We left here at 8:00pm on Monday the 29th and drove all night, got to our camp site at around 3:30am and set up camp then went scouting and before you give me grief over the methods we used to hunt, remember that I was not the tag holder and we did it his way which was the same way as everyone else on the mountain !!
Daylight rolls around and we go to an access point I received from another fellow member on here and ran into a woman at the gate that was there to check permits and basically tell you everything else about her life and her other family members lives and all her hunting trips and politics and raising kids and blah blah blah blah for at least a half an hour
so we finally just had to say shut the hell up we need to get going holy crap she must have not had anyone to talk to for years and now we were going to get it all !!
Anyhow that access was not where we wanted to hunt so later in the morning we ended up at the Starr road access where there were several trucks already towing trailers with quads so we unloaded ours and drove up the road, we only had one quad and 3 of us to ride so you can imagine what that looked like, anyhow we did not see any moose the whole day and finally decided to head back cause our eyes were burning from being up for so long and the heat of the day and dust really sucked.
Back to camp and had a bite to eat and hear the weather forcast "Record heat wave" was what we heard so that was a bit depressing along with not seeing any moose all day, so we crashed and were back up at 3:30 to get to the gate before the crowds had a bite and off we went, We found a likely road to be on at first light and got to it and stopped to wait so we could see before we went any further and several other folks on quads just passed us right up and come to find out these were all folks hunting on just one tag, there were about 5 or 6 quads sent out on different roads to scout for just one guy with a tag and they would just radio to him when they spotted one and there were at least two or three groups of these posse's so that is what we had to deal with.
So we dodged quads for a couple hours and finally Chris_D finally spots a moose but it is like a mile away and down some other road so of we go, finally find the road it was by and stopped the quad to investigate and heard it in the brush just off the road, well it never came out and mu buddy with the tag decided to climb into the brush to look for it and came upon an old skid road so was able to be semi quiet, and he got in there about 40-50 yds or so he heard the tell tale "wWWAaa" and it was very close and just then 2 bulls stood up not more then 30 yds away from him in this little opening and the bigger one (less than 40") came walking towards him and was doing the "GET THE F@#$ OUTTA MY WOODS" swaying his head back and forth showing off his awesome rack and my buddy by now is just shaking and almost crapping his pants and just as he decided he may have to shoot this thing coming at him the bull stops at 10 feet and turns broadside.
Earlier this year we had decided if we had the chance he would take his bow and shoot one with that but after all the moose we were seeing (none) and 3 guys on the quad and all our gear and everything else he just gave up on the idea of carrying his bow and even some of the other hunters I talked to said that if you cannot find one standing right in the road don't shoot, I guess it is pretty common for them to be in the road over there, anyway so he is *censored*ting his pants at this point and the bull looks back over at the other smaller bull and then back at my buddy and just walks off doing his call "wWWAAaa""wWWAAaa". So my buddy comes out of the woods shaking like a leaf and eyeballs popping outta his head totally excited at this point and amped to the max is ready to go look for another. BTW we gathered that the cow that was with the two bulls had scooted off through the canyon and we never even saw her.
We hunted (drove around) till around 1:00 then back to the truck for lunch and by now it was 85 degrees and crystal clear skies and no sign of cooling down so we just hung out at the truck for a while and headed back up the mountain close to 3:00 and found a cooler spot on the trees on an old skid road and just sat down to wait out the heat, the forcast called for over cast skies and some spotty rain for Thursday so we felt that maybe then would be our best bet to find one.
I guess we finally got motivated around 4:30 or so and motored around some more and finally at about 6:00pm spotted another moose and *censored* if it wasn't another bull so off we went and wait there is another, and it seemed they were coming out of the wood work cause our radios were on the same frequency as some of these other folks and all we heard was "I found one over here for you to look at" or "Here is another bull" and so on but we spotted a couple more small bulls (under 40") and finally driving back outta there as it was getting dark and there was only about 1/2 hour of shooting hours left and Chris_D on my left hand side spotted a cow at 80 or so yds so we came to a stop and my buddy quickly looked it over and decided it was the one he wanted so looking around in the immediate area for a rest came up empty and the cow was getting nervous and started walking of so I said to put the gun on my shoulder and shoot, I plugged my ear and "BANG", I opened my eyes and the thing disappeared, dropped in it's tracks with one shot to the head.
Now it was about 6:40 and getting dark fast so we climbed up the hill and tagged her took a few pictures and I went back to the truck for the rope and pack boards and other stuff while Chris_D and Dave gutted the moose, when I got back we just backed up the quad to her and drug her to the road and layed out a tarp and cut her in half and I made several trips back down to the truck with parts and gear and hunters and after getting back to camp and hanging her and skinning and cleaning and quartering and putting in bags ect.. it was 4:30am and were were spent so we caught a couple hours of sleep and at 8:00am got up and broke down camp and started out 7 hour journey home.
Here is a picture, I blocked his face cause I don't have his permission to post his face online sorry !!
