For Brandon Goshorn and father, Frank, it was a 37-hour journey to hunt moose with Lake Douglas Outfitters in Millertown, Newfoundland, thanks to travel complications blown in by Hurricane Larry.
Brandon is 39 and a probation supervisor in Franklin County. He has hunted on the family farm since he was 12, and gone after turkey, bear and deer in Penn’s Woods.
He’s also come home empty-handed after trips to Colorado for elk, and Illinois for whitetails.
Hoping to change his luck in Newfoundland, he saw several caribou, a black bear, lynx and two moose up until the last day there, Friday, Sept. 13. Moose movement seemed to be hung-up by warm weather. Temperatures were upper 50s to low 60s.
Brandon, his guide Justin Pardy, and another guide spotted a small bull momentarily that morning and they then pushed further into the bog.
While watching caribou, another bull caught their eyes at the woods edge 1,000 yards away before it disappeared. Pardy’s grunt calling and scraping the ground to simulate a bull raking drew the real bull back into the picture.
Hunter and guides began to close the gap between them and the moose, sneaking to edge of the pond that was between them.
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The curious, interested or agitated bull himself began raking and shredding small trees, tossing them into the air with his antlers. When the moose slipped behind a small patch of trees, the hunters moved closer.
Still intrigued by the potential intruder, the bull moose stuck his head out of the patch of trees from time to time to check the commotion.
The bull turned to head toward the woods, and Brandon moved in again.
Brandon’s luck turned with the bull when it started walking in their direction, toward the continued calling and scraping. Brandon found a small tree and used it to hide his silhouette as the moose walked out of a smaller batch of trees.
They were at 150 yards and the bull was looking directly at them.
The hunter watched the moose in the scope of his Remington 700 and when the bull turned, with crosshairs behind the front shoulder, Brandon hurled a 7mm mag.
The bull ran and two more shots rang out.
Estimated live weight of the bull was 1,000 pounds. Brandon took about 500 pounds of meat home.
“With it being the last day of the hunt, I was starting to get the feeling it would end like my previous two hunts outside of Pennsylvania (unsuccessfully). We field dressed the moose and loaded it into the back of an Argo to get it out of the bog.”
He says he can still see the bull getting closer and closer, raking trees, looking for a fight.
Purple equals no trespassing
Trees filter and absorb polluted runoff, reduce sediment and provide cooling shade to lower water temperatures.
Chip Brown is a landowner and hunter who planted trees to save the deer on his property in Centre County. Chip’s neighbors were shooting across the creek and killing deer on his property. Then, of course, they were trespassing to recover the deer.
“I’m almost there where you cannot see onto my land from the adjoining neighbor’s land,” Chip said.
By now, he has sycamores 6 inches in diameter and oak trees 12 to 15 feet tall that make a screen.
Sad that Chip had to resort to it to cut crime, but planting the trees also elevated the quality of Elk Creek. He is seeing more and larger trout in there now.
“Every time I get my state rep.’s ear, I say, ‘You did the purple paint thing, but you didn’t really address trespass in Pennsylvania the way it needs to be addressed’,” Chip said.
A change in the Crimes Code in 2020 gave landowners the option of using purple paint, rather than signs, to post their properties and alert others the land is private, and entry is not permitted.
The Pennsylvania Game Commission also has the authority to investigate trespassing complaints and enforce trespassing violations as a primary offense, even if game-law violations aren’t alleged.
“People have this impression that, ‘If I’m on my land and I see a deer over on your land I can shoot it and then come over and get it,” Chip Brown said of his own experience.
“The law has to be written very clearly that you cannot cast a bullet at game onto land that you do not have legal permission to hunt on,” he added. “It has to be that clear, as it is in the western states. You can be walking down a fence line and don’t shoot that big buck on the other side because if you don’t have legal permission, you are not going over to get it. But here, people think, ‘I’m on my land, it’s OK for me to shoot onto my neighbor’s’.”
What makes a person think that shooting onto someone else’s property nullifies the trespassing law?
The mandatory cold weather life jacket requirement is in effect. Anyone on boats under 16 feet in length, including all canoes, kayaks and paddleboards, must wear a life jacket.
It’s official. There will be a single, statewide Opening Day of trout season. Mark your future calendars for the first Saturdays in April. The next statewide Mentored Youth trout day will be Saturday, March 26, 2022. The next statewide Opening Day of trout season will be Saturday, April 2, 2022.
Applications for the 27th Annual Rivers Conservation and Fly Fishing Youth Camp are being accepted. The camp, sponsored by the Cumberland Valley Chapter of Trout Unlimited, will be at Messiah University in Grantham, June 19-24, 2022. For more information, a camp brochure or to apply, visit the camp website at www.riverscamp.com.
If you get your first buck during the firearms season, consider sending a photo and details to my email. Be safe.
Send your wild thoughts and photos to bjsmall@comcast.net.
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