Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Moose down- an eventful trip

I just got home from this year's moose hunt a couple of days ago, and it was a great one!

It started off last Wednesday, as my father, brother's, and I drove north to the Little Smoky river area that Jack O'Conner liked to hunt so much during his 30-day pack horse trips. We arrived late at night, grabbed a motel, and woke up early Thursday morning to arrive at our hunting grounds by first light. Most of that day was spent trying to pick a good spot for camp, and then setting up camp, since there was a lot of oil field work and construction going on in the regular camp spots. The evening hunt was nice, though uneventful with only a couple of Spruce and Ruffed grouse falling to my Ithaca 12gauge, but it was good to get out and see how the area was doing, what was moving around, etc.

The next day, a friend came and met us out there, and him and I decided to check out a certain cut line that has proven to be a good spot in the past. This particular cut line is one big valley, with a low point in the middle and rises on either end, approximately 800 yards across. We got set up there about 30 minutes before last light for the day, and I started calling. Within 10 minutes we spotted a cow walk across the cut line and into the cut block to our right. Immediately after she walked out, we spotted a bull crest the opposite ridge of the cut line, about 760 yards away according to my Bushnell Fusion. I had a few 162gr A-Max loads in the stock shell holder loops for just such an occasion, and I immediately attached the SnipePod to the stock and got into a solid sitting position, and then waited. He was weaving back and forth as he made his way in our general direction, and we could tell that he was obviously coming in to our calls. We looked him over carefully as he approached, and decided that since he was a small to medium-sized bull, and with only 5-10 minutes of shooting light left, I would pass him up.

As he got to about half-way down the hill, I let out a couple of gentle cow calls, and the bull stopped, ears perked in our direction. He immediately started to trot toward us, obviously with his mind set on the lovin' that he was about to get. We decided to let him come closer and closer just for the fun of it, and when he got to about 70 yards, I rolled up my sleeves and put both arms above my head, swaying back and forth, giving him some bull grunts at the same time. The bull immediately stopped, stood there looking at me for a minute, and then lowered his head and started to charge in. When he got too close for comfort my friend stood up and we yelled at the bull and headed back to the truck.

The next day we hunted hard, covering and scouting lots of ground, calling, glassing, and searching high and low. Nothing wanted to come out and play that day, with nary a deer or grouse spotted. We hit the sack, bushed, and hoped for better luck the following day.

We woke up the next morning, and at about 8:30 we spotted a young bull at about 40 yards, standing there broadside. He trotted off after I looked him over and decided that he was too small, scooting around behind us and giving us another opportunity to take him at about 80 yards, if I had decided to drop the hammer. I let him go, hoping to find something bigger. The rest of the day we spotted plenty of WT and MD, cow moose, a wolf, etc, but no other bulls that I was interested in. My brother and dad spotted a nice bull that morning, so I thought I would check out that area the following morning and see if I could locate and check him out.

The next morning I received news that my wife and kids were having a tough time at home, and that the week hadn't been kind to them, so I was really hoping to be able to seal the deal that day and head back to help out around home. We hunted hard again all that day, and were having zero success, and hardly saw a squirrel all day. My brother told me that he had been sitting in a cut block that morning, when a monster bull walked out at 30 yards from him and started to challenge him with false charges and grunts. Unfortunately, he didn't have a moose tag. I really wanted to locate that bull, but time was running out.

Finally, as it was getting late in the day, I decided to check out the opposite end of the first cut line that I had visited when I called in the first bull of the hunt. I sat and called for about 30 minutes, and when I realized that there was no activity, I moved stands, and was heading back in the direction of the truck, since my dad and brother had just let me know that they had gotten their truck stuck, and needed a pull. I stopped for a minute to fix my socks and boots, and while I was doing that, I heard a grunt and some bush snapping just inside the woods of the cut line. I stopped and gave a couple of soft cow calls. More rustling and twigs snapping. I waited for about 15 minutes, and when the activity subsided, I decided that I had better get over and help pull out the stuck truck. As I started to walk along the cut line toward the truck again, I immediately saw the bull walk out of the brush and into the cut line at about 150 yards. He had traveled down the cut line a little to cross and try and get behind me to get downwind and identify my scent.

