Post by: finnman on October 04, 2008, 09:31:14 PM
I call my contact in Springdale as we head back, he suggests we meet up with him at 5:30am to go into his honey hole to see whats cooking, he informs us that he was in there on Sunday with a friend and they saw 11 bulls in this area that day. I am thinking great this guy is one of those story tellers and you have to take everthing he says with a grain of salt. :dunno: Boy were we too see differently! :chuckle:
Sept. 30th we get out of our cots at 3:30am and have some cereal and coffee and head out. We meet up with DJ, who was a real nice family guy, married his highschool sweetheart 17 years ago and has 4 great kids, we met all but the oldest boy. Talking with DJ I see he is just like most of us, a real hunting fanatic! And his favorite is big bull MOOSE! He has been involved on several other tag holders hunts in the past and has found some real monsters in this one drainage.
It takes us till 6:30 to wind our way up the mountain to his favorite spot, all of a sudden both him and my wife yell "BULL"!!!! I jack the brakes and yell where! He was 25 yards to my left and stopped to play peekaboo for a second!
I quickly shut off the truck and DJ opens his door and grunts, the bull instantly moves quickly toward us for an awesome pose and lets out a challenging OOOWWWWWAAAAAA!!
We are all freaking out and and just stunned at his size, demeanor, elegance and most of all RACK! :drool: He walks off the bank down to the road and turns and saunters away, needless to say we are sold! This is the spot!
We continue down the road and try a different drainage and spot another big bull but he must have gotten a severe butt kicking because he had one side broke off! His good side was just as big as the first bull, we all talked about how big the bull must have been to kick his butt!
We leave this area and drop off Dj, to hot to sit out in the sun! we head back to camp for a nap and some water. Later that night we drove up east of Fruitland and wound our way to the crest and north to Hunters pass, this area looked good, we found some sign and rubs but no moose. We were resolved to look for the bull we saw that morning.
That night at about 10:45 my brother, WAPITIHUNTER and my friend James show up, we tell them what we saw and we all are giggling like school girls!!! We set the alarm clock for 3:30am and hit the sack.
Post by: jackelope on October 04, 2008, 09:34:02 PM
on with it, son!!
you let that bull walk? or was it a scouting pic?
Post by: DeKuma on October 04, 2008, 09:37:09 PM
Post by: Ridgerunner on October 04, 2008, 09:38:41 PM
Post by: fishing is for fools on October 04, 2008, 09:39:05 PM
Post by: jackelope on October 04, 2008, 09:54:20 PM
lets get on with it, finn!!
Post by: Craig on October 04, 2008, 09:59:45 PM
Post by: PolarBear on October 04, 2008, 10:02:33 PM
Post by: finnman on October 04, 2008, 10:56:11 PM
We got to the truck and drove down the bottom of the drainage toward the third grunt, we see a fresh rub at a corner on a small side canyon, we climb up a game trail and find more rub and some piss holes.
We call with no response, we rake a pine with no response, we head back to the truck and Paula says "did you hear that?" I say ya it was just a rock rolling down the steep canyon wall. We head back up to the group and they are all freaking out! I guess a big bull had come out of the timber above us and started heading down the slope to us, he never made a sound, just kicked a rock down the hill is all :bash: The bull lingered shortly and then just as quickly moved up slope through the boulders toward the top. They said he had the longest beard they had ever seen, it looked like a 5th leg :chuckle: They said it was wider then the first one with real long points, we regrouped and moved around above it but never saw it again that day. By then it was time for the pool and some sun screen, so we headed back to DJ's house for a nap and some hunting stories. At 4pm we left for a spot near his house that holds some good bulls, we got no more than 3 miles when everyone is bailing out of there rigs in a panic! 50 yards ahead of us there is this nice bull just going ape on his piss hole, he then walks across the gravel to the right into a small meadow and just preceeds to kick the crap out of 3 different clusters of willows, the whole time I am videoing this and talking to myself and Paula, I can't believe we are letting this bull go! I can't believe it, this is incredible, I almost had her take him just because we had this awesome footage, I later regretted not doing so, he was about 42" wide with triple brows on the right and doubles on the left, his right paddle was awesome but the left was real weak, like two different animals, that saved his bacon. We got one more bull calling but never saw him and spotted a dink at dark, all in all an exciting day of moose action.
