My 2017 Northeast raffle hunt

[stickman999]

My name is Brian and this is my story of winning the 2017 Northeast big game raffle. This journey probably started when I was a little kid and I would marvel at the moose antlers in my grandpa's garage. If I remember he had been on a couple of hunts in Alaska and BC. Unfortunately he passed away when I was 9. None of my family  hunts so my next exposure to hunting came from my friends dad who took us scouting up above Greenwater on horseback. He always got an elk and unfortunately at the tIme I thought it was cool but I didn't think of doing myself. It was on one of these trips up by crow basin that I heard my first elk bugle. I may have been 15. They moved to Cle Elum a few years later and I ended up in wilkeson and a new school where everybody hunted and wanted to be a logger. So I made some friends and got my hunting license and we would drive the Weyerhaeuser roads up by bridge camp hoping for a buck to step out. Good times with good friends. After high school life happens and I lost interest in hunting until a coworker invited me to chase whtetails over in eastern Washington and it was on this trip heading up hwy 395 when I saw my first shiras moose in the wild, in Washington of all places. I didn't know we had moose in Washington until then. My friend must have sensed my excitement because he looked at me and said the best part about these moose is you can hunt them with a special permit. This was propably 1998. At that point I started applying and against all odds I drew a Selkirk tag in 2003 and started scouting, during these trips I found 1 really nice bull I was going to go after. I watched DVDs and bought a cassette and practiced my calling. Well opening day finally arrives and I go to where I had seen my bull and I see  a cow. I think awesome he should still be here so I did some calling and nothing. I stayed in the area all day. The next morning finds me in the same spot calling and watching and still nothing and I start to get discouraged so I start searching around and I find a skeleton it was obvious a hunter kill. Now I never heard a shot since the seson started so I assumed it was the raffle holder. Time for plan B, nothing, damn it. I hunted all the places I had seen moose and nothing so on day 9 I make a plan to check out a little swampy area I had found on the map and as I am working my way in I hear a bull grunting and I think YES but its getting late so I back out and wait till morning. Morning finally ccomes and I sneak in to where I think im close to the swamp and let out a cow call  and hear him running towards me. Now what? I set myself up next to a tree and put a little clearing between me and the direction all the noise is coming from and wait. He comes full throttle and I can see its a bulll and when he stops and pokes his around a big cedar to look at me I let him have it. Moose down yes!! Got him skinned out and the quarters hanging before dark and the next morning got him out with my friends Kubota. Best meat I have ever eaten. So now ive used up my OIL
But I'm hooked on the experience so I start buying 2 or 3 raffle tickets a year hoping to draw.

Then in 2009 i hurt my back and the Dr sends me in for an MRI and the radiologist sees a 2 inch growth on my kidney which turned out to be cancer. Thank goodness the tumor was encapsulated and they only removed the kidney no radiation or chemo. It was at the time I realized how blessed I really am and how short our lives are so I began to cross things off my bucket list tuna fishing, travel, sky diving etc etc but the one thing I really wanted to do was hunt moose again. So I continued playing the raffle 2 to 4 tickets and nothing. Well one day reading the forum  I see a post from Iceman (rip Iceman) saying he was sick and it kicked me in the gut.   (I never met the man but I enjoyed his posts.) His story up to the end really hit home nd reminded me about my own brush with the c word. So after his last post I told myself if I don't draw any permits I would focus on the raffle. I just had a feeling this year so I worked a bunch of OT and saved my money and after not drawing a permit I startedwatching the numbers and when it got to 400 I started buying just enough to have a 1 in 5 chance. When I did draw the math works out to 18%. Anyways Lucky me I have the winning ticket and then the pressure really starts, what 3 species, which unit, time off work, finding animals worthy of the tag etc.. Its actually overwhelming. At first my 3 picks were going to be moose, deer, and bear.(just to hunt in the spring and remove a predator). I wish wolf was a choice. But ive decided to go moose, elk, and deer. I think the elk is going to be the hardest to fill.

Anyways sorry if I rambled on I just wanted you guys to know a little about me and my reasons for doing what I did. I will do my best to share the journey with pictures. And if anybody has Intel they would like to share PM me. Thanks again Brian

[Katmai Guy]

Congrats and goodluck!  Will be following and living vicariously thru your posts since you beat me out in the raffle.

[Bucks2Ducks]

Awesome Brian, looking forward to following your story!

[Timberstalker]

Great post.  Looking forward to following along.

[JDHasty]

Good for you!   I wish you all the luck in the world. 

[Miles]

Awesome!  I hope you have a blast and find what you're looking for.   Stretch the experience out as long as you can!

[Gringo31]

Congrats and thanks for bringing us along!

[ctwiggs1]

Get some!

[DOUBLELUNG]

Cool intro.  Looking forward to following along

[bearpaw]

Great story already! 

[gee_unit360]

 

[Brushcrawler]

Good luck, and keep telling the story!

[bowhunterforever]

Congrats and thanks for bringing us along!

[Holg3107]

Right on Stickman! Good luck and congrats!

[wheels]

congrats cant wait to follow your journey