Post by: yelp on October 18, 2019, 02:21:09 PM
Post by: yelp on October 18, 2019, 02:23:30 PM
Well I really started hitting the maps, woods, went and talked with friends, locals and made some great connections. Not really knowing what to expect I made a great contact with a hunter that showed me where to begin. As summer came and we t I took a few trips into several areas just to familiarize myself wuth areas within the unit. I went 4 times never saw a moose..lol. I ended up focusing on a general area and pucking a place to camp outside of Fruitland. Close to fuel.
A few days before the opener a monster of a weather front came through area dropping anywhere from 4 -15" of snow. Crazy start. I was able to borrow a buddies UTV to use which was awesome. I had three buddies all US Marine vets. It was fun to get them all together they all had a blast talking about their time in the military.
I started opening day staring at a3 little bulls and a couple cows. That afternoon had a 50 yard opportunity at a small 38 inch bull. The rut was on. He was with a cow grunting about. I decided to pass for 2 reasons (first day and first day..lol) .
That night went back to camp and had a another tag holder cow tag wanting to know where we saw moose. I shared locations. He then gave me a calling lesson and an extra caller to use. It turned out to be valuable later in my hunt. Day 2 found us on a nice ridge to spot from. Within 10 minutes I had a bull in my sites. He was over a mile away in a canyon and he had a cow.
I then spent next 2 hours getting closer to his location. We got in close heard him grunting we ended up bumping small bull who ran into big bull and the chase was on Big bull running away and down into big canyon. We backed out and left. Few hours later we heard shots and found the other hunters wife got her cow moose. It was cool. She was excited. We took pictures and visited and then he gave us more moose hunting advice and tools a moose paddle and black shirt and decoy. Very cool. After a great grouse dinner and good nights sleep we were up spotting moose and at it again.
I had a buddy call me about another moose and we met up and saw another tag holder get his bull. It was cool he was so excited when he walked up to it.
We decided to go back to where big bull was day before. As we made our way down into draw we saw nothing. My buddy walked up to me and saud hey lets go in there call and rake some trees and flash the antler do some grunts etc.. I said yeah lets try it. So we got 30 yards apart. I did a loud series of cow calls. Then my buddy rakes and thrashed a dead tree. I grunted and cow called and he flashed the fake paddle and raked brush some more. We did this blindly for 25 minutes. I felt stupid..lol. never done it before.
We whispered about and did some more glassing my buddy and I strategizing our next move when he caught my other buddy trying to get our attention. He had a serious look on his face and was pointing down below us in the hole about 500yds away. The big bull had arose from his bed as well as his cow. He saw my buddies little horn and walked out 50 yards but wouldn't leave cow. I went into a prone position and readied my .300 remington ultra mag loaded with 180 nosler partition bullets.
My range finder couldn't pick him out through brush or my shaking..lol. i knew he was in range that I practiced over summer. I settled crosshairs of the nikon on his hump and squeezed. Nothing!! SAFETY!! AHHH... Collected my self flipped off safety. Just then the Bull took step to the right giving me an even better quartering away shot. I SENT IT. THUD!! Bull turned to right and out of sight. I melted..emotions breathing shaking ...what was going on. I collected myself. Marked my shot area with tape as reference and walked to bulls last location. I got to general location lined up my shot. Ranged it back up hill 430 yards. Then I started looking for blood...nothing..looked 10 yards below and there was a 30' ditch dug out from a logging job. I took three steps and peaked over edge and there he was dead. ..oh my God!!! I lost it. We spent time hugging, crying and enjoying that moment. I will never forget that moment..ever. I shot it at 5 pm and after tagging, photos we began the skinning and processing part..wholly smokes. Wolves howling, big old moon, tarp and meat bags full of meat. We got back to camp at 330 am had some stew hit the bed. Got up at 8 and relived it all again..It was Amazing. So blessed to have the opportunity, friends, my health, my family, etc.. It was a great moment of my life.
Post by: BullMagnet76 on October 18, 2019, 02:38:04 PM
Post by: SkookumHntr on October 18, 2019, 02:43:01 PM
Post by: Yelper Guy on October 18, 2019, 03:01:15 PM
Post by: mp.hunter on October 18, 2019, 03:46:38 PM
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Post by: elkrack on October 18, 2019, 04:30:11 PM
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Post by: yelp on October 18, 2019, 04:59:19 PM
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Post by: PB on October 20, 2019, 04:36:21 PM
Post by: Rob on October 21, 2019, 06:46:54 AM
Congratulations!
Post by: pianoman9701 on October 21, 2019, 07:56:09 AM
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