Big Washington Moose Down

[flyguide]

Part 1. I’ll start off my rundown on my once-in-a-lifetime hunt by admitting I got incredibly lucky. I hunted (13)
days and scouted (4), but never saw a trail cam pic or even here a rumor about it. I had (3) cameras of
my own in the unit, plus access to dozens of others thanks to a generous friend network. Still never had I
even heard about this bull. I was just in the right place, right time. I am beyond grateful for all the
encouragement, intel, and the kind support that all of my friends provided.

From the time I saw that word “SELECTED” on my application for Moose it seemed like everyone was
ready to help. This was my 24th year of applying, ever since I was 18 years old I put in for this exact tag.
Every year I always read the same disappointing news, “NOT SELECTED”. The fact it’s always in all caps
seems to make it sting a bit more. Salt in the wound.

I live in Ellensburg and am a fly fishing guide and outfitter at Red’s Fly Shop. I sort of live a double life as
what most would call a “hard core” backcountry hunter, and a fly fishing guide for my day job. I put a
few little videos and stuff on our @redshunting Instagram if you want to see a few pic and clips from the
moose hunt that aren’t posted here.

Like most tag holders I started of scouring the net for information and talked to a few past tag holders
that offered what information they could, but the bottom line is that moose can be scarce and tough to
find. The main thing is that I wanted to have a fun hunt and enjoy the adventure from start to finish. I
had been in the area several times before hunting spring bears so I knew my way around a little bit, but
there was much to learn. I wanted to find some areas myself. Coming up with a good hunt plan was
important so I spent a short week with my 13 year old son Jeeping around the most of the unit, checking
spots off the list. Having a rig that can cover a lot of rough ground fast was really handy. We aired down
our tires and could zip around about 2x the speed of my old pickup, this was key as it really helped just
ruling country in or out. Most of the country was just not conducive for glassing, or even hiking and
calling for that matter. Most of the country I thought was good is so thick with massive amounts of
deadfall, it’s steep, and a lot of it is choked with willow and alder. Maybe other people have consistently
found moose in the open burns and meadows, but I wasn’t able to. Overall the timber was pretty tough
to get around in. Most of my hunting is in the Cascades where we can get up near timberline and the walking
is pretty easy other than being steep. In the NE corner it’s not like that. Everything is tough
walking off the roads, so you have to find some ground and ways to move around that are efficient.
On our short week of scouting we didn’t see a single moose, but we found several zones that we liked
and one of them had really good sign throughout it. Lots of old rubs, tons of scat, and even more
deadfall. It seemed like the best areas had the most deadfall. Maybe it’s a wolf prevention thing, but it
seemed like the timber with the most deadfall always had more sign.



As the season came up on me, I decided that I would bowhunt the first couple of days at least.  I also
debated where to camp or whether I should be mobile and just camp
out of the rig every night. In hindsight that might have been the more effective option but my dad
wanted to come for the first go round so he joined my buddy Connor and I. He cooked and poured
drinks in the evening. I do a lot of very hard bivy style hunts and I’ll admit it was darn fun to have a base
camp. First project was that we checked some trail cameras that a friend of mind hung for me a month
prior the day before the season. They had moose on them! We were stoked. Unfortunately, no bulls of
any caliber so we yanked the cameras and moved into a whole new area that my younger son and I
really liked while scouting. We hung cameras back up and routinely checked them during the hunt.










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[flyguide]

Part 2. Opening morning we dropped into a marshy bottom and as it got light.. the mist parted and a bull
moose was in a small meadow. We couldn’t believe it! Opening morning. The bull was grunting softly
and we made some noise just moving around like cows and he came into 15 yards! I had my bow in my
trembling hand and was extremely tempted to take this little double brow tine bull. Very tempted as I
am a bowhunter at heart. We let him walk away and fortunately filmed the experience on a phone. Fun
to relive that and watch that clip. We spent the rest of the day pushing into mysterious alder bottoms,
calling, raking with scapulas for realistic sound, and trying to stir up some rutting action. Nothing. We
exclusively boot hunted, zero driving. The sign was great and we both agreed that if we were elk hunting
and finding that much sign in a new zone we would be stoked. Moose can be tough to find.

