Filled Our Moose Tags

[worktohunt]

 First of all I want to say thanks to all of the guys on this site who helped me out. These hunts would not have gone nearly as well as they did without the help that I received from you guys. I drew the hangman cow moose tag and decided to head over there for the opener as Courtney still had school volleyball going on and wouldn't be able to go until the 13th. My buddy Brett and I headed over Friday afternoon to meet up with Colby and stay at his house. When we got there we decided to go in early and try to get high before daylight. We got to the Starr Rd gate at 5am and started walking. Didn't see much sign until we were almost on top but then it was all over the place. As we were about a 1/4 mile from the top a cow jumped up that was bedded next to the road and gave me a quartering away shot at 70 yards. The 300 roared and she didn't even flinch so I took another shot at her front shoulder which still didn't phase her as she walked out of sight. As we rounded the corner we could see her bedded at about 60 yards so I put one more shot in her neck and I had my first moose ever. It was a really fun and quick hunt. We gutted her and walked the 6 miles back down to the truck to meet the security guy to let us in with the truck. We got her loaded whole and drove to Colby's father in laws where we picked her up with the tractor and skinned and quartered her. We packed her with ice and headed out on the 6 hour drive home. We would have never believed on the way over that we would be headed home the next day before noon with my moose.
  On to Courtneys hunt, she had the youth Mt Spokane cow tag. When I brought mine home her best friend Ky'lee came over and saw it and decided she wanted to go along on Court's hunt. On Thursday morning the 13th at 5 am we headed out arriving at Colby's around noon. After unloading, eating, and putting on our hunting clothes we headed out. We had scouted her tag in the summer on a family camping trip to Idaho so we knew where we wanted to be. We got to our area around 1:30pm and did some driving around to try and figure out where the most sign was. I had bought the girls a bag full of junk food for munching on and after a couple of hours of that and sitting all day they wanted to go for a walk and I was ready for them to burn some energy. I had remembered a place that looked like a good one to walk into from our scouting trip so we headed there and started walking. Almost immediately we were into very fresh tracks. All the sugar was kicking in and I had to reel the girls back in and slow them down, these moose have to be close by. As we rounded a corner about 150 yards later we hear a whoof and look to our left and there stands a really nice bull and a cow at 60 yards. I get her on the shooting sticks but she cant see because the brush is to high so I tell her to shoot off hand if she gets a chance.
  The bull steps in front of the cow and blocks her for no shot. About that time the cow spooks and it sounds like 5 or 6 moose take off down the hill sounding like horses running. One of them lets out a bull moose call along the way so I figure there are 2 bulls. The bull still stands there so I do my best Jim Shockey imitation and put my hands over my head and sway them back and forth as we walk at him up the trail. At about 40 yards he has had enough and turns and walks up the hill. Great, we have a cow at 50 yards and don't even get a shot. I check the wind and its still in my face and I can hear them running around below me so I think what the heck and decide to try and mimic the bull call I just heard. As I do it the girls look at me like I'm crazy but before I can say anything to them we hear a moose running our way from about 150 yards below. It is coming in fast and sounds like a horse running at us, next thing I know I have 2 girls hiding behind me with saucer sized eyes. I'm like wait a minute, you have the gun and this thing isn't going to run us over so Court steps up beside me and I tell her to shoot it if its a cow. At about 30 yards we can see the brush moving and it hangs up so I call again and it starts coming again. At about 30 feet it stops again right before we could see it and I call again and I see ears step out, sweet its a cow, Court can't see it cause shes not tall enough. The cow sees and hears us and starts walking down the hill, Court has the gun up and as I am thinking about moving cause we can't see her she shoots which scares the crap out of me. I ask her what she was shooting at and she gives me this look like really dad? She says she could see the cow through her scope and had it on her shoulder when she shot. That 2 feet between us gave her the angle and not me. I step to the left about 5 feet and there she is at 60 yards broadside in the open looking at us, I pull Court over to me and show her the cow and tell her to shoot her again which she does but the cow just turns and walks down the hill. She is shooting a 30-06 with 180 grain bullets and this cow acts likes its a bb gun. By now the cow is out of sight so we walk to the road in case she crosses it and start working back towards where we last saw her. As I am looking up the hill Court says there she is right in front of us and I can just see her butt sticking out of the brush at 80 yards and nothing else. She had crossed the road out of sight of us. I put her on the sticks and tell her to shoot her right in the butt, we need to get her down! She shoots and hits right in front of the hindquarters through the back breaking it and dropping her right there. Holy crap she did it! The bruch is moving and after a few minutes we decided to head up there and finish her off if she could get the shot. At about 20 feet the brush got really thick so I started walking on it to knock it down until I was about 5 feet away from her and could finally see her at which time she lifts her head and looks at me. I have Court come over beside me and tell her to shoot her in the neck so she won't suffer anymore. Unknown to me the first 2 shots were not felt by Court but the 3rd one rocked her and the scope hit her forehead so she wasn't to excited about another shot but told me later that she had to do it so the cow wouldn't suffer any more. At 8 feet she shot her in the neck looking through the scope which I am surprised at that range she could see or hit anything but it worked and she had her first moose down. Ky'lee had been right behind us every step of the way and got to watch it all. Both girls had such an adrenaline rush that they couldn't stop shaking for 20 minutes, it was awesome, better than I could have ever hoped it would turn out. Ky'lee called her Dad and told him she wanted to start hunting as we were taking pictures. I was able to drive right to her and put a choker on her and drag her out to the road where we took pictures and gutted her. The girls helped with the gutting and got an anatomy lesson after they were out. They were both super interested in everything I showed them. They both did awesome, way better than I could have hoped for, I had no idea how they would react as they watched the cow take her last breath being girls and new to seeing that but they both did extremely well and I was proud of them. It did not diminish their excitement at all. Colby and his 2 boys showed up to help us load her and with the kids in the back of the truck holding on for dear life and Colby and I dead lifting her up an inch at a time we got her loaded whole which is still hard to believe! She is the envy of all the boys at school right now! Between these 2 hunts, my Utah elk hunt, my spring bear hunt, and the hunts we have left this is the best season I have ever had. Watching Courtney shoot that moose is definetely one of the best moments of my hunting memories!

[vandeman17]

Cool story. Congrats to the hunters on the moose! 

[Hornseeker]

Cool Cool!

And.... Double Cool!!!

[MtnMuley]

That's way more than a frezer full!  Congrats!

[boneaddict]

Thats awesome!

[bucklucky]

SWEET!

[carpsniperg2]

That is great!!!!

[Machias]

     Wohoo way to go!!!!

[Tony]

That's awsome, they look pretty excited. 

[rebal69972]

  congrats

[724wd]

two moose!  dang!!!     great season, and gives me hope my daughter will follow in my footsteps.  she's four and been in the blind with me for archery!  awesome!   

[SirSpencer]

Very cool!!! what size of freezer did you decide to head out and buy after getting those 

[Jason]

Congrats to the both of you!

[Hyde]

Holy pepperoni!!!  Great job on getting it done!  Glad to hear they are letting hunters in with their rigs to recover moose. 

[bearpaw]

excellent.....