2015 Parker Lake Archery Moose Tagged Out and Story Added page 5

[highside74]

Fast forward to Tuesday Sept 15th. We left home at about 4pm, way to heavy in the 4runner and trailer. Minus my youngest boy who is seven and was down with a cold. My oldest boy whom is 11, my buddy and myself were off to moose camp. After driving for hours and hours, we got there way after dark. No cell reception for google maps made it difficult to locate the couple of camp areas I had found the month before, so at less than ten miles an hour we made the 14.5 drive up the dirt road to the warming shack once again to finally get to sleep at 2:30 in the morning. At this point my son was begging to go to bed and he begged to stay in bed when we were getting up a short 5 hours later. We decided to drop the trailer and go hunt for a while and find camp later.

[highside74]

Wednesday,  day one went by pretty fast. During our morning hunt my son and I had a chance to be by ourselves high on a forested hill looking down into the timber. Doing some calling and listening my son says to me. "Daddy, I can sit here and do this for hours." That made my heart melt. Not finding any moose early, we spent the rest of the day setting up camp and waiting for my brother to arrive. Once my brother showed, my buddy and I set off to find creek access to pump water into 30 gallon barrels for our camp shower that I built.

[highside74]

   Thursday, day two we went to the spot that I found just above the beaver ponds and spent some time there doing some calling and listening. When we walked into the spot I had liked there was a fresh scrape with pee in it, no more than a day old. We could hear some sticks breaking and what sounded to us like short cow sounds but couldn't get anything to close the distance. After an hour and a half we set off to explore new area. That night before bed we drove a few roads and saw one bull that I didn't feel was big enough to try and locate the next day.

[highside74]

    Friday found us not hearing anything at the ponds and I ended up shooting 2 grouse with my bow. We covered a lot of country, found some very fresh rubs not far from the ponds as a crow flys that were made most likely the night before. In the early evening we went the mainline to the top of my unit and spoke to some elk hunters that told us they were hearing moose grunting from their camp that morning just down the road. We spent the rest of the day in that area walking, calling and listening. Not getting any response we left for camp about 8 miles down from where we were. On our drive we did manage to run into one cow on the road. After dinner and just before bed me went for a drive to try and locate some active moose. We didn't see any moose in the hour we were out. Went to bed Friday pretty discouraged about not seeing or hearing any bull moose that day.






 

[highside74]

I'll try and finish my story tomorrow.

[mkcj]

Looking forward 

[elkoholic1]

 

[Labs07]

Great story so far!  Congratulations on your Moose....he is a dandy!

[deerlick]

awesome  bull

[highside74]

So I need to back up to Friday night and tell another part of the story but I need to add a foot note that what comes in the story on Saturday is legal per the regs. I have had two long time hunter's tell me to leave this part out because it was illegal. That is wrong and I showed them in the regs where it clearly states there was nothing wrong.

Friday evening my brother ran down to the gas station in Cusick for some camp supplies and better cell service. While he was there he downloaded an app for moose sounds to his phone. When he came back to camp, he asked us about the sounds that we heard Thursday morning and if we agreed that the sound he was about to play was the sound we heard. We all said yes with excitement thinking oh man that is exactly the sound. He then flipped his phone around to show the sound discription as Bull Tending Grunt. WHAT!? You mean the sound we heard by the beaver ponds wasn't a short cow sound but that of a bull tending a cow? So close yet so far away.

Saturday morning came and we discussed our game plan over coffee and a quick breakfast.

Plan A. Go to the very top where the elk hunters had heard all the bull activity in the morning earlier.
Plan B. Go to the beaver ponds and call from our great spot.
Plan C. Go the lower road which is a longer root to the beaver ponds and check the fresh rub line area on the way.