More to come........
Post by: addicted on October 05, 2008, 12:16:39 AM
Post by: bucklucky on October 05, 2008, 12:52:42 AM
Post by: 280ackley on October 05, 2008, 08:22:58 AM
Post by: boneaddict on October 05, 2008, 08:57:08 AM
Post by: Wea300mag on October 05, 2008, 09:36:13 AM
Post by: boneaddict on October 05, 2008, 09:43:50 AM
Post by: X-Force on October 05, 2008, 09:57:52 AM
Post by: Hunting Cowboy on October 05, 2008, 09:58:46 AM
Post by: finnman on October 05, 2008, 10:21:22 AM
We catch up with DJ and take a new route into the HOLE, we arrive at daylight to find a red F-150 parked at the overlook its RUFOUS, somehow he found his way in here and heard about the bulls in this area, we drive past and start glassing like the day before, it is a little cloudy out and a bit cooler, we spot 2 small bulls and decide to go down to the side canyon with all the sign, we hike up the canyon and call, nothing. We rake, nothing, we back out and go back to the top and make a new game plan. Rufous is still at the lookout glassing, later on we would find out from DJ's buddy Gary(his high school principal) that Rufous was putting the move on a big bull in the head of the drainage. I guess they went in and spooked the bull and cow and were right around them several times, within 100 yards, but never took the shot! So close but so far away! While this was happening we drove to the other side of the canyon to look for the bull we named DAGGER, this is why, just as we turn off the main line onto the ridge road DJ and his buddy in front of us slam on the brakes! We stop, and pile out, "HURRY" he says, we look to the right and there 50 yards from the road is DAGGER, staring us down, I quickly get the Swarovskis focused on him, he is playing peekaboo behind a jack pine and I can't a clear look at his left side but his right looks great, double brow, 14 inches long, 6-7 points on his paddle, right then he turns into a cluster of pines and disappears, we move over there and can't seem to find where he went, we go back to the trucks and drive around the corner to look in an open saddle on the ridge, "THERE HE IS!" climbing up the opposite side of the saddle on an open skid trail, we pile out and set up the shooting sticks, Paula is ready but real excited :yike:, I continue to glass as he walks straight away from us, I never got to see his brows on the left but I think it to was a double and real long, he got his name from the first point after his browtines both of them were HUGE! 16-18 inches sticking out like a bull elk eye guard, very impressive but again he had weak paddles only 8 inches wide, all his points were long as was his beard, reaching, this is no joke, 3 feet long, it was incredible, his rack was real wide to, probably 45-47 inches, this bull we let walk!!!! :dunno: Only because in the back of my mind I still had that bull from the other day in my brain, and we were only 1/4 mile from where we saw him on Tues. See ya DAGGER, thanks for the thrill! :drool: We regroup and continue driving, calling and glassing, we later catch up with Rufous and talk a little, he has not been to impressed with the size of the bulls in this area so he says they are going to hunt up on Hunters pass tomorrow, I am thinking to my self "THANK YOU!" because we know that there are 2 big shooters in this canyon! The BROWTINE BULL and DAGGER!
The rest of the morning is uneventful, we head down to DJ's and nap for couple hours and take his son Lauren with us and drive up Rosehill road to check out a couple spots he likes, we split up and 20 minutes later I get a call from my brother on the cell, they have a bull going nuts in the thick stuff! We head back down and we spot a dink hanging around and we call and rake, but this bull will not come out of the thick for a view, it gets dark and we have to leave without knowing how big he is.
