With applications going out to Maine, VT, and NH, getting a chance to kill a good bull is most certainly on my short list of animals to hunt.

If you can, post up some pictures of your hunt, talk about the terrain, conditions, etc. Oh, and obviously mention rifle, cartridge, bullet.

Not too much more exciting than seeing a big bull on the ground!

I have been blessed. Drawn twice and subpermitte once. Shooter all three times.

2009

Zone 3 905 dressed 52 inches

308 with 180 gr. Partitions

View from camp porch. Decent bull on the right



Object of the bull below affection.




Females will always get you one way or the other.





2001

Zone 6 920 dressed 50 inches

300 Wea. Mag with 180 gr. Partitions



2012


Zone 1

700 pounds 34 inches (and by far the best eating)
30-06 with 180 gr. Partitons

In my yard bull



One I passed up 3 times this year (I refuse to road hunt).



A couple living in my back yard.






That's all I have

It should be illegal to brag that much about game that close to home!
You're making me envious as hell. Only moose I ever got was 21 hours from my house in Northern Alberta. About the size of your middle one and great eating.

Bob

Fixed it for you

Spot on.

Really cool moose and pictures you have there JDK. Thanks for the post.

Not sure why the both of you would be "discouraged" by taking a nice bull? Wasn't that your goal?

The "taking" is the fun part. It's everything that comes afterward that is more work than fun!

That sure is the truth Jordan! I hope to draw in a state that will allow us to pack one out. Would hate to have to worry about or plan on having to get one out whole....

Maine allows you to pack them out (and I have done it twice on bulls I haven't shot). I believe NH is the same.

My folks live an hour north of Bangor. We all put in every year with some of my extended family. Someone usually pulls a permit every few years. My dad uses a 30-06 with 180 grain Speer Grand Slams, Mom uses a 6.5x55 with 156 grain Norma Oryxs, I use a 264 Win Mag with 140 grain Speer deep curls or hot cors. My cousins usually take 300 Win mags with factory ammo of what kind I do not know. Our neighbors use 12 gauge slugs.

That's good to know. Thought it might have changed but was not sure.

I will hunt moose again, would love to go to Newfie land to do so. Guided is the only way, them SOB's are something when you walk up to one you just shot and think 'What the hell did I just do'

Of if you could get a skidder bitch to pull one out in Maine.

Yep...



...then there's all alone, 50 miles from home, -10� F...




Thankfully, there's machines and sleds to assist such endeavors. Too bad this one was suffering from busted rings on one piston when this bull approached while I was trying to sort out the problem...

Klikitarik;
Merry Christmas to you and yours Klik, I hope this finds you all doing well.

Please tell us how you fixed the broken rings way out there.

Mechanical things give me fits and sleepless nights sometimes, especially so when one is far from mother's arms.

A buddy in Whitehorse had a main bearing seize on his outboard jet leg when they were way, way out on a river. It made for a lot of walking and some creative chainsaw work to get the boat onto a trailer eventually.

Another time the inboard Volvo on another boat didn't cooperate and they came back home using the kicker and watching the tides and decreasing fuel......

My late father and I went in about 40 miles on snow machine to hunt moose and though we had no troubles with the Arctic Cat when out hunting, it was a bit of fun getting the van started when we got back to the trail head as it had been sitting in -35� and lower all week.

Anyway, I'd love to hear your busted rings story Klik.

Oh, to the OP, the lone bull moose I've killed wasn't really close to a road and had to come out in pieces pulled in our "Dead Sled".

I laughed and winced at the same time when I read Steelhead's response as I very clearly recall asking myself "what have you done Dwayne, what have you done...." when I couldn't even so much as roll the bull over.

All the best to you and your family this Christmas Klik and in 2013 too.

Dwayne

Fun

2nd Shiras in Wyoming

And 1 from Alaska

I have not hunted Maine but have hunted Newfoundland. On me first hunt I shot the 13th. moose that I saw. Amazing animals! I was surely impressed by their size. We (my son and I) had a great outfitter and had a blast. more later.

