Who has hunted there and what species? I'm planning on a moose/ bear combo in 2020. Any recommended guides for trophy moose and bear? Also, what are the requirements for crossing into Canada with firearms and Identification? Thanks for your help. Sarge

http://www.ihea-usa.org/index.php/h...ments/state-provincial-information?go=nf

They might know transportation laws and anything needed.

Good luck on your hunt.

An enhanced drivers license or passport, passport is best. The drivers license only applies if you are driving, no good if flying. Yes you need to have a filled out form defining you firearms. They can be downloaded from the US and/or the Canadian Customs web sights. I don't remember if there is a fee. Make sure they are unloaded and cased. Do not open the case until you are in the customs office and asked to do so. NO HANDGUNS, they are not allowed. If you have a DWI on your record you will not be allowed to enter Canada. It's been almost twenty years since I have traveled in or through Canada to hunt or compete in Sporting Clays tournaments. I don't imagine the regulations have gotten any easier to deal with.

My son and two of his buddies are also going to Newfoundland for moose and bear in 2020. I don't remember the outfitters name. My son is also looking forward to taking some ptarmigan. They will be using a couple 300 WM, a 30-06, a shotgun, and a 45-70 for backup.

I know a guy that went with Ironbound outfitters last year for Moose. Him and his brother both got Mid 30” bulls and he also got a bear.

https://newfoundlandmoose.com

I might go in 2021

Hello Paul, thanks for the info. If and when you can. PM me with the the outfitters name, I will check them. I believe to hunt moose and bear at the same time,moose with rifle and bear with archery. I don't understand that, but that I believe is what I read
I plan on taking my moose with my .308 hanloaded with Nosler Partition 165 grain.
I would like to take a bear with my 50 cal muzzleloader, but may have to do that some other time. Sarge

Hello, garlic, I checked them.some nice bulls taken. The price is about right for combo hunt. I'm looking for at least a 48 inch or bigger bull with good palmmation. A bear in the 250 to 350 pound range. I prefer blond phase but will settle for black. Thanks, Sarge

Me and 3 buddies are going to Portland Creek outfitters in 2020. I am taking the Browning 28 Nosler with hand loaded 175 grain partition.

I've gone the last three years with Moose Creek Lodge, the rut in September is like no other. Bulls everywhere. I highly recommend them for moose and bear. They have a beautiful camp as well. Rob is a top notch guy. And that 308 with a partition will do the trick, the smoke pole on the other hand is iffy. I'm not saying you cant kill a bear with it because i have myself, but Newfoundland is very humid and rains all the time.

You can shoot moose and bear with a rifle. If flying black powder is a no. Have to see if your outfitter can get some for you. Go during the rut. Don't let them talk you into anything else. Plan on delays if flying. Customs at Toronto made sure we missed our flight going up. Not just us but every hunter I talked to missed their flights.
http://www.oceansidecountrylodge.com/index.html.

A couple of co-worker of mine went with "something Mountain" last year. Said it was beautiful county, but be prepared to walk a lot on a wet sponge and rocks. Argo ride was 6-8 hrs from landing strip, lodging was primitive. Both were successful.

I want to thank everyone who chimed in. Never knew so many have went or are going. If bear hunting duringn moose is archery or rifle. Then I will use the .308.
I have been applying for a Maine moose permit for nearly 25 years with no luck. Need to get it done, life is not getting any longer..

What size bulls on average to be encountered? I'm wanting at least a 48 inch with good palms.

I will be driving into Canada, so no airport issues. I plan on at least a 12 day trip. Plus heading over to the coast of Maine to pick up a few bugs and clams hopefully. The F150 will hopefully be riding low all the way back to South carolina with moose, bear, lobster, clams and maybe a few fish. After all, it will be a once in lifetime trip. Sarge

Don't hurt to want a 48" moose. But sometimes you have to lower your standards to up your average. Maybe that was for women. I forget a lot in my golden years.

SGT, I may be wrong but I think your quest for a "48 bull and blond bear are not very good in Newfoundland!

Your chances of shooting a 48 inch bull or bigger in Newfoundland are very slim. They are the there, but rare. I have been going over from Nova Scotia just about every year to hunt and guide some too since 2002. I have seen many hunters come looking for a big bull, pass up decent ones and then go home disappointed with tag soup on the menu! Decent to me is anything with antlers!

The TV shows make it look easy, but the weather and conditions can make hunting really tough. You only get 4 and a half days normally to hunt, so my advice is to take the first bull that comes along if you have a bull tag. I went two different weeks last year and both weeks it rained and was foggy the whole time. The second trip was the last week of October and it snowed hard for 2 days, then it rained so hard we couldn't go anywhere. We persevered and got very lucky and filled our tags, but it was with small bulls and cows on the either sex licenses.

