Jay (aka Goldtip) and Silent Bob's Selkirk Moose adventure..........

[GoldTip]

with special guest star, Boneaddict.......

So the title of this story comes from mine and Bob's wive's both thinking that it's hilarious there are actually a couple movie characters called Jay and Silent Bob, so if you get the reference here goes.

My Moose adventure started with me asking multiple questions here on the forum in regards to the Selkirk unit for which I'd drawn the tag, just had never really hunted that area.  I got very excellent scouting advice from guys like Boneaddict, Intruder, Machias and WAcoyotehunter.  So to those fella's and anyone else who gave me advice I need to thank all of you, I appreciated your help.

1st hunting day (Oct 1) started with me lying awake all night, as on  September 30th when I shut the generator off in the camper, the whole trailer went dead.  My batteries were dead and come to find out had gone bad, so we had no heat and at the elevation we were camping I was concerned for busted pipes and and frozen water.  So toss and turn for both good reasons and reasons which had nothing to do with hunting.  Opening morning dawned mostly cloudy and cool.  Silent Bob and I put on about four miles that morning finding multiple rut pits and some serious rubs.  Did quite  a bit of calling in very good looking area's with no responses.  Came back to camp at noon, drove into Priest Lake and bought 2 new deep cycles and came back to camp and got the camper figured out.  Hunted that night in the same area as the morning, setting up over some ponds/marshes where I had seen Moose while scouting over the summer.  NWbrute was camped up the road from me and we touched base, he had much the same experience opening day, covered lots of miles, but no Moose sightings.  Here is a picture of Silent Bob on our overlook from opening day.

[GoldTip]

Day 2 started off with at least us being able to get some lights on in the camper and not getting dressed in the dark  Silent Bob and I were had what we referred to as an "epic" planned for day two. We stole this term from one of our Moose guides in Canada last year.  He referred to an epic as any hike/hunt you did which required way more effort than it was worth to kill an animal.  By GPS it would have required about 8 miles of territory, but as I had scouted most of it over the summer, I knew it was very brushy with quite a few elevation changes.  We awoke to the the sky spitting wet crappy snow and we headed out.  About a mile in to our "epic" I put a halt to it. it was just too damn wet out and with the brush we were going to be going through all day, I called off the "epic" and said screw this, let's go cover some ground from the warm dry seat of the truck.  Here is Silent Bob looking out from under our protection of the tree's at the lousy weather.

We spent the day driving around hitting area's I had scouted and glassing, ran into NWbrute and he had passed a couple bulls that morning as they weren't just what he was looking for.  That night NWbrute came by camp and said he was pulling up stakes and heading into the area we ran into him earlier in the day as he had seen more Moose down that way.  We went to bed that night with 2 days of hunting under our belts and no Moose sightings as of yet.

[GoldTip]

Day three started with us heading to an entirely different area.  We headed north and into the snow.  We got up to Bunchgrass meadows and started calling, at last I called in a bull.  He was maybe 28-30" with single fronts.  Nothing I was interested in, with my bow or other wise, but at least Silent Bob new that my calling wasn't what was keeping the Moose away.  It was fun letting him walk off and then calling him right back out, he wanted to find the chick real badly.  Reminded me of a college freshman who just kept chasing the drunk girl at the bar.....

[GoldTip]

Called in two more bulls that day, all of about the same size as the one in the above picture, thought man, things are looking up.  Nothing I wanted to kill, but hey at least we are seeing Moose now.  The second one I called in came right through where NWbrute had been camped the previous day.  Thought that would have been kinda funny if he had still been there to call a bull right through his camp.  The night of day three a loud knock is at the door and who should be outside but Boneaddict (soon to be renamed "The Moose whisperer").  I had told him where I'd have my camp.  He came in and listened quite knowingly and was happy to hear we had called in some bulls.  I think he was disappointed we weren't seeing any bigger animals.  He told me where he was gonna head for picture taking the next morning, we told him where we were heading the next morning, and I invited him back for the next night, so we could touch base and see how things were going.  Offered him dinner which he declined, warm bed also declined, and off into the night he went.

[GoldTip]

Day four and Silent Bob and I are headed back to Bunchgrass meadows.  Called in the first bull there the day before, and there were some other meadows that were further up the draw that we wanted to hike into.  Now came the "epic", those meadows are big, and it's no short hike to go all the way round them, let alone go up the draw to the meadows further up.  Oh guess what, we were in luck, it's so windy that Silent Bob couldn't hear me calling from 50' away, let alone some moose hearing my calls.  We did find a pretty cool Grizzly territory tree, which was cool.  Drove into Ione, gassed up and had some lunch at Ken's bar and grill.  Got to see a huge 7x7 bull elk killed by a first time Muzzy hunter, so that was cool.  Drove over Pass creek that night and back around to camp.  Saw another small 28" bull and could have killed him in the road with my bow, must admit, had been in camp 6 days at this point and had not seen anything I even remotely wanted to spend my OIL tag on.  So when the thought crossed my mind that this bull would be easy to shoot with a bow.  I just gave the truck a little more throttle and let the bulls get off the road.

