Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Muzzleloader Moose

After last year's debacle, where a good buddy of mine drew a sweet rifle moose tag but failed to harvest. The rest of my hunting buddies decided to go for earlier licenses like muzzleloader or archery. So, as luck would have it, for the second year in a row we were going moose hunting, but this time during muzzleloader season.

During scouting my partner, the one with the license, didn't see any real 40" plus bulls, but had seen plenty of moose overall. So we were all a little nervous that this may turn out to be another dink fest like last year. I couldn't get away until Sunday night, but by then the guys had seen 14 moose. Interestingly, the vast majority were around new cuts in the timber (major beetle kill mitigation area), not in the big meadows and willow swamps. Adam turned down a bull Saturday morning that he thought was in the mid 30s" range and had at 20 yards. Monday morning we saw nothing, but heard a few elk bugles and the last of the help, other than me, had to go home.
Only saw a cow on Monday night. Nothing again on Tuesday morning working a large series of meadows, so by mid day Tuesday we were back to watching clear cuts. Mid day Tuesday Adam jumped two bulls in a timbered strip between cuts, but couldn't get a great look at them. Adam sat over that same cut that evening and a bull came out about 15 minutes before last shooting light.
Adam put a stalk on the bull but never got much under 150 yards, and with an open sighted muzzleloader and still undecided as to whether he would take the bull until he got closer, he ran out of light. The bull was making a lot of grunts and there was at least one other bull grunting in the timber below, but never showed. Adam thought there may have been 3 different bulls grunting down there, including the one he could see.
This was from Tuesday night, sorry about the crappy pics, just had my phone with me.



Wednesday morning started beautifully with us back in the same spot.

I was watching from the hillside above, while Adam went down the old logging road into the cut. Right at first light he spotted a bull about 150 yards from me, that got up and started walking into the slash piles below, where Adam was already posted. The bull had great fronts and with very little deliberation, Adam decided to go for it. another bull entered the cut from below, but was much smaller. From my vantage by a little after 7:00, I could see Adam with his rifle rested over a log, but the bull was slightly obscured. Finally, the bull gave him a sot at 30 yards. I heard the boom, but saw little reaction from the .54 cal Powerbelt. The bull just walked off behind a small patch of spruce but didn't come out. The little bull and a cow that just stepped out of the timber were acting nervous, just like every other big game animal that saw another animal go down, so I was pretty confident we had a dead bull behind those trees. I guided Adam into it, saw him kick at something and then he let out a big "yahoo!!!!".
Great bull, cool hunt, cool choice of weapon. 9 hours from shot to last load of meat. Adam is pretty fit guy, but that load with the head and cape about killed him.
The bull is in the photo, at the middle left part of the slash piles but impossible to see.




Should go about 44" wide

Huge heart



The killer load, had to be around 100 pounds

Nice!

Congrats on a very nice bull!

Dandy, just Dandy. Way cool to get him with the front stuffer too.

And all that free exercise you guys didn't even have to go to the gym for

Thanks for sharing the story and pics,

Geno

PS, is it common there for them to pile up that slash in "cones". At first, I thought you folks might have built a ground blind.

Awesome! Very good looking bull! Congrats to the hunter and knuckle bump to you on the assist.

Nice work!

congrats!!!

Congrats to your buddy, Ex. That's a nice bull for Colorado.

Congratulations!

Very nice exbiologist! Beautiful country too.

Is that a T/C Hawken across the rack? Sure looks like it. I just picked up one in 54 cal and glad to see it's capable of taking down a moose

Thanks it's a CVA muzzleloader. In regards to the slash piles, I think they intend to burn them when they like them up like that but just haven't yet.

Is Adam the same guy who had the mtn goat tag in 2000? Great looking bull there. Congrats to you guys.

Yeah Kurt, same guy. Pretty lucky with tags.

That's one on my bucket list, great hunt & bull.

Nice Moose, congrats.

Thanks for the pictures and the story.

Looks like it measured 45 3/8

Outstanding! Congrats on a very nice bull moose.

JD338

Yep VERY nice!

Congrats; awesome work with the front stuffer!

Boy thats a Dandy! and with a frontstuffer!