Slinky Pickle
10-17-2010, 01:20 PM
I went up to my little moose spot where I've had my camera all year. No LEH so I had to wait until spike/fork opened up.
My buddy and I walked in this morning just as it was getting light. We found a good spot to set up and proceeded to make ourselves comfortable. Since I had seen an immature bull here on and off all year, I was hoping he would still be around.
I cow called on and off for an hour or so with no results. We were discussing getting up and moving off to a different spot when all of a sudden we heard something coming in on us. Sticks were breaking but there were no grunts. Must be a cow!
We knew it was close but couldn't quite make it out through the trees. Finally, I could see it's back and hind end but I couldn't see it's head. It stopped with it's head right behind a tree and stood there for the longest time. I was ready to dismiss it as a cow when all of a sudden the slightest bit of rack poked out from behind the tree. Damn, it was a goofy looking palm on it's right side with at least 4 points. My hopes went away.
I think my eye balls were pushed up against the lens on my binos so hard that they got stuck to them. I wanted to see that left side SO bad but he just wouldn't turn his head. I let out a soft, quiet cow call and he turned just a little. He was head on and it looked like a spike on the left. That can't be right I thought. I kept looking at him and he kept looking at me.... and there we stood. Until I could get a better view I couldn't make the shot. My partner didn't have as good a few as I did so he couldn't tell me whether it was legal or not.
I let out a few more real soft cow moans and he took a couple of steps forward and turned slightly. Now the single spike turned into a fork. "Well" I thought, "Two is as good as one" so I took one more look, and seeing two points I put down the binos and picked up the rifle.
I was looking at him almost head on and as I tried to figure out where I was going to plug him, my buddy says "Are you 100% sure?". The bull wasn't going anywhere so I took one more look through the binos. It still looked like two points to me. Finally he turned just a little more sideways and damn, the top of one point split into a small 3rd fork. Wow, he had to turn almost 45° to me before that little point showed itself.
We sat there and played with him for another 5 minutes or so. He wanted to come out but was very apprehensive. By this time both of us had a great view of him and no matter how hard we looked at it, that pesky little 3rd point just wouldn't go away.
The whole event lasted maybe 10 minutes and then he got tired of playing with us and just wandered away. Such a cool experience! It was interesting to see him come in so quietly like that. I guess he was young enough that he was a little afraid of announcing his presence for fear of getting his arse kicked by a bigger bull. Now I'm just very glad we took the time to really make sure he was legal. Literally, it was the 4th or 5th look on a partial view of what I thought was two points before I saw the 3rd point.
What a great morning.
My buddy and I walked in this morning just as it was getting light. We found a good spot to set up and proceeded to make ourselves comfortable. Since I had seen an immature bull here on and off all year, I was hoping he would still be around.
I cow called on and off for an hour or so with no results. We were discussing getting up and moving off to a different spot when all of a sudden we heard something coming in on us. Sticks were breaking but there were no grunts. Must be a cow!
We knew it was close but couldn't quite make it out through the trees. Finally, I could see it's back and hind end but I couldn't see it's head. It stopped with it's head right behind a tree and stood there for the longest time. I was ready to dismiss it as a cow when all of a sudden the slightest bit of rack poked out from behind the tree. Damn, it was a goofy looking palm on it's right side with at least 4 points. My hopes went away.
I think my eye balls were pushed up against the lens on my binos so hard that they got stuck to them. I wanted to see that left side SO bad but he just wouldn't turn his head. I let out a soft, quiet cow call and he turned just a little. He was head on and it looked like a spike on the left. That can't be right I thought. I kept looking at him and he kept looking at me.... and there we stood. Until I could get a better view I couldn't make the shot. My partner didn't have as good a few as I did so he couldn't tell me whether it was legal or not.
I let out a few more real soft cow moans and he took a couple of steps forward and turned slightly. Now the single spike turned into a fork. "Well" I thought, "Two is as good as one" so I took one more look, and seeing two points I put down the binos and picked up the rifle.
I was looking at him almost head on and as I tried to figure out where I was going to plug him, my buddy says "Are you 100% sure?". The bull wasn't going anywhere so I took one more look through the binos. It still looked like two points to me. Finally he turned just a little more sideways and damn, the top of one point split into a small 3rd fork. Wow, he had to turn almost 45° to me before that little point showed itself.
We sat there and played with him for another 5 minutes or so. He wanted to come out but was very apprehensive. By this time both of us had a great view of him and no matter how hard we looked at it, that pesky little 3rd point just wouldn't go away.
The whole event lasted maybe 10 minutes and then he got tired of playing with us and just wandered away. Such a cool experience! It was interesting to see him come in so quietly like that. I guess he was young enough that he was a little afraid of announcing his presence for fear of getting his arse kicked by a bigger bull. Now I'm just very glad we took the time to really make sure he was legal. Literally, it was the 4th or 5th look on a partial view of what I thought was two points before I saw the 3rd point.
What a great morning.