2017 Parker Lake Moose

[TomT]

When my good friend Bob finally drew a moose tag for Parker Lake Muzzy this year, we knew we'd have our work cut out for us.  Bob was diagnosed with Parkinson's 5 years ago, and this year it was starting to affect his balance and strength to a severe degree. 

He has been a disabled hunter for the last couple of years and he invited my along to be his companion hunter. 

Looking at the success rates, we thought it was money in the bank. 

The first curve ball was when his grandson drew a bull tag opening on October 1st.  He had to go with him.  That took us out of the prime time of the rut.

We hunted a total of 8 days shortly after he got back from the elk hunt.   On day 7, I finally saw a cow moose in a clear cut just above Bob.  By now, we knew this hunt was anything but a slam dunk, so we had already decided to fill the tag at the first opportunity.  The muzzleloader misfired and the cow trotted into the timber. 

Fairly dejected, we decided to head home for a break.   I spoke to several Hunt Washington members about their hunts in the unit.  We had hunted all the areas where others had harvested moose in the last few years.  The areas were devoid of fresh sign (and moose as far as we could tell).   
Once home, I made several more calls, and got more advice.  The advice that ended up paying off was from Brian (pendoreilleadventures).  Thanks Brian!

Basically the advice was to go high, and once you find some fresh sign, hunt the area hard and don't leave.   I walked to the top of the highest mountain in the unit, and found some fresh sign.  Although, getting there was all on foot, so that ruled out Bob walking up there (probably 3+ miles to the top from the gate).  There was an area about a mile up that had some sign, so we decided to try to get him up there.  The rules  provide that the companion hunter can be up to 1/4 mile away as long as they have reliable communications.  So we decided at first light yesterday that Bob and I would started up to that area, with Bob lagging behind and making slow progress. 

I got up to the area with sign and called for about half an hour.  Not hearing any responses, I started up an old skid road above the main logging road.  Bob had been saying the last few days that this was the most difficult hunt he has ever been on (as far as seeing any game).  This was day 11 without him seeing a single moose.   He had just commented on the way up this morning that these kind of hunts can end very quickly, and he thought we would have success today.
 
I rounded a corner and here was a nice bull at 40 yards looking right at me.  I quickly took aim and the bull went right down on the shot.  I radioed Bob, who was a short distance down the hill from me.  Right after I spoke with him, he saw his first moose of the entire hunt.  Another nice bull, that I had not seen, had run from me, right down to the road, and stopped 30 yards from Bob and watched him for 15 seconds before continuing his flight down the hill. 

I was able to help Bob the rest of the way to the bull off the main road and the celebration and work began!

The bull's right antler was about a 10 inch stump, but the left was very impressive.  I was surprised when the bull, even with the deformity stretched the tape at 35 inches!   The left antler was 22 inches from the middle of the skull, so I guess he would have easily exceeded 40 inches if not deformed.   The biologist told us today that he was probably 4.5 years or so, and probably weighed 1000lbs.   Bob is unable to pack any meat, but luckily his cousin was with an hour of us and came up and helped me pack the bull off the mountain.  We finished in 8 hours and I'm going to be sore for days.  What a great problem to have!

 Bob is a real inspiration.  He just keeps on going, when many would have given up.  He's already making plans for next years hunts, and I'll do my part to keep him out there if I can.

I'll forever be grateful to Bob for his friendship and for including me on his adventure.  Like the rest of you, I may never actually draw my own tag.  But after this hunt, I'll guarantee I'm going to keep trying!

[jae]

Awesome! Brian pulls threw again. Great guy.

[bowhunterforever]

 

[bearhunter99]

Congrats!

[Falcon]

WAY TO GO

[quadrafire]

Great story, thanks for sharing.

[Mossyoak]

Way to stay with it! Congrats!

[Machias]

Congrats!!!

[X-Force]

Don't know how i missed this!

Thanks for sharing

Congrats

[Skyvalhunter]

Congrats on a fine moose!!

[TomT]

Thanks you guys.  A hunt I’ll never forget!

Much more difficult than I imagined it would be.  For anyone who draws the tag in the future, I’ll gladly pass along everything I learned about the hunt,

[carpsniperg2]

Sweet congrats to him