I think the combo hunts are an awful lot of money when you will likely spend all week looking for a moose. Most of the outfitters I know don't put a lot of effort into baiting the bears. I'd recommend you focus on the moose and try a spring hunt in New Brunswick for bears.

Do your homework and talk to actual people who have hunted with the outfitter. There is lots of baloney out there! If driving, try and get something fairly close to the boat in port aux basques and make sure you know how you are going to get your meat home without spoiling.

Good luck.

Correct 48"+ tall order most times. There was at least one exception with a back country helicopter transport hunt a number of years ago but you are talking more $'s with the helicopter transport. That hunt was in western NF and hunted remote mountain country. Quickest way to find out who offers those hunts is to call the helicopter companies all out of Pasadena, NF. There are 3: Universal, Canadian and Newfoundland Helicopters.

No blond bears in NF and I seriously doubt no more than nil east of Manitoba. We have the very odd reddish/brown bear here but not more than 1% of our bears.

Our Outfitter told us that Bear are harder to hunt. Said the best thing to do is shoot your Moose then hunt the gut pile the rest of the week for a Bear.

Don’t give up on the Maine moose that is where you will have a good chance at a 48”+. I drew in 2010 and it was a great hunt. I ended up taking a 45” bull the last day, but saw several bulls. I will continue to apply for Maine until I die it was the best week of hunting I have ever experienced and I have been blessed to have chased a lot of critters across the country. Maine has some good bears too, just not color phase. I bear hunted there in 2008 and 2009. I will probably go back in a few years.

I’ve hunted there 10 times. Killed 9 bulls, 4 caribou, 1 bear. Haven’t been there since 2014....going back this fall. We’ve been hunting late...this year we start on Nov. 11th. Seems like we are the only ones lelft hunting that time of year. I enjoy hunting in the snow + cold weather. Your hunting day however is a couple hours shorter than hunting in mid September. I’ve always hunted with Red Indian Lake. Buchans and Gaff/ Topsail zones. We have flown up 9 times, drove once. Never will I drive there again. Flying this year.

Why didn't you like driving there?

It s a 33 hour drive, including 8 hour ferry ride. Ferry costs $500 round trip for my truck and passengers. Sometimes high seas causes the ferry run to cancel. Burn about $ 700 in gas, not figuring wear and tear on truck. Stop at a hotel, pay for lodginging there ( both ways ) I can drive to Toronto (5 hours ) and get a direct flight into Deer Lake, NF for about $300. I can freight back meat/ antlers using Central Newfoundland Trucking for about $500.

The biggest thing isn’t the money, it’s getting your body beat up traveling that far. I’m retired, but if you were working you would lose 4 days of work traveling.. We finish up hunting, get a 7 AM flight at Deer Lake the next morning, and I’m back home in Pa by 2 PM. ( there’s a 1.5 hour time difference, gaining on way home ‘

Went last year with high hopes such as yours. Let me tell you right away, if it's 48" and blond bears, just stay home. The "big" bull pics on all the outfitter's web sites are very very far and few between. They'll all promise you that they are there, which for a lucky few they are but the reality is that most people end up shooting very small bulls or settle for a large cow for meat. I don't fly, anywhere, so I drove and it's part of the adventure for us. Do your research on the meat processor your outfitter will have you to use. I was told that our meat would be ready to go in time for us to catch the scheduled ferry crossing. My wife killed on day one, I killed on the last day. NONE of the meat was frozen and mine wasn't finished when we stopped to pick it up on the way to catch our ferry. They charged $6 per box to put the meat in which I had to rip apart and throw away so that the meat would fit into my coolers. We find hair in nearly every pack we thaw to eat. All for a ridiculous price to process. I will certainly process my own if I ever go again. Anyone who does their own deer shouldn't be intimidated to do a moose, just takes a lil longer. You also don't need a box truck to get the meat back home as everyone seems to claim. We had no problem getting 2 moose in 3 large coolers. Of course, that could've been in part due to the shady processor too. Exchange enough money to tip your guide in Canadian. Don't get caught up in the hype of 'big bad tough animals'. We shot ours with 270 wsm and mine went about 20 steps and fell over dead. My wife's went about 50 yards. You don't need a cannon to take them down. I personally 2nd the tip to forget about the bear and concentrate only on the moose if it is your once in a lifetime hunt. I saw a couple bear there that I could have easily taken but had no interest to pay that much to shoot one of the nasty critters that I can shoot off the porch of my cabin at home. If you're going in 2020 for sure, reserve your "cabin" on the ferry now or you will not get one if you wait any longer. They fill up fast and are pricey but worth it if you want some sleep on the over night float.

Smart choice,Bigbrownie.The older I get the less I want to drive long distances.

In the 10 trips I made, we went 33 for 36. We only killed bulls, never shot anything smaller than 8 point bull. The largest bull was 50.25 inches, we got 1/2 dozen in the mid to high 40s. The three tags we didn’t fill, we could of had shooting at smaller moose, we were only looking for slabs. Most bull moose where we hunt are between 36”-42”.

