08 raffle moose tag hunt

[catwithboost]

Keep it coming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TrkyBob53]

Should have posted this with the others.  Dont know how such a good looking guy can take such a bad photo

[huntnphool]

I would pull out the trash bag and while calling wave it around by the trees that I was raking, 9 out of ten times the visual effect would drive them crazy

You should see what happens with a white Canon camera lens

Keep the story coming Steve

[TrkyBob53]

Just to let anybody that is following this, I really am not trying to drag this out.  I am writing this and then posting and trying to get the pics just right.  I should be done in the next day or two.  Hope that works for everybody

[bucklucky]

Just to let anybody that is following this, I really am not trying to drag this out.  I am writing this and then posting and trying to get the pics just right.  I should be done in the next day or two.  Hope that works for everybody

Ya, sure, uh hu, right on, whatever you say. 

[TrkyBob53]

I call Andrew a set up days to hunt with him.  We set the days for Nov. 26-Nov. 30.  Game on.  I get time off of work, and I also go buy some Al Capone cigars for luck.  Ron is going with me on this trip.  Ron also has his best friend from college join us. Cody.  Nov. 25, Andrews casa.  We make a plan to go up the mountain where he took Ron and I the last time we hunted together.  Up early.  An hr drive to get there. Me with Andrew, Cody with Ron.  Even though we got up early, we are still on the pavement when it starts getting light.  In the northeast I guess it is a big deal if you see elk.  Well,  Just about where we turn off the main road to go up the mountain, ELK.  A bunch of them.  In the ditch next to to road, in the road, in the field next to the road. We stop, MNBFA is all aflutter.  He gets on his cell phone.  Andrew, their just elk.  I am on a moose hunt.  Lets go!  He says you know my buddy has a tree stand way over there and he has been in it for days and he can shoot a cow.  I think that’s where the elk are going to go.  His buddy wasn’t there.  He was at home that day, waiting for some repairman to show up that morning.  On we go. Half way up the mountain, we drop off Rons rig.  To the top we go.  Load our packs, and off we go.  This is the same hike Ron, Andrew, and I did on our first hunt together. Got Hosed by the pack of hunters. There is snow, but not too much. We go about ¼ mile from the truck.  Do some glassing.  Moose.  Bull.  Not big enough.  He is really close to the truck.  MNBFA says lets go.  100yds we walk.  Cody sees a bull over the bank.  Too small.  Another 100yds.  Deer.  Mulies.  One keeper.  Lets go.  Another 200yds.  Cow and calf.  Now were talking.  4 moose in less than 30 min. from the truck.  Outstanding.  Meow its time to keep going.  1 ½ miles later, Bull, Bull.  Too small.  Lets go.  Into the basin.  Moose.  Elk.  No shooters. Up to the top.  Its gorgeous up here. 

[TrkyBob53]

Tried and true way to scarum up

[TrkyBob53]

On top of the mountain

[TrkyBob53]

Time to move on. Back down and around.  Moose.  Cow. Calf.  Cow.  Keep going.  Hear a calf just bawling its head off.  We must have split it away from mama.  Now we are on a ridge.  Same one MNBFA wouldn’t let me shoot a bull.  Eat lunch.  Ron,Cody,and I have smashed sammiches.  ANDREWWWW, has an MRE.  Said he couldn’t pack enough for all of us.  While eating lunch, we are glassing a big basin.  Keeping warm by the pitch log Andrew started.  Realllly smokey at first, but it got better.  He is a real fire guy. Up on the hill.  Movement.  Moose?  Nope.  Crap, Elk.  I don’t want to see any more elk.  More movement.  Moose.  Cow,,,,and a Bull.  Too small he says for as far away as we are.  I said outloud, “I should have shot that cow or calf down by the truck and I would be done with this.  I can still get another moose tag.”  Nobody liked the sound of that but me.  Lunch over, it was about 5 miles back to the truck.  I am getting tired.  3 more miles back to the truck.  I am starting to cramp up.  BMNFA says I can make it.  Moose.  Cramps are gone.  Cow and calf.  OMG I a cramping up.  Out of water.  Start drinking the other guys water. “ Anybody got a Al Capone?  I need something for luck, hoping to make it back to the truck.”  I made it, even without the Capone.    Drop Ron and Cody off at Rons rig.  Going out Andrew says “I always see moose on this road driving.  We have driven this road how many times together.?  Up and down. 5? 6?  Not one moose.”  Just then, a COW MOOSE IN THE ROAD.!!!!!!!   She was the 23rd moose we saw that day.  11 cows, 4 calves, and 8 bulls.  7 mule deer, and 47 elk.  Not bad.  I still think I need a Capone.  Smoke one at the house.  Getting real nervous now.  May be I have set my standards too high.

