Moose 2022

[tinhorse]

https://imgur.com/a/c3kMSaK

Start the thread with a Picture. Lots more to come.....

[tinhorse]

Let me know if the picture is/isn't working please and thanks

[whognu]

crystal clear; nice one

thx

[Bustercluck]

Nice pics!

[Spy]

Nice bull.

[IronNoggin]

Pretty fine bull!!

https://i.imgur.com/1Tx6mRI.jpeg

Congrats!

[srupp]

great moose..wonderful photos..
steven

[bcsteve]

Awesome bull! Can't wait to hear the story.

[tinhorse]

It started Oct 14 with a ferry ride and 13 hours to get to camp. We arrived just after 1:30 am and set up as best we could laying out our gear, tent and sleeping bags. Just after 3 we were catching zzzz's and dreaming of the next mornings hunt. Here is the best picture I have of the camp set up

https://imgur.com/a/MCuvPKt

[Arctic Lake]

Great bull ! Yahoo more pictures of success ! What a great scene , the blue sky the different colors of the foliage oh man just great ! Nice camp , good job on the care of the meat ! Hope there a story coming !
Arctic Lake

[tinhorse]

Day 1: we wake up way to early after only 2 1/2 hours sleep. It is cold and crisp at -3, I quickly get some warmer clothes on get the water boiling for coffee and morning oatmeal. After a quick bite and coffee we fill our cups one more time, double check the gear and set off to where we plan on hopefully finding our bull. We slowly make our way down the logging road to our desired spot. Out we get to the familiar grounds and being a little ambitious on morning one we wait the next 30 minutes for the sun to rise enough to check out the surrounding area. As we start our glassing we notice a large brown blob a little over a km away. It's still quite dark and a light mist is slowly shifting and it's only day one, but on both our other prior hunts we have always found a bull day 1. Could it possibly happen again? We surely couldn't get lucky day 1, 3 times in a row. As the mist lifts and the sky begins to brighten we stare intently where the brown mass sits. After a few more moments it's clear as glass and we both say to eachother " stump "....we laugh and say, "that would have been to easy." It's now 7:10 am and we split up, moving to get a better feel for the area and surroundings.

[jamfarm]

Nice moose. Good story so far, looking forward to hearing the rest.

[tinhorse]

As we start our hike it quickly starts to get hotter, and not the good hot where you are seeing animals...as the temperature rises a hush falls over the valley and by 9:00 am it seems unlikely that we are going to catch a moose on the move. I did see a couple does that morning, but no moose, only the brown moose stump and some older sign. We meet up again at 10:00 and decide to take a little spin to check out more of the country. It has been 4 years since we were there last and much has changed since then.

We start our drive and around the first corner we see 3 grouse. Being late morning we decide they may be a perfect dinner and decide some .22 shots most likey won't be scaring any moose away. Jimmy hops out and one grouse goes down as the other 2 fly away. No problem, hopefully we will see others. Around the first corner we go and again 3 grouse on the road. I hop out this time and take another 1. We continue on and the grouse continue around every corner. 3 more and we have 5 for dinner and that is plenty. In total we saw over 50 grouse that day and every other day we were hunting....Best year I have ever seen in my 25 years of hunting. We slowly continue on our drive, now feeling a little tired from the lack of sleep the night prior. It's now 1:32 pm and hopes of running into anything else seem slim. Jimmy puts the pedal down and we start to head back for a quick recovery siesta before the evening hunt. Suddenly as we round the next bend the brakes lock up and a cloud of dust swoops ahead of the truck from the dry silty road that hasn't seen rain in months. I look over and Jimmy, his hand pointing to an object standing on the roadside about 100 yards up the road.....

[Arctic Lake]

Tin horse good story telling ! Waiting for the rest !
Arctic Lake

[srupp]

hmmm LOL in the exact same place we saw tons of grouse but most were sharp tail..your obviously a much better shot than me..
ENJOYING your write up...
Steven

[tinhorse]

"Deer", standing there on the side of the road, 2 bucks. Jimmy pulls up his binos as I grab my clip and rifle while trying to open the dorr at the same time. Door flings open, clip goes in, round loaded, lay down with bipods out, steady my scope on the bigger of the 2 young bucks and with a squeeze of the trigger the deer flinches and turns into the bush. A cloud of dust blocks my view as the road dust flies up with the wind my rifle makes. I take a look toward the truck and he says good hit with a thumb up in the air. I hop up and make my way to where the bucks were standing. I head in and see the 2 point laying passed away. Tag out and a quick gut job, get him in the back of the truck and back off to camp we go. Not a moose but still grouse for dinner and a nice young 2 point hanging in camp, not a bad first day.