Google West Woods Outfitters (Newfoundland)
Check out ole guy in yellow rain jacket.
Best guided hunt of my life.
Been twice, sucessful, moose is one fine table fare.
Great guides, great food, great hunt, tough terrain.
I shot mine with TikkaT3 the first year and used a Kimber Montana the second year. Both 300WSM, handfloaded 180 TSX. My next hunt will be with the Kimber 300WSM and 165 TTSX. My son took his with 358WSM and 35Whelen. I don't remember what he hand loaded for those 35's. Boat anchors? 35 cal, does drop them ok.

Jim

2011 Alberta. 8th day, was really warm and hard to find them for the first week I was there. There were a pair of 52" bulls taken the week I was there, but this was the first bull I saw after seeing 22 cows and calves the first 7 days. 338 RUM, 250 Accubond. Literally can't wait to go again. One of the best hunts of my life.

Maine has always allowed packing them out. But is is far easier to bring 12 of your closest friends with you.

JDK;
Thanks for the smile this morning and for the wonderful moose photos as well. Congratulations on those very nice bulls.

Moose is a subject near and dear to my heart as I grew up eating Saskatchewan moose meat taken by my late father and uncle on their annual trip a few hours north of our farm near Yorkton, SK.

Before going on I'll note that my brother remains on the family farm and reports that in the last few years moose have been moving southward onto his farm land and are a common sight nowadays.

Anyway as a Canuck and in particular a Canuck whose family has always hunted, moose are a very common subject of discussion at any family get together.

One of my personal favorites to tell goes like this:

At one time in the distant past, one of the owners of the cabinet shop where I've worked for more than 2 decades had formerly owned a guiding business in northern Alberta.

At an SCI meeting or something similar he'd traded either a black bear hunt or a whitetail hunt with an outfitter from Alaska for a moose hunt.

The rack of the moose he took in Alaska is pretty fair sized, certainly it would dwarf any Okanagan bull I've ever seen, but truly the rack looks comparatively small as the melon on his bull is just huge!

I recall measuring the distance between the nostrils and then from the top of the nostril to the tear duct and just shaking my head in wonder. Draft horse doesn't begin to describe it and he confirmed that the taxidermist had a problem finding a form big enough for the cape.

So of course then it follows that the body matched the head and again of course as moose hunts tend to go, this bull received no less than 3 bullets from a .375 Weatherby before it decided that was enough of that and laid down.

I likely don't need to add that it did not lay down anywhere close to the boat......

My boss described the agony they had reducing the bull into transportable protein packages to me, shaking his head and wincing as he did so even though it was years later.

I was still in awe of the huge size of the bull's head and when he was done with his hunting tale I asked, "What was the first thing that went through your head when you walked up to this giant?"

My boss looked me in the eye and in typical straight talking Alberta fashion replied, "I knew how far away the boat was and I thought - I shoulda been hunting f....ing sheep!"

Anyway, I hope you or someone else enjoyed a moose story on me. Good luck to you and the rest of the moose hunters here on your upcoming forays for our biggest deer.

Merry Christmas to you and all the best in 2013 too.

Regards,
Dwayne

Thanks for the posts fellas! I see some really good bulls in your photo's. Had a pard go to Newfoundland some years back but I think he went for Bou and Black Bear. Tough hunting a times he said but a great time none the less.

Shared some campfire stories in deer camp in Maine with a couple of local guys a while back who used to use some kind of winch or pulley system to get them out.

I would think would limit how and where you hunted them.

This year's moose hunt. The bullet really did a number on this guy. He had multiple chunks, including a huge piece of lung hanging out of his nose when I walked up to him, with smaller pieces of lung laying on the ground near where he lay. Down at 5pm, I got back to camp after processing him at 1am. Needless to say, I slept in the next day.

My favorite comment from a hunter who just killed a moose is "wow they are big!!"