We drive back to camp, where the talk is WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING!!!! Both my brother and James feel that I am being to picky! I know that they really jusy want to see a bull go down, and I start to realize that maybe I have set a standard that can't be met :dunno: But that big browtine bull keeos haunting me, talking to me, I talk with wife and she says we can come back over around Thanksgiving, but she really wants to shoot one this week, while they are rutting, so I acquiese and agree that if we see any of the bulls we have passed on tomorrow, she will take it. :'(
I sleep with visions of that big bull on the bank above the truck................AWESOME!
Post by: finnman on October 05, 2008, 01:20:41 PM
Friday Oct. 3rd, 3:30am, it rained off and on all night, PERFECT! This is the morning, I told everyone I had the FEELING! :chuckle: But Paula had been sick all week and today felt like throwing up, she did not eat breakfast or drink any coffee, but she was determined!
We meet up with DJ and he climbs in my brothers dodge and we head up the the SPOT. We go through the gates the loggers left open and we get 1 mile in, its still dark, my brother stops in the road and turns his lights off, we stop and get out thinking must have seen a bull in the lights, I ask what going on and James says nothing the truck just died!
OH %#$&^*(!!!! This was what I was thinking, and that feeling is starting to go bye bye! :'( We look at the truck and see somehow he got a pin sized hole in his diesel fuel filter cannister under the bed of his truck, he digs through his tool box and grabs a screw and some teflon tape, he screws it in and pops the the air from the lines and cracks it over, IT STARTS!!!!!!!!! YES, WERE ON!!!!!..................for 10 seconds! It sucked more air in the fuel line and died!
We decide to continue with the hunt and just push his truck to the edge of the road, they all climb in the bed and sit on the ATV, my brother did not have any more clothes to put on, he is back there with a tee shirt on because he got diesel all over his hunting shirt, but he is just happy his truck did not cost us the hunt! So we continue on and go another mile when all of a sudden FOG, thick fog, that feeling is now being trampled by that big browtine bull!!!!
I am totolly disappointed, but I don't let it show! We continue on another 4 miles to the overlook and low and behold, NO FOG!!! The fog and clouds were staged about 500 feet above the main line, AWESOME! We climb out of the truck and 1 minute later my brother says "GOT ONE" we glass across the basin and see a little bull on a skid road sniffing around, 5 minutes later he says "I GOT ANOTHER ONE!" Dang another small bull maybe 300 yards from the other bull, we continue glassing and calling into the drainage, nothing else so we all climb in the truck and drive to the next drainage over to look for a bull the logger said he saw yesterday, nothing there, we go back to the main line and park the truck at the skid road we saw the 2 small bulls on, we walk a 1/4 mile down and DJ grunts a few times, we get a response! We move over and its the first little bull just across a gully 200 yards away, Dj, Paula, James and my brother all walk down a small finger about a hundred yards below the skid road, I stay back on the road, to steep for my knee, which has done real well, but by now is real fatigued, DJ rakes a tree and lets out a small OOWWWWWAAH,
we all hear it at the same time, RAKING to the left, then one small grunt, I see them all down in the reprod, then all of a sudden all hell brakes lose!!! It was like putting a match to an ant pile!!! I hear DJ say "its the BIG ONE" I then hear my brother tell Paula "DON"T LOOK AT THE RACK JUST SHOOT HIM, HE IS A MONSTER!" Paula fires back "I CAN't GET STEADY!" By this time I have crapped my self!!! :'( I can't see them, I can't see the bull, I am dancing around like some freaking witch doctor with a video camera in one hand and my binos in the other!!!! All of a sudden they are all running back up the hill like they are storming the castle, James steps in a hole going up the hill and does a complete face plant right in the dirt and grass spraining his ankle, all he does is lift his head out of the dirt and yells at Paula "KEEP GOING!" :chuckle: It was hilarious, except for the ankle! We all start running, them anyways, I don't know what you would call the type of movement I used to get up that skid road so fast! We get