[tinhorse]

Grouse and Deer https://imgur.com/a/DQUGxVw

[tinhorse]

Sorry only feathers, feet and guts in the grouse pic

[tinhorse]

Back at camp we never did get a siesta in. I stead our time was spent cleaning the grouse, hanging, skinning and cleaning up the buck, cutting firewood and getting a bite to eat. It was now 4:30 and off we went for the evening hunt. That evening we checked out some new cuts, and roads and for the last 20 minutes sat and called at our go to spot. It then that we saw what we had come for, a moose and a decent on at that. The problem on that first night was where we were glassing from was over 800 m away with a slight breeze blowing right at where the bull was feeding out to. With light fading fast I decided to call it and back out in hopes of meeting up with him another day. Off to camp for dinner, beer and a GOOD night's sleep.

[tinhorse]

Day 2: we decided to head back to where we saw the bull the evening prior, instead we saw and heard nothing...it was like a ghost town, not a sound to be heard, no movement, not even a bird chirping..it was kind of eerie. We waited in high anticipation for the moose to come out feeding but alas after an hour we decided to go for a little hike. As we walked along a trail that lead us to our 2018 bull we hear a distant BANG, BANG...shotgun maybe?? It seemed far off and it was now 9:00 so we didn't think it was possibly the bull we saw the evening before. Back to the truck around 9:30 as we pass a couple familiar spots that looked promising in years past. I had my window rolled down as we slowly rolled past a over grown willow blowdown swamp when a distinct cracking caught my ear. Quickly my hand goes up and Jimmy pulls the truck to an immediate stop. Out of the truck I go as Jimmy grabs his binos and rifle and creeps around behind me. I slowly make my way into the blowdown opening while Jimmy moves back down the road. The cracking and crunching gets louder and suddenly Jimmy drops to the road, binos up flagging me to come over, As I turn and run toward his position a large bull breaks out from behind a small patch of pine and quickly makes his way across a 20 yard opening roughly 120 yards away and slips into the 12 year old pine block and out of sight. No shot could have been made but man was it ever nice to see a bull in the daylight and at a distance close enough to shoot.

[tinhorse]

After 5 minutes of looking, glassing and listening we decide to move on. As we drive we spook up several groups of grouse once again but this time we let them go for another day. We only had one thing we were after now and it had just slipped through our fingers. About 3 more km down the road past our bull encounter a small jeep with 2 well seasoned gentlemen were out covered in blood and shoulder deep into a bull of their own. Those were the shots we heard.... They were driving through an older block and spotted the young bull 10 yards inside the trees, the guy hoped out and after putting one through the lungs the moose decided to make things super easy and walk onto the road and expire. We offered our help but the 82 and 80 year old duo said, "no thanks, we have our party coming with the trailer." After a quick chat and congratulations to the guys we moved on definitely impressed that they were still out in their 80s and getting it done! It wasn't until 4 hours later that we saw the trailer with the whole moose loaded on it driving by and off to their camp at another nearby lake. As 1:00 came upon us I said, this is when we should see deer moving, wasn't it 1:30 we got the buck yesterday..?

Not 10 minutes after I spoke I see a nice little buck standing 50 yards in an open side road. Jimmy grabbed his rifle looked it over closely for a good 30 seconds and.......
Let it live to grow bigger. It would have been an easy shot but we had already taken one smaller buck and moose was what we were now after. For the rest of the day we walked, glassed and called and didn't see a thing.

Back at camp we went over the day's events. The close call with the bull, the small buck and the bull the other party got on the road. We knew animals were moving and hopefully day 3 would bring us our bull.

[tinhorse]

Day 3: morning- again nothing, not even a grouse on the road...what was going on. It wasn't until 11 am when we saw our first grouse that day, we again sat, glassed and hiked. At noon we decided to get a better view of where the bull was feeding night one. We hiked into the block and found the closest shooting ridge that may have given me a 400 yard shit if the moose was where we saw it back on night one. As we hiked I suddenly catch a glimpse of a black object moving away from us. At first I thought it was a moose, then a bear, then we see a oddly light tan/dry grass coloured object move over a blow down spruce and disappear into a nearby plantation. What the heck was that?? This is when we came across this:
Bear den https://imgur.com/a/7a9nCEn

[tinhorse]

Clearly a freshly dug out den. But I saw a black object and then the tan....weird we thought. We continued on with the scouting, coming up with a plan for the evening set up.