Day 2… zero action. Nothing. Just blisters on our feet. The weather for the first week was brutally hot
with highs around 80 degrees and a bright moon. While relocating to another spot we did bump into
another tag holder camped a few miles from us that shot a very nice bull on the opener. It was
encouraging to get to see that someone put a good bull on the ground and chat with another party. We
were super happy for him and energized after seeing a bull.

Day 3 we showed up at the same spot we found the little double brow tine bull the first morning. We
got in there in the dark and as it got day light I spotted a bull about 250 yards away in the meadow. I
immediately knew that it was a dandy bull but it was still dim and I wanted a really good look. Pulling the
trigger on a once in a lifetime hunt is a big deal! I sized up the bull as best I could in low light, it was a
really nice bull and I was on the fence. Shoot or no shoot? So hard to decide! As soon as the bull lowered
its nose however I saw how incredibly tall its paddles were and my mind was made up! He was
quartering on and had no clue we were there. I was on my gun seated using a sapling as a vertical
support. Even shooting a 300 WSM I didn’t like the quartering on angle and assumed the bull would be
there all morning, if not all day. Wind was good. After a couple of minutes of being on the gun, off the
gun, he turned broadside and moved to the edge of the meadow I started squeezing the trigger…
several times but he never stopped! I assumed he would pause or even rake some brush at the edge.
Instead he walked out of our lives forever. We tried calling him back in but that bull was on the move
searching for cows. By the time we could react he was trucking. It was one of the moments where you
have to just be grateful you still have a tag, lots of season left, and the hunt rolls on.

We elected not to pursue that bull even though we could track his direction. He was moving and we felt
like our odds were better not to get winded, blow him out, and we would have a better chance of
finding him later on. Instead we pushed out onto a high bench that showed some alder patches on the
satellite. It seemed like every flat with water in it, combined with alder patches was holding moose. This
was a pretty big push but when we finally climbed in there we found what A+ Shiras moose habitat
looked like. There were rubs, wallows, and lots of sign. We cow called and worked through this new spot
that we named the “Butter Bench”. Finally we got to a rutting pit, apparently that’s what moose
hunters call wallows, and we posted up for a while after throwing out a long cow call. About 15 minutes
later a small bull with a broken antler came trotting in out of no-where! I came in fast without hardly
making a sound other than quiet grunts. It was so awesome. He came right by and didn’t slow down
much. Just kept moving and looking for that cow.
Day 4 we put boots on the ground from dawn till nearly dusk. Zero moose and the sign was getting stale.

With so much country to roam we think that we were getting winded and pushing moose out of the
area. In retrospect we should have played it a bit cooler instead of pushing so deep into their bedding areas. Although we didn’t bust any moose out in the timber it just seemed like they were moving out of
the way.

We set out (3) trail cameras to soak while I went back to home and work for several days to get my
chores done. I left myself a pretty flexible schedule and thought about waiting till things cooled down. In
the meantime I am getting messages from friends talking about how the bulls are running everywhere
and rutting out of their minds! I also heard about another bull hitting the ground. I needed to scratch
the itch. I pulled my 13 year old son out of school for (4) days and we headed back up north. It was fun
heading back in with him as he had done all the scouting with me and our focus was on the original spot that he and I had found and liked best. First thing we did was check trail cameras. We had (3) new bulls
on cam including a DANDY that eventually knocked our camera out of the tree after raking the hell out
of it! That bull knocked down the cam the night we left about 10 pm. We lost all surveillance on that
spot unfortunately but the sign was pretty stale anyway.