NWT bull



Yukon bull



Saskatchewan bull



BC bull

wonderful photos - thanks!

Nothing is higher on my to-do list than hunting (successfully, I've done the other) for a bull moose. The end game certainly must be daunting however.

I saw these guys, and several more, while elk hunting in Wyoming this year. I guess it gave me moose fever because my buddy and I turned in for the Alaska moose draw and if we are successful we are going to do a non guided hunt.

Where do you go for the best chance at a big rack?

Moose hunting is my most favourite thing!

Having a good bull come grunting in to your call is inspiring. Likely similar to what elk caller/hunters experience.

About 4 years ago one of my hunting partners (who is two years older than me, and I'm in my middle '70s) shot one that went into the water to die, as many do. After we got our equipment back to the kill site we started recovery at 8 p.m. and didn't get back to the cabin until 3 a.m. That was just for recovery and gutting so he could cool out over night.

If it wasn't for having a willing mid-40's s-i-l I would have had to give it up a few years ago. There is still as much thrill now as there was back when the first one was taken 45 to 50 years ago.

The best scenario would have to be a guided hunt where the guide was responsible for looking after gutting and recovery.

Jim

There is a lot of bone and a lot of good eating meat in these photos! Spectacular all the way around!

I must say those Yukon bulls are just flat out awesome.

Victoria's secret

2006 NH bull. To date the most amazing--and difficult--hunt I've ever had. 90 hours in the White Mountains. As someone else said, I'd not shoot one from the road. I went to hunt. YMMV.













[img]http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n29/birddown/moose%20hunt/LNHandJSandMoose.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n29/birddown/moose%20hunt/mountainscene.jpg[/img]

[img]http://i108.photobucket.com/albums/n29/birddown/moose%20hunt/LNHAiriandRainbow-1.jpg[/img]

Story here. Painfully long.

http://forums.accuratereloading.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/3411043/m/686107285?r=686107285#686107285

Kamo, beautiful pixs and story. One of my favorite places in New England.

Great pics guys. My BIL, his wife, and her Dad all drew moose tags in N Idaho. I'm hoping they bring a steak or 2 with them when they visit in about a week. What an incredible amount of work!!

Hunted hard for 4 days. The bulls were just coming out of the rut and were not answering calls anymore. Then just after legal light I found this guy about 500 yards from my front door, munching away in the woods. It was pretty special as my sub permit holder hunting with me was a very close freind. We got within 30 yards and took him broadside at the same time. I hit him with a .358 win 225 partition and he was using my .270 win with 140 accubonds. The moose made it about 10 feet, post rut weight of 800lbs dressed.

Kamo & spj,

You guys have some nice bulls there! Great pictures too!

Did he?

Of course not. That's a New England moose.

Thanks!

Thanks!

Moose are somewhere!



There they are! (How could you miss those big black donkeys?)



See the bull(s)?



Hey Irma, I'm pretty sure that two-legged critter up yonder in the trees ain't supposed to be in our neighborhood!

Klikitarik- where are those coor. 63x162? Is that Nome area or Norton?

Steps to moose hunting (once you are legal to do so):

1. Find moose to shoot. This is the fun/frustrating part.

2. Shoot moose.
(Possibly re-find moose..... )

3. Dress/ "recover" moose. This is the "work" part.

My last moose was 3 seasons ago - a Noatak River 3 year old. Not a particularly difficult #3, and a danged good no-pressure hunt. I eased the Achilles ashore 30 yards from my apartment an hour before the snowstorm hit. The lagoon was frozen over the next morning. That makes a guy feel warm all over.... a rubber boat just doesn't make a good ice-breaker.

Photo-bucket ain't cooperating tonight.... but I've posted the pics before, anyway.

The caribou have been cooperating since - they are much easier to deal with.....

Moose someday but for now a dream.

Moose, come January, a nightmare, but for now, a dream!

Klik,

You must be able to find some massive sheds that time of year I would think...
The moose in those pictures look pretty big.

