Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Forty Year Moose

Jody is grabing my hand and slapping my back. "You knocked him down. Wait, he is getting up and stumbling toward the trees. Shoot him again!"
I fire two offhand shots, sure I missed both times. I drop the magazine from my Tikka and reach for my spare to reload. Jody says he made the trees but looked hurt. The first shot hit him hard. We decide to wait 30 minutes.
In the Wreck of the Edmond Fitzgerald Gordan Lightfoot says "Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?" I could relate to that as we waited, waves lapping the shore. Drank some coffee, peed, checked my gear, paced back and forth. Told Jody I should take up smoking for times like these. My mind kept reviewing what could have been wrong with the shot. Jody assured me he would not be far inside the treeline. We decided to wait till noon, an hour and 15 minutes from the shot.
At noon we get in the boat, ease into the bay, sun in our eyes and glaring off the water. We move past the big log, both of us eyeing the trees, looking for an antler and big black body. Jody pulls into the shore but bumps into a log that keeps us from reaching solid ground. He put the boat in reverse, then back in netrual and says "Hey Mike, look".
I look behind us and 25 yards away this is what I see.

A moosekelunge!

Man, what a flood of emotions. Joy, relief, bewilderment, thoughts of Dad.
After seeing that I had hit the moose in the neck we determined the he had turned back to the lake likely because his rack hitting the trees was too debilitating, so he turned and stumbled back into the water. We did not see this because I was reloading and Jody had turned to talk to me. Would not have needed to wait the hour and 15 minutes of agony. We did not see him in the water when we idled back there because of the glare from the sun, other black stumps in the water and we were watching the treeline.
We will need help with this so back to camp to get Mark, Aaron and the service boat.

Aaron meets us at the dock and I tell him it is just a calf. Jody shakes his head and says "he is a brute, we have a lot of work left".
The service boat is a large jon boat style with a drop down bow, like a WWII landing craft. We all pile in and head back to South Bay.

We pull up to the moose, drop the bow part way down, Mark ties a rope to the antlers and him and Aaron lift the head onto the bow ramp. The antlers just keep coming out of the water. I had no idea how big this guy was.

We tow him out to a small rock island in front of the bay and with manpower, boat power, a come along and pullys we get him up on shore on a sheet of plywood used as a skid board.



It took over an hour. Time for trophy pictures then field dressing.

Perseverance.

Well done man! Thanks for bring us along and congrats on a nice moose!

I may look extremely happy in these pictures.





50 inches wide, 9 points per side, great color to the rack. I told Jody third time is a charm and well worth the wait.

After field dressing we pull the skidder board and moose back into the service boat, head to camp, drop the bow onto the dock and use the 4 wheeler to drag the board and moose to the meat pole. The moose meat never touches the ground.

The way these guys handle this large an animal is amazing. My processor says he never has seen a large game animal this clean. I cape the head, they skin and quarter, then all meat goes into cheeze cloth bags for the trip home. We are done by 7:30 and very tired.

After supper I pull my good luck charm from my pack, my Dad's 1974 Successful Moose Hunter patch.

So this wraps it up. The next morning we load meat, rack and my gear into the 21' Bowrider and head back to the main lodge 2 hours away. Jackie has my export permit and I hit the road for a 2 day drive home.

I cannot overstate how grateful I am to Jody, Jackie, Mark and Aaron for making this dream come true. Their service is expceptional, but more than that they have become friends over the years. I'll be back!

Exceptional backstory and travelogue!

Thanks for sharing.

Congratulations on a Great Hunt and Thanks for sharing the pictures and story with us.

Beautiful Bull.. Great story.

Thanks for sharing. Very nice moose.

Great story! Congrats on a great bull~

Man you did a great job with the hunt, story, and photos. Best ever. Thanks for writing this up for those of us stuck at home.

This is what hunting is all about. Great stories and wonderful memories. Thanks for the fantastic write up.

Well done! Thanks for the write-up, loved the day by day details and the tie to your Dad. I'm sure many of us can relate. Isn't it amazing how at the moment of success, we think of our Dads? I always wish mine could be there.....and actually, I know he is.

Dandy bull! Sounds like you have made great friends up there..

Congrats

A great bull and an even better story!! Was hard to keep the eyes and the scrolling finger from jumping ahead while reading!

Congratulations and thank you for sharing what must have been an incredible trip!

Super story!! Thanks for sharing.