We put 4 more days in…. ZERO moose. In fact, we only saw one living animal. We returned for a big day
pushing out to the “Butter Bench” thinking we would encounter a big rutty bull coming into kick our
butts. We elected to focus exclusively on calling in damp alder flats and just move through cow calling
followed by raking. We set up and cow called several times, sitting quiet, and because I was with a
teenager we snack every time our packs come off. We were listening very intently and then my son gave
me a nudge. We heard something coming in from behind us and all of a sudden a big grey wolf shows up
at about 6 yards! It was nuts. Close enough to look into eyes and see its whiskers through the fir tree we
had been using as our backdrop.

Later that night hiking out of another hole there was a pack of wolves howling like crazy. Super cool. I
question how wolves are managed in harmony with other wildlife, but hearing them on the far peaks
after dark is a really cool experience.

We left after 5 days with zero action. I hate when hear hunters make excuses, but it just felt like the hot
weather, full moon, and crispy dry conditions were really working against us. The rut had tapered off
and we had a tough time finding any fresh tracks. Normally we would see lots of fresh tracks here and
there but all the animals were just laid up. I have hunted enough to try and stay positive but 5 more
days of not seeing or hearing a single moose was pretty rough. Especially when we had bulls on cams
and were seeing rubs, I mean for God’s sake a bull knocked our trail camera out of a tree!

Here is a pic of the bull that knocked my cam out of the tree and I am certain this is the bull I let slip away Day 3. 




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[highside74]

Aww man, with archery gear? You are going to bump my Moose out of the top 5. Congrats

[flyguide]

Part 3.  I took a few weeks off the moose hunt and did some mule deer hunting up high. We passed a few small
bucks but frankly got my butt kicked on that hunt as well. It seemed like luck wasn’t going my way. I
thought I had some bucks totally dialed but they had other plans.

As I got ready for the next go round on moose, a massive winter storm was predicted with 12-20” of
snow predicted to hit the valleys and lowlands. That’s pretty extreme for early November. I hoped and
prayed we would still be able to get around in the hills. Being post rut our hunt strategy was going to be
completely different. Pound the roads with our rig, quick glassing from every vantage point. Keep that
rig moving, gas up every day. We would be moving around to lots of new areas because my primary spot
has ZERO glassing. You can barely see 50 yards other than a few meadow marshes.

We left at 4 am had a total whiteout drive all the way up into the hills, where it just continued to dump
snow. My 16-year-old son was with me on this go round and we hit the hills hard all-day Sunday. We bumped into another tag holder which was crazy. We saw 3 rigs covered in snow with a quartered-up
moose in the back of the pickup! We backtracked them in the snow down into a hole and met some
nice guys. He shot a dandy bull but had already packed everything out but the head. We said congrats
and moved on. He was super cool local dude that gave us some excellent leads on big bulls he had been
looking for. We were grateful for the intel and stayed on the hunt all day. No moose spotted.

Monday, we woke up to more snow. Every flurry made me feel like my chance of a big bull was slipping
away. Within the first 2 miles Monday morning we had to cut out two big deadfalls, and then put 4
chains on my Jeep. It was slow going and we wound up in 30” of snow. Measured. The only reason we
were able to keep driving was that it was still soft snow and hadn’t gotten heavy yet. I’ve been stuck in
the snow about 1,000 times in my life and I knew what the next couple of days would hold. It was going
to be tough. It continued snowing throughout the rest of the night, we did a 180 on the ice coming out
and wound up in the snowbank. Again, no moose spotted all day. That night my buddy Dallas was
coming up to hunt with us and hit a deer, which wiped out his truck completely. He sent me a message
on his InReach that said “Hit a deer. Truck wrecked. COME GET ME”. He was 20+ miles away at night in a
blizzard so it took a long time to get there. In the meantime, only a few rigs happened by and one of
them was the dude that shot the moose the day before! What a crazy small world. He and his dad
offered Dallas a ride, but instead he waited for us to pick him up. We were able to arrange a tow truck
for that night, so the hunt continued despite the major setback for Dallas. He has an unwavering
attitude of positivity and it really kept morale high despite the awful wreck.

