a sudden the opposite antler got here into view. I waited to see if the bull would come any nearer as a result of I needed a transparent shot. The wind was proper, from him to me. He saved fussing round within the thickets, and I figured if I waited for much longer, I wouldn’t be capable to see him in any respect.

“I raised my rifle and located his antlers in my 4-to-9x scope. With the scope, I may dimly make out the place his neck was, and I squeezed off a 220-grain load from my .30/06 bolt-action Winchester. “The shot sounded very loud within the stillness. The moose merely sank down out of sight. Then I heard him take a pair jumps into the bush, and each­ factor was quiet once more until Norm got here dashing up.”

Each hunters went into the thicket and located the bull stone-dead with a bul­let gap via neck and throat. They gutted him out and propped him on the facet of just a little rise so the blood would drain. Then they lower off a giant slice of neck meat and started an hour’s hike again to camp. Everyone within the group agreed later that nothing had ever tasted higher than their night meal of fried moose meat.

ext morning they broke camp be­ trigger the useless bull was nearer the autos than it was to their campsite. They took their two canoes and went again up Hog Creek to the pickup truck and jeep. Then they drove to the Kawi­shiwi Lake campgrounds and hiked down a logging path to their moose. A group of game-department discipline males was already on the web site, taking their samples for the departmental survey.

The hunters realized that somebody was logging within the neighborhood. They walked to the logging web site and requested the motive force of a log loader if he would pull their moose out for them along with his machine.

There was some hesitation due to restrictions on motorized journey within the Boundary Water Canoe Space, however the man agreed to do the job after the state discipline males assured him the carcass was simply exterior the world’s boundary.

“The loading arm of that vast ma­chine picked up our moose by the neck and lifted it 9 ft into the air,” Weestrand informed me. “About 1,000 kilos appeared like nothing. However when the loading arm was raised as excessive as it will go, the animal’s hind legs had been nonetheless dragging on the bottom. We needed to battle to get the legs into the pickup first. A logging chain and 4 pairs of robust arms achieved that process.

“We noticed seven moose throughout our three days within the bush. Six of them had been cows or yearling bulls nonetheless with their moms. We didn’t need any of them. The seventh one was the bull I shot.”

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What’s subsequent for Minnesota moose? “We’re going to ask the legislature for authority to have one other season in 1973,” mentioned Dave Vesall, assistant direc­tor of the Minnesota Division of Sport and Fish. “We’d ask for a season in ’72 besides that the state legislature meets solely as soon as each two years. They gained’t meet once more until 1973.

“Subsequent time we’ll ask authority to have a moose season yearly till our herd is introduced into stability with the holding capability of accessible habitat.”