The broken toe bull ( moose hunt 2004)

[kennyj]

The broken toe bull

I’ve always been fascinated by antlers, so a huge moose was at the top of my list. I’ve been fortunate to take a few good bulls, but not that monster that would allow me to check moose off my bucket list.
So when Rick a friend from work invited me on a trip to Atlin I jumped at the opportunity. He had drawn caribou and sheep tags, so I was looking forward to helping him with those tags and looking for my monster moose.
On my last day of work before our trip I dropped a staging clamp and it landed perfectly on my baby toe! OUCH!!! I saw stars. I felt like a cry baby but damn did it hurt! So much for chasing sheep.
I wasn’t going to bail on my partner so we headed off the next day, and 2 ½ days later arrived at our camp spot. We got set up and hit the hay for some much needed sleep.
On the first day we headed up the road that wound around the ridge behind camp and up the valley to the tree line and beyond. The roads are mostly for mining exploration and climb quite high. I had the truck and Rick had his quad. We stopped just above the tree line and made a plan. Rick would continue on to a spot that his cousin had told him about to look for caribou, and I would hobble across the plateau and glass the huge valley that we were camped in. We would meet at the same spot in the afternoon, or back at camp if something came up.
Rick took off and I put my pack on. As I was about to head off I thought I heard something. I moved down the road a bit and listened. There it was again. The unmistakable sound of a Bull Moose grunting. No way, I thought as I took off my pack and got my rifle ready. I’ve only been hunting for 5 minutes! Sure enough out walks a big bull 100 yds or so below the road.

[BlacktailStalker]

Yes !

[burger]

We ned the rest of the story aong with pics...PLZ!!!

[kennyj]

Sorry for the hard read. I wrote it in word and when I copied it to HBC all the punctuation disappeared. Vary frustrating!
kenny

[kennyj]

I lined him up in my scope and had a look. A nice bull about 4 years old with a 40-45’’spread. With 10 days to hunt I let him go. As he walked away I couldn’t believe my luck seeing a nice bull on the first morning.
My foot was killing me so I carefully made my way a ½ mile or so across the sub alpine to the edge of the valley. I got comfortable and glassed all morning without seeing anything. Then as I was thinking about heading back to the truck I glassed across the valley one more time and there was a moose, then another, low on the opposite mountain side.. I got them in my spotting scope and new right away that this was a big bull. He was slowly tipping his rack back and forth, showing off for a cow. What a sight! He was several miles away, but his big pans were clearly visible. I studied the area for the best approach through the numerous swamps and meadows, then headed to meet Rick and go after this big bull.
Rick hadn’t seen anything and he was keen to get after the bull I’d seen. Being more of a meat hunter he thought I was nuts passing up a bull right by the road. I hopped it would turn out to be a wise decision.
We got down into the valley and by now it was mid-afternoon. We started hiking across the valley bottom only to be blocked by a swamp. We tried again a little farther along the road and found a route that wasn’t as wet. By the time we thrashed our way to the far side of the valley it was getting late and we weren’t really sure we were in the right spot. We made a few calls then turned around to get out before dark.

[kennyj]

The next morning Rick took off to go look for caribou and I stayed in camp and whined to myself about my sore toe. ( baby!) Well, sore toe or not, it only took about half an hour and I was bored and had to get out there. I struggled my boots on and decided to find a decent route across the swamps we were floundering in the previous day. I remembered glassing a point of trees that stuck out into a meadow on the far side of the valley. If I could find an easy way to get there it would be a good starting point if I spotted the big bull again from my vantage point up the mountain.
I drove back along the road until I saw a possible route, parked the truck and headed into the bush. It was cold and a heavy frost was on the ground. The wind was blowing from the west and I was heading north across it. I zig zaged through marshes and along low grassy pine ridges, finding a decent route, hanging up the odd ribbon hear and there. I walked slowly and carefully and a couple of hours later I was at the far side of the valley. There was a long meadow, wet in spots, that ran 1 mile or so east to west along the valley bottom. Across the meadow and up the side of the mountain was where I’d seen the bull. I headed east just inside the trees toward the point that I was hoping to locate. The wind was directly at my back now and blowing pretty good, making quite a noise in the trees.
I was getting cold so I stopped and took off my pack to grab a sweater. Suddenly I was startled by a loud crash right in front of me. I grabbed my rifle and looked up to see a cow moose staring at me from 10 yards away, directly down wind, and she didn’t look happy. The hair on her back was sticking up and her eyes had that mean look. I grabbed my camera out of my pack and snapped a quick photo. Then a calf went by at 5 yards and the cow ran by as well.
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/Deer_caribou_etc_077.jpg
http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/Deer_caribou_etc_076.jpg

[kennyj]

I put on my sweater and stood still for a few minutes, excited and a little shaken by the close encounter, wondering what had spooked the cow and calf. I continued along silently, hunting now and not just exploring, moving slower and scanning as far as I could see through the pecker poll pines to my right and into the meadow on my left. A few minutes later a came across a fresh scrape where a bull had pawed up the dirt. I started to get the feeling that something was going to happen.
Then there it was. A black blob way off in the trees, over to my right with the wind directly at my back. I put up my binoculars and started freaking out! A BIG BULL bedded down facing into the wind with his back toward me. I could see 4 points on his right brow and very tall paddles, with lots of points. He was about 70-80 yards away but a solid screen of pine and wispy brush made a shot impossible. I decided to sneak straight down wind and close the distance, and then when he stood up I might have a shot. I took off my pack, hung a ribbon up so I wouldn’t loose it then started to vibrate my way towards the bull.