Best of luck with your nightmare. Mr.F Crouger. grin

Our Last three years. No moose this year as I was working too many hours and the freezer is full anyway.

Yukon



NWT



Hunting at -30


On The Delta (NWT)


358 Norma Magnum has been my caliber of choice. 250 Partitions now though I used Speer 250 Hot-cores on my moose and they work too.

Some great pictures and stories in this thread. Never hunted moose but it looks like a lot of fun and work. Good advise to bring 12 of your friends to help pack it out.

My Whelen'd BC moose taken on day nine of a ten day horseback hunt.

Nice bull, nice rifle!

I started shooting moose with a Winchester Model 670A in 3006 and Federal blue box 180's. Worked fine critters died. Then I built a 338wm about 6 years ago and that's been killing them since then.

I'm a freezer hunter so most of mine have been spike bulls although one of these days I'm going to go after a big one.

This is the first one I nailed with my 338wm. The weather had just turned two days before from kind of too warm to downright nippy and the game started moving.



The falls near camp.





Then the snow came.




Then critters started moving.

Great work out there I have seen the pictures you have added and loved It. Hope they are real I is a nice game but you enjoy it even more when you have got a company of good friends.

We have a late season hunt here at the Lake,it's going on now but here's moose or 2 from the past.

Where are the sheds?

There were these.... February 3, some barely poking up out of the snow, some frozen into the river's surface, and the winter season which requires antlered bulls only closed on January 31. The season is one month, some animals obviously lose legal status at varying times during that period. These look to have come from four different animals.

The work starts...0 dark 30 hours.






The last pack of 9 total packs... only 3/4 mile one way. 0900 the next morning. The meat was all in by 0300. Sometimes, a man's gotta sleep bloody, sweaty and dirty; the horns can wait...





.338 Winny with a 200 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip. Called in and taken at 40 yards. Was light out when I shot him, and dark 10 minutes later.


This fella's picture was snapped a couple of years ago. Some one here will know the area...at least Las would. It's definately one to aspire to...





best luck on your hunt prospects,

bhtr

Clearly out of range...call him about 20 yards closer!

Not only out of range, but out of season! You know that the sucker wouldn't be around for any of the "calling" trips I made for him in September that year, don't you.

best,
bhtr

Westcoaster;
I hope that this finds you and your fine family having a wonderful Christmas Season. Thanks for the wonderful photos that you've shared too, I never tire of seeing the wonders of creation that our home province has to offer.

One aspect of moose hunting that Klikitarik and I have discussed several times in the past is that all moose aren't created equally in size.

The bulls that some of the Alaska/Yukon and northern BC crew show will be double the carcass weight of what we'd consider a good Okanagan bull moose.

As examples, the spike fork that I killed on the mountain just east of our house went pretty close to 380lbs into the cooler, which seems to be about middle of the road for immature bulls in these parts.

My friend who now resides in the Yukon used to hunt right on the northern BC border and has killed some dandy big bulls on both sides of that imaginary line as a resident in both places.

I can still recall the time he called me one evening to ask if I could help cut up "a couple of pieces of moose"...which ended up to be the hind legs.

If memory serves we did up 8 or 9 "party sized" roasts from them and then ground two 5 gallon buckets of burger from the trim. They were indeed pretty fair sized hind legs.

Then too it occurs to me that for instance in your bottom photo, if that happens to be you, then that bull would appear to be a different size than if it was for instance me in the photo.

Anyway, I really just wanted to say a hello to you and wish you and your family the best of our Lord's blessings in 2013. Hopefully you and the family get down to our part of the world this year again and we can get some more shooting in again as we very much enjoyed our time with you and your daughter.

Dwayne

Need more moose pics!!! One of my most favorite threads ever. I've got like 14 pts here in Washington. My son has 8pts. We have some very big bulls here. Next year I'm gonna put in with him as a group. It will be a slam dunk as I lived amoungst the moose for 24 yrs of my life and my friends are still there. Can only hope we get lucky soon!!! Good work guys!!!

