pikespeakgoat
Member
- Messages
- 47
First post here, so please bear with me. I have been applying for moose in Colorado for 17 years to no avail. A couple years ago I started putting in for points in WY. This year I started putting in for some other states as well. Well as luck would have it I drew Idaho 76-3.
I made 3 - 650 mile scouting trips up this summer, (1 in June,July and August) and didn't see any moose (found plenty of sign), plenty of Elk though and several really nice bulls. I went up 5 days before season opened and scouted more to no avail and then hunted the first 8 days of season, still no moose but plenty of sign and elk again.
Well that little thing called a "job", required that I return back to work for 2 weeks.
I returned to Idaho again on September 22 and was there for 4 weeks or until I got a moose. I was walking 10-12 miles each and every day and was finally starting to see a few moose, though mostly on the wrong side of the road while I was travelling back and forth between hunting spots and camp.
On October 02 I was heading out of the hills to call home and check in since I was doing this hunt on my own by myself and a really nice bull moose almost made himself a hood ornament on my Dodge. On October 03 I got within about 60 yards of a little bull, just a spike moose. On October 04 I ran into a small bull still not good enough to harvest. On the evening of October 05 it was raining pretty good and I decided to sit and call a bit. A buddy of mine had told me how to use a coffee can and a bit of rope to make a call. I wet the rope and put some water in the can and pulled the wet rope 3 times and 5 minutes later I had a bull moose grunting and breaking stuff headed my way. Well you see, I am deaf in 1 ear and cannot for the life of me detect direction of sounds. This bull grunted probably 200-300 times over a span of about an hour and a half and I never did see him, but boy was this an adrenaline rush. The next several days were fruitless, just a couple cows and a small bull moose on the wrong side of the road.
The half way point of my excursion was upon me. This was the point that I decided that I would take any bull. Well still no luck after deciding to take any bull. On October 10, the 27 th day of hunting, I decided to hike back up the draw where I had seen the spike bull moose and had the encounter with the grunting bull to try my luck again. The wind was blowing about 40 mph so the calling was fruitless. I sat a bit and noticed a light colored patch at the top of the ridge to my east. I glassed the spot I thought to be a deer and it was a palm of a bull moose. That was at 6:30 pm. I immediately began the 600-800 feet climb to get to the bull making sure to stay downwind of his location. I had picked out several trees where I had seen the bull to aid as my reference point to climb to. I topped the ridge and began slowly walking into the wind while looking over the edger of the ridge. I seen the moose at about the same time as he seen me, he was just over the edge of the ridge. We had a stare down. I won. He made a slight turn to his right and started walking giving me a perfect 50 yard broadside shot. I put the 175 grain Bear Claw 7mm Rem Mag right behind his shoulder. He then turned 90 degrees to his left and started coming straight at me. I put another round right straight through the center of his chest. He turned to head downhill and fell and tried to get back up but I put another round in the back of his neck before he could, and I was not going to stop shooting until I knew he was not going to move again. He was done!! Then I began to hoot and holler a bit as I was ecstatic. It took 27 days to get this fellow. I took a few pics, gutted and skinned the up side. It was about 20 degrees each night so I knew the meat would be ok til morning. October 11 I quartered the large animal and put everything in the shade on the north side of the hill and packed out the two hind quarters a mile back to the truck, luckily it was all down hill although rather steep and then placed them in the freezer I had brought to put meat in . I was whipped. October 12 I packed out the two front quarters and waited for a couple buddies to arrive from Colorado. They arrived at 1:00 pm and we went up the hill to cape the head and get the last bag of meat(neck, backstraps and other). We arrived back at camp at 4:30 pm.
This is not the largest moose around but I am definitely pleased with him, he is sure going to look great on my wall. My hunt was over. Hunting for 27 days alone and hiking 10-12 miles a day really tested me both mentally and physically. I will always have fond memories of this hunt.
