Figured out how to post the images kept getting file size errors. Anyways here is my first moose.
First two days of the hunt we were limited to the tent as it was raining and snowing pretty heavy. On the end of day two it cleared up a bit and we hiked down to the end of the lake where we had heard a cow calling. Partner let out a couple cow calls and an cow came out to see what was going on. It was getting dark so we headed back to camp. Next day rain all morning more time in the tent around 3pm I walked out to the lake and looked towards where we saw the cow. I can see a large white spot by a tree that looks out of place with my bare eyes. This is about 3-4km away from camp. Watching it it begins to move and a second spot appears next to it. BULL! and a big bull, I grab my binocs and get a better look. Hes big, because of the distance and lake edge I can only see his antler no body or head. We quickly grab our rifles and packs and head off despite the rain.
As we close the distance we dip out of sight of him but we know where hes going and why. When we get to within 1000yrds we can still see he is there but close to the timber. When we get to about 500yrds hes disappeared on us. But now there is a small bull in front of us about 200yrds out. There is no way I can shoot a small bull on day 3 of a 12 day hunt after seeing a monster so close. As we continue to sneak up the little bull disappears as well and there is no sign of the big guy. We watch where the big bull was for a couple hours and let out a couple grunts to see if we can entice him to come out again, thinking that maybe he was chasing the little bull away. No luck no sign of him. We head back to camp thinking about whether or not we took the best approach on getting to the big bull and if we should have shot the little one for good meat.
Next day we plan to get an early start and head to where we just saw the big guy the night before. Wake up to snow and get a late start. Dont get to the spot until about 10am. We watch for about 15 minutes before we start to get a bit cold and impatient. I decide to let out a cow call. The big bull comes running out of the timber. We can see his paddles moving through the short trees. then he stops at the edge of them we can clearly see his head and antlers but the rest of him is still in the trees. hes at about 260yrds. He stands there for about 2 mins just looking for where the call came from. I want to take the shot but know I cant because I cant see body. He then turns around and start heading back into the bush. I asked myself if I blew my chance on him. I quickly let out a second call and he turns back around and starts running into the buck brush but is still behind one tree. He stops again and starts looking around again obscured, behind the only tree in a sea of buck brush. He then takes a couple more steps and stops. Hes now 240 yrds out with the front half exposed quatering me. This is it, the shot I had been waiting for. Line up and shoot, partner is ready to shoot as well dont want him getting in the lake. I squeeze and boom. He disappears, my partner is annoyed cause he didnt even get to shoot. The bull just dropped didnt move an inch. He described it like the shots you see on TV where they just fold up and go down instantly.
We make our way over to where we think he is and find him, he was dead instantly, nice clean kill no suffering at all. We then proceeded to butcher and pack him back to camp for the next three days. After that we spent the rest of the trip fly fishing and hunting sheep and caribou. Caught a few nice rainbows in the 3-4lb range saw some animals but no shooters.
Bull was really interesting because he has matching folds on each paddle as well as matching hooked brow tines. Measured around 55 inches. Not bad for my first moose.