As my phone started to light up, I knew LEH results must be out. In a matter of minutes I had a phone call from one of my buddys I work with. He had drawn one of the November tags in the area we all applied for, we were pumped. After hanging up the phone, I quickly went to checking my LEH with another co-worker. We almost lost it when we found out we were drawn for the same tag in a group hunt of 3 with my wife.
Fast forward a few months.
I ended up taking the Friday off work prior to the week off for our hunt. I had planned to get the wall tent together and a bunch of the camp supplies ready to go.
Thursday evening I was sitting around the house contemplating going up Friday am for a quick look around. My wife jumped at the idea to go for a morning explore with me on Remembrance Day.
We got up super early to make it into the unit well before first light, it had been a mild November thus far and no snow anywhere yet.
It was "one more corner" then we would turn around and head back to town. As we pulled into a steep cut block, I parked to glass the timber edge and BAM. Right up at the top just feeding into the block were 3 moose, one was a nice bull and the others I couldn't tell yet. I grabbed my 280 and pretty much sprinted up the block, just out of site of the moose. As I picked my way across the steep section of the block, I soon spotted the bull roughly 200 yards away. I laid down and rested on a big ol stump and squeezed the trigger.
I delt with my bull and managed to get it into the butcher that day, and still get camp ready for Saturday morning.
The week of moose hunting was going to be a special week. My brother who didn't have a draw, was coming along to help our 2 work friends, as they both are new hunters. Steve had just got his CORE that spring and Pat had started hunting the year before. My brother was of course packing a moose tag, in hopes a spike/fork would present itself.
With one moose tag already cut, we were riding a high on what the week might bring.
The first couple days were tough hunting, out well before sun up and not back till dark. Darryl (brother) and I doing most of our hunts out of backpack tents, this wall tent camping was luxury!. We gave the new hunters the run down how we did things, "leave at dark,not back till dark and no going to camp for lunch", "if grass can grow will go, so be ready to pack meat out". Steve and Pat were fully aware this was a hunting trip, and we would do everything we can to help you get a moose while teaching you along the way.
We pounded country with numerous long hikes, checking mid to high elevation moose country and glassing from any vantage spots we could. Finally the weather changed, we woke one morning to dumping snow. Darryl and I knew this would be the game changer we needed.
We ended up cutting moose tracks that day and had a blast tracking a bull in some thick country. Steve was like a sponge and just ate everything up, the tracking of the bull in fresh snow was a sure favorite up to this point.
Darryl and Pat ended up glassing a bedded bull late in the afternoon. Once they closed the distance and got the spotter on him, they realized it was indeed a fork horn. Pat and Darryl talked about the fork and Pat totally agreed with Darryl tagging the bull andhimself using his LEH on any other bull they find. By the time they got to the bull and quarter it all up, sunlight had turned to darkness. Pats first experience of packing meat with a headlamp on haha.
We decided after that day, we would switch up and Pat and I would hunt together and Darryl would take Steve.
By 8:00 the first morning Pat and I had found a bull. He was standing just on the edge of a timber strip. We closed the gap and Pat put the bull down perfectly.
Pat and I ran into Darryl and Steve on the way out, we told them we would take Pats moose back to town, then head back to camp in the am. We were now 3 moose down with 1 LEH tag to go.
That evening as I finished cleaning my garage, I thought to myself... "3:50 pm, worst time to kill one now boys, she will be dark fast!.
Not 2 minutes later my phone goes off "Steve just shot a good bull in a hell hole, we need some help".
I loaded up and headed back out. It was a cool night in the snow, cutting blown down out of the way and packing moose meat hours into the dark.
All in all it was an amazing trip, the four of us all got our first moose, 4 moose in a week of hunting. The new hunters did awesome and are surely hooked.
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Originally Posted by 358mag