to a curve in the road and look up on the hill above the main line, BULL! CRAP its a different small bull, number 4 in this small basin!!! We keep glassing and looking when DJ looks down to the right on a small finger in the reprod, he turns to us and hisses out BULL, BIG BULL! I looked at DJ and I swear I have never seen such a ghostly pale paniced face in my life!!! I new he was serious, all four of us step over to the edge of the skid road and there he is bigger than life, 150 yards down the hill in the only opening available for a shot! Everyone is freaking out, my brother is telling her to shoot, DJ is saying take him, the only shot she has is free hand, she can't squat, kneel, or sit, the only shot is from a standing position. She is adrenalized, shaking from excitement and the run up the road, I stand behind her with the video camera running, I look at the screen and find the bull facing up at us quartering the his left, IT IS THE FREAKING BROWTINE BULL!!!!! I instantly start calming her down and telling her take some deep breaths and that I have full confidence that she can make the shot, James offers to let her shoot off his shoulder, she says okay, he steps in front and she lays the .338 Win Mag. on his right shoulder, they are both shaking, so Paula tells James to on 3 take a deep breath and hold it, they both do it, I am looking at the camera screen and find the bull he is still there just staring us down, BOOM! I lose sight of the moose in the camera from the shock, I quickly look down at the bull and see he is staggered and he disappears to his right! Everyone is just dancing around like a tribe of successful warriors! Their all hugging Paula and high fiving her, DJ keeps saying he can't believe it! My brother and James keep saying he is enormous! We all get quiet and listen, we hear 2 coughs and some brush breaking! I did not hear the bullet impact, so I say lets not get to excited till we see him on the ground! By this time DJ is on the cell calling people telling them we just got a GIANT BULL! For him to say that meant something, we all head down the finger and fan out, we left a blaze orange vest on a pine tree for a reference, we get down there and I look back and see the vest, I take a step the the left and look down, FROTHY LUNG BLOOD!!!! I tell Paula to get over here and shoulder her rifle and take the safety off and point her rifle at the ground out in front of her, we walk 15 feet to an opening in the brush and she yells, "I SEE HIS LEGS, I THINK HE'S DEAD!" we all pile in there and there he is, the monarch of the canyon, he made it 15 yards from the point of impact! The shot was 150 yard(checked with rangefinder) she hit him mid body right tight behind the shoulder blade, the trophy bonded bearclaw bullet was later found while skinning the bull out, it was just below the tenderloins and above the hip just under the skin, perfect mushroom! We conratulated Paula for the shot and her trophy, I videoed most all of the find and celebration, DJ said he wanted to see a women take a bull moose and he did, he was impressed as was James and my brother, I had full confidence that Paula was able to make the shot, as I was videoing I must admit I had a few tears of Joy, Relief, and PRIDE for my wife and her ability to stay calm and listen, she is AMAZING!!!
She took the bull at 8:30am, we got him out in half, and loaded in the truck 3 hours later, and took it to DJ's to skin and quarter, at about 2:30pm we told James and my brother they better get his truck fixed so they went to Chewelah and found the part and went back to put in on, went through the whole process of clearing the lines and she fired right up! AWESOME!, they got back to DJ's at 6:00pm. we finished deboning the carcass at 5:30pm so it was good timimg. DJ had to leave at 4:00pm for his sons football game in Selkirk, I offered him some meat and he said no, they had some fresh beef they had just butchered, I offered to pay him for his gas money and scouting time and he refused, he said "he told me he just wanted to be a part of the hunt after all I may never get to kill my own" we thanked him profusely, he said if we wanted to clean up and shower they would leave the front door unlocked and to just lock it when we leave. We went in a washed our hands and left a note on the floor, we left them a chunk of Backstrap in the fridge and some gas money for his efforts, I can only say there needs to be more people in this world like DJ and his wife Laura!
