I’ll tag out when it feels right. That’s the message I was telling myself after getting back from a fire assignment and dealing with the loss of my 14.5 year old black lab that I spent 10 years hunting over. Season opened August 30th and the end of August and beginning of September brought a few holdover lightning fires that I had to spike out on and put out with another guy. September 2nd came and I was ordered for a fire assignment in the south that would then consume all the days up to September 26th. August 22nd-September 26th was a total of 35 days worked. Boy was I tired and needed until September 29th to relax and care for my late partner in crime.
I decided to hunt September 30th and October 1st in familiar country where my cameras were and I see the most moose when I’m working and off the clock. Checked my trail cameras and had cow calf pairs on 3 and a really nice bull on another! After hunting near the trail cams and calling with no success, I went and hiked around a Lookout tower where some nice brush fields and moose habitat is. Snow/Rain/Sleet/Hail rounded out the weekend with a trip over to Montana for fuel.
I had to work this week, but made it out after work Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday for quick afternoon road hunts with minimal moose activity except for seeing one cow in a creek that’s named after the species. Thursday was a new day. Most of the days besides Thursday were your typical North Central Idaho Mtn Fall crappy weather days. Rain and fog. Thursday was nice and sunny getting up to about 63 degrees. Once quitting time arrived, I walked over to the cabin to see if a co worker wanted to go for an afternoon cruise. We decided that was a good idea. We grabbed our guns, kill kits, beverages, and a radio. We took off and made the loop like we always do when we grouse hunt only seeing fly fisherman and white tail. It was 4:49 pm when we got to an intersection that determined what loop we’d take in the UTV and I told my co worker go right. We were slowly cruising up the terrible road looking at fresh tracks in the ground. Deer, wolf, deer, that’s a moose track! We continued up the road looking over in the fern and ocean spray glades as we went along and stopped to shoot a grouse. We took a break and drank a beer and talked about what it must have been like when the area was logged in the 70’s-90’s as most of the area hasn’t been touched since then. Not much elk in the area these days like it was before the tough winters in the 90’s. After we got done crushing beverages, we continued creeping up the road looking out for moose. Came around a corner at 5:25 pm and wham! Bull Moose! He was standing 15 feet uphill with a clear shot if I got up on top of the cutbank! We let out a few grunts and the bull stood still. I whispered to my co worker, close your ears! I took a few breaths, settled the cross hairs in the boiler room, Booom! “You F****** nailed him in the lungs!” We watched him do a back flip directly downhill onto the road. He was still flopping taking his last breaths so I chambered 2 more rounds and put them in his neck. 5:30 pm, heavy emotions. I just shot a bull moose at 50 yards and he’s on a road!!!!
We take a few moments to reflect and then get to work snapping some pictures and punching my tag. My adrenaline was flowing good and while my co worker was getting p cord to tie around his legs to turn him around with the UTV, I grabbed his ass end and flipped him 180 degrees. We still can’t believe that I rotated a bull like that. No wonder my back is messed up as a write this
. Usually both my co worker and I like doing the gutless method, but it made more sense for us to field dress him and get the guts out of the way. Worked perfectly. We spent the next 3 hours quartering him up and getting the burger meat off of him. At that point my station foreman calls me on the repeater asking if we’re alright. I didn’t have good commo, but she heard moose down, all is well and let out a big congrats over the air. We got him loaded up by 8:30 pm and start the drive back to our cabins. Got back at 10:30 pm. The next hour we fooled around wondering where are we going to hang the game bags from out of the public eye away from bears? We ended up putting him in the back of my truck except for the backstraps/tenderloins/organs bag and burger bag that I put in a cooler in my cabin. We drank some more beer and called it a night at about midnight 10/6.
I normally don’t wake up before dawn breaks, but today I did. I knew I needed to send texts out to my Hunt Wa buddies and Dad. Went to work at 7:00 AM and the boss said well I know what you’re doing today
. Got the quarters cleaned up some more and more ice in the cooler for the other game bags and took off over the hill to Montana for the butcher. Got back to the work center, loaded the cooler and my gear up to head north this evening and took off for town. Got to town and put the meat I still had in my fridge and got the temps into the upper 30s. Perfect. Don’t have to worry about this until I start my leave Tuesday! I continued on with my commute up north.
Looking back, I wouldn’t change a damn thing about how this Once in Lifetime tag went. I knew it was a tough unit looking at the elk success and let alone the moose success rates. I didn’t consult with the useless computer keyboard biologists on ideas as they don’t have a damn clue what exists out in the unit besides doing their goat surveys. I talked to many folks this summer out recreating and found past tag holders to talk with. Talked to locals who hunted the area for the years and the Russell Pond/ BC outfitters as I see them regularly. Consulted with other agency folks, conservation officers, and the county deputy who patrols the area in the summer. All of those folks I thanked or will thank and I’m forever grateful my co worker and I decided to go for a road hunt Thursday!
Now I have 3 different weeks I plan to take off and real no itchy trigger finger. I have an elk tag for the zone and a white tail tag but high expectations now since I don’t need any meat. Might just start trapping and going after lions and wolves. Good problem to have I guess
Sorry about the mark uos but we don’t want PETA to drag us under water with employment since they have a history of doing that.
