Bucky and his Newfoundland moose.

Hunter: Bucky Beckham
Cameraman: Lonnie Turnbeaugh

Here I am 35,000 feet in the air on one of many connecting flights somewhere between Newfoundland and Kansas City. Lonnie and I are heading home from what we both agreed was the most incredible hunt/experience we have ever had the privilege to be on.

This whole adventure started clear back in March when we were at Ralph Cianciarulo’s house building sets for upcoming TV shows. Ralph asked us what our dream hunt was and I quickly said MOOSE!! He said your dream is about to become reality. The two of you are going to Newfoundland with Bob Efford of Effords Hunting Adventures. The excitement was so overwhelming, I could hardly believe it. Not only was I going on a hunt that’s been a dream of mine since I was a kid, but I get to share the experience with one of my best friends.

Of course, as soon as we got home, the two of us were researching the outfitter and the quality of the animals he has to offer. At this time, we both thought we were shooting one moose a piece and one black bear. The day before we left, I was talking to Bob and I was informed we had only one moose tag and one bear tag, but Bob had decided to allow us to kill a woodland caribou also. WOW!! Well after several discussions we decided Lonnie would shoot the caribou and bear and I would shoot the moose.

October 17, 2009 found us on our way to the moose and woodland caribou capital of the world. Newfoundland has the highest density of moose in the world. And on top of that, Effords Hunting Adventure holds more records for the woodland caribou than any other outfitter I know of. It sounded to me like this is a hunt of a lifetime, and that’s just what it was.

The hunt was six days long, but because of terrible fog, the first three days were a loss due to not being able to fly in the float plane safely to the individual spike camps. With only three days remaining and three animals to harvest we were slightly concerned about our odds. Our first destination was the trophy moose camp. There, we were told the odds of harvesting a big bull or a bear were very high. Lonnie shot his bear the very first evening, but he’ll tell you that story. So I’ll fast forward to the next morning.

We woke up right before daylight and after a good breakfast, we went outside to start glassing for moose RIGHT FROM CAMP! It didn’t take long to spot four of them across the lake. They were probably 2 or 3 miles away so we jumped in the boat to get a closer look. We caught up to the small herd 2 miles from where we left the boat. Glen, our guide, took one look at the bull and said he’s got big long fronts, and long paddles, he’s definitely a shooter.

The only problem was, the bull was already heading into this large clump of dense forest to bed down for the day with one of the cows. The bull slowly disappeared and my heart sunk. After 30 minutes of standing there hoping he would pop out, we decided we better make a move if we want to lay this giant on the ground. We decided our best move would be to circle the large clump of fir trees and see if we could spot him from up on top. Three quarters of a mile later, we were on top and spotted a cow laying down chewing her cud. Glen spoke up and said, “He’s got to be here somewhere, we should just be patient and wait.” (Just a little side note: the word patient comes from a Greek root word that means "to suffer.") And suffer we did, the bull finally appeared and before we could get both the gun and camera on him, he beds down next to the cow.

I looked back at our guide Glen and asked, “Are you sure he’s a shooter?” and without hesitation, he said, “Absolutely.” So the wait began... four hours of it. The cow finally stood up and began to walk to our left and the big bull followed. I waited for the ‘ok’ from Lonnie, and when I got it, I squeezed the trigger and the gun didn’t fire. Now he’s already through the first of two shooting lanes and I’ve got to decide whether to reload or recock it, and try again. Lonnie made the decision for me as he softly said, “Cock the gun again and take him.” So I did just that! When the bull entered the last clearing, I shot.

Now I must admit, I had no clue where, or even if I had hit him. Glen and Lonnie were confident it was good because of the bull’s reaction after the gun went off. So we reviewed the footage and decided it looked good. Fifteen minutes later, I had my hands on a childhood dream—a giant Newfoundland bull moose. As we were filming the recovery, I had all these things I wanted to say but couldn’t. The emotions were so overwhelming I couldn’t even gather my thoughts. I looked to the heavens right then and there, thanked the Lord, and began to cry.

I can’t thank or say enough about Bob Efford and his fantastic outfitting business. It was by far the most awesome experience I’ve ever had in Gods great outdoors. The land in which he hunts is filled with world class opportunities and animals, and his guides are definitely top notch.

Thank you so much Ralph, Vicki, Bob Efford, Lonnie, and our new friend Glen (our incredible guide.) Without you guys, my dream to kill a moose would be just that, still a dream.