We decided on plan B and go straight to the ponds. 3 miles up and a couple miles over and we were at our parking spot on the dead end spur road that lead us to our trail. My boy and I were the first to start down the trail and immediately I noticed fresh sign. I'm talking slow down, keep your eyes up and be quiet type freshness. Large tracks, kicked up dirt along the whole trail heading right to our spot. It couldn't have been more than 30 minutes to an hour old. My son, brother and myself get to the spot where the scrape was made to sit and listen while my buddy sat on the next finger to the left of us for a different listening location. It wasn't 5 minutes before my son says dad did you hear those rocks. Yes, I said but it could have been a vehicle in the distance kicking up a couple rocks so let's be quiet and continue to listen. The words didn't even finish off my lips before the sound of breaking sticks coming from the forest directly to our right. Holy crap...I'm looking at my brother and looking over at my buddy trying to get his attention some 80 or so yards away as he is still situating his backpack and settling in. Finally I picked up a 1x20 inch stick and threw it in his direction followed by a lot of hand gestures signaling that we have some action and to move our way. At this time I shift my attention to my brother and tell him to grab his phone and get out his new app. I instruct him to play the long cow whine sound to which the bull goes nuts. Grunting, thrashing stomping through brush. Game on baby. I go into quarterback mode directing my brother and son to back up while my buddy is moving into better video position. I tell my son to stay put and direct my brother further back and angled away from our position to call the moose across left to right rather than straight on or down wind. The wind was ever so slightly blowing right to left toward the pond and sometimes slightly toward the bull so I told my buddy to spray some cow moose scent to mask our scent if the wind went bad. At this point the bull is off and on thrashing or grunting but sounding like he is holding his position so I again direct my brother further back and away from our position to brake sticks and every so often use his cow call to make the bull think his new love interest is leaving. This whole process has taken about 8 minutes I guess. Now the bull has gone silent for a few minutes. Dread, fear set in for a second or so. Did he leave? Did we do something wrong? About 4 or so minutes pass with nothing not even us made a sound. The bull couldn't stand it just as much as me I think becuase he let out a big grunt and I got my brother which was now about 80 yards behind us to respond to it and the final scene was about to play out. He steps into full view or my buddy and his camera which are about 10 yards to my right. And my buddy's body language is telling me this is about tnto get real good. The bull hangs up just out of my view for a bit as he is scanning the hillside looking for his new girlfriend. I notice that my son isn't going to be able to see anything as he has decided to crouch on the downhill side of our position so I tell him to stand up and move to a tree for what I hope is a clear view. Then I direct my brother for one last cow call and he starts coming. Grunting with every step right up the hill one slight pause and a couple more steps and he is standing in front of me at full draw just 15 yards dead on. I put my top pin just below his chin and let my Savora tipped Goldtip arrow loose from my Elite Energy 35 bow (Thanks JBar for the hook up on my bow and MLBowhunting for the Savora love) and watch as my glowing green nock disappears right in the sweet spot. The  bull spins to leave as I start to cow call and just that fast he falls over. Literally 30ish yards and down. Even with a perfect shot through his wind pipe  and the top of his heart he still had just a bit more fight in him. He was trying to breath and it was coming out like a deep wease sound. Since my son was with me I made the decision to shoot him again behind his shoulder to make his death a bit quicker. 20 minutes for it all to play out and it was over. What an event in all our lives. To think back to the day I found out I drew this tag and the Jubilation I felt. It is only topped by the birth of my children. Now to be standing over this giant of the woods fulfilling a lifelong childhood dream of going on a successful moose hunt, I almost couldn't stand it. 3 grown men and an awesome little boy almost in tearse over what we had just done was just awesome. All on video, 2 cameras and a gopro on my head it is going to make for an epic video. I've watched the gopro video at least 6 or 10 times but who's counting. Lots of pictures and 8 hours or so later we were back at camp. We were lucky. The hill was not very big, the trail was flat, and we had a large single wheel 2 person cart to move him with. It was his shear size that took everything so long. Even with a fellow outdoorsman we met named Thomas' help and ropes and pullies he was hard to maneuver. But we loved every minute.

Thanks too any and all that gave advise, knowedge or a helping hand. I will appreciate it for ever.

[highside74]

Couple more pics

[mkcj]

What a great story! and to have it all on film with your son by your side I don't think I can imagine it getting any better.  Truly "A ONCE IN A LIFETIME" TAG!

[HUNTaHOLIC5]

Great story and bull?  your son will never forget that awesome adventure.

[highside74]

7yr old and myself dropping my bull off at the taxidermist.

[highside74]

One more that shows how his times just seem to reach on forever.