ID Moose Hunt

[Duckhunter14]

Thanks guys! Got the truck all loaded up last night and I'm itching to hit the road as soon as I'm done here at work. Eric left yesterday and was planning on scouting/checking cams last night and all of today then driving out to the nearest service to let me know what he found and where to meet him to set camp tonight and get after it tomorrow morning for the opener. Hopefully I can update you guys Monday of next week. Best of luck to every one headed out on the archery deer opener. This will be the first one I have missed in years, but I think I have a good excuse. Here's to bloody arrows and good blood trails! Shoot straight!

[RB]

Wow this is awesome can't wait to see this story, best of luck!

[Duckhunter14]

Well I'm back into service early. That can only mean one thing....but you'll have to wait until at least tomorrow. Because I am exhausted! Some stories and photos coming soon....

[Mark Brenckle]

Sweet, looking forward to the story and pics! Congrars, lots of hard work paying off for you and your buddy.

[meatwhack]

Congratulations, lets see some swamp donkey pictures.

[Timberstalker]

Looking forward to the story. 

[dewandgin]

Sweet

[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. 

[Duckhunter14]

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

[2MANY]

Tree Huggers?

[Duckhunter14]

Tree Huggers?

When you're headed out on an 8 mile hike getting the legs and hips stretched out is a must. 

[Duckhunter14]

Here's a teaser

[meatwhack]

I'm guessing the bull from the trail camera picture. Congratulations sounds like an awesome hunt.

[Duckhunter14]

The sound we heard was the bull coming down the trail past our camp to the lake. Totally took us by surprise and we just sat there in shock staring at the bull as he walked down the trail and stopped and stared our direction. Eric slowly slid back into the brush as Danny and I sat motionless with our hearts beating out of our chests. Eric ranged the bull at 70 yards and knew he had to get closer. He dropped into the tree line and headed towards the trail moving as quietly as possible. When he was closing the distance the bull got wise and ran down into the lake directly at Danny and I, then turned to face Eric quartered hard to him. I contemplated giving out a grunt to distract the bull and hopefully turn him broadside to us so Eric could get a shot. But I couldn't see him so I had no idea if he was in a position for a shot. It was an intense stare off for a minute or two, then the bull swung his big head to towards Danny and I and started walking through the water again straight for us. Just then I heard a grunt and bull stopped abruptly and looked back at Eric, perfectly broadside to the beach. Everything went quiet and I could hear my heartbeat in my ears; I was praying Eric had found a shooting lane and was settling his pin. Just then I heard the string of his bow and the faint whisp of an arrow and WHAP! The moose exploded from where he was standing and put his head down running straight at the bank and trail into the timber where Danny and I were sitting! He stopped 10 yards in front of us and looked left and right. We could both see the last 4" of Eric's arrow sticking out from behind the front shoulder of the bull and he was pumping blood into the lake like a faucet! Danny had ahold of my shoulder with both arms and just kept whispering "he hammered him, he hit him good! He got him!" We both thought the bull was going to go down right there but after pausing momentarily he continued on his path, right over the top of both of us! I heard Danny's button to his pistol unclip as I began to scramble out of the way to avoid getting trampled, the bull must have caught movement and turned at the last second running down the beach to our right stopping at 40 yards and turning broadside again. Just then Eric came running down the trail and we told him the yardage and he drew and put another perfect shot on the bull. He ran south through the creek exiting the lake and fell in the long grass on the far side. We all just looked at each other in complete disbelief and utter elation. We had done it! But almost got trampled in the meantime! This is what we live for, what a rush. We snuck back into the tree line and tried to calm each other down. We decided to give the bull some time just in case. We organized our gear, ate a mountain house and then headed over to where we saw the bull go down. As soon as we shined a light across the creek we could see a massive velvet antler sticking up above the grass. The beast was dead.

I've heard a lot of people say that walking up to a moose is something you will never forget. Well I've helped pack out plenty of elk and I didn't think it would be much worse. I was wrong. Moose are just as big as everyone says! Good luck even moving them for pictures!

We took a few photos and then realized we had a long couple of days ahead of us so we got to work. It took us just over 3 hours to get him cut up and cooling next to the creek. We were whooped!

He has 7 points including fronts on one side and 6 on the other. His rack was still full velvet and he only damaged part of the velvet when he fell. We did everything we could to keep it intact on the pack out. It should be a really cool euro mount. As you can see from the above picture he ended up being 42" wide at his widest.

We were really happy that the bull was bigger than we had originally thought in the one angle we got on the trail cam (his fronts, paddles, and width were more than the three of us had guessed- shows what we know about moose), we were stoked that he was still in full velvet and lastly I am so proud of Eric for sticking with his goal of making the harvest with his bow. The bull stepped out at 70 yards and I had his 7 mag sitting 5 feet away. It would have been a no brainer for a lot of guys. But he stuck to his goal.

It was a truly awesome experience. We got our butts kicked for 3 days and thought that we were going to be grinding out the rest of the hunt and coming back for the rut to continue hunting hard, then in a matter of seconds all our luck changed. I think that's one of the things I love about hunting so much, things can change so quickly if you just keep pushing and stick to your plan.

I've been best friends with Eric since we were in Kindergarten and his little brother is like my little brother, we've been through a lot together and this hunt meant a lot to us. It was really cool that we got to experience this together and we were very thankful that it all went down with the three of us together. Hope you guys enjoyed the story. FINALLY here are some kill shots.

Clint

[Duckhunter14]

Here's a few