As I saw him emerge from the woods, and with only 1 hour left in the day, and my family needing me back at home, I decided to pull the trigger on this little meat bull, even though I had passed up bigger bulls already during the hunt. When the bull came out of the bush, he went behind some willows that were in the middle of the cut line, and I got brief shot opportunities in holes between the branches, but I decided to let him clear the willows before taking the shot. I mounted the Kimber Montana in 7WSM with FX3 6x42, and waited for him to come out from behind the willows. As soon as his head and shoulders cleared the willows as he walked out quartering toward me, I could tell that I would have to shoot at the top half of the bull, since the long grass was obscuring his lower half from my view. I quickly settled the reticle just behind the shoulder, as low on his chest as I could see, which was just above the mid-line, and sent a 140gr TTSX on its way. The bull jumped at the shot, and trotted off into the bush. He ran for about 60-70 yards, and then we heard the crash as he hit the ground. It was starting to get dark at this point, so I immediately followed up the trail, and as I tracked the bull, I saw chunks of lung on the ground, so I knew that I had made a good hit. I found him, and saw more lung hanging from his nose. It was Thanksgiving day, and I was thankful that I could put some meat on the ground and get back to my family, who had made a sacrifice so that I could go on this hunt.

The bullet had entered exactly where I wanted, and exited about halfway up his chest, just in front of the last rib on the offside. There was a 3" entry wound in the rib cage, and a 5" hole through the lungs, with both lungs completely bruised inside and out. The exit hole in the ribs was 1" across.

Four hours later, the bull was completely dressed, skinned, quartered, antlers sawed off, and everything was loaded up on the trailer. What a tiring but great Thanksgiving day.









He may be small, but he has a big heart...



Flying breasts!!



And the obligatory "Fence post pic" in a cut block...

[img]http://a4.ec-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/154/1dfcad7c199b4040bb78500842c56e6b/l.jpg[/img]

Who'da thunk, death via 7Shorty Montana! Awesome stuff!

I just had a dream last night about sticking one with my bow. Might have to look into doing it soon.

Sweet pictures and nice moose.

Jordan,

Screw the moose, what did you see for deer?
Nice work my friend, glad it came together for you.

Good looking bull.Congrats.About the best moose meat going is that size.I perfer a young bull like that myself.

Nicely done, dang bullwinkle always kicks my buns....arg

Dober

Sounds like a great hunt! Not a thing wrong with that moose either. Good stuff.

Nicely done Jordan! Looks like that 140 TTSX way over-penetrated!

Scott,

Not a lot, to tell you the truth. A couple of spikes, a 3x3, a decent 5x4, and a bunch of does. I'm thinking it'll heat up a bit around the 2nd to 3rd week of November

Bob,

That 140TTSX sure impressed me! It penetrated a whole bunch of moose, made Gulage of the vitals, and still left a nice exit wound. I laugh when guys wonder whether that bullet will penetrate enough for WT. Even stem to stern, I have no question. Who needs a 160 or 175 when the 140 works like that?!

Oh, and we had moose ribs for supper tonight. Mmmmmmm good...

Jordan;
I hope that this finds you and yours well tonight - as it should be after eating moose ribs.

Thanks for sharing the hunt story and photos with us, I always enjoy seeing how other folks here hunt.

Congratulations on the bull too, as Mike said those young bulls are seldom a bad choice to invite to dinner.

Thanks again and good luck on the rest of your hunts this fall Jordan.

Dwayne

Congrats Jordan,thats a winters worth of good eats there! Monashee

Dandy of a Moose,...can't imagine the gut pile on one of those things...

All right,..mark me as the idiot..but I gotta know.

what's was this..?

Jordan,

congrats on your story and hunt.

Deerwhacker444 : this is a two foot method for a gutless "chicken"

It's a Spruce grouse

"Stand on the wings and pull on the feet!" Monashee

Congrats.

Nice bull congrats. He's going to taste great.

I'm impressed....you got my attention!

A deer? Geezus I'm starting to feel bad using 7mm's and 270's on them.

I think I need a 6.5!

Good stuff, good yarn, good pics, and good on you, tho I don't understand why you passed up the previous bulls... to each his own, I guess.

You obviously have "too many moose" where you hunt...