In an average week of hunting, we normally see about 30 moose. The best week we had we saw 58, of which 23 were bulls.

In 2013, I hunted with a friend of my son, he was a youngster in his 20s, never had been on an outfitted hunt. First morning, we had 3 bull within easy stalk range. Much to my surprise, he passed on them. I was stunned, being that the biggest was a respectable 10 point. They next morning we came upon a dandy 18 point- 48 incher that he was able to kill. I shot a good 14 point on Thursday of the week. Reinforced the theory that you won’t kill a big one if you shoot the first little one you see. We never get an either sex tag.

Caribou hunting is now priced out of my league. Woodland caribou allocations are now under 1000 ( Newfoundland is the only place in the world you can hunt woodland caribou). Many outfitters are getting $10,000- $15,000 for a caribou hunt today.

I’ve never heard of color phase bears in NL, I don’t think they have any. On years when there is a good blueberry crop, bears will be out all day, feeding in the open berry flats. They don’t seem as wary as the bears we have at home.

We always use Ricks Meat in Buchans to cut and wrap. They do a great job, vacuum seal also. They coordinate with the trucking company to ship the meat back to the states. I pick up in Camton, Ohio....everything is always in great shape.

Also looking into a Newfoundland moose hunt and done a decent amount of research. For those who have been there - do you generally have a better chance at a decent bull (not looking for a monster but something representative of the species) if you go to a fly-in only type outpost camp versus a drive-to camp? I realize that is a more expensive hunt and never a sure thing - however probably only going to do this once and want to put the odds in our favor if possible. Thanks in advance for any info.

I can’t speak first hand about fly in camps, as I never personally did one of those hunts. I do know some outfitters who were doing them ( helicopter ), they’re charging much more for those hunts as some are paying as much as $1800 CAD an hour for helicopter flights. The pics I’ve seen of moose coming out of those areas didn’t impress me as being better than bulls we hunted by Argos.

I mounted more Newfie Moose than ones from any other area. I know groups that went there repeatedly. I never saw a 48" bull taken by any of these folks. I also never heard of a color phase bear seen there. Color phase bear are rare as hen's teeth unless you get a bit west of the Great Lakes. I have seen exactly one cinnamon colored Black here at home in my entire life, and I've hunted them since the mid 70's, and handled hundreds of bear in my taxidermy studio. Colored bear will be even more unusual in Newfoundland. Those Outfitter websites are deceiving. They always show the whoppers taken, even if it was way bigger than their average bull. Most of the Newfie bulls I mounted would be considered eating sized meat bulls most places. All that being said, I would jump at a chance to hunt Moose there, but I have always been a meat hunter that would gladly tag about any just-legal beast I'd see on opening day! Good luck SGT. I'll cross my fingers for you and your hunting pals!

If you all consider a 48 " a big one ?

been there 4 years ago in central Newfy. You Best go far west on the island to more remote locations, or your gonna get a meat bull on average or 30"inches best
i went with Central Outfitters.Not a lot to pick from when we was there.it was hot though and the super moon was also going.
the bear hunting was dismal and baiting was not as far as i was concerned done hardly at all. not one bear was shot with 6 hunters. i chose no bear for 500 bucks.
you want a bear and color phase to boot. Try Alberta.
you want a big moose ..upper BC or Yukon.

Myself and three friends hunted Newfoundland two years ago. We all killed bulls two with bow. The biggest was 33" the rest were
4 or 6 points You can try for a 48" bull but chances are slim I did see one large bull during the week but he was far far away
shot my bull the last morning. No bear seen by any of us throughout the week. It is a great place to hunt and I hope to get back there
again. Your hunt for a 48" bull in Newfoundland is ambitious the smaller ones a great eating Have fun

Thanks for all the info. Looks like I will be skipping Newfoundland. Heart set on a 45 or better bull. Once in a lifetime hunt. Thanks again, Sarge

I’m going with my uncle to hunt with Matt Romkey from gander river outfitters this October, I’ve met him twice and each time he seemed like a very outgoing stand up guy, he had a 100% success rate last year and was on the show “Canada in the rough”. His bulls aren’t huge but average for Newfoundland. Looking forward to the hunting and the salmon fishing.

Sarge, if you are interested in a color phase bear you should consider a spring hunt in northern Idaho. Many of the northern hunt units have reduced price tags ($42) sold over the counter and allow 2 tags/hunter. A buddy and I went this past spring and had a blast. We brought home 2 cinnamon and one black and my buddy took his on day one and didn't hunt the other 4 days. Another forum member recommended the outfitter and we were VERY happy with his recommendation. It is definitely a bit of a drive (5520 round trip miles for me) but there is also plenty to see along the way. I would go again in a heartbeat.

PM sent