Shag;
I hope that this finds you and yours doing well this Boxing Day morning sir and that you all had a good Christmas.

Seeing as nobody is showing signs of wanting to do much besides veg at our house today I thought I'd cobble together the story of my sole Okanagan bull thus far.

As I've mentioned in a few previous posts I grew up eating Saskatchewan moose and although I'd hunted for them once there had not been successful in killing one.

After both of our families had moved west here to BC, between my late father and me while we hunted Okanagan moose for a few years we never connected with a bull.

I'll add here that in the years when we began chasing moose here there was no season to the east of us and of course that's where we saw more moose than on the west side where the season was. Then they gave us a LEH season on the east side, but it was and remains a highly sought after and small number of tags, so neither Dad or I was ever drawn for a mature moose tag there.

My father's health eventually deteriorated to the point where he couldn't even ride along and finally he passed on about a decade ago - about the time they gave us an immature bull season on the east side. An immature bull here is defined as no more than 2 points on one side.

Anyway I'd found this spot that was dubbed "Missed Moose Meadow" after I grazed the back hair from a little spike bull there in 2002 I think it was. It's one of the travel corridor spots I like to look for where one can run into whitetail, moose, elk, mulies or black bears on any given day.

On that September morning in 2004 I'd had a particularly poor sleep - I've struggled on and off with insomnia for much of my adult life - and was feeling flatter than a snake through a ringer when I left the truck at full dark to begin my 45 minute trek to the spot I like to be at first light. To say I felt simply wretched would be putting it right and I repeatedly asked myself just why I was out hunting....

Like the pull migratory birds must feel though, every fall the mountains call to me and I just have to answer, so there I was trudging up the hill in the dark.

At first light I glassed a cow and then a small bull in the willows, immediately beginning to close the distance between us and trying to figure out if the right antler fork had 3 tines which would disqualify the bull.

This process must have taken at least 10 minutes and even though I was stalking a bull moose I still wasn't feeling tops. In fact when I bumped into a whitetail butt sticking out of some brush, I silently prayed that if the Good Lord allowed it to be even a spiker I'd be happy with that.

The whitetail however was a doe, a very well mannered one as it turned out, who ghosted away after spotting me rather than waking up the neighborhood with snorting like they are wont to do.

Anyway in the fullness of time I closed on one of the moose and as I figured out that I was looking at the cow, in my peripheral vision I spotted another moose beginning to leave.

I glassed him as he swung his head and about 100yds or a bit more I ascertained it was a legal spike by two. He was breaking into a trot when I hit him with a 220gr Hornady RN out of my "lucky gun" a Ruger 77 Liberty that I'd had rebarreled to .308 Norma.

While the hit rocked the bull, he simply found another gear and from somewhere down deep inside I did as well, as I was sprinting after him looking for another opening for a shot. There was a break in the timber he'd have to run through, so I utilized that advantage and hit him a second time, this time rocking the bull even more visibly, but he remained on his feet and running.

I resumed the chase and was running on what remaining adrenaline was left in me when I heard a crash ahead of me.

The bull was down, but not quite expired, so I replaced the next in line 220gr with a 173gr cast bullet loaded to about 1000fps and put him down for good with that.

How do I articulate the emotions that went through me then? I slumped down in the bush beside the bull, took off my pack and laid my rifle and hat on him as I'd worked up a fair lather in the process. I prayed a quick prayer of thanks to God for allowing my shots to count and then I recall looking up and saying, "Hey Dad, I finally killed a bull!"

I took a quick couple of photos from a cheap hunting camera I carried then and with apologies for the scan, here's what he looked like.


Since I've recounted before the wee rodeo that ensued packing him out I'll cut that short in saying only that it was 4 heavily loaded trips on the Dead Sled to get him to an old skidder trail that I was eventually able to run the truck up to, but was still not really that close to the bull's carcass.

For the those of us who are inclined towards what Dober calls "ballistic gack" I'll offer the following bits.

