Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game The Longest Day.......and a Dead Moose

I posted here earlier this summer about my wife getting a moose tag for Unit 7 in Northern Idaho. So here goes. The season opened up October 1st. I had to finish my work week at the sawmill where I work, so at 2:30 am Friday morning of the 3rd I was ready for a week off. Got a few hours sleep and got everything packed and loaded. We have 2 small children, so we got a family member to stay with them for the weekend. About a 75 mile drive and we were to camp.

Hunting consisted of a lot of glassing and calling. The area we hunted is logging country. It is a mixture of old grown up clearcuts, newer clearcuts, big stands of old growth timber and everything in between. The moose really like the grown up brushy clearcuts, as there is a lot of different types of brush for them to feed on.

The first afternoon out we saw a cow and calf moose and 4 cow elk right before dark.
Day 2, the morning was pretty uneventful. We did see a mountain goat about a mile away. That evening we met up with a veteran moose hunter and his niece. Right before dark we glassed up 2 different bulls in a big old brushy hole. We were able to drive around to the other side. We walked down an old brushed up logging road and set up to call. Larry, the moose man, after about 30 minutes of calling had the bigger bull in to about 50 yds. The moose had come in about 300-400 yds. He hung up in some thick brush at 50 yds. All we could see was his nose ears and his antlers. My wife passed the opportunity, as there was no ethical shot.
After 4 days we had to head home with no moose, because we were out of babysitters.
Day 6 started out at 3:30am. We had both kids and the dog. It was a great day with the family in the mountains. Saw one big cow right off. And ended up seeing one real small bull, the only one in a week of hunting standing in one of the logging roads. Saw a medium size one later in the morning. The wife and I put a stalk on, but while the misses was setting up for a shot he turned and headed out. We stayed in the mountains glassing and calling. About an hour before dark we put the stalk on a big bull down in another brush hole. When we got down in there, the attempt proved to be futile as the brush in there was over ten foot tall. Miserable walk out in the dark, while the moose man and his niece played with our kids. Then a 2 hour drive home. We got to bed about 11:00.

Day 7 started out about the same. 3:30 came aweful early. We arrived at the first glassing spot about 6:15. No sightings from here. While driving around to another spot we saw a big cow moose down in a brush hole below the road. She was all by herself. Next basin to glass held nothing. 3rd spot the wife spotted a bull right off. He was the big one from the nite before. We got the wife set up for a shot across the draw. The shooting part of this whole thing, didn't go picture perfect. So, the bull is rolling down the hill and we lose sight of him in the bottom of the brush hole. The misses stays with the kids and I dropped down in to find the bull. When I got down in there I couldn't recognize any of my landmarks as everything looked different. The wife was not much help, with the excitement of shooting the moose she forgot where it was standing and about everything else. It took me about an hour to find the dead bull. It was wedged in between to pine trees. I called the wife on the radio and let her know I found her moose. The kids could be heard for miles yelling, "BEST DAY EVER." The wife had to stay with the kids, so I had to gut out the beast by myself. It took about 30 minutes of blood, sweat, tears, and rope to get him to were I could get his guts out. What a chore. Back out of the canyon I went. Then it was a 2 hour drive back to town to dump the kids off and get the 4-wheeler and meat wagon. We got back up there about 3:00 pm. We found an old grown up logging road that would take us below the bull. We had to use 2 sets of ramps to get the 4-wheeler and trailer over a gate. Then 1.5 miles down the old road. We lucked out and only had to chainsaw 4 logs out of the way. We finally got below the bull. We headed right up to him and immediately set to work breaking him down. With both of us working it didn't take to long. We had to pack him about 300 yds down hill to the meat wagon. We got the last load down about 7:30pm, well past dark. We got back to town, skinned the quarters and took care of everything we had to that nite. Dropped into bed right at 1:00 am. One of the longest, most exhausting, rewarding days I've ever spent in the mountains.

My wife's moose was right at 40" wide, is a 9x10 and has 2 huge double eye guards.

Hope I wasn't too long winded but what an awesome experience being my wife's Moose Sherpa.

In the last picture, my wife's moose was killed on that far mountain behind the tallest tree that is close.

Great story and bull.

Just curious about your statement about using 2 sets of ramps to get the 4 wheeler and trailer over the gate. Was the road open to motorized travel?

Yes it was open to 4-wheelers but no full size vehicles. Someone with a piece of heavy equipment had mangled part of the gate and a washout prevented us from going around it on the provided trail.

Welcome to moose hunting! That was a hunt!

My 3rd of 21 bulls was the 2nd easiest one. Pulled the boat to within 20 yards.

My first was the easiest and most expensive- a 12 mile horse-packer job from kill site to trail head.

My 2nd bull was my biggest- 62.5 inches- and a 500 yard pack to the boat.

The rest have been 1500 yards or more pack... several times with the aid of a canoe across a couple small lakes... the longest being 4.5 miles (a smallish yearling - damned if I was gonna hire a float plane for him - made it out in 3 very heavy pack-loads).

I was younger then.....

Great job. You guys are set for some good eating, now. Great story....

Awesome!

Them Moose burgers are darn good. I could get used to them.

Way cool family affair! You two had to put in some work to get it done...not just in the woods. Congrats!

Great tale.
Tell her congrats.
I keep puttin' in for moose but haven't drawn........yet.

Sweet!

Nice job on a great moose!

Great write up and good on ya'll for having the kids involved.

Congratulations on a full freezer.

Congratulations.

Congratulations from se Idaho!

Thanks guys. It was a great hunt. The kids even have there own compact binos to help with the glassing.

The draw system being random luck is kind of bogus. I do think being a female helps though, we ran into 3 other woman with tags besides my wife. When we checked the moose in the next day, an old timer at the LGS/check station said he had been putting in for 29 years now and still hadn't drawn. Kinda feel bad for him. Or maybe not, I've never drawn either, hope it doesn't take 30 years.

Congrats my friend!
Guys, this hunt couldn't have happened to a better family...well done!

Thanks for the kind words my friend.

Great story and pictures, congrats to your whole family for getting it done!

Great story and great hunting. Way to persevere! Congratulations tk the missus!

Great story and pics...thanks for sharing.