Got back to camp that night and Boneaddict (aka Moose whisperer) comes into camp.  He's got pictures of a 41" bull with good paddles and 3 brows on one side and 2 on the other and he has seen a 45" bull with triple brows on both sides, worst part is he knew where we'd gone that day, so he had actually been watching them, waiting to see us come  back down the road, from the direction we should have came from, but in my infinite stupidity had gone the other direction and had not even seen him.  I could not believe my poor luck, was getting a bit down in the mouth.  But Bone gave me some good advice on what to do the next morning to get on these two bulls and off into the night he goes.....  Here is a pic of the Grizzly marking tree, these marks were right at 18" to 24" above where I could reach and I am 6'1".  I could tell you where it is, but then I'd have to kill ya.........

[GoldTip]

So the morning of day 5 dawns cold and mostly clear, but it has gotten pretty cold over night.  I do exactly what Bone has told me to do, and I got nothing, no responses, no calls, no brush thrashing nothing.  Did glass up a prettly little cow Moose, but she was all alone and looked like she was heading for somewhere else.  So I headed for the bulls bedroom.  Got down in there, same area as day one, found fresh rut pits with no frost in them, now I'm bummed.  It's only 8am and in the thick timber only 400 yards as the crow flies and he was standing here making a rut pit while I was calling to him and he won't call back, man am I hopeless.  My calling must really suck, that or only little bulls like me.  We did find a good place for Silent Bob to rest his weary bones and contemplate why he ever became my hunting partner in the first place......

[washelkhntr]

I love it.... Cant wait to hear more of this story. Definately looks like fun though.

[GoldTip]

So the noon hours rolls around and finds Silent Bob and I back in our camp cooking pizza for lunch  when the Moose Whisperer rolls back into camp to see how we've done at killing these bulls he had had gift wrapped for us the night before.  I tell him the whole story and that dang thing had been there all along and that we found evidence of that with the fresh rut pits.  So I actually make him listen to my calls and he assures me they are just fine and will work and the bull just didn't feel like talking.  He comes into camp we all sit around and swap some tales and Moose Whisperer (Boneaddict) says maybe he could get him talking again tonight.  I tell him that I know he didn't come up here to waste his time helping me and that I appreciated the offer.  

I thought Silent Bob was gonna shoot me.  He can tell Bone knows what he's doing, and we've been stumbling.  I truly just did not want to impose on Boneaddict to help me.  But I did say well, Bone, if you don't mind Silent Bob and I will go hunt this other area for the afternoon, but if you've got nothing better to do, then I would appreciate meeting you back at the spot where you had them all rung up for me from last night.  Bone agree's and we'll meet there at 5:30.  So off we all go in different directions.   I get a bull talking to me at around 3:30, but he just won't move for me.  He's hanging in this bottom and I got no time to go after him and still meet up with Bone.  So around 4:45 we head out to go meet the Moose Whisperer and there is Bone standing on the corner right where he said he'd be.  Silent Bob and I drive past then get outta the truck.  This is not gonna be a bow shot where we were located, so I pack only my Browning stainless stalker in 325wsm.  We get back to Bone and he whispers that he's just waiting for the sun to go down behind the mountain before he gets calling.  The Moose don't wait that long.  We're not there 10 minutes when a bull grunts up on the ridge probably 700 yards away.  Bone grunts back and a completely different bull answers this time, even closer.   Bone grunts a few more times and now both bulls are talking, one up on the ridge to our right and one down in the bottom.  It sounds like the one in the bottom is gonna come through an opening down below so I head off the road and about 50 yards away from where Bone and Silent Bob are at.

I no more get set up then a third bull starts firing off and raking brush to our left, this one is even closer and he's not in a good mood.  His grunts were more angry sounds and you could just hear the big hollow sounds of his paddles raking brush.  This goes on for about 10 minutes and it's getting late, lots of shooting light left, but it's around 6:10 or so and we are in a valley.  Bone is down there calling and raking brush and the bull to our left is getting fired up and the bull in the bottom is still coming in.  The one up the ridge that first got the ball rolling has now shut up.  Silent Bob works his way down to where I am at and at about the same time, I see a tree shaking and hear the bull to our left raking brush, now I see a big paddle and he's gonna step outta the brush.  I tell Silent Bob where he is and to get a range for me and let me know how big he is,  I switch to prone over my pack and Silent Bob speaks, "He's 270, and your gonna want to kill that Bull."  I cross hair him with the 300yd reticle in my Leupy and let him have one right through the front shoulders.  I thought I heard a thwop and he jumps about 3 jumps forward and downhill and all I can see is antlers and make out his head through the brush.  Silent Bob says, "He's still standing, but he can't hold his head up."  I hold where I know I should shoot him for an angling to shot and this time I hear a thwop and he drops outta the scope.  Silent Bob says he's down and Bone come's down the road.  He didn't see the bull getting shot, but could hear the bullets hit and knew we had him down.  Hand shakes and congrats were handed around and we headed to see my bull.

