4385 days to cut a moose tag, and he's HUGE

[todbartell]

It’s been 12 years since I last shot a moose. I have had a couple LEH draws in the Parsnip that resulted in tag soup, and a few 3pt bulls over the years got the heart pumping, but no shots fired. Luck was with me this fall when I drew a LEH shared hunt with a few friends. In the first 6 days of season I was seeing moose almost every trip out, but no bulls, yet. After work on Saturday I went home and headed out with the wife and my 3 year old son to get in a quick evening hunt. Overcast and rain, but I won’t kill one sitting on the couch.

A half hour before dark I spotted a moose from the truck. It was a cow, I got out, loaded my 280 Ackley, and snuck down the road a little ways. I could see two cows, and finally got to where I could see better and spotted the bull, standing broadside at the edge of the timber. I was going to try an offhand shot from 150y or so, but the bull was in no rush and I was a little shaky. I crouched down and was able to get closer undetected, when a nice clear shot presented itself at 120 yards. I took a knee, the crosshairs settled and I hit him behind the shoulder. He trotted forward and disappeared behind a brush pile and was out of sight. One of the cows was standing right there and she was staring his way. Seconds later he came out to where he was standing when I shot the first time and stopped broadside. He looked drunk but I gave him another one and that sent him into some slow egg beaters until he fell over.

I walked up and had a nice little 3x2 bull for the freezer. Cut my tag and went back to the truck. My son was pretty excited, as we walked up to the bull he kept telling me how huge it was. He tells me next time we will get a mama moose