5 hours later we returned, myself perched up on the ridge and Jimmy back down lower. As I start glassing I notice a beautiful super light tan bear with a second pure black bear close behind it making its way through the block. I watch the 2 bears for a while when suddenly I see a larger dark bodied object in the distant tree line. I call jimmy on the radio and whisper bull. He responds with , no bear. I am puzzled as I am sure it was a moose I saw. Darkness was again coming in fast and again from where I was sitting there was a slight breeze blowing right towards where I spotted the , what I thought was a moose. I pulled out and headed back to the truck. As dark approached shortly after, jimmy made it back and gave me his story of the black bear looking at him, disappearing and reappearing 50 yards away, then disappearing again and reappearing again a little closer. We were pretty sure it was just trying to figure out what jimmy was but still a little unnerving . On-top of that jimmy didn't realize there were 2 bears down where he was. He never did see the light coloured one. As day 3 passed we were now thinking more about the close call the day before. Would another chance present itself. Back to camp, fire, dinner, beers and sleep .

[tinhorse]

Day 4: woke up early as usual with coffee and a quick bite to eat. We decided to drive that morning and go to our 'moose block' closer to 8. As we drove, every town stump and burnt tree resembled moose...still nothing was to be seen. At 8:05 we traced back and got to out glassing ridge. I walked out, glasses up and immediately said 'BULL'. I look at jimmy and his binos we're up staring in the same direction I just was. 'Good Bull' came out of his mouth as we both walked briskly to the truck to grab our packs. Now the Bull was ranged from where we glasses it at 840 yards. It didn't know we were there and we knew we had a little time. We looked over the terrain and decided on the best route to get to a reasonable shooting distance (for me with a perfect rest 500 yards)...yes it's far but with practice it is very makeable.... We get to the first ridge, 740... Get to the next ridge , 660. We look around a make out way to the last rise that we can get to for an angled open shot. At this point my heart is beating as I know this may be my only opportunity. 480 yards. I double check with my range finder, 493..ok breath and calm down .....I get my bipods up, pack off and under the stock. Laying down on my belly I have my scope set at 500 and crosshairs towards the back of the front shoulder. I take another minute to breath and calm down. The moose is standing perfectly broadside, finger on the trigger....BANG, "Hit", jimmy says. I quickly reload and see the bull walk behind some small standing pine. He is now not moving and I turn and ask jimmy, " your sure it was a hit" . Yes he replies. We turn back and the moose is gone.

We start glassing and see a cow and 2 calves appear 75 yard stop the right of where the bull was standing in the pines. There is a slight opening where they were but with standing Aspen if the bull appeared there I couldn't get a shot off. We spot another rise about 150 yards away that would work. We quickly and calmly make our way over. The entire time thinking, I missed, they are going to be gone.

[tinhorse]

As we reach the next rise and peek over we quickly spot th
bull standing again broadside 10 yards away from the other 3 moose. Again I get set up and range him...500..? What the first spot was 500. This should be at least 100 yards closer...jimmy confirms, 500. I triple check..yep it's right. The bull is again standing as the cow and calf feed slowly, I get set up, calm my breathing and slowly squeeze the trigger again. The bull doesn't move. I reload and get him back in my scope, suddenly he takes one step forward, wobbles , another step, sways side to side and down. We can see his head laying flat on the ground. The cow and calves walk up to him and stand at his side for a couple minutes the slowly walk off. I keep my scope right on him looking for movement and nothing.

[tinhorse]

A sense of astonishment falls over me. Did that really just happen? We quickly snap a picture of the spot I shot from, give a quick high five and start the nervous walk to where the moose should be laying.
https://imgur.com/a/IhYaDD7

[tinhorse]

As we approach the downed moose it becomes apparently clear he was never getting up. The shit from the 300 WSM with 168 nosler e-tips under rl19 powder did the job. We found him laying in a perfect pose
As he lay https://imgur.com/a/vMFrKNd

[tinhorse]

After tagging him out, filling out the necessary Leh sheet and double checking all that we again high five, snap a couple pics and realize that now the work begins. Funny, the bear den found the day before is literally 20 yards away. You can see it in the pics in post 1 where I am standing behind the moose and there is a small dirt mound behind its nose. I guess the moose aren't really scared off by bears..?

We get the beast flipped onto his back and legs tied back. I start the gutting job while jimmy looks for an easy route to pack it out. Unbelievably, it goes way to well. We find an old ranchers road that leads right to where the moose is laying. The only hiccup was chainsawing out 60 or so dead blowdown pine and Aspen. 2.5 hours after the shot we have the bull loaded in quarters in the truck and are back off to camp.