Ps. I keep trying to load pics but get error message saying my files are too large(over 300 kb, mine are 750 kb). If you can help me get these pics uploaded, please let me know as I would greatly appreciate it.
I made 3 - 650 mile scouting trips up this summer, (1 in June,July and August) and didn't see any moose (found plenty of sign), plenty of Elk though and several really nice bulls. I went up 5 days before season opened and scouted more to no avail and then hunted the first 8 days of season, still no moose but plenty of sign and elk again.
Well that little thing called a "job", required that I return back to work for 2 weeks.
I returned to Idaho again on September 22 and was there for 4 weeks or until I got a moose. I was walking 10-12 miles each and every day and was finally starting to see a few moose, though mostly on the wrong side of the road while I was travelling back and forth between hunting spots and camp.
On October 02 I was heading out of the hills to call home and check in since I was doing this hunt on my own by myself and a really nice bull moose almost made himself a hood ornament on my Dodge. On October 03 I got within about 60 yards of a little bull, just a spike moose. On October 04 I ran into a small bull still not good enough to harvest. On the evening of October 05 it was raining pretty good and I decided to sit and call a bit. A buddy of mine had told me how to use a coffee can and a bit of rope to make a call. I wet the rope and put some water in the can and pulled the wet rope 3 times and 5 minutes later I had a bull moose grunting and breaking stuff headed my way. Well you see, I am deaf in 1 ear and cannot for the life of me detect direction of sounds. This bull grunted probably 200-300 times over a span of about an hour and a half and I never did see him, but boy was this an adrenaline rush. The next several days were fruitless, just a couple cows and a small bull moose on the wrong side of the road.
The half way point of my excursion was upon me. This was the point that I decided that I would take any bull. Well still no luck after deciding to take any bull. On October 10, the 27 th day of hunting, I decided to hike back up the draw where I had seen the spike bull moose and had the encounter with the grunting bull to try my luck again. The wind was blowing about 40 mph so the calling was fruitless. I sat a bit and noticed a light colored patch at the top of the ridge to my east. I glassed the spot I thought to be a deer and it was a palm of a bull moose. That was at 6:30 pm. I immediately began the 600-800 feet climb to get to the bull making sure to stay downwind of his location. I had picked out several trees where I had seen the bull to aid as my reference point to climb to. I topped the ridge and began slowly walking into the wind while looking over the edger of the ridge. I seen the moose at about the same time as he seen me, he was just over the edge of the ridge. We had a stare down. I won. He made a slight turn to his right and started walking giving me a perfect 50 yard broadside shot. I put the 175 grain Bear Claw 7mm Rem Mag right behind his shoulder. He then turned 90 degrees to his left and started coming straight at me. I put another round right straight through the center of his chest. He turned to head downhill and fell and tried to get back up but I put another round in the back of his neck before he could, and I was not going to stop shooting until I knew he was not going to move again. He was done!! Then I began to hoot and holler a bit as I was ecstatic. It took 27 days to get this fellow. I took a few pics, gutted and skinned the up side. It was about 20 degrees each night so I knew the meat would be ok til morning. October 11 I quartered the large animal and put everything in the shade on the north side of the hill and packed out the two hind quarters a mile back to the truck, luckily it was all down hill although rather steep and then placed them in the freezer I had brought to put meat in . I was whipped. October 12 I packed out the two front quarters and waited for a couple buddies to arrive from Colorado. They arrived at 1:00 pm and we went up the hill to cape the head and get the last bag of meat(neck, backstraps and other). We arrived back at camp at 4:30 pm.
This is not the largest moose around but I am definitely pleased with him, he is sure going to look great on my wall. My hunt was over. Hunting for 27 days alone and hiking 10-12 miles a day really tested me both mentally and physically. I will always have fond memories of this hunt.
Ps. I keep trying to load pics but get error message saying my files are too large(over 300 kb, mine are 750 kb). If you can help me get these pics uploaded, please let me know as I would greatly appreciate it.