We got back to camp at 7:45pm and tarped the meat from the rain and celebrated our persistence, good fortune, good people and the moose that Paula harvested, we finished off the night with home made moose chili from a Canadian bull a friend took last year, cornbread baked in a dutch oven and FINE scotch!
The bull had 12 points on the right and 10 on the left, quadruple browtines on both sides and 45 inch spread!!!!!
We took the meat in to the butcher and the combined total of the four quarters, backstrap, tenderloins, and all boned out meat was over 475 pounds!
Let the feast commence!!!!!!!
Post by: robodad on October 05, 2008, 01:33:31 PM
Great story and awesome bull !!!
Congratulations !!
Post by: boneaddict on October 05, 2008, 01:34:33 PM
Post by: Ridgerunner on October 05, 2008, 01:52:33 PM
Post by: Rufous on October 05, 2008, 01:56:04 PM
Post by: bucklucky on October 05, 2008, 02:01:50 PM
Post by: X-Force on October 05, 2008, 02:08:26 PM
Post by: Ray on October 05, 2008, 02:19:56 PM
Post by: ButcherBoy on October 05, 2008, 02:45:03 PM
Post by: 280ackley on October 05, 2008, 03:00:10 PM
Post by: Intruder on October 05, 2008, 03:51:44 PM
Post by: HuntingFanatic on October 05, 2008, 04:30:54 PM
Post by: mwhite on October 05, 2008, 04:38:26 PM
Post by: rougheye on October 05, 2008, 04:40:03 PM
Post by: FANATIC on October 05, 2008, 04:45:06 PM
Post by: billythekidrock on October 05, 2008, 05:00:37 PM
Sounds like it was a good time all around.
Thanks for sharing.
Post by: bobcat on October 05, 2008, 05:16:32 PM
Post by: Wea300mag on October 05, 2008, 05:20:53 PM
Congrats to pumpkin and her awesome team. Great bull!!! :tup:
Post by: 257 Wby Mag on October 05, 2008, 05:35:26 PM
Post by: coonhound on October 05, 2008, 06:11:36 PM
Coon
Post by: PA BEN on October 05, 2008, 06:36:28 PM
Post by: Ironhead on October 05, 2008, 06:59:53 PM
Post by: Backstraps on October 05, 2008, 07:32:22 PM
Post by: jackelope on October 05, 2008, 07:37:12 PM
that there is the bull of many lifetimes.
Post by: phishisgroovin on October 05, 2008, 07:45:58 PM
I had troubles opening this post for the last couple hours, wanting to read it and finally got too. Thanks for the great story, i was almost on the edge of my chair.
when you post the kill video please link to it.
Post by: Hunting Cowboy on October 05, 2008, 07:51:20 PM
Post by: Slider on October 05, 2008, 08:04:34 PM
Post by: searchnfor on October 05, 2008, 08:06:13 PM
Post by: Michelle_Nelson on October 05, 2008, 08:25:13 PM
Post by: Mtn Hunter on October 05, 2008, 09:10:22 PM
Great job on the narration Jason...I hope you have more stories to write this year!
Post by: WAcoueshunter on October 05, 2008, 09:35:40 PM
Post by: mingo on October 05, 2008, 09:47:42 PM
Post by: cohoho on October 06, 2008, 12:06:05 AM
Post by: Sagedawg on October 06, 2008, 07:48:30 AM
Sage
Post by: agchawk on October 06, 2008, 08:23:53 AM
The story was equally great....kept me on the edge of my seat, and laughing out loud at times, throughout the read (Had a few folks in the office staring at me as if I were crazy).
Thanks and bunch and again...CONGRATS!
Post by: wamuledeer on October 06, 2008, 08:27:54 AM
Post by: NW-Eric on October 06, 2008, 08:40:51 AM
Post by: workstohunt on October 06, 2008, 08:45:04 AM
GREAT story and a hunt of a lifetime. I appreciate the members who share with us, as I feel like I am part of it and that's why I hunt--to feel that excitement.
