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Awesome!

My youngest blasted her first squirrel today

Mines bigger this year, but she shot one bigger than this in the same spot a few years ago. Very competitive at home.

Cool! Is that an Abert’s?

It is indeed

Nice buck:)

I’ve always wanted one of those. We have them here in our Ponderosa country. But the season opens so late, you can’t realistically access them.

Gotcha, bummer. We’re big fans of them

I told you 'earlier' in this thread that "they were both keepers" ( buck & her) compliment!

I'd like and enjoy that competition - hope you do too.

Jerry

[quote=exbiologist]Bam! Solo hunt, 5 minutes to dark. Best I can do for photos. But I think I am done for the year unless we go to Kansas.

-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x

So VERY NICE, what's NOT to like. GOOD rack, love dark color of rack & hide. Fantastic evening pic, Could NOT
have framed a better background !!!

OH ! btw - Kansas isn't that far away ! GRIN

Jerry

Well, the Kansas land is 12 hours from home. Hadn’t been hunted legally in 100 years. She inherited it two years ago, chalk up another in the keeper column

HERE ! YEAA ! HEAR ! YEAA !

No, I was not alone. There were four of us in our group. My friend, Clint, was with me when I shot this one. We took the first load of meat out, and met the other two at lunch. The four of us had the whole thing cleaned up by supper time.

I put the whole story in the handgun forum a while back. I hesitated posting the story, originally, because it wasn't exactly textbook. This moose required a little more horsepower to get it ready for the freezer, as you'll soon see.

We spotted the moose below us, 140 yards out, according to the rangefinder. It was an easy, rested shot with my .300 Win mag. The first shot punched through both lungs. The moose reacted at the shot, but he wasn't in a hurry to go anywhere. After the initial reaction, he didn't really seem to be all that phased, and it bothered me that he was still on his feet. Clint watched the moose through his binocular as the bullet hit, "you hit him hard!"

I shot again, a high shoulder shot this time, and he dropped. I remember taking my first moose with a high shoulder shot, so I was satisfied that this moose dropped the same way, but after 20-30 seconds, he got back up again! I sent the third round directly on the shoulder, this time, and dropped him again. "That took a lot!" I remember thinking to myself, "How did I ever kill one of these things with a 7-08?"

From our vantage point on the hill, my Clint watched him as I gathered my pack with the knives and game bags. After about 5 min, I headed down the hill to find him, and Clint stayed up top to guide me to him. I left my rifle at the top of the hill, but I took my 10mm with me in a chest holster. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Walking in on him, I heard the moose before I saw him. He was on the ground, behind a couple of trees, and facing away from me. He was slumped over and had very labored breathing, but he wasn't quite dead yet. I wanted to keep the skull intact, so that antler measurements could confirm that he was legal. I figured I'd shoot him at the base of his skull to finish him off. Again, it made sense at the time.

After my 10mm barked, he perked right up, and as he was swinging his head around to look at me, I shot him in the neck twice more -- before he stood up! I saw the bullets hit him, right at the neck/head junction, and he just stood up like it was nothing! I was only 10-15 feet away from this guy, and he's now on his feet! I've got to say, moose look a whole lot bigger at stomping distance! I triple-tapped him in the chest, and he went down again. He fell and rolled on his side. His antlers got tangled in a the brush, so he couldn't move his head very well. I quickly moved forward and put one more round in the back of his neck, from an arm's length away. He immediately tensed up from the CNS hit. A few more kicks from his hind legs, and he was down for good.

Then the adrenaline kicked in! What the hell just happened? Was this the toughest moose ever, or just lousy shooting on my part? I don't really know, but a moose is a big enough animal for both, I suppose.

When we gutted and butchered him, we found both lungs were effectively tore up and his chest was full of pooled blood. He also had several broken ribs, a clipped vertebrae, two bullet holes through his shoulder blade, and four pistol rounds in his neck. How he kept getting up, is beyond me.

The antlers measured 54-inches.

We found a 168gr T-TSX from the .300 Win Mag (3300fps with RL-26). It went through the shoulder and came to rest on the far-side shoulder blade, just above the ball and socket joint. It lost a couple of petals, but still retained 85% of its original weight.






I also recovered a 200gr XTP from the near side lung. It broke a rib going in, but didn't penetrate very far. These were handloads, by the way: 12.5gr of AA#9 under the 200gr XTP. I think I'll use FMJs or solids from now on.




Will the 10mm work on moose? Yeah, I guess it did. When this guy stood up, though, I would have felt a lot better with a rifle in my hands.

I forgot to add...

We had to pack the meat about 150 yards, uphill, of course, to get to the 'wheelers. We used frame packs, and the hind quarters were heavy enough you needed help lifting the pack. You couldn't do it by yourself. We all tried, and laughed at each others' failures to lift the pack. What are friends for, after all?

So, two guys lifted the pack as high as they could get it, and the third guy crawled into the shoulder straps from below. Once you stood up, it was manageable, not any fun, but manageable. We took lots of breaks going up that stupid hill!

The next day, we found another 4-wheeler route that would have taken us to within 25 yards of the kill site. Figures...

Enjoying this thread Good to read about other peoples fall hunts.

Thnx Dan for the backstory and pix. Glad you had help.
'alternate' trail... as you said, "figures"

Jerry

nice buck!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Congrats on the Moose! That's quite a story!!

Trophy sized squirrel! Good for her!

Nice buck! Congrats!

Looking good!