I wanted to follow up on here and say thanks to hunting washington community for the PM's and interest in the hunt. After a few scouting trips and a couple of hunts my once in a lifetime tag for moose is filled. It was a great hunt and I got to enjoy it with my family and friends. I hunted 5 days during the opener before having to return to work passing on a few smaller bulls and seeing several moose. I realized after that intitial 5 days that this might be harder than I had anticipated, finding a nice moose. On my scouting trips in late summer they seemed to be in every clearing with targets on them! The second weekend of the season I was headed down to new mexico with my dad as he drew an elk tag, a highly coveted new mexico elk tag. Moose hunting would have to wait. A 24 hour drive down, one day to scout, and we had his bull down openeing morning. It was a real beauty and a fun trip. The following weekend i got all excited about heading up for another round of moose hunting. I woke up at 2 am friday and made the drive arriving where I wanted to be at first light. Low and behold, no moose. Hunted and called all day friday to no avail. We had talked to several folks up there deer hunting that had all seen a nice moose in the same clearing, the good thing was they had seen him on different days earlier in the week so I figured he wasnt wandering to far. They said he had a nice set of antlers and that was enough to keep me in the general area. After a short hike and calling session on Saturday morning we were headed back to camp and my dad spotted this guy on the side of the road in the brush, not sure if it was the same one but probably was. One step forward and we coudnt see him at all. I got out and quickly moved up the hill and into the brush finding him there and getting a shot. I didnt have a lot of time to size him up but when i got the rifle on him I could tell he was big enough for me. I was nervous about finding him in such thick brush but he didnt make it far and we were taking pictures in no time. It was a fun hunt with father and friends, a nice moose, and I couldnt be happier. He is just at the 46" mark, and a nice representation of the species!