[TrkyBob53]

Nov. 27.  TDMH (Thanksgiving Day Moose Hunt)  Its here.   Today will be a short day.  Andrew has never had a deep fried turkey.  I probable have done 40.  Love it.  I said I wanted a short day. Needed time to cook.  Andrew said we will stay in the  low country, and be back by noon or so.  Andrew and I in his truck, Ron and Cody in Rons.  We get to the area we are going to hunt, and decide to leave Rons Rig at the bottom.  All in one rig.  Drive up to where we can see a big hillside.  All get out and start glassing.  Cody spotted a moose.  Even with a spotting scope, we couldn’t get a good look.  Too much brush.  Load back up, Andrew and I in front, Ron and Cody in the back.  That is in the box of Andrews truck sitting on his tool box.  It was really cold, so they were wrapped up in all the extra clothes we could give them.  We drive around to get closer to the moose we saw.  About half way there, the boys in the back start pounding on the cab of the truck yelling, SHOOTER,SHOOTER.  Andrew and I were looking forward, the boys backward.  They saw him, we didn’t.  We get out, I load up, walk about 10yds behind the truck.  There he is.  No looking at the horns.  The boys said SHOOTER, and by golly they couldn’t be wrong.  I pull up, cant hold still.  Circles I draw with my barrel.  No shot anyway.  Too much brush.  Andrew says shoot.  I cant, too much brush.  He says you got a hole about this big. (making a motion with his hands.)  It was about the size of an orange.  The bull walks off.  I watch him.  Seen where he went.  I pursue.  I go 200yds down the hill, there he is, standing there.  No shot.  Behind a tree.  He walks off again.  I look behind me, and there is Ron.  I motion to him that I saw the bull and he went that way.  I motioned again for Ron to catch up with me.  Off we went.  There was a small rise on the hillside.  I knew the bull would be down in the bottom of the dip.  I get to the top of the rise, look down, no bull.  Look up and there he is, 150yds away.  I flop to the ground, set up on a stump just the right height, line up, PULL THE TRIGGER.  He spun around and was still standing in the same place as when I first shot.  By the time he spun around I already had another one in and ready.  I sent a second one.  My dad hunted moose in Canada in the 60’s and early 70’s, and he told me before I went on this hunt to shoot till they fall.  After the second one, he stumbled, churned, and flipped over.  As it turned out I did not need the second one. 8AM, Moose hunt is over.  Now the work. Not the biggest in the woods, but not a baby either. I have named him HOSER 27.  He was the 27th moose seen in 2 days, and I had been Hosed on almost each trip by something.  He is 45”.

[TrkyBob53]

Best Al Capone I ever had.

[TrkyBob53]

Pics taken, and a plan was made to get him out.  It was bout 250yds up hill to the truck.  About 600yds down hill to another road.  We will go down hill with him.  Andrew has a game cart.  Andrew and Cody walk back up the hill to get the truck, go get Rons rig, and drive to the road below.  Ron and I do all the messy work.  It was not as bad as I thought it would be.  Andrew and Cody show up.  We strap the bulls head and shoulders to the cart.  Andrew and Ron start downhill pulling the cart.  Game carts are not meant for moose.  We Blew a wheel.  Now what?  We have some tarps don’t we?  Go to plan B.  We got the tarps, rolled the bull on them, off we go.  The boys took turns pulling.  They would go 70-80yds a pull.  It was fairly steep, and the grass was frosted.  7 or 8 pulls and we were at the truck. 

Getting him stuffed into the back of the truck, we are off to skin him. To a friends house we go.  We use a chain hoist to lift him up and skin him.  We let him hang a few hours to cool off, back the trailer up to the hanging bull and lower him into Jims trailer.  Back to Andrews house.  We were all done.  Time to get stuff ready for Deep Fried Turkey.  Its just 1pm.  Best Thanksgiving Day ever. 

The only thing that would have made this better, if I could have shot Hoser on the  Nov.28th.  My 55th birthday.

5 Trips
18 days
Several Thousand Miles
69 moose seen. 38 cows, 8 calves, 23 bulls

THE MEMORIES ARE PRICELESS

[catwithboost]

Great story. 

[lostcat]

Very good story TY for shareing is there more? If not grats on that bad boy.

[shanevg]

Sounds like a great Thanksgiving to me!