The first bullet creased the right scapula, broke a rib, traversed the lower lungs, broke another rib and cracked the offside scapula where it was found. It weighed 110gr.

The second bullet broke 2nd last rib, then ripped a hole in the liver, then the lower left lung lobe ( I think) and then broke another rib where it was lodged. It weighed 126gr.

I'd have to look at my hunting log to see if I've got which bullet was which entirely correct, but they're pretty close either way.

Here they are shown with one of the unused box mates for comparison.


Anyway Shag, with apologies to you and all out there who took the time to read this, that's the story of my Okanagan bull.

All the best to you and yours in 2013 Shag and good luck on your upcoming hunts, especially your moose hunts.

Regards,
Dwayne

Shot this one in 07 somewhere along the Chandalar River. 52"er taken with a Winchester model 70 in 375 H&H
and 300gr Federal Vital Shok Nosler Partitions.



Took this one in 2009 2 days after I took a dall ram. Shot him with a Winchester model 70 in 270
and 150gr Federal Vital Shok Nosler Partitions.



Hunting rutting bull moose is one of my favorite past times.

Wonderful words, friend Dwayne. Thank you, and best to you and yours.

This moose thread is epic! A great compilation of photo's, information and hunting stories.

I can only hope to add to it someday....

I just like this photo.



This one not so much.

D,
That's good stuff right there! Congrats on that fine bull. Funny how shredded and mushroomed bullets mean so much to a guy. Thanks for the write up! I enjoyed it! Happy holidays to you and your loved ones too!!!

Chuck

Here's a few more for you shag.

NWT from this year



65" from the Yukon



Archery bull, Yukon



Big prairie moose. Saskatchewan



Getting them out, Yukon.

64" nasty bull. Missing an eye, black and blue, hair missing this old boy had it



Bringing them home





Big fronts, Yukon



Still out there, NWT

Sask Hunter, you have some beauties there for sure! How often do you draw a tag?

Only ever killed one moose. The rest are the result of 6 seasons of living the dream.

My only bull from 2009. I'm back in super A pool which means I could draw next season.

Oh man! killing me. Moose hunting pics and stories capture my attention like no other. 2 seasons ago the Moose hunting stories on huntingwashington were unreal. This years not quite as much but still moose hunting forums are my favorite.

Thanks for the pics!

I've found Maine to be a very difficult tag to pull so far. Now VT and NH used to be far easier. I've held moose tags in VT twice and NH once. I've taken a bull and a cow in VT and a bull in NH. All three were mature animals. Trouble is VT and NH have been slashing the number of tags lately. They say the herd isn't doing well do to tick mortality and brainworm. It's getting downright hard to draw a VT or NH moose tag and when you do the success rates are way down. Ten years ago things were booming with moose in New England, now only Maine seems to be thriving.
I prefer the .30-06 with 220 grain bullets for moose hunting.





These are the two I took in Vermont. The bull I took in NH was a half rack but he was 9 years old.

http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h346/stevemonday3/IMG_1645.jpg

http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h346/stevemonday3/IMG_1658.jpg

http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h346/stevemonday3/IMG_1637.jpg

http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h346/stevemonday3/IMG_1638.jpg

This is froms this years hunt. The larger one was 54" and the smaller was 26".

http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h346/stevemonday3/42540014.jpg

http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h346/stevemonday3/Picture754-1.jpg

http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h346/stevemonday3/42540003.jpg

http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h346/stevemonday3/100_2312.jpg

http://i1105.photobucket.com/albums/h346/stevemonday3/000_00301.jpg

This is from previous years. My middle son shot the cow w/ a 25-06 and also w/ the one I called in for Karl.

Greenbrier,

Some really big bulls in Those photo's. You in Alaska?

I am. I live in Eagle River.

Holy crap! Nice bulls.......

Do you get to hunt moose every year in AK or is there a lottery system there too?