Thank you
Post by: bowsandhose on October 06, 2008, 10:24:21 AM
Post by: huntnphool on October 06, 2008, 10:44:29 AM
Post by: WaltHenry on October 06, 2008, 02:52:56 PM
Post by: M_ray on October 06, 2008, 04:37:59 PM
Post by: wf70gonehunting on October 06, 2008, 04:56:36 PM
Post by: robb92 on October 06, 2008, 05:05:00 PM
Post by: Opportunist on October 07, 2008, 03:27:47 PM
Post by: deaddog on October 07, 2008, 04:10:59 PM
Post by: finnman on October 07, 2008, 04:19:12 PM
So lets try and make our Goose Prairie bull hunt just a tad more relaxing! :chuckle:
Post by: boneaddict on October 07, 2008, 06:59:51 PM
Post by: bullcanyon on October 07, 2008, 07:32:44 PM
I showed the wife the pics to remind her why we've been putting in for moose tags.
Post by: Curly on October 08, 2008, 12:45:49 PM
Post by: Intruder on October 08, 2008, 12:51:33 PM
I was hopeing it would stretch the tape for 160 gross but was afriad it might fall a little short. I figured it would be close. I know that one paddle dipping on that one side kind of tanks it for net, but still one hell of a bull and I would NOT have let it walked. It takes it on character alone with those brows. VERY rare to have nice ones like that unless you are hunting landowner tags down in Utah, and even then those are top notch. I have seen ALOT of moose and that one is a memorable one. Nice going. Once again, congrats.
So did you get it scored? Sounds like you did but I didn't see any posts. Hopin he makes book for ya.... regardless he's a super bull!
Post by: Ridgerunner on October 08, 2008, 12:53:42 PM
Post by: finnman on October 08, 2008, 01:09:36 PM
His left paddle is what kept him from reaching that 160 mark! He had 7 inches of deduction on it alone!
It was something like this....
Width 45 4/8
Rt. paddle width 9 0/8, length 30 4/8, pts. 12, abnormal pts. 1, base 6 0/8
Lt. paddle width 9 0/8, length 23 0/8, pts. 10, abnormal pts. 0, base 6 0/8
Total 152 gross
Post by: huntnphool on October 08, 2008, 01:21:52 PM
I am not a scorer and don't claim to know how, but if you are going to start I think a moose is the easiest!
His left paddle is what kept him from reaching that 160 mark! He had 7 inches of deduction on it alone!
It was something like this....
Width 45 4/8
Rt. paddle width 9 0/8, length 30 4/8, pts. 12, abnormal pts. 1, base 6 0/8
Lt. paddle width 9 0/8, length 23 0/8, pts. 10, abnormal pts. 0, base 6 0/8
Total 152 gross
Wow, I sure would have thought his paddles were wider than that. I am one of those that believes that if the animal grew it he should get credit for it. Net scores are for fishermen in my book. The impressive part of her bull to me is how symmetrical it looks, and high score or not I prefer the points to be long even though they only get a point each. That is a beautiful bull and will be impressive for years hanging on the wall. Way to go Paula, my goal is still a 150 class bull and I am indeed envious.
Post by: finnman on October 08, 2008, 05:01:14 PM
This bull is just that, real symetrical! I can't tell you how proud I am for her! :)
She now not only has a better muley than me, but now a dang moose! I need to get busy! :chuckle:
Post by: steeleywhopper on October 08, 2008, 06:21:02 PM
Post by: C-Money on October 09, 2008, 06:53:05 AM
Post by: Ridgerunner on October 09, 2008, 07:06:04 AM
B&C alltime - 155
B&C awards - 140
Washington book - 130
I believe he nets above 140 so he would make the awards and WA books but not the all time.
Post by: C-Money on October 09, 2008, 10:39:16 AM
Post by: Bullquest on October 10, 2008, 05:54:31 PM
Post by: SHANE(WA) on June 10, 2009, 03:28:24 PM