Drew Moose Tag

[tlbradford]

Awesome bull.  Thanks for taking us along on the adventure.  Congratulations!

[Buckjunkie]

I will drive from Spokane to see it.

Let me know when you are coming.

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[benhuntin]

I will drive from Spokane to see it.

Let me know when you are coming.

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Just got to Puyallup


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[Buckjunkie]

I will drive from Spokane to see it.

Let me know when you are coming.

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Just got to Puyallup

Text me at2532251057


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[Roobugsdad]

That is a absolute stud. Congratulations to you and way to go..

[BullMagnet76]

WOW!!

[Monsterbull11]

Went and looked at this bull in person today. There is really no “adjative” that does this bull justice. I honestly feel lucky just to put my hands on such an impressive animal. Great job on holding out for this monster. Congratulations my friend!!!

[M_ray]

A true Giant, congrats to you!

[Crunchy]

Waiting for the story.  True beast mode.

[westside Elkhunter]

Congratulations. What a great bull.

[Buckjunkie]

This bull was scored by an official SCI scorer today. Should be the new #2 all time. I’ll try and write the story tomorrow.

[westside bull]

This bull was scored by an official SCI scorer today. Should be the new #2 all time. I’ll try and write the story tomorrow.

That's awesome.....

[BULLBLASTER]

This bull was scored by an official SCI scorer today. Should be the new #2 all time. I’ll try and write the story tomorrow.

What was the score?

[Buckjunkie]

First off, I want to thank all of you who gave me tips on where to hunt. The list is too long so I will just say I had tips from Mt. Hull to Elbow Lake. I will share what I learned with anyone who draws in the future.

My moose hunt started when a friend who was attending the draw texted me saying I better have some vacation saved. Of course he kept me hanging while I was going crazy hoping I drew a sheep tag.

When I found out it was a moose tag I was elated. Within a couple weeks my wife and I were camping in the unit trying to learn what the different areas looked like. We put 450 miles on dirt roads only spotting one small bull. The East side of the unit (101/105) looked more "Moosey" to me so we spent most of our time East of the Kettle Crest. I found my way back for another day of scouting without seeing a Moose. A friend contacted me and said a guy he helped on a Sheep hunt five years ago was willing to help and help he did. John G. AKA Goldminer invited me back over spending the weekend at his place. He drove me to a bunch of different spots, but still only spotted one small bull and a cow.


Opening day found us camped up Hall Creek. I had three friends at first but it grew to 6 plus. Occasionally John and his family came around. We hunted for seven days spotting 19 Moose. 10 bulls and the rest were cows and calves. One bull on day two was a good one probably scoring low book for Boone & Crockett. I decided to turn him down. The video is posted earlier in this thread and I had quite a few comments. I was comfortable at that time since John was saying the bigger bulls are easier to find when the snow flies. His only caution was if we can get to them. Truer words were never spoken.


I had deer tags in Arizona and Colorado. I am trying to burn 20 years worth of points across six states before I am too old to make good use of them. I left October 20th for Arizona. Four days of scouting and 10 days of hunting killing a mid 170's on the last day. Colorado was good. I shot a nice 3x4 on my third day that scored in the mid 160's. I was gone 24 days straight and I had to get home to my wife knowing I still had a once in a lifetime tag for Moose in Washington.


I left for Republic the day after Thanksgiving. John invited me and Jason to stay at his place. This turned out to be a lot of fun. It seems like John knows everyone around Republic. He was constantly contacting friends to see if they had seen a Moose. I had a great tip from Jonathon_S on a good bull over Sherman Pass. It was perfect...we had a fresh dusting of snow and so we went to check for tracks. We drove the area and walked through the woods without finding anything fresh. Since we were over the pass we decided to check out a few more areas and thats when it happened. We ran across a guy looking for a Christmas Tree and stopped to ask if he had seen any Moose. He looked at us kinda funny and said yaaahhh. We asked if he would tell us where and he said he didnt want to because it was his White Tail spot. After reassuring him we wouldn't tell anyone he gave us the location. We drove straight there. There were fresh tracks, but we didnt see anything.


That same day John's two sons Derek and Zach were out hunting deer. Derek spotted a good bull in the morning and Zach saw a good bull in the evening. This was closer to Republic so we pounded the two areas for three days without finding anything more than a cow and a small bull. The tracks were there but the Moose seemed to vanish. The bull was on private almost two miles away. It was an amazing spot by Jason on 10 power binos that took us 30 minutes to confirm with the spotting scope.

That night Jason said we need to go back over Sherman and check that spot out again so Wednesday the 28th we headed over early. The road was nasty and everything was fogged in. I was starting to think I might eat the tag. We got close to the spot and started seeing a few Moose tracks. As Jason drove along I peered out my side looking into the fog. I was shocked when I spotted the sillhouette of a bull at the edge of visibility. Jason stopped the truck. At this point I was willing to shoot anything with forked fronts. I looked at the bull with my binoculars and thought I could see forks. He looked about 45" wide so I decided to shoot him.

I stepped out of the truck and pushed two round into the magazine of my 300 RUM. I attempted to rest on a tree but a couple limbs blocked my view. I decided to shoot off hand. He was looking our way with his body quarteringto my right. I shot high front left shoulder and his back legs folded. He spun left. jason said he let out a moan, but I couldn't hear. I just shot a 300RUM. Now I could see his right shoulder so I shot again and he collapsed. I let out a yell and Jason Jumped out of the truck. As we walked up to see the bull Jason was saying he’s pretty big. Five other moose were now visible including two bulls. As we approached I couldn't beleive his right side. It was awesome. I started to brush snow off his left and Jason said he's still alive. I stepped back for a moment, but he was done. When I brushed the rest of the snow off his left side I couldn't beleive what I saw. He was a monster. Dumb luck or just good fortune...I am truly humbled by the sheer size of this bull. I saw many trail cam pics from tipsters. At least five were huge bulls, but I had never seen a trail cam pic of this bull untill last night. A friend knows a Moose guy named DJ that sent a pic. I'll ask Josh to post it after I finish the story.

I had the bull scored yesterday by a guy I know who is an official SCI scorer. He will easily be the #2 all time Shiras. The largest Shiras ever recorded in the lower 48. He scored in the mid 490's. I had him scored SCI because Boone & Crockett does not recognize point length. This bull has over 235" of tines.


Thanks to everyone who contrubuted to this hunt. I especially want to thank Jason Parlari, John Gianukakis, Cody Davis, Martin Greenhaw, Tim Argo, Josh Prouty, Brent Lawson, Jed McDaniels who all took time off to come over and help. John's sons Derek and Zach who were always looking for me. I want to thank Penny, John's wife, for her hospitality and excellent meals and putting up with us. The many tipsters for taking time out of your life to help me out.     


Not a sexy hunting story, but as we all say. I'd rather be lucky than good!

[jackelope]

Here’s the trail cam pic Jim mentioned. The length of the points on this thing is crazy.