An AK resident can hunt moose every year in all units (26 of them and some of them bigger than many states in America) with a harvest ticket/over the counter tag. Some units are any bull, but most have antler restrictions. 50" or 4 brow tine on one side or spike-fork bull. There is lots of drawing permits to apply for as well, both antlerless and bull tags.

Greetings Dwayne,

I trust and wish that the holiday season has found you and yours well and in good fellowship. Our house is pretty full with several generations of family, life is noisey but good. One must remember to enjoy these things.

I will look forward to looking you up the next time I'm down that way. Hopefully we'll both have our daughters around and can take them out shooting with us again. I'll bring my new to me 6.5x55 down...

The moose in that picture is from 06 or 07, and yes, that is me there. I had just retorn my ACL and could barely walk at the time. My partners quad had tipped on him the weekend before we left and his right leg was gimpy, and as mentioned my left leg was near useless; the joke was that between the two of us there was one good set of legs.

Accordingly it was a truck or quad hunt. The young bull in the picture was on the end of a swamp with a nice mature bull and a cow. As that area in spikes, tripalms or 10's, and the big guy was only an 8 point I took the spike. He still went over 500 lbs dressed IIRC.

Let's put things in perspective here. For some of us, moose hunting is a spiritual experience - or at least something bordering on that. Don't get me wrong, it isn't mystical or anything like that. Rather, it can incorporate many of the elements of a religious experience. IOW, it requires belief in that which cannot be seen. Take this typical example:



There is a moose in this picture. Trust me. I believe it to be so. If I did not, I wouldn't have wasted so much time scoping it out.




You must have hope in order to wait, it's waiting for that which we hope for through faith. We wait, and we wait...kind of like Advent.

Of course, there are those whose faith is weak. Sometimes they need signs to give them hope:



(What these signs don't tell them is that they only mean that their maker isn't standing in them anymore - hence the water!)



So you watch, you look, you study that 'branch', you look again at it, and again to make sure it hasn't turned or moved. And you get bored, and pretend you're a botanist for awhile.





You try to make yourself believe that mushrooms are interesting.

[img]http://www.hunt101.com/data/532/medium/IMG_07385.JPG[/img]

That sitting in the rain is virtuous somehow.

And then:

[img]http://www.hunt101.com/data/524/medium/IMG_10562.JPG[/img]

When you least expect it, out of nothing - just as Adam was made, a big dark beast appears and before you realize what you've done, you have a project on your hands:

[img]http://www.hunt101.com/data/524/medium/IMG_10596.JPG[/img]

And you give thanks, while asking for still more patience, perseverance, and strength.

Great post. That's one of the aspects of hunting that makes it so alluring to me.

Very well stated, Klik. And great pictures also!

That's a fine story! I like it. And the moose.

Klikitarik;
Thank you so much for taking the time to share the photos of your family hunts and the surrounding countryside.

I've got to say the lack of trees very much reminds me more than a little bit of southern Saskatchewan Klik.

For us in the south Okanagan our moose hunts are less of a believing experience and more of a "it might be my turn to win the lottery" type of thing.

We do have a fairly healthy moose population, but even in a season where we see for us "a lot" of moose, that will still not be much more than a dozen in total.

When the initial immature bull season opened here it was during the rut, but since the biologists believed we were killing too many of them the season was moved forward a month which makes it much tougher to find the young bulls.

On this morning here, I was on the track of a lone moose and was hoping it was a young bull by the size of hoof print.



The "trick" for Okanagan moose or for that matter elk hunting - for me hunting solo anyway - is to find a legal specimen within a reasonable packing distance from somewhere I can get the pickup to. So in the above photo I was hoping to find a bull on the edge of the cut and not too far into the shintangle jungle that they like to drift into.

Oh, the moose that morning was a solo cow.

One advantage of the season being moved forward is that the cooler temps do give one more time to pack meat out without it spoiling.

