Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Idaho Unit 66 moose down....

Well, I was lucky enough to have drawn a once per lifetime moose tag this year for Idaho unit 66, which is over near Idaho Falls next to Wyoming. I got some good advice from Iddave on the forum as to some places to look, took a pre season scouting trip, and then headed over this last Wednesday. We did some glassing of our area on Wednesday afternoon



The forest service happens to be doing a controlled burn right in the area we planned to hunt, so we had to improvise a bit.
Thursday morning we walked to another area that we had scouted and spotted a moose down the hill from us, moving from a feeding area to a quaking aspen draw, over a little saddle. It looked like a good moose to us, having never really seen a lot in the woods. He was maybe 500 yards away when we spotted him. It was about 8:00 AM. We put hunt on him, around a knoll above him and attempting to intercept him as he moved up the drainage. We spotted him three separate times but he moved off every time we got close. We put a push on to get in front of him. This is steep country at about 7000 feet. We overran him and started to double back a bit. We could hear him grunting and stomping around in the quakies, so we got where we thought we were above him and my partner grunted him up the hill. He came up the hill to see what we were and closed within about 75 yards. He spotted us and turned to go back down the hill and I let him have it right behind the right shoulder. I was shooting my Winnie M70 classic stainless 7mm Rem mag, using factory Hornady Superformance loads with 139gr GMX bullets. I hit him where I wanted, and he turned and went down the hill about 25 yards, backed up and fell over, and then expired. The bullet had hit through the ribs, taken the heart apart, through the opposite shoulder and out between the shoulder and neck. It was 8:35 when he was on the ground.



It took 10 hours to dress him and pack him out to the rhino. It took 3 trips each for my partner and I, about 1.5 miles roundtrip. We had to climb a very steep 1/4 mile to get out of the draw where we killed him...





The horns were the last trip...



We loaded all the meat, horns and gear on the rhino by 6:30PM



Our camp...

[img]http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee149/tominboise/P1010091.jpg[/img]

Bullet hole - this in the entrance wound through the ribs...

[img]http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee149/tominboise/P1010079.jpg[/img]

The horns today in my yard in Boise,,,,

[img]http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee149/tominboise/P1010094.jpg[/img]

They measure 41" outside. The F&G biologist thought he was about 6 years old. The average bull in this unit is around 36", with many recent bulls about 33-34", so I consider myself very lucky to have crossed paths with this guy. The pack out was a royal pain, but worth it when we were all done and resting our feet.

I could not have done this without the help of iddave on the forum here for helpful info on where to look, and my mountain man hunting partner, Mike, who I've been on many an adventure with. Next up is to return to the same area and try to bag another one for him.

[img]http://i230.photobucket.com/albums/ee149/tominboise/P1010075.jpg[/img]

Sweet. Congrats and thanks for sharing.

excellent

Very nice work. Congratulations.

Very cool! Thanks for sharing!

Thats awesome Congrats.Good job with the field dressing.Looks nice and clean.

That's awesome, congrats!

Congratulations, very nice bull & well earned!

Dick

Way to go, Tom!! That's a great bull! Bigger than my Alberta bull last year by an inch You'll sure enjoy eating him. I'll bet you are on cloud 9 right now.

Joe

Really a nice bull - congrats. I sure would like to hunt moose one day!! Big critters thought for sure:)

Congrats on a nice moose ans some good eatin for months to come

Congrats on a successful hunt.

As a recent Moose hunt participant-not the shooter, but being close to the shooter I can say it was as much fun. Your pack-out was much more difficult than ours. I can appreciate the accomplishment you felt.

Again, congrats.

Nice bull and good shooting..thanks..

Are you going to have the head mounted?

Actually, It's at the taxidermist now. I am having it done European style.

Good job. Great story.

Excellent story and pictures, Tom. Glad you scored on such a nice Shiras bull moose.

L.W.

Great story and pics of your hunt. Must be nice to have a quality hunting partner to share such adventures with.

Thanks for sharing! That's awesome!

Congrats