We knew the weather would break on Tuesday, but the problem is that all of my “Plan A” spots were
behind 3’ of snow. Even with a well-equipped rig and 4 chains travel was impossible off road on
Tuesday. Even hiking would be tough until the snow crusted up. On my previous trips up I knew where
there was some active logging and I also had been given some sound advice on where to go in the event
of a monumental snowfall. We took off over a plowed pass and found two sets of moose tracks crossing
the road, the problem was the snow was so deep we couldn’t even get parked in the area. We got
severely stuck once just trying to get parked! I decided we should head up the road and drive up into
the logging unit and see if the road I wanted to hit was indeed plowed. We would check that spot out,
and then head back and try to walk down the sets of tracks that had crossed the road.

I had hunted this spot briefly in October but will admit it was because the big snowfall and the loggers
we were in there that particular day. We headed up toward the unit we wanted to glass and we came
around a corner and OMG. This giant bull was standing IN the road with another small bull. No joke, in the road.
It took off up the hill which was about a 50-degree slope and I grabbed my rifle and scurried up the road trying to get good shooting lane.
The bull stopped just before it was about to crest the hill and I prayed, “please don’t go over that rise” as I was trying to get a shot.
He paused momentarily and I took an off-hand shot about 100 yards with my 300 WSM. The shot felt good, but I also know that I was
shaking pretty bad and I am human… so maybe I could have missed. The bullet hit home and the bull
absorbed it. I was terrified it would get over the rise and out of site when it took one step back… then
another, then another, and then fell and slid all the way back down about 80 yards and piled up on the
edge of the logging road!

Talk about luck. The bull landed on the shoulder of the road totally buried in the snow. Only one antler was visible it was
so buried. The mammoth bull died quickly with one shot, and we used a tow strap to position it all the
way up on the road to process the bull. We took it apart clean as a whistle, zero pack out. About a minute or so later
the smaller bull came back over the road and walked through the backdrop of a photo that I took.

This hunt was challenging in the fact you don’t have as much in your control as other hunts. Moose can be sparsely distributed, tough to locate, and the country they like is often dog hair thick until the snow flies. Lots of folks helped me on this hunt and it was fun talking to the loggers on their way out that night.
One of them actually had a short video of that bull from earlier that morning! He Air Dropped it to me
and I’ll share that on our @redshunting on Instagram. Everyone we talked to on the way home was
awesome, and I’m sure there are plenty of pictures floating around with a giant moose head on top of a
Jeep. Lots of paparazzi on the way home haha. Thanks also to folks on Hunting-Washington. It’s nice to have such a cool spot to share.





















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[JFowl36]

Incredible story and bull!

[blackveltbowhunter]

  what a bull. Big congrats!

[flyguide]

Aww man, with archery gear? You are going to bump my Moose out of the top 5. Congrats

Ha no no no, I started with archery gear and passed up a bull on the opener, scratched that itch and went modern. I am having trouble getting this post formatted. Rifle bull.

[highside74]

Yeah I saw the pic then read the story. Awesome either way and it would have very an honor to get bumped down the list by a bull if this quality. Thanks for sharing

[MADMAX]

Sweet
Great story
Great bull
Congrats

[full choke]

Right on! 

Great story and pictures! Thank you for sharing.

[jstone]

Congratulations

[pickardjw]

Update us when he's up on the wall at the fly shop, I don't even fly fish much but I'll definitely stop in to see this thing in person!

[hawks33]

Awesome bull, great story, congrats!

[timberfaller]

Congrats!!!  Great hunt story, and the meat is a bonus for all that hard work!!!

[fishngamereaper]

Stellar bull  . Congrats....
But don't you feel just a little cheated....I mean in the road...all that planning, preparation and you didn't even get to pack it for days on end in miserable conditions..