Geist gets close-up experience with moose in her first-ever hunt

By Ginna Young

Courier Sentinel

Even though she lives in an area that essentially shuts down during deer season, Holcombe resident Tracy Geist had never hunted until this fall. However, she didn’t bother trying for a 30-point buck, instead, Tracy headed to Canada, with her husband, Terry, for an unforgettable moose hunt. This is the third year the couple has made the trek to Buck Stop Guiding and Outfitting in Fort Assiniboine, Alberta, Canada, a very rural part of that area. The couple’s annual getaway began for their 25th anniversary, when they wanted to try something different, something they’d never done before.

Terry hunts the moose with a bow, but has yet to harvest one of the elusive animals.

“So, then I was like, maybe I should just go and show you how to do it,” joked Tracy.

This year, the outfitter bought another outfitter’s tags and had an extra one, which Tracy claimed, happy to come by a rare tag.

“I think he turns away about 40 people a year,” said Tracy.

In the first day out of the Oct. 1-8 adventure, Tracy, her hunting partner and the guide, didn’t see or hear any moose, but spotted tracks and places where the massive animals laid down. Tracy’s hunting partner did shoot a black bear on that first day out, which was a little jarring for Tracy, as it was the first time she’d witnessed an animal being killed.

“So, then I didn’t know if I could do it,” said Tracy.

Despite that, Tracy teasingly stated she was going to get her moose the next day. When the next day came, it was a pretty quiet morning, and as the day wore on, Tracy and her hunting partner were ready to go back to the lodge house, but their guide decided to go down a cut-

See MOOSE HUNT on page 11 Moose hunt

Continued from page 10

off road. He put Tracy on a hill above him on a small moss patch with her gun and her hunting partner a short distance away, while he sent out some calls.

To keep herself occupied, Tracy played around with the tripod and scope, trying to get a feel for the potential shot.

“I’d never shot a gun until July 31,” she said.

She wasn’t having much luck, as the brush and trees were very grown up around her, but all at once, she heard the moose calling, answering what he thought was a rival bull’s calls to a female. Tracy put the shell in the 270 rifle and went over in her mind what Terry told her about preparing for the shot. Meanwhile, the bull’s calls got louder and louder, until he finally appeared, coming up the hill on the right side, before crossing over.

By this point, Tracy’s hunting partner had made his way over to where she stood.

“I think that’s where all my courage came from,” said Tracy. “Actually hearing the animal come in was probably the most exciting part of it.”

Because her scope was too powerful and the moose was too close, all Tracy could see was brown, so she turned the gun in another direction, hoping for a better view, all the while, looking through the scope.

“The other guy just kept saying, ‘Shoot, Tracy, shoot,’” said Tracy, adding that she finally looked up from the scope. “Here, I was only like 8.5 feet to 10 feet from the moose.”

Having never hunted before, Tracy didn’t realize she could forget the scope, and just aim and shoot at her target. Unbeknownst to her, the guide was laying on the ground scraping to attract the bull and when the moose came up hill, the guide dove off the bank, because he would have been trampled by the massive animal. Meanwhile, Tracy’s hunting partner was going crazy.

“He was like, ‘Just shoot,’” said Tracy. “So, I just shot.”

The short shot was a killing one, but the moose was found right away, dead in a beaver pond. Then came the task of removing the dead animal from the water, which was no easy task, as it was hung up on branches and required hours of work.

“For that, it was the longest recovery they ever had,” said Tracy.

Because that area is grizzly country, eventually, the guides and Terry took a chain saw to quarter it out, before a bear decided the kill was theirs. Tracy says that day, conditions were just right for the hunt, as it had been too hot the week before, causing the moose to not come out until night. Sometimes, that area will have three feet of snow on the ground in October.

The bull wasn’t as large as others, so Tracy just brought home the antlers from the hunt, but did have the meat processed at a place 20 miles from the outfitters. Treating the moose just like beef, they ended up with hamburger, roasts and steaks. When Tracy

and Terry returned home, they fixed a roast of moose and one of beef, with no one the wiser of which was which.

“The moose was better,” said Tracy. “The moose was more moist.”

She would like to try for a bigger one down the road, but now really wants to go back and shoot a bear. In the end, what matters most are the memories she has and the stories to tell, about her first hunt’s success and how she predicted she’d get her moose the second day in.

“I out-hunted all the guys at camp,” she said.