bcsteve
10-18-2015, 12:23 PM
I figured I'd take a few minutes to post the results of this year's moose hunt.
Ultramafic and I have been hunting together for almost 15 years now and had been moose hunting in the same zone for most of it. We pulled a fair amount of moose out of that region for the first 10 years of it but the last few years up there had been less than spectacular. For the last 5 years we had been exploring new areas with some good success. This year when we filled our LEH cards we were planning out putting in this new area where we had been successful during the GOS for the last two years. A few weeks after sending away our cards I get a call from Ultramafic: "Did you use those zone numbers I gave you?" Me: "Sure did, no worries". Ultramafic: "Huh.....those were my old notes and the old zone we used to put in". Oops! That was ok, we hadn't been back there for 5 years and we were both curious to see how the old spot looked these days.
We arrived in our old spot on the last days of September, nothing appeared to have changed much at first. After some exploring we realized there were quite a few extensive cutblocks, trails that were now roads and forest fires that hadn't regrown as fast as we were expecting.
After almost a week of hot weather, walking, quading and calling, neither of us had heard or seen anything. Of the several camps around us we were aware of only 3 bulls being shot during the week. Things were not looking good.
On the last day before we were planning on leaving I decided to go back to a trail that led to a newer cutblock and bordered a big moose meadow. I had seen some fresh tracks and a cow and calf one morning a few days earlier
I walked slowly up the trail at day break, get to the cutblock hoping to surprised a feeding bull but nothing. I sit on a stump and start calling as I had been doing for the last week. I have to admit that at this point my hopes were low and I was basically going through the motion. At one point heard something in the distance coming from the timberline but it could have been a squirrel or a woodpecker playing tricks with my mind.....again.
After another series of cow calls, I heard something again. That sounded like a bull answering, could it be? Probably not, probably just my mind again but I'll pay a bit more attention to that direction at the next calls.
Another series of cow call. "Whoa, whoa, whoa", same direction and closer than last time. Now, that's a bull for sure! Things are getting serious! I wait a few minutes and give a few more quieter cow calls. On cue: "Whoa, whoa, whoa". He's coming! I'm glassing the edge of the timber looking for the bull to come out. All of a sudden, there he is! My first thoughts were: "What the hell is that!?!? He's got some kind of antler sticking out!? It's a bull, good enough!"
I'm in the middle of the cutblock and its pretty open, so I get down to prone and find a log to use as a rest. A couple more quiet cow calls and he starts coming towards me. Everytime he stopped, I made a quiet cow call. He would grunt back and start moving again. When he got to about 200 yds in the wide open cutblock, that was good enough for me. I could have called him closer but I didn't want to take any chances and the recovery wouldn't be any harder in this terrain. With a log as a rest and him quartering towards me, I aimed for the point of the shoulder. Boom! He took a few steps forward, a few steps back and crashed. The 250gr TTSX from my .375 Ruger had done the trick. The bullet entered the shoulder but missed the bone and exited on the off side. This is the weird looking moose that was waiting for me.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg186/bcsteve/CIMG3967_zpsiqvrmqn4.jpg (http://s248.photobucket.com/user/bcsteve/media/CIMG3967_zpsiqvrmqn4.jpg.html)
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg186/bcsteve/CIMG3966_zpsdpwzvtbu.jpg (http://s248.photobucket.com/user/bcsteve/media/CIMG3966_zpsdpwzvtbu.jpg.html)
Went back to camp, got Ultramafic, got the recovery gear ready and off we went. The scavenger hadn't wasted any time. By the time we got back, the ravens and bald eagles had pecked out the eyes and all the fur around the exit wound. We gutted it and winched it on the "moose trailer" without too much issues, and drove back to camp.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg186/bcsteve/CIMG3971_zpscvkm6wai.jpg (http://s248.photobucket.com/user/bcsteve/media/CIMG3971_zpscvkm6wai.jpg.html)
We skinned and butchered the moose back at camp. This bull must have been a bruiser. He had a recently broken antler on one side and a deformed one on the other. While skinning we found a couple of perforations in the skin and a bruised shoulder from fighting.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg186/bcsteve/CIMG3978_zps4jrixgv5.jpg (http://s248.photobucket.com/user/bcsteve/media/CIMG3978_zps4jrixgv5.jpg.html)
I nicknamed him "El Diablo" He's got a weird looking rack but I wasn't going to be picky on the last day of the hunt! To be honest, I would have shot him on the first day!