[tinhorse]

In the truck we look at the maps and GPS data. We were still wondering how both shots could be from the same distance...they weren't. The first shot was at 606 yards.....the rangefinder was picking up branches at 490... Both his and mine read the same thing. The first shot hit low and went through the mooses front right knee. The second shit was indeed from 500 and took out both lung turning them to soup. I never would have thought that the rangefinder would pick up such a small twig. Every hunt we learn something... After we got back to camp we set up another game pole and got the moose hung up, skinned, and cleaned. There were many celebratory beers with neighboring hunters that night. As the days were reaching 15-19 degrees, we decided to pack up the next morning and head back to the island and get the meat hung up in a cooler. By 9:30 pm the next day we were at the butcher with the moose hanging. On the trip out from camp not 5 km away we spotted this guy and his girl hanging out in a classic moose swamp picture!
https://imgur.com/a/Bdp7gHT

[tinhorse]

That ends this year's hunt. Thanks for reading. Here is another pic of the antlers a little closer up
Antlers https://imgur.com/a/yW0Yz6A

[srupp]

well done indeed Tinhorse
steven

[browningboy]

Thanks for sharing your storey! Congrats on the nice bull!

[375shooter]

Good writeup! Nice bull! Congratulations!

What rifle and scope combo are you using? What level of accuracy are you getting from your load at 500 yards and what criteria do you use to decide on 500 being your maximum for moose? Not looking to find any faults, just curious.

[high horse Hal]

Great bull, great pics and great story

[tinhorse]

Rifle is a factory browning x-bolt with a Nikon Monarch 4-16*42 BDC scope. I've found any shot passed 300 yards there can not be any wind, I mean zero for me to take as well as bright lighting, the scope I have is crystal clear when the light is good but fading and first light it's only ok. There has to be a rest where I can have the butt of the stock resting as well as the bipods out. I need to take the time to ensure the gun and target aren't moving. The drop between 400 and 500 is large, (roughly 19 inches) but gets significantly higher past 500. As well as energy (ft/lb) drops well below 2000. Practice, practice and more practice.
This is the furthest I've shot an animal. Others have been 446- moose and several 350 yard deer. I've never lost an animal I've taken last 300. I have lost one shooting from 148 yards before.

[Ubertuber]

Thanks for taking the time to post your story. It made for a nice Sunday morning read.
Congratulations as well .

[BimmerBob]

Congratulations on your successful hunt and thanks for sharing your story and pictures, much appreciated and enjoyed. Well done!

Be well.../B

[Arctic Lake]

Very good account of your success ! As mentioned before good pictures as well !
Curious what did the rack measure in width ?
Arctic Lake
That ends this year's hunt. Thanks for reading. Here is another pic of the antlers a little closer up
Antlers https://imgur.com/a/yW0Yz6A

[HarryToolips]

What a beauty, congrats! I look forward to the story..

[tinhorse]

Haven't measured the spread yet but in my hands I'm guessing 36-38" wide. Not o er massive but a great cariboo bull

[TheObserver]

Hey man, nice Bull! Congrats!!!

[Jagermeister]

Firstly, congratulations on your successful moose hunt.

I'm curious if you're required to submit a tooth for aging? By the looks of the brow tines and the rest of the tine lengths along with his lighter body color that he would be a wee bit past prime. The reason that I say that is I got one out Swift River way one year that bears a striking resemblance. Got it home, skinned it out and called a butcher friend of mine to come and bone it out. As the meat was cut away from the shoulder blade, it appeared that the blade was quite yellow. I asked Rod if he had ever seen one that color to which he said, "No." He gave it a whack with his knife and it had the most hollow sound that he nor I had ever heard from bone. We ground some up and mixed in some beef tallow. The small larva were not evident at first when frying the ground but were evident when the fat was rendered down. I called the guy with the little wildlife park just south of Kersley and asked him if he wanted some moose meat for his meat eating critters. Of course he fell over backwards with a yes. I phoned the game warden and explained what and why it was happening and they were okay with that. And no, I did not get a replacement tag. What's done is done

[250 sav]

Nice bull.

[tinhorse]

Yes, tooth submitted and waiting on age. The hooves were torn up and looked to be an older moose for sure, thing is the teeth were in great shape. I've taken older deer and bears and the teeth were yellow and starting to rot. This guy must have brushed as his were perfect.

Antler measured 37 3/4" spread.