[GoldTip]

Bone got some excellent pics and I hope he will add some to this thread, as he even let Silent Bob use his camera to take some pics with me and Bone of the bull.  So, after all the picture taking got done, we set about getting him gutted.  It was now flat out dark and we got the head lamps on and got'er done.  Was obviously a big help having Silent Bob and Boneaddict to help hold legs and hand knives to.  I was not head mounting him, so split him all the way up the brisket and to the chin and got him propped open to cool for the night, we were on a pretty steep hill, with lots of Mtn Laurel, which is a real treat to walk through.  It was gonna get cold that night and I didn't see any need for one of us getting hurt trying to get him outta there in the dark.  We headed back to camp with me in the  lead.  Not sure how I did it, but I musta walked at 45 degree angle when leaving the Moose, cuz what shoulda been a 200 yard walk out turned into 600 or so, guess I was not thinking straight quite yet.

Bone came back to camp and we cooked him our Moose camp specialty, Dinty Moore stew with grouse breast sauteed in it with some Kings Hawaiian sweet rolls.  I think Bone will agree it is actually a really great way to make both grouse and Dinty Moore taste better!  A couple libations were enjoyed and once again I offered Bone a dry place to sleep, but he rolled off into the night.  He offered to help us pack the bull out, but he had been way more than gracious and helpful already, and it wouldn't be that bad of a pack.

The next morning Silent Bob and  I halved the bull and slid him down the hill about 250 yards to a flat spot where we could work, then the butchering and the packing began.   It truly could have been much, much worse.  I butchered, and Silent Bob packed.  We timed it and it was a 8-10 minute round trip from where I was butchering to where Silent Bob dropped off the bagged meat.  So it went pretty well.  The most work was actually getting him down the hill to a spot where we could work on him.  Here is a couple pics of Silent Bob heading out with a pack full of Moose meat.

[GoldTip]

The last picture above shows the knife I bought from Rainshadow here on the site, it was one of his "budget" blades and the knife I used for the entire butchering process.  Very easy to put a quick edge back on, so kudo's to Rainshadow as well on this hunt for building a great knife.  Here are some pics of me heading out with the last load, and then the whole loaded up four wheeler trailer once we got out to the bikes.

Disclaimer: no forest service roads were damaged in any way or form by our use of four wheelers.  No gates were crossed and we followed all rules in regards to their use on the national forest in which we were hunting. 

[GoldTip]

Here's a pic of Wednesday morning headed out with a loaded up truck and trailer, headed for home.  Killed the bull on Monday night and spent Thursday getting him cut and in the freezer.  I can't thank Boneaddict (aka Moose whisperer in my book) enough.  I might still be sitting in camp trying to figure out why I can seem to call in bulls, but they are juveniles.  Thanks to my hunting partner, Silent Bob, for packing that rifle around while I drug my bow along trying to get a good bull with a bow, and for being a great guy to have in camp.

And for those of you who might not know Boneaddict all that well I can tell you this, when he say's an animal is a certain size, then it's by god that size.  On Sunday night when he saw this Moose, he told us it was right at 45" with good palms, triple brows on both sides and right at 12 total points per side, but not all would be scoreable.  My bull is pretty much exactly that to the gnats eyelash.  Bone might not know diddly, but he damn sure knows Moose.  Some of you younger guys may not get that reference to tv commercials from the 80's, but it's pretty damn funny for 4:15am.

Now I rough green scored him and gross came up with right at 157".  It was a rough green score, that I am posting because everyone will read this thread and ask if I put a tape to him yet.  I may have counted an extra point that wasn't quite longer than it was wide, but I didn't count every bump on his palms either, so keep your second guessing to yourself.   I know how to add, and I've seen the score sheets, so it's not all that far off.

Hope you all enjoyed the story as much as I enjoyed writing it.  I know you didn't enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed living it!  Oh, and NWbrute, if your reading this, I hope you found a nice bull.

[MADMAX]

Good story and good job

[boneaddict]

Silent Bob can sure make grouse taste good.  He went out to inform the Mrs. what we were up to and he almost lost his portion of stew.  It was my pleasure to meet and be part of your hunt.  You guys are a class act and would love to do it again in a heartbeat.  Thanks!   By the way, that was one hell of a shot.  Not a lot of guys out there that I would trust to make it and you mailed it.

It was pretty cool working that bull.  He was fired up.  I think I scared Bob when I dove onto that bush and started "working it".  LOL   From my point of view I was trying to pick the bull out or watch the brush moving, meanwhile the other bull was coming in.  I saw Jay bring his gun up so figured he had a visual, then he switched to prone.  At that time the other bull came into view about 50 yards down the hill.  I couldn't see his horns but could see a lot of bull so he must not have been as big.  I hadn't seen this guy yet, but man could hear the paddle when he was raking.  I knew it was a good one.  When I heard the crack of the rifle and heard that thwack, I was elated.    I was so excited as I ran back to the truck to get the smaller lens and some gear, I locked my keys in the truck.  THANK GOD I learned my keyless entry code that morning. 

[boneaddict]

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[boneaddict]

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