The kids missed out on trick or treating on Halloween, but they had their sights on a bigger goal than a pumpkin-shaped bucket full of candy — a cow moose.
And unlike the year before when they came home empty-handed, the Turner family moose hunt was a happy one, thanks to some generous Jackman residents.
Frank Turner, along with his three children Aryanna, 17, Logan, 14, and Ryleigh, 11, set up their camper at a site on the Moose River Road the weekend before the cow moose hunt began.
The family scouted hard all weekend and finally saw one moose around 3 p.m. Sunday. The third week of moose hunting, which was for cows only, would begin the next day.
Having the area all scoped out, they returned early Monday morning, but trucks were lined up to go into that spot, Frank Turner said.
They saw no moose on either Tuesday or Wednesday, and a few far away early Thursday.
Later in the day Thursday, the Turners stopped to talk with a couple who knew the area well, had already killed their moose and wanted to help the family.
The couple, Ken and Tammy Frost, plus Ken’s brother Danny, all of Jackman, were driving in a truck with a platform on it that could be used to scout for moose.They used it to help the Turners look for moose in the multiple choppings, but no more were found Thursday.
And it was 72 degrees.
Finally, at 7:35 a.m. Friday, they saw a moose. Logan was the permit holder, with his father as subpermittee, and the pair killed the animal. It weighed 561 pounds.
The Frosts helped the Turners drag the moose out, transport it to a tagging station, then to the butcher. They also brought the kids candy on Halloween evening because they had missed trick or treating.
Amanda Turner, who missed the whole experience because she had to stay home with the family’s dogs, said Logan called her Friday morning to say they had shot a moose.
“I thought he was joking,” she said.
Amanda was drawn in the moose lottery last year but she didn’t kill a moose.
“Knowing that he had that experience and got his moose was special,” she said.
The family also did some upland bird hunting and Logan and Ryleigh killed their first partridges during the trip.
The Turners will have a European mount of the moose skull done for Logan.
Logan has shot a bear, deer, turkey, grouse and now a moose, but not all in the same year, Amanda said.
Frank said that besides meeting their new friends the Frosts, the best part of the trip was spending the week with his children.