[kennyj]

Then the cows showed up. Between the bull and me. First one, feeding its way toward me. Then another, and another, until there were 5 of them. I was stuck. I stood still as the cows fed closer and closer until one was almost down wind of me. With only seconds left before the cow smelled me, I lined my scope up on the bull and let out a couple of bull grunts.
Well all hell broke loose! In a matter of seconds the moose had all thundered off. Big paddles tipping between the trees. No chance for a shot. I figured the cow down wind got my scent just as I called, and spooked the rest.
I grabbed my pack and took off after them. Should be pretty easy to follow the tracks of 6 moose running through the trees. I soon discovered how they had disappeared so fast. The ground sloped down just past my line of sight. There were tracks everywhere and I couldn’t tell which direction they went, so I headed down wind first, had a look around then came back and headed up wind. Nothing. They were gone without a trace.
I was thrilled by the close encounter, and still shaking almost an hour later as I returned to the spot where it had happened. As I went to retrieve the ribbon that I had hung up I noticed a big fresh moose track. Was that there before, I wondered? Then I had another thought. Had the bull rounded up his cows when I bull grunted, then come back to chase off this other bull he heard? Hmm…

[kennyj]

I decided to carry on with my plan, and continued on to find the point of trees. I’d only covered 150 yards or so when I came across a dried swamp full of buck brush. It was about 70 yards across and fairly round in shape, and because it was about 4 feet deep the brush only stuck up 3 feet above the surrounding ground. This allowed good visibility into the trees across the swamp, and I could just make out the meadow off to my left. I decided to sit for a while and have a snack.
I no sooner had my pack off and sat down when a cow appeared through the brush on the other side of the swamp. I pulled my pack in front of me and rested my rifle over it. The cow was moving to the left just inside the trees. I watched behind her hopping the bull would show up. She disappeared from view into the brush and I waited with my heart pounding. Suddenly further to the left at the far side of the swamp the bull stood up out of his bed. He was back in the brush a little ways but I recognized his rack instantly. His vitals were screened by brush so I had to wait for him to move ahead. Finally he took a few steps forward and I took a high shoulder shot, dropping him on the spot. I watched for a few minutes then bashed my way over there still in shock at fast this all went down.
As I approached this huge bull I couldn’t believe my luck. He was even bigger than I thought.
I my excitement I couldn’t remember how to set the self timer on my new camera so I snapped a couple of photos of the bull then got to work de-boning. So much for taking it easy today. 4 hours later I had all the meat up on a meat rack in the trees cooling off. I took a medium load and hiked out to the truck.
Over the next 2 days I packed the meat out and on the third day I hiked in on the now familiar route to retrieve the antlers and skull, as I wanted to do a euro . It was my birthday, and I couldn’t have been happier. That was until I heard a quad on the far side of the meadow at the base of the mountain. My partner had found quad trail and saved me having to pack the rack out through the trees. Now I was really happy.
Unfortunately Rick didn’t get his caribou or sheep, but not for a lack of trying as he was out there every day. The wolves were thick in the area and had spooked the caribou out of the high country. Rick cut the wolf population down by 2 and later took a nice meat moose ending a fantastic trip.



http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/medium/BT_deer_078.jpg

http://www.huntingbc.ca/photos/data/500/IMG_02251.JPG

[adamgarbett]

Beauty moose and an awesome read. Thanx for sharing. Been needing a good hunting story in these dull days of winter 😄

[knighthunter]

Great story and pic's. Thanks for sharing with us.

[whitetailsheds]

Great read...heckuva bull Kenny!!! Thanks!!!

[outdoorsk]

Great read..nice bull. Thanks Kenny

[blindguy]

With all the crap i've been reading over on the sport fish bc site latley thats was a breath of fresh air !!! great bull and great story ,thanks Kenny

[Big7]

Wicked bull! How wide was he? Better than the first one you passed up obviously!

[BlacktailStalker]

Heck ya Kenny, what a birthday bull ! Good story, thanks for the read and change of pace around here.

[northcoastfun]

Awesome Bull ! great adventure .

[IronNoggin]

Great Bull! Excellent Story complete with Great Pix!

Good Job all round Kenny!!

Cheers Indeed! :-D
Nog

[Fincat]

Great story and pictures.

[ydouask]

Holy poop ! A hunting story... and a dandy too ! Congrats Kenny.

[Ambush]

Man, you have some awesome hunting adventures!!

What a beauty bull! Do you ever have any easy hunts?

[The Dude]

Helluva Bull and a great read. Shows what persevering through pain can do!
(Took ya 9 years to write it up, huh? :P )

Any dead wolf pics?

[black mountain]

great story and pics

[yama49]

Awesome story, and congrats on a great mooose..

[kennyj]

Wicked bull! How wide was he? Better than the first one you passed up obviously!
55 '' wide, 200 7/8 net.

[Piperdown]

Good story Ken, 1 question at the start it said "at work" i thought you only hunted and fished :)

[bccanadian]

Good story, thanks for sharing.

[Rattler]

Fantastic bull Kenny. Congrats and thanks for sharing...

[kennyj]

Helluva Bull and a great read. Shows what persevering through pain can do!
(Took ya 9 years to write it up, huh? :P )

Any dead wolf pics?
I'm a slow writer. Sorry I didn't get any wolf photos.
kenny

[kennyj]

Good story Ken, 1 question at the start it said "at work" i thought you only hunted and fished :)
I wish!!
kenny

[ElectricDyck]

Well written, thanks for sharing the adventure.

[Phreddy]

Nice bull Kenny. I'm getting a little long in the tooth but still have a big bull on my bucket list.

[Blktail]

Awesome!!!

[Hammerhead]

Great story and a beauty bull probably made you forget all the toe.
HH

[deer nut]

Awesome bull and story! Way to go!