jsdboy
10-16-2009, 03:55 PM
Well, after freezing our tushes off (the weather turned on the full moon to -10 C or less) for three nights in a tent and hunting hard, my buddy finally twigged on to what had happened to all the moose he had spotted while scouting the area all summer: they had moved UP to the high timber above the slash. Hunting pressure was on and something about the cool moved em up. We had a shared LEH tag for bulls for the Kamloops area and we thought we were skunked until the night before the last day we spotted 2 big bulls. At daybreak the next morning one of them (the smaller one) ventured out of the timber into the slash. We were able to get to about 200 yds from him, then the big ears went up and he was in alarm mode. So i quickly found a rest and dropped him with my little 308 and my favourite handload. On the morning of my birthday. You have to realize that I am from Victoria and have never even seen a moose before. I was so jittery walking up to him that my cuff caught on something and i went A** over teakettle and the gun flew and i got a nice scar on the stock for my first moose.
2 1/2 hours later we got him to the roadside, and that was with a quad and a winch. We had to build little "roads" and rollers from downed timber to get him to go over the rough stuff.
I have slaughtered a lot of steers in my time, and i guestimate his hanging weight in quarters to be around 800 lbs. or live weight maybe 1100 lbs. What do you think?
So i just finished the last of the cutting and vacuum packing this afternoon (a week later). I had to can 25 lbs of meat because I ran out of freezer space!
I am still flabergasted and in awe at the size of these animals. 1/2 of the moose, de boned, gave me more meat than about a dozen island blacktails
Just had to share my story with someone who might appreciate it. Thanks for looking and good hunting. Jsdboy
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z51/jsdboy/Birthdaymoose.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z51/jsdboy/Mooseatroadside.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z51/jsdboy/Moosehanging.jpg
2 1/2 hours later we got him to the roadside, and that was with a quad and a winch. We had to build little "roads" and rollers from downed timber to get him to go over the rough stuff.
I have slaughtered a lot of steers in my time, and i guestimate his hanging weight in quarters to be around 800 lbs. or live weight maybe 1100 lbs. What do you think?
So i just finished the last of the cutting and vacuum packing this afternoon (a week later). I had to can 25 lbs of meat because I ran out of freezer space!
I am still flabergasted and in awe at the size of these animals. 1/2 of the moose, de boned, gave me more meat than about a dozen island blacktails
Just had to share my story with someone who might appreciate it. Thanks for looking and good hunting. Jsdboy
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z51/jsdboy/Birthdaymoose.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z51/jsdboy/Mooseatroadside.jpg
http://i193.photobucket.com/albums/z51/jsdboy/Moosehanging.jpg