Mt. Spokane north bull moose tag drawn

[mountainman]

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[brew]

Right on.  Awesome job

[Boss .300 winmag]

Well no lights on that rack, so I guess you weren’t cheating. Nicely done.👍

[jrebel]

Nice bull!!  Congrats, can't wait to hear the story. 

Super happy for you!! 

[Bonnie]

Congrats on filling your OIL tag with a beautiful bull ..

[NOCK NOCK]

Congrats Dewey!!

[LDennis24]

Congratulations!

[bearpaw]

Glad to see you got it done! 

[HikerHunter]

great bull, nicely done!

[boneaddict]

Congratulations Dewey

[mountainman]

Okay guys, life has finally slowed down a little. Here’s the story:
As posted above, I drew for the Mt. Spokane north tag. Pretty excited! Put in for 35 years ( including prior to the point system). Called and told my son and hunting partner and he almost went through the roof! Following day I recieved a phone call from my best man 44 years ago, “Hey, I live on the Little Spokane and am going to help! He actually had these 2 bulls living in his backyard as we were talking!

[mountainman]

So…., as fate would have, an email arrived several weeks later from WDFW. Yup, lost my tag! I was crushed! All those years down the tube I thought! Like some on here, the shock turned to anger with the screw-up. But alas, 15 minutes later I was suprised that I still had a tag!? I was now the owner of a Mt Spokane West tag! The research began again! I soon found out this unit, with only 2 tags allotted, is a whole different kind of hunt. Mostly private land, scattered tidbits of DNR, and some large tracts of timberland. The big difference is those lands, if you can get to them, are gated for boot only traffic. The scouting begins along with the phone calls. Carrie, the moose biologist was a great help, along with several members here

[mountainman]

Thursday, the 17th found us up at 4a.m., ready to go. The plan was to hike into the same area by first light but top out on a higher road with more of a commanding view of the drainage. As we hiked, we were seranaded with wolf howls in the basin we were heading to, not a good sign! We made it to our vantage point and quickly spotted the cow from the day before, but nothing else. Then, around 8:15, suddenly there he was! 450 yards and frozen! Getting prone and dialing the Nightforce sitting atop the Christensen .300 PRC, we waited, as his vitals had a yellowing tamarack covering his vitals. With what seemed like an hour, but was actually 3-4 minutes, he took 2 steps and stopped. At the shot the 212 ELDX pulled the carpet out from under him! A couple kicks and he was motionless! The cheers, hugs, and high fives began! We had our bull! It was a quick hike down to our bull. Walking up to him, we were in awe at his size and beauty! To touch him and say a quick prayer of thanks, the picture taking and knife work began. Harold hiked out to grab his adopted mustang back home and the remaining four of us began the cutting. With 8 hands and plenty of sharpening we had the beast quartered and boned and hanging in the trees in about 3 hour, just in time for the horses to arrive. The rest of the story is less exciting. Had the meat hanging in a cooler a couple hours later. The following day was a drive to WDFW in the Valley for lymphoid and tooth removal. Then to the cooler to debone the meat as it cannot leave the unit with any bone due to CWD threat

[mountainman]

More pics..

[mountainman]

Couple more…
Now nothing left but some amazing memories with my favorite buddies and a rack (43 inches). Couldn’t ask for any of it to be different, and am 100% happy with how it all happened! And with 9 mouths in my household, 425#’s of boneless meat is the cherry on the top!
Thanks for reading, and good hunting to all!
Dewey