Hey all,
I'd like to thank burnhamrandr and The Hunt for the scouting recommendations early on, and WAcoyotehunter for the help at the end.
Warning: SKIP TO DAY EIGHT IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO READ THE WHOLE THING
Opening day (Thurs.) of the season consisted of an 8 mile hike that turned up nothing but old sign and ended up wounding my dad (who would turn 65 on the 5th) and relegated him to light duty for the rest of the hunt.It also wore out my brother in-law and my buddy who were there to help should I score before the weekend was over.
Day two (Fri.) had weather move in and us drive to another area I had scouted quite a bit leading up to the opener, this area had produced bulls the last couple of years and I had seen several different animals in this area scouting. I ended up seeing and passing on three different bulls that day. On the way back to camp that night I stopped by Gold's camp to let him know i was going to move camp down to this other area after the activity we had seen that day.
After wishing them good luck and heading to camp, we hook up the trailer and start the 15 mile gravel road crawl at 9:00pm down out of the area. When we reach the two mile marker something catches my eye off the edge of the road. Once we get the train stopped, we find an unlucky but lucky fellow that had rolled his Toyota truck over the embankment and came to rest against a tree (thus being lucky)on it's top. We proceed to spend the next few minutes removing him from his truck via the back window and the next half hour talking him into letting us take him to meet his wife in the thriving metropolis of Usk. By the time we are all said and done doing our good deeds for the day and setting the trailer back up, we got to bed around 1:00am.
Day three (Sat.) sees a bunch of glassing and no moose to show for it. While returning to camp that afternoon my brother in-law and my buddy run into a bull on the road about a half mile from camp, after not being able to reach me and knowing what I was looking for, they happened upon another moose hunter and told him about the bull they had just seen. He heads down to where they seen it go into the woods and pursues it. He ended up killing the bull 150 yards or so up off the road and with their help was able to winch it out to the road whole. While we were there I got to meet whacker1 who stopped by while up hunting elk, I know he has photos of the bull or may have already posted them. The evening for me was more of what the morning held, nothing.
Day four (Sun.) was when I was going to loose my help, as work was calling my brother in-law and my buddy was going to be leaving to go elk hunting in Idaho with his uncle and another family friend of ours. We ended up seeing nothing that day as well, but my buddy ended up wanting to stay with us until Tuesday, so we made the arrangements.
Day five (Mon.) we were looking for a birthday bull for pops and his wounded knee, but only found bullwinkle that afternoon.
Day six (Tues.) my buddy and I headed off into the timber and down into a basin after a bull an elk hunter had seen the day before, while my dad watched from above. After one to many radio conversations we decided we would turn off the radio and check in at 15 min. intervals, well after finding our way to the bottom and onto an old skid road we decide to check in (much longer than 15min.), we get a hold of my dad and get a brief chastising for not being able to get a hold of us twenty minutes earlier when he was watching a bull head off into the clear cut were heading for. We head down this skid road thinking it was taking us where we wanted to go, but soon finding out that wasn't the case. We end having to backtrack and head down through more jungle to our destination. We find the tracks and follow them right back to the patch of timber we basically walked through earlier, what luck. After that we decide to hike the remaining two miles out to the gate as my buddy has to meet up with our friend to head to elk camp that afternoon. While meeting up with our friends they told us if we needed any help they would make the trip back up from elk camp (2 1/2 hours) and give us a hand, as their season didn't start until Sat. the 10th. What a great bunch of guys!
Day seven (Wed.) we found the only two cows that didn't have a bull with them.
Day eight (Thurs.) This was my slated day to leave success or not. After hunting the morning I was headed back to camp to pack up and go home, when i run across three gentlemen standing along the road glassing the draw we had been hunting earlier in the week. These guys were looking for elk, as two had muzzy tags. While talking with two of them the third, who I find out is WAcoyotehunter, asks if I had a moose tag, as there is a bull grunting down in the draw below the road. WAcoyotehunter and his friends were kind enough to hang out for close to 45 minutes and try to get this bull to show himself to no avail. I had decided to move half way down this ridge covered with god awful (waxy something or other) buck brush, to try and locate this bull that was making all the noise. Upon reaching a suitable vantage point and settling in I hear WAcoyotehunter give a couple more grunts and see him head off down the road to continue their interrupted hunt, but not before stopping by my camp and letting my father know what I was doing and that I would like him to spot for me from across the canyon. THANK YOU!!!
As I sat on the ridge glassing and listening for the bull to start grunting again I seen that my dad made it to his vantage point and I made contact with him. While waiting for the bull to start talking again I make a few calls and get up to glass the bottom when I see a one paddle bull working his way up the ridge 40 yards away and closing. I hit my dad on the radio and ask him if he's seeing this, after some looking he says I see him. I make a couple of more grunts and old one paddle is coming down hard on me, I ready my rifle more for protection than anything and stand up and scare the bull away at 10 yards, what a rush. Thinking this was the bull that was making all the noise, i get my dad on the radio and ask if he watched me run the bull off, to which he says the bull I see hasn't moved and is still standing there staring uphill. I look down the draw and there stands another bull, so I start calling again and up he comes. I get him to around 280yrds and decide to take a shot, just as he makes a turn away from me and disappears into a thick bunch of brush, damn, no shot. I don't end up seeing him again until he is 500+ yards away going into another patch of brush. I hit dad on the radio and tell him I'm going after him and head across the hillside trying to close the distance. I make it half way across the hillside using the wisdom bestowed upon me by WAcoyotehunter, sound like a moose. I am walking and grunting while making noise(most of the noise couldn't be avoided). All of a sudden the bull starts grunting again and he has moved back under me. I started raking a tree and grunting and this gets him grunting even more. Before I know it he sounds as though he's trying to back door me, so I turn and move quickly down a game trail back out to the edge of the thicket I was in. I throw out a couple more grunts as I see him crest a little ridge across from me and hold up behind a small tree. As I was trying to get back on this bull I was trying to keep my dad informed and let him know where this bull was so maybe he could find him and offer some help, but he just couldn't manage to find him until I was at this point in the hunt. While I'm waiting this bull out behind the tree he comes on the radio with "I got him" about this time the bull steps around the tree grunts and paws at the dirt, and I stand up and finish the hunt. The bull ended up taking three rounds from my 300 Win Mag. at 52 yards and my dad got to watch the whole thing from across the canyon through his binoculars.
After a whole lot of celebration, I woke up and realized I had a bunch of work in front of me. After getting the bull gutted and halved we made the call for help. They called back and said they were on there way, but wouldn't be there until after dark. When they arrived after dark we showed them what lay ahead and it was decided that it would be best off to tackle it in the morning at daylight. They opted to drive back to my buddies uncle's house and hour away and meet us back there at daylight(did I mention what great guys these were).
At daylight they pulled into camp we headed for the bull and five hours later it in the back of truck. They stayed and helped us get it taken care of and loaded and were back off to their elk camp(did I mention what great guys these were).
Sorry about the length of this, but know it took me a lot longer to hunt and peck it together then it did for those of you who stuck with it to read it.
Brute
As he lay, before the fun.
With my dad
With my buddy Robby
Bubba,Dad,Ernie - I can't thank Bubba, Ernie and Robby enough for going out of their way to come and help retrieve this animal. Did I mention what great guys these are!!!!!!!