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg186/bcsteve/CIMG3981_zpsi3ywg6k0.jpg (http://s248.photobucket.com/user/bcsteve/media/CIMG3981_zpsi3ywg6k0.jpg.html)
Ultramafic and I have been hunting together for almost 15 years now and had been moose hunting in the same zone for most of it. We pulled a fair amount of moose out of that region for the first 10 years of it but the last few years up there had been less than spectacular. For the last 5 years we had been exploring new areas with some good success. This year when we filled our LEH cards we were planning out putting in this new area where we had been successful during the GOS for the last two years. A few weeks after sending away our cards I get a call from Ultramafic: "Did you use those zone numbers I gave you?" Me: "Sure did, no worries". Ultramafic: "Huh.....those were my old notes and the old zone we used to put in". Oops! That was ok, we hadn't been back there for 5 years and we were both curious to see how the old spot looked these days.
We arrived in our old spot on the last days of September, nothing appeared to have changed much at first. After some exploring we realized there were quite a few extensive cutblocks, trails that were now roads and forest fires that hadn't regrown as fast as we were expecting.
After almost a week of hot weather, walking, quading and calling, neither of us had heard or seen anything. Of the several camps around us we were aware of only 3 bulls being shot during the week. Things were not looking good.
On the last day before we were planning on leaving I decided to go back to a trail that led to a newer cutblock and bordered a big moose meadow. I had seen some fresh tracks and a cow and calf one morning a few days earlier
I walked slowly up the trail at day break, get to the cutblock hoping to surprised a feeding bull but nothing. I sit on a stump and start calling as I had been doing for the last week. I have to admit that at this point my hopes were low and I was basically going through the motion. At one point heard something in the distance coming from the timberline but it could have been a squirrel or a woodpecker playing tricks with my mind.....again.
After another series of cow calls, I heard something again. That sounded like a bull answering, could it be? Probably not, probably just my mind again but I'll pay a bit more attention to that direction at the next calls.
Another series of cow call. "Whoa, whoa, whoa", same direction and closer than last time. Now, that's a bull for sure! Things are getting serious! I wait a few minutes and give a few more quieter cow calls. On cue: "Whoa, whoa, whoa". He's coming! I'm glassing the edge of the timber looking for the bull to come out. All of a sudden, there he is! My first thoughts were: "What the hell is that!?!? He's got some kind of antler sticking out!? It's a bull, good enough!"
I'm in the middle of the cutblock and its pretty open, so I get down to prone and find a log to use as a rest. A couple more quiet cow calls and he starts coming towards me. Everytime he stopped, I made a quiet cow call. He would grunt back and start moving again. When he got to about 200 yds in the wide open cutblock, that was good enough for me. I could have called him closer but I didn't want to take any chances and the recovery wouldn't be any harder in this terrain. With a log as a rest and him quartering towards me, I aimed for the point of the shoulder. Boom! He took a few steps forward, a few steps back and crashed. The 250gr TTSX from my .375 Ruger had done the trick. The bullet entered the shoulder but missed the bone and exited on the off side. This is the weird looking moose that was waiting for me.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg186/bcsteve/CIMG3967_zpsiqvrmqn4.jpg (http://s248.photobucket.com/user/bcsteve/media/CIMG3967_zpsiqvrmqn4.jpg.html)
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg186/bcsteve/CIMG3966_zpsdpwzvtbu.jpg (http://s248.photobucket.com/user/bcsteve/media/CIMG3966_zpsdpwzvtbu.jpg.html)
Went back to camp, got Ultramafic, got the recovery gear ready and off we went. The scavenger hadn't wasted any time. By the time we got back, the ravens and bald eagles had pecked out the eyes and all the fur around the exit wound. We gutted it and winched it on the "moose trailer" without too much issues, and drove back to camp.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg186/bcsteve/CIMG3971_zpscvkm6wai.jpg (http://s248.photobucket.com/user/bcsteve/media/CIMG3971_zpscvkm6wai.jpg.html)
We skinned and butchered the moose back at camp. This bull must have been a bruiser. He had a recently broken antler on one side and a deformed one on the other. While skinning we found a couple of perforations in the skin and a bruised shoulder from fighting.
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg186/bcsteve/CIMG3978_zps4jrixgv5.jpg (http://s248.photobucket.com/user/bcsteve/media/CIMG3978_zps4jrixgv5.jpg.html)
I nicknamed him "El Diablo" He's got a weird looking rack but I wasn't going to be picky on the last day of the hunt! To be honest, I would have shot him on the first day!
http://i248.photobucket.com/albums/gg186/bcsteve/CIMG3981_zpsi3ywg6k0.jpg (http://s248.photobucket.com/user/bcsteve/media/CIMG3981_zpsi3ywg6k0.jpg.html)