Rufous' Huckleberry Moose hunt

[finnman]

Nice job Brian! I am glad you got it done before Sunday! And with a great bull! Congrats!

[billythekidrock]

Congrats.

[M_ray]

Congrats!
Good eats right there! 

[280ackley]

Congrats on your bull.  Is your brother still looking for his?

[jackelope]

congrats rufous...another bull down.

waiting to hear about your brother's hunt too.

[Rufous]

I can attest that moose tenderloin is mighty tasty!!! My moose had 6 points on the right and 8 on the left and it had a 31" spread. The front legs weighed 85 and 93# (one of them had more neck meat attached) and the rear legs weighed 86 and 89#. The weights were with no hide of course and the lower leg removed. The combined weight of the legs was 353# which is more than most really big black bears total live weight. Pretty impressive. I also had 80# of meat from the backstrap, tenderloin, heart and scrap. My wife and I will be in some great meat for a while.

My brother will not start his moose hunt until November 17th. So I will be looking for some help from you locals as to the snow conditions when it gets closer as well as whether or not the moose have transitioned to lower country.

Thanks so much to all of you for the help, advice, tips and general support. It was a really fun hunt, starting with the news of the draw to the scouting and then the actual hunt. Brian.

[C-Money]

Congratulations! Nice Moose!

[mlgunkel]

Congratulations.  Nice Job.  Thanks for sharing your story!  I really enjoyed it.
Mark

[mingo]

Sounds like you made on heck of a nice shoot.  Good luck with the harvest!

[Bullquest]

Congratulations! Ain't this moose huntin FUN?! I am hooked so bad I have already made plans to go to Alaska next fall with a buddy who's brother guides up there! Now I can't wait till next season and this ones not over yet.

[270Shooter]

Congratulations
Looks like the freezer will be full for a while

[Rufous]

I picked up my moose meat tonight from the butcher. I ended up with (not counting the heart or tenderloins which I did not take to the butcher):

155# of burger
25# of breakfast sausage
43# of Round Steak
14# of Sirloin/Sirloin Tip steak
21# in roasts
20# of Backstrap steak
7# of shoulder steaks

Total of 285#. I took 410# to the butcher. That was the four legs with bone in but lower leg bone removed and of course hide removed (which came to 353# for the 4 legs) and then 57# of scrap meat. It is hard to imagine that the leg bones and waste meat weighed 125#. The meat hung for several days so I would guess there would be some drying out losses. Does anyone think I ended up with too little meat? Thanks, Brian.

[Ray]

Awesome Moose 

[luvtohnt]

I am not sure why so many people think this is a problem. My dad was a butcher for many years and says you almost always lose 50-60 percent of total body weight by the time you are finished with cutting (especially with boneless meat). I have been with him on some jobs he does for friends and in beef and pork I saw it happen. After they were shot and bled out we weighed. Gutted and skinned weighed again and lost roughly 28% of total weight. After 12 days weighed again lost like 9 pounds from drying, then butchered. It was done all boneless and final weight was about 44% of total weight from the start. So he lost a total of 56% of the animals body weight and that was the only animal he cut that day so there was no mixing up of the meat. Mixing up of the meat may happen but not very common. I did the math and you only lost 31% in bone weight which I think is accurate.

Brandon

[Rufous]

My brother Ethan and I are back from his moose hunt. We left Walla Walla on Sunday the 16th and drove up to Springdale then headed west toward the pass and south before crossing over the pass to set up camp. Here is a photo of the view from camp.



Here is another photo of the sunrise we woke up to the first morning.



We cruised the roads on Monday and ended up seeing 6 moose, the last one was in the road in the dark on the way back to camp but we could not tell if it was a bull or cow. For sure we saw two bulls, both of which only had one antler. The bigger one was really nice, almost should have shot it. Here is a photo of one of the cows we saw. She was just on the other side of the Indian Reservation Boundary and so was safe.



Tuesday my good buddy Mike drove up to join us. He left Walla Walla at 2am and arrived at 6am. He had never seen a moose and said that he hoped he would not jinx us. Tuesday we saw no moose. That stinker jinxed us. Wednesday we decided to try the Scoop Mtn area and when we got up in there to "The Glassing Spot" that Finnman knows we saw a bull up above us. My brother wanted this bull and could have taken it at 430 yards if he would have used my rifle but he had recently worked up a load with his 30-'06 and wanted to use his own rifle so we tried to put a stalk on it. My buddy was stoked because he finally got to see a moose and a bull moose at that. Ethan and I headed up the hill and I got him within 75 yards but he did not see it as his glasses were fogged up and he could not hear me telling him to shoot the bull because he had his ear plugs in. It was a rather frustrating effort but we just pressed on after that bull gave us the slip. Then we drove over to the Empey Mtn area and cruised the roads. Mike decided to head home as he needed to be back to work on Thursday. Ethan and I then headed over the pass and south of the pass up a drainage. We saw and heard several moose including a couple bulls but it was getting quite dark and the bulls were not offering up a shot in the brush. Some of the cows must not have been bred yet as they were moaning and the bulls were grunting. You hunters probably already know where we planned on hunting Thursday morning.

So we get up early Thursday and head for the drainage seemingly full of moose. We got back to where we had seen them the previous evening and sure enough before long we can hear a bull grunting. Eventually he comes into view and my brother decides to take him. It was a younger bull but he was quite happy to take it as he was mostly interested in getting some prime eating meat. The bull was only 163 yards away and was across the drainage from us at about the same level. My brother got down on his butt and used his Kramer Snipepod to sent the 180 Nosler Accubond on its way. We cronographed the load the previous week during his late season whitetail doe hunt (he took a doe) at 2650 fps. Anyway the bull was quartering towards us and Ethan put the bullet between the bulls neck and onside shoulder. The bullet passed through the vitals and broke the offside ribs just behind the offside elbow, lodging against the hide. He stepped forward a few steps and I told Ethan to hit him again so he shot the bull in the neck. I saw the bullet impact the neck as I watched through my binocular. The bull went down immediately and that was the end of it. That bullet exited. Here are a couple shots of Ethan with his 2008 Huckleberry Range moose.





And here is photo of my 150# brother with a 108# load of pack and moose head.



It was not far from the moose to the road but it was a steep climb at the last up to the road. I wish I had my camera handy when Ethan hauled out the head. I had to push and pull him up the slope there at the end at when we were a few feet from the road I gave him a mighty push which got him up on the road but he stumbled and went down flat on his chest. He said, "I have fallen and can't get up". It was rather hilarious.

His bull was a bit smaller in weight than mine. My bull's legs and scrap meat amounted to 420# while Ethan's amounted to 370#. All in all it was a great hunt for my bull and for my brothers. Thanks to all who offered advice on places to hunt. Brian.