Opening morning bull. We glassed him for a while and decided he wasn’t what I was looking for on day one.


My favorite hunting buddy joined me for the first few days while her parents watched our hoard.




The scenery was beautiful.


We saw at least one moose every day.


We were sneaking in on this guy when he decided to head our way after finishing his bath. We hadn’t seen him just heard him splashing. I didn’t want him between us and our truck so I had to run him off. He got as close as 8 yards.

I found a lot of wolf scat filled with moose hair. Which probably explains the change in moose population from a few years ago.


Camp was comfortable other than the mice! The wife hates mice and resulted in some long nights.




This little forky was harassing the cow and calf. He was tempting as he was above and close to the road he just needed a lot more antler.


This is the bull I ended up shooting. He was not quite big enough to shoot that far and deep. This was about 8AM



I ended up cutting his tracks around 5PM still following the cow and calf but in an area where if I caught them I could get him out alone. I tracked him for about 1/3 of a mile and caught him in the clearcut. I snuck down the skid trail and watched him move up hill towards the skid trail. I ended up shooting him at ~30 paces (he was standing about where the “play” button is on the video). He went about 70 yards down the skid trail and headed for the brush. I tried to anchor him with a shot to the neck and shot his left browtine off but it spun him and he died in a convenient location

I didn’t post their picture but a young couple that I had been running into who were also moose hunting stumbled into me after I shot him. They gave me a ride back to my pick up. And then they helped butcher him. We had him quartered and loaded in less than an hour and a half. It was a blessing to have the help!

He was definitely big enough to shoot that close to vehicle access!

Great pics, videos and bull!! Grats

Whatcha shootin?

I

Thanks!
It’s a Remington 700 in 7mm SAUM. I stuck it in a high tech specialty’s stock and Atlasworx DBM. For up close I shoot 120 TSX and a magazine in my pocket with 162 Amax for the long stuff.

Nice! Great job capturing your hunt....

Very nicely done sir; I envy your ability to enjoy it w/ your wife that’s super cool. Congrats!

Nimrod1949: Great work on that Moose!
Including getting the tag and then getting the Moose right on the road where you can drive to it.
Thanks for sharing.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Nice! I bet the pack out was as PITA! Ha!

I was hunting alone at that point since the wife had to go home. My self imposed “rules” were close to a road and not in the water. Luckily for me in the “road” was where he landed. Technically it isn’t a “road” in idaho and I didn’t shoot him from the truck.

I helped two guys butcher an in the “road” bull the day before I shot mine that was a jump out and shoot deal. I’d been hunting 9 days and they kill a bigger bull their first day out. But that’s hunting

Nice work.
Well earned, I'd say.
I'll just keep putin'' in for a tag.

Nice work.. He is about like the last bull I got in 1996.. Like you I was able to drop him in an old logging road.. My late wife killed one there in 2002 about the same spot.. Where they are is awful important when hunting alone.. Thanks for the show..

Congrats on the bull! Well done and loved the pictures!

Sweet! Thanks for bringing us along.

Congrats on the moose and the pics were a real plus for me.

About 15 years ago, my partner and I drew bull tags between Ashton and Yellowstone. We saw quite a few cows and we both got a decent bull. About 5 years ago, after the wolves moved in, he drew a cow tag there. He finally got a cow late in the season but he said it was the only one he saw.

We usually hunt in unit 48. There are wolves there but the moose population seems to be growing. Most of the one's we've seen, though, hang low near popular hiking trails which wolves seem to avoid.

Nice. I'm glad you got him on a logging landing. I live in that area and if they are in the timber or in that brush there it can be awful to get them out. The brush and timber in that area can be really nasty. Looks like things worked out well.

What knife did you take him apart with?

My knife #1 (Ingram style skinner). One of these days I’ll get caught up and make myself a new one or two. The other guy had a Havalon and knew what he was doing! I learned better methods for the gutless process.

Uber hunt, thanks for the post!

How’d the little T?TSX do, besides the obvious dead moose? Pass through?

