Big Game Hunting > Out Of State Hunting

ID Moose Hunt

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Timberstalker:
Looking forward to the story.  :tup:

dewandgin:
Sweet :tup:

Duckhunter14:
Well where do I start...after getting to camp and catching up we got some much needed rest with high expectations for the next morning. We headed out in the dark to hit several big meadows we had marked on the map to check out. All Eric had seen on his trail cameras were cows, calves and one dinky bull. We hit 3-4 meadows and cow called, scraped and waited to see if we could roust a bulls interest to come check us out. No such luck. We never even turned up any fresh sign. We headed back to camp to discuss our options. We had Eric's brother and two of his fire fighter buddies rolling into camp late that night to help the next couple days. We decided to pack up everything we needed for 3 days and leave a note for the rest of the guys. We organized all our gear, put camps on our backs and headed out from the trail head. The lake where the picture of the bull was on the trail cam was 8 miles into the wilderness area. We headed in with high hopes and made it to camp by early afternoon. All we saw on the way in was a cow and calf's tracks in the trail.

After getting our tents sent up we headed to glass the lake for the afternoon, hoping he would step out in the same area where Eric had got him on the trail cam. While soaking in the views and glassing I noticed there was a electricity in the air. I looked to the west and noticed a dark skyline headed our way. Within minutes the canyon we were in was filled with dozens of lightening strikes with the thunder getting louder and louder. We tied down the guy lines on our tents and tucked into them just as the rain started. The thunder and lightening and rain kept up for over an hour. We were so relieved it wasn't a dry storm and no more fires would be started and kick us out of the country.

We woke up early the next morning and were glassing as the fog lifted off of the lake. We didn't want to go check the cams just yet. We figured the bull was living in the thick timber on the east end of the lake and would hopefully show himself eventually if we were just patient. We didn't want to barge in to the area and spread our scent around and kick him out of the area. All we glassed up that morning was a small whitetail buck feeding along the lakes edge.

The other three guys made it in to camp mid day and we let them know we hadn't seen any sign of the bull, but they brought a renewed sense of excitement for the hunt and we hiked down lake that afternoon after catching up and getting them settled into camp to glass until dark; still no sign. We rose in the dark the next morning to glass and had no luck so we headed a couple miles back down the trail to glass some good country we liked on the way in. We scraped and let out some cow calls with no luck. Two of the guys had to head back due to work commitments but Erics brother Danny was able to stay with us through the rest of the hunt. We sat in camp and talked through what we should do next. We were half way through day three and we had not even seen a moose yet. We were already discussing the Late September/October rut hunts as though we had no chance on this hunt. But we decided that we had to be patient and have faith that the bull was still in the area and would show himself eventually. He was the only bull that we knew about and Eric's buddy thought the bull would be about 40" wide and make the Pope and Young minimum based on the trail cam pics. We were dedicated on focusing on this bull until mid day the next day, then we would hike out and regroup at our base camp and roll the dice on a few other big meadows we had marked on the map.

After checking the trail cameras the air was let out of our sails when the moose was not on the cam. Only a few deer and elk. As we started down the trail I thought I heard splashing in the lake and stopped the guys. We heard it again and slowly approached the lake edge. The noise got louder as we approached and we spotted two 5 point bull elk playing on the south end of the lake. They were chasing each other up and down the beach, sparring, scraping the mud and wallowing and rubbing their antlers on trees. I got some awesome footage on the video camera. Our plan that night was to get more aggressive that evening and hit the tree line they were on to scrape and call. But fortunately the elk were doing the job for us. They weren't bugling but were making just the sounds we thought may get a bull moose curious enough to come check out the source. Instead of making our way down the far side of the lake like we had planned. We let the elk do the calling for us and we sat tight, hoping the bull would make an appearance before dark. 

We watched the bulls make their way all the way down the lake to the other end; when Eric said "hey, did you hear that? It was either hooves on the rocks or a distant airplane." I didn't hear it and kept glassing. About a minute later I hear loud hooves coming down the trail to the North of our camp up to the lakes edge.

Its getting late I better finish this up tomorrow.  :chuckle:

Duckhunter14:
Here's a couple pictures from the hunt. More to come.

2MANY:
Tree Huggers?

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