In the same general vicinity of the photo, but in our hot September elk season I've simply waved good day to a branch antlered bull elk. He was standing where I'd killed a good mulie buck a couple years before you see, so I knew beyond a shadow of doubt I couldn't get all the meat out without losing at least some of it.

Anyway, sorry for going on too long yet again. I find it very interesting how vastly different our hunting terrain and techniques are.

All the best to you and your fine family in 2013 Klik and thanks again.

Dwayne

We have an August/September fall season. There ain't nothing dumb about August moose, especially the pre-rut bulls, so I can relate to tougher hunting conditions. And our moose range widely in the summer months too, something which makes taking one from a rather sparse population a rather lucky proposition.

The pics in my previous post are all from a place or near the place known as Klikitarik, a place I have spent many enjoyable days, hence my screen name. (How smart is that, naming your favorite hunting areas for all the world to see? )

I know where those falls are.......(grin)
Caught a fair jag of bull trout underneath them this summer.

so easy a girl can do it


from 2011 http://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php/topics/5694559/1

And if she can field dress it and pack it out herself she's no girl, she's a woman.

Some pics from my 2000 hunt in Jackman. I may have posted these before but it's been awhile.

Camp we stayed in and hunted out of on the road from Rockwood to Jackman.





First days kill. We hunted at the back of a cut-off section a mile or so off the road. One of these bulls walked by us early morning and I let him pass. He went across into the next clear cut and Boom, one of the guys on the other side dropped him with a 300 Win Mag.



Woke up the next day to a blizzard. We drove out thinking we could get into the woods but decided to stay in the truck with the heavy snow coming down. Heard some shots below us about 8:30AM and figured it must be someone fom camp so we drove down there and helped these guys load up this bull that walked out in front of them while they were in the truck.



The next day one of the guys in the cabin next to us got this awesome bull about 20 miles north of Rockwood with a 300 RUM. The rack has another set of palms off the front and was about 55".



Went out again after lunch and jumped a couple of cows with a big bull but couldn't get a shot at him. Trailed them for a mile or so into a cedar swamp and came up onto a rise and saw a bull partially obscured by the cedars and dropped him with my 35 Whelen. Couldn't believe it when we got over there and found this much smaller bull than the one we jumped. He was wedged between two trees and we couldn't roll him over so I opened up his chest cavity and started hiking out. Hit the road back to the truck at 7PM. Came back with a dozer the next day and got him out. Here's my son with him and on the scale at Jackman - 720 lbs 36".



[img]http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr214/Bill_N_album/moose_wgh_in.jpg[/img]

Here's the biggest bull taken that week at Long Pond. 930 lbs and 62" taken with a 7 mag the morning we went back to get my bull out.

[img]http://i485.photobucket.com/albums/rr214/Bill_N_album/645_moose.jpg[/img]

Not sure about packing one out. It's certainly possible but depending on where you shoot one it could be hell! I'd rather stay somewhere that has the equipment to help get it out if you need it. I brought mine home quartered up in the back of my truck packed in ice.

Nice going Bill!

Have you drawn a tag anywhere since then? How long did it take you to draw for that maine hunt?

It took 12 years and that was before Maine started the "buy as many tags as you want policy". Haven't drawn since and I put my wife and I in every year in both Maine and NH. May have to go to Newfoundland.

My buddy and I have been talking Newfoundland for a while now. A 12 year wait is a heck of a long time!

It's been 12 years since that hunt so I must be due to draw again! Seriously, it seem like a once in a lifetime thing if you're a non-resident. Newfoundland is a sure thing if you really want a moose.

Pretty spot. Early September we had a good sized interior Grizz hanging around right where that picture was taken from.

Maine really gummed up the works when they started allowing guys to buy as many chances in the lottery as they want. I have a relative who puts $100 into the moose lottery every year. How do I compete with that?

Totally agree. I understand why they do it but they should've just raised the lottery fee for everyone and kept it at one chance per year plus preference points. I send in $55 for myself, and $55 for my wife. That's my limit but I'm sure there's a few guys who spend hundreds every year.