Thanks!
I have a lot of faith in the TSX from .224 and .264 caliber experience. I punched through both front shoulders and it exited. It didn’t drop him but scrambled his lungs he wasn’t going anywhere. I shouldn’t have tried the anchor shot to the antler but on critters that big I like to keep shooting until they’re down. When he locked up in the landing I knew he was done and decided not to waste more meat and just video his final moments.

Steep country there. How does one manage to stick to those hills?

Nice !! Lots of good eating right there. "Eat moose---5000 wolves can't be wrong"

Camel Prairie?
Abandon Creek?
nice bull for this area. my wife's cousin hunted 14 days and never saw a bull . two days after he left a bull like yours walked through our yard! go figure. wolves have decimated our moose. used to have them winter in the yard. have seen 2 in the last 2 years.
congrats on the bull! shoot up hill and close!

I'm in the opposite end of the state & it took me 17 years to draw my bull tag. Hunted 27 days & saw 37 moose. Passed twice on a very good bull, probably 46 inches but he was in velvet & I thought I could find him later, never did & ended up shooting a small bull. I probably have 20 minutes of video of the big bull within 30 yds.
Nice photo's & congratulations on sharing your story & hunt with your wife. They are great eating if you get one before the wolves get them first!!

Dick

Congrats - that sure looks like a nice moose to me!! Wish we had a big enough population here in Oregon to hunt them, probably not in my lifetime though but sure would like to hunt them sometime.
Again congrats on a wonderful & tasty trophy

Outstanding account!
Major kudos for dispatching him where you could get the truck to him too.

Thanks for sharing.

moose is hands down my favorite meat. and the younger bulls are terrific flavor. i was going to apply for a cow tag but the population crash nixed that.

I agree, never had anything better than Moose backstrap.

I used one of your knives on my BC Bull but the guide had a Havalon and the cheap throwaway box cutters they really work well. The cheap box cutter for cutting thru the hide and the Havalon for the delicate work. Your knife worked well but I finally had to get out of the way and let the Pro get it done. Gutless is the way to go on big animals.

Great job! Kinda like a McDonald's drive through for a really big patty!

Congrats! Sounds like a fun hunt.

Thanks everyone!

He is great table fare. Unfortunately they’re once in a lifetime freezer fillers and the wife got her’s in 2011. Now to convince the kids they want to shoot one and hope for drawing luck.

Deerstalker: I was up the Joe not Unit 1. The wife got her’s in Unit 1 but the quality and quantity I feel has declined there.

1minute: There are some places you just don’t look because you don’t want to do something stupid like shoot a bull there. It’s steep enough that I ran across the goat tag holder for that Unit. We were both looking for our quarry in the same area.

7mm: Thanks for the feedback on the knife.

Great story and pictures, thanks for taking us along! Nice to have that much animal land where you don't have to take him out in pieces-as I'm sure you don't need me to tell you that. Well done, big congrats!

For just filling the freezer, Idaho allows you to get 1 bull and 1 cow in your lifetime.

Outstanding, and great pics, congrats.

I helped my mom get her bull and my step-dad get his cow this past season in SE Idaho.

They know some folks with a bunch of land along the Snake River bottom, near the confluence of the North and South Forks, and there are a LOT of moose around there. They both happened to draw in the same area. It was a kick in the butt. Huge animals.

I've not gotten any of the meat from them yet, but I'm excited to do so. My step-dad drew his bull tag from the same area a few years ago. Amazing meat! These moose hang out in alfalfa and corn fields until the hunt. More marbled than any wild meat I've ever seen.

I learned that a 357 loaded with 235gr WLN in a revolver would be effective for moose hunting in close cover....

Great trophy and lots of good eating.
Congrats big time

Maybe it's my PC, but it's so steep some of those trees actually grow sideways.

Oh yes indeed. We do have some like that, even when the cameraman doesn't lie on his side to take them.

Congratulations, Nimrod. Glad you scored and had a good hunt. Nothing wrong with putting one down on a trail where you can get your truck.

Mighty pretty country, too. Been up there several times but haven't hunted there.

L.W.

Nice! I've had two "easy" bulls- one a 40 yard pack to the boat, the other I drove the snow machine up alongside. The other 20 or so, not so much....