Well friends, I have seen some mighty fine bulls taken by some very happy folks. I too have tasted a little success! Some may look at the photos and agree with the "little" part but due to a very limited hunting schedule I decided to take the first, best opportunity that presented itself. My cousin Larry and I had a blast in the time we did have to scout and then I harvested a beautiful younger bull. Pics to follow.
In three very short scouting days we traveled about 500 miles of the unit roads and sighted several bulls. We then narrowed our opening day focus to one drainage. On the first morning we hiked into a swamp and set up for some calling. We had seen a mid 40" bull and a cow in here on sunday. After a few hours and no response we decided to try another spot not too far away. After about a 1-1/2 mile hike we topped a ridge and proceeded to spook a little dink out of his bed. That was the extent of our 1st day excitement.
That night at camp we decided to head out early (4:00am) the next morning to an area we had seen a decent bull on Monday evening. On the way over a little pass road to that drainage I was in the middle of drinking some coffee and eating a roll when my cousin scared the bejesus out of me by screaming "Bull" "Bull", "BIG Bull"!!
Naturally half of the coffee ended up in my lap and the roll fell to the floor as I looked up to see a huge bull (50"+) trotting down the middle of the road! The big boy didn't waste any time jumping off into the steepest,nastiest hole you could imagine. As it was still a good hour until daylight we marked the spot and decided to come back at 1st light. No sooner had we rounded the corner a hundred yards away and we run into another bull, though this one was definitely smaller. This bull decided to run off the road uphill into what we would soon find to be one of the few fairly open clear cuts.
After waiting for daylight down the road a ways we started back. As we came upon the aforementioned clear cut, Larry yells out "Bull", "Bull", up the hill! As he stops I jump out and spot the smaller bull making his way through some trees up this very steep clear cut. He then stops behind a brush pile for a second as I put my crosshairs on him. Since I knew my time was very limited and he was only 70 yards off the road I made my decision, "BAM"! He staggered and wobbled for a second and then crumpled out of sight! As I slammed another shell into my 300 Rem Ultra Mag I looked and he stands back up, so I put another one in him for good measure. After we walk up on this beautiful animal I am almost overcome with emotion as Larry gives me a big bear hug and says "You did it!" Even though I knew I "might" have taken a much bigger moose if I had held out longer I was still very happy with this fantastic animal!
After our photo session we looked at the situation and determined we could probably get this moose down to the truck whole if we could get him started down this steep hill. Sure enough, with the help of a come along and rope we were able to get him in the bed of my truck in one piece! Since it was so warm we decided to hang him at camp and skin,quarter, and bag him as fast as we could. We then broke camp and headed home to take care of the meat. It all happened so fast, but it was a great experience.
