Lucky enough to hunt moose this year. Got it done with this 49 degrees north bull. My brother was able to come with me a couple times and he was able to call several bulls in but none quite what we were looking for. Man that is intense when they are coming in grunting and raking trees. I was able to fill a Turkey tag with him and we saw a couple bears but none he could get a shot at. Of course I got this guy on a trip he was unable to come on. Not sure if he was more bummed he wasn’t there or me after packing the whole thing out by myself.
I had seen him the night before with a cow as it was getting dark. I knew by myself I would be hosed shooting it at dusk. He was only half mile from the road but up a very steep hill. So I backed out and headed back to camp. Called my brother to confirm there was no way he could call in sick and get there the next day... no go. So the next morning found me listening to bull grunts in the dark. As it got light I spotted the cow but it had a much smaller bull with it. It couldn’t be? I explained point numbers and width estimates with my brother on the phone and this bull looked nothing like what I had seen the day before. Then out comes another bull sending the smaller one trotting off. This one was a mature bull but had no paddles at all, still not the bull I had seen. That’s when the one from the night before came running down the hill towards the cow and the other bull. He chased the small bull further off and came back to do the same to the other one. Once he ran them off I started raking a tree and he turned and started closing the 300+ yards of steep brushy clearcut between us. I could hear and see branches breaking the whole way. He came out about 50 yards from me, eyes bugged out staring right at me. He cocked his head and started to circle me. I put the 300wsm high on his shoulder and dropped him with one shot. In all the excitement I ran up the hill to him and he jumped up running down into a crap whole snapping dog hair pines off the whole way expiring once he got as far in as possible. This all took place by 8:30 in the morning. I got back to camp done for the day after 10pm. Can’t wait for my brother to draw so we can do it again. Moose hunting is definitely addictive
