SS's 2018 season

[Rattler]

Nice bull Ken...and yeah lime green can be hard to see...lol

[todbartell]

good stuff thanks for taking the time to post up.

[Sitkaspruce]

Now that the unglate season is competed, I will bump this back up...

Sept 28 and it is time to chase moose with great friends. We did an annual trip for 5 years; great friends that met while volunteering for the local fire department and had a passion for hunting. 4 rookie moose hunters and myself as the teacher, plus two dads from other provinces who came to spend time with their sons. Over those 5 years, we put 5 moose on the ground. Then families started to grow and time became limited. This year we all managed to make it...except the dads

Sept 28 rolls round and we are off.....and what a great trip it was!!

Some great scotch and whiskey was drank, some awesome catch up stories from our time way from each other (we are now spread out from VI to Manitoba), some amazing laughs and food fit for a king was consumed. This is the reason why we get together and remain friends even when we are apart.

Oh yeah, and we hunted moose, every day!! We had an amazing hunt, with 1-3 bulls being seen every day and lots of answers to our calls. From day one we were into moose and we had a blast!! Some of the best highlights were the anticipation of waiting for the other groups to get back so we could listen to their adventures of the day!! And there was lots!!

Oct 4th rolls around and me and Jeff are off on another adventure, heading back to a newly discovered area to see what we can find. We hike down to the creek and do some calling; after 30 minutes of no response, we decide to cross the creek and head up hill, following a faint trail that weaved up through dense thickets of spruce/pine/aspen. We gain about 250m in elevation and soon hit the snow line, where we find moose tracks going up down and sideways.

As we get near a bench, the tracks become heavy and there is moose sign everywhere. At the crest of the bench we see a natural lick and there is trails coming in and out of it from all directions. At the lick, we notice fresh broken ice and muddy water flowing into a few tracks....ELK!!!! We quickly follow their tracks in the snow as they head off sideways along the bench until we get to an opening. I chirp a few times over the next 15 minutes with no response. The wind had been blowing straight up hill while we were climbing, so that might have spooked the elk. Jeff went back to the lick and set up while I switched from elk to moose.....

After my first love sick cow call, we had a cow bawl back and some crashing off to our right and below us. Another cow call and another cow bawl back....she has a bull and she doesn't want him to leave....so we quickly started side hilling as the wind started blowing across the slope. We moved about 150m and started to get set up. Jeff snapped off a branch from a tree he was using as a rest and all hell broke loose.....

[guest]

Terrific Thread Ken.
As usual well done on your part.
Thanks for the share and way to go on a great 2018

[Sitkaspruce]

Crash, crash, crash.....two moose Jeff yells as the crashing continues as the moose move off below to our right. I didn't see anything, but the crashing told me there was something down there.

We give it a few minutes and I whispered to Jeff that I would give a cow call and see what happens.

Another love sick cow call and immediately a grunt....cow call....grunt...I look at Jeff and smiled....the bull hadn't seen us, he just followed the cow as she broke off.....

Another call and he grunted back, but he was moving away with the cow....interested, but not leaving his girlfriend.

Hmmmmm...so what do you do in this situation...you appeal to his vanity.....

Out came the scapula and I went full on bull challenge!!! I raked the brush, stomped my feet and grunted. No answer at first, so I repeated and he grunted, then he went full on Challenge accepted!! He raked his antlers and grunted as he came back....I challenged every time he did and he got pissed! We set up and got ready.

Soon I caught a flash of antlers in the bush and concentrated on the spot.....soon the flash became a bull moose, or parts of a moose. I watched and as he walked into my scope at about 70 y, I quickly looked at his bottoms and saw 3...I looked over at Jeff and hand signaled that he had 3 on the bottom. For the next few minutes, he would approach then stop behind some bush, grunting all the time. When he hesitated, I would grunt and he would start coming forward. He stopped again in front of brush and neither of us could get a shot....finally he started again and when he walked between two clumps of brush, I put a 140gr TSX into him at 40y. He dropped on the spot, completely disappearing.

Jeff and I shared a look and I said to keep watching the spot as they can and will get up and take off for places unknown.....after 5 minutes and no sign of anything moving, we started to approach where he was last standing...…

And this is what we saw.....

[Sitkaspruce]

[325]

Absolutely incredible! Thanks for sharing

[Kopper]

Awesome bull! Congrats on a good season.

[Skeena Shooter]

Awsome good job!!

[Rattler]

Whoa...what an awesome bull Ken!!! Congrats and thanks for sharing.