Pumpkin's Moose Hunt(IT WAS A OIL HUNT!!!!)

[finnman]

Sept. 29th we arrive at the designated base camp, we quickly check out the property for moose sign, none. We did see some elk and deer sign though. We take our time setting up our wall tent and porch getting camp prepared for our spotters and packers. We provided all the Bourbon and Scotch, all the food(breakfast, lunch, and dinner) and all the preparation. We got camp set up by about 4pm and decided to take a drive to Hunters pass and look around. We drive to the summit and turn north, we drive for about 20 minutes, really thick crap, wondering how much wax it will take to remove all these scratches!! It is almost dark and we turn around and go back, no moose, not real impressed, so we start heading back for camp, grouse! It got away before Pumpkin could get it!
I call my contact in Springdale as we head back, he suggests we meet up with him at 5:30am to go into his honey hole to see whats cooking, he informs us that he was in there on Sunday with a friend and they saw 11 bulls in this area that day. I am thinking great this guy is one of those story tellers and you have to take everthing he says with a grain of salt. Boy were we too see differently!

Sept. 30th we get out of our cots at 3:30am and have some cereal and coffee and head out. We meet up with DJ, who was a real nice family guy, married his highschool sweetheart 17 years ago and has 4 great kids, we met all but the oldest boy. Talking with DJ I see he is just like most of us, a real hunting fanatic! And his favorite is big bull MOOSE! He has been involved on several other tag holders hunts in the past and has found some real monsters in this one drainage.
It takes us till 6:30 to wind our way up the mountain to his favorite spot, all of a sudden both him and my wife yell "BULL"!!!! I jack the brakes and yell where! He was 25 yards to my left and stopped to play peekaboo for a second!


I quickly shut off the truck and DJ opens his door and grunts, the bull instantly moves quickly toward us for an awesome pose and lets out a challenging OOOWWWWWAAAAAA!!


We are all freaking out and and just stunned at his size, demeanor, elegance and most of all RACK! He walks off the bank down to the road and turns and saunters away, needless to say we are sold! This is the spot!

We continue down the road and try a different drainage and spot another big bull but he must have gotten a severe butt kicking because he had one side broke off! His good side was just as big as the first bull, we all talked about how big the bull must have been to kick his butt!
We leave this area and drop off Dj, to hot to sit out in the sun! we head back to camp for a nap and some water. Later that night we drove up east of Fruitland and wound our way to the crest and north to Hunters pass, this area looked good, we found some sign and rubs but no moose. We were resolved to look for the bull we saw that morning.
That night at about 10:45 my brother, WAPITIHUNTER and my friend James show up, we tell them what we saw and we all are giggling like school girls!!! We set the alarm clock for 3:30am and hit the sack.

[jackelope]

aaannnndddddddddd??


on with it, son!!

you let that bull walk? or was it a scouting pic?

[DeKuma]

Waited all this time and you cut it short!!!!!!

[Ridgerunner]

Come on post the GOODS!  That bull is very similar to one I saw the night before the opener, man you are bringing back bad memories as my bull is still on the mountain somewhere, urghhhhh!!!!!!!!!

[fishing is for fools]

  I forget how big there are.  

[jackelope]

ok...i reread the post and decided these pics are from pre-season. that bull looks vaguely familiar though.

lets get on with it, finn!!

[Craig]

That bull is a toad. I hope you killed him.

[PolarBear]

Tease!  You're bull blocking us!  Give up the story man!  Some of us have been trying for that tag for over 20 years so we have to live vicariously through you!!!

[finnman]

Oct. 1st-3:30am , we wake up stoked for a day that has been a long day coming! We all meet up with DJ and start our drive into the SPOT! We arrive at daylight and start glassing the head and opposite side of this big canyon. DJ gives out a grunt and we instantly hear 3 different grunts back! We spot a small bull first, 30 incher, we keep glassing and my brother spots a bull in the bottom of the canyon just above the road, we jump in the truck and head down to the bull, we park and DJ grunts again and we get 6-8 grunts back, he is only 100 yards up the hill, we head up and call and all of a sudden here he comes CRASH CRASH down the hill, all we can do is get down and hope Paula can take him down if things get hairy! He stops and he stand up and there he is, 60 yards away and giving us the stare down! DJ asks "is he a shooter?" I look him over, 40" wide, double brow on the right and single on the left, five points per side, opening morning I said "NO" lets keep looking, I got some video footage and we backed out.
We got to the truck and drove down the bottom of the drainage toward the third grunt, we see a fresh rub at a corner on a small side canyon, we climb up a game trail and find more rub and some piss holes.
We call with no response, we rake a pine with no response, we head back to the truck and Paula says "did you hear that?" I say ya it was just a rock rolling down the steep canyon wall. We head back up to the group and they are all freaking out! I guess a big bull had come out of the timber above us and started heading down the slope to us, he never made a sound, just kicked a rock down the hill is all The bull lingered shortly and then just as quickly moved up slope through the boulders toward the top. They said he had the longest beard they had ever seen, it looked like a 5th leg They said it was wider then the first one with real long points, we regrouped and moved around above it but never saw it again that day. By then it was time for the pool and some sun screen, so we headed back to DJ's house for a nap and some hunting stories. At 4pm we left for a spot near his house that holds some good bulls, we got no more than 3 miles when everyone is bailing out of there rigs in a panic! 50 yards ahead of us there is this nice bull just going ape on his piss hole, he then walks across the gravel to the right into a small meadow and just preceeds to kick the crap out of 3 different clusters of willows, the whole time I am videoing this and talking to myself and Paula, I can't believe we are letting this bull go! I can't believe it, this is incredible, I almost had her take him just because we had this awesome footage, I later regretted not doing so, he was about 42" wide with triple brows on the right and doubles on the left, his right paddle was awesome but the left was real weak, like two different animals, that saved his bacon. We got one more bull calling but never saw him and spotted a dink at dark, all in all an exciting day of moose action.
More to come........

[addicted]

.......

[bucklucky]

  Come on! 

[280ackley]

good story and pics keep em coming!!!

[boneaddict]

Loving the story......I HATE BEING T WORK WHEN THE MOOSE ARE RUTTING

[Wea300mag]

OK finnman, you've had time to celebrate and rest, let's see some dead moose on the ground pics.

[boneaddict]

Amen to that.