Busterbrown
12-26-2011, 09:31 AM
This was one of those events in life that I believe may have had an bad ending if I had done things differently.
On evening of day three on a ten day moose hunt in 7-52 , a very nice bull was making his way down to the bottom of the valley . I picked up my pack and headed to a spot where I could get a shot at him . After about 10 minutes he comes into view at the bottom ,quickly ranged him at 417 yds . I had spent many days at the range over the summer getting ready for this moment.At the sound of the blast the moose stumbles but is walking away from me, another one in the chamber, get a nice rest and again at the blast he stumbles but this time piles up against a group of small alpine shrubs.
My hunting partner calls me on the radio and begins to make his way over .We then headed down and began the process of cleaning him before it got too dark.
I am always amazed at how big these things are when they are on the ground. I tied his front and rear legs to the trees to keep him proped open for the nite, as we would have to leave him over nite and come back with the horses in the am. Bad plan
We arrived back at camp at approx 20:30 to find out the other two hunters in camp had shot a moose earlier in the day. They managed to get half of it out and would be going back in the am for the rest.The plan for the next morning was to get the half moose out and meet me at the ridge top at 0900 to go down for mine.
My partner and I climbed up to the ridge to wait for the packer to arrive with the horses. At that point my partner said he would head farther up the ridge and meet us at the moose when he sees the horses arrive.
As it began to get light I was looking at were the moose should have been but it did not look right,I had hung a t-shirt on a bush which was still there but the carcass looked to be moved. I rationalized that as it was dark when we cleaned it I was mistaken as to the location. It looked to be tucked into the trees more than it was. The packer suggested to me NOT to go down until they arrived.
After waiting for an hour, I decided to head down and begin the skinning process .After picking up my pack I began to head down to the moose, I heard a gunshot from the direction my partner had gone. He radios me that he has one down. I changed my plan and headed for his location. We quickly gutted him and headed back to meet the horses.This is when the fun started
While approaching the moose this grizzly bear came charging out of the bush full speed at the horses, a couple of quick shots into the ground sent him running away a little but then he charged again. At this point ownership of the moose transfered hands. One of the guys in camp took this video from a distance. You can see the bear has a problem moving the moose as he was tied to the tree by two legs. Every morning we would climb up to the ridge to see where the bear was, sometimes he was eating ,sleeping or just standing there but he was never more than 50 yards away.
I was disappointed to loose the moose but we saw some amazing bear activity which I will post in another thread. I still try and imagine what would have happened if I went down alone as I had no idea he was there
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJi2tDkyTbQ
On evening of day three on a ten day moose hunt in 7-52 , a very nice bull was making his way down to the bottom of the valley . I picked up my pack and headed to a spot where I could get a shot at him . After about 10 minutes he comes into view at the bottom ,quickly ranged him at 417 yds . I had spent many days at the range over the summer getting ready for this moment.At the sound of the blast the moose stumbles but is walking away from me, another one in the chamber, get a nice rest and again at the blast he stumbles but this time piles up against a group of small alpine shrubs.
My hunting partner calls me on the radio and begins to make his way over .We then headed down and began the process of cleaning him before it got too dark.
I am always amazed at how big these things are when they are on the ground. I tied his front and rear legs to the trees to keep him proped open for the nite, as we would have to leave him over nite and come back with the horses in the am. Bad plan
We arrived back at camp at approx 20:30 to find out the other two hunters in camp had shot a moose earlier in the day. They managed to get half of it out and would be going back in the am for the rest.The plan for the next morning was to get the half moose out and meet me at the ridge top at 0900 to go down for mine.
My partner and I climbed up to the ridge to wait for the packer to arrive with the horses. At that point my partner said he would head farther up the ridge and meet us at the moose when he sees the horses arrive.
As it began to get light I was looking at were the moose should have been but it did not look right,I had hung a t-shirt on a bush which was still there but the carcass looked to be moved. I rationalized that as it was dark when we cleaned it I was mistaken as to the location. It looked to be tucked into the trees more than it was. The packer suggested to me NOT to go down until they arrived.
After waiting for an hour, I decided to head down and begin the skinning process .After picking up my pack I began to head down to the moose, I heard a gunshot from the direction my partner had gone. He radios me that he has one down. I changed my plan and headed for his location. We quickly gutted him and headed back to meet the horses.This is when the fun started
While approaching the moose this grizzly bear came charging out of the bush full speed at the horses, a couple of quick shots into the ground sent him running away a little but then he charged again. At this point ownership of the moose transfered hands. One of the guys in camp took this video from a distance. You can see the bear has a problem moving the moose as he was tied to the tree by two legs. Every morning we would climb up to the ridge to see where the bear was, sometimes he was eating ,sleeping or just standing there but he was never more than 50 yards away.
I was disappointed to loose the moose but we saw some amazing bear activity which I will post in another thread. I still try and imagine what would have happened if I went down alone as I had no idea he was there
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJi2tDkyTbQ