Really enjoyed Ralphies pics and write up of his Wyoming moose hunt.
Hoping some others that were lucky enough to draw a tag anywhere, or make to Newfoundland, might make a report.

Here’s a quick moose tale for you. Our #1 son just got moved back in-state after a 3 year dental school adventure in that chithole San Fran. On a whim, he put in for cow moose for a unit near Park City. When the draw results came out, we were shocked to see his success. This is his 3rd moose tag in Utah. At 17 years old, he took a cow with my 44 Mag and about 7 years ago got his Utah bull.




This year’s unit is mostly private property, with a public WMA and a few other slivers of public land. We hunted the WMA the first weekend, putting in about 8 miles of futility. With his new dental practice taking up most of his time & energy, we did some Google Fu and talked to a great guy that had been successful a few years earlier on the unit. He pointed us to a piece of public and we went in with high hopes.



We hiked in about 3 miles from a summit trail head, gradually descending about 1500 feet elevation along an intermittent stream. Late in the afternoon we were excited to hear what we believed to be bull moose glunks. We got higher on a bench and glassed like crazy but couldn’t pin him down. But with the better vantage point, we felt good about the return trip out to the truck.

We kept elevation and crept along. Across the canyon, we glassed up two bulls sparing a little and we were sure they’d have a cow or two nearby. After glassing for 30 minutes, we conceded they had no girl friends.




We moved on, eventually meeting the stream about ¾ mile from the trailhead. Soon we heard some very obnoxious calling ahead of us and up to the left in the mixed pines and quakies. It was definitely a cow moose, or more likely a dude trying to sound like a cow in hopes of pulling in a bull. In any event, Mike made ready and we moved along listening and glassing.

We got to a semi-open spot in the trail and the calling had stopped. We thought he/she was probably another little ridge ahead of us. Just as Mike started to walk again, I glassed the hillside one more time and saw a big ear twitch. I grabbed Mike’s arm and sat him down in front of me. “80 yards up and right through those big pines that make a V, see her?” He had the rifle across his knees and said, “I can see eyes and ears, but that’s it!”

She was on a little bench and with the elevation and cover, that’s all we could see. She was looking right at us, but her snout was completely obscured to the point we began second guessing what we were looking at. With the hump behind her ears, at one point I thought it looked like a bear! But not with ears like that. “Just stay on her and be ready!” I slipped my pack off and got it in front of Mike for a rock steady rest.

After what seemed like 10 minutes, but probably only 1 or 2, she swung her head to the right and that big old schnoz removed all doubt what we were looking at. “Ear hole!,” I hissed. Mike thought it more prudent to hold a bit down on the neck at let fly. At the shot, her head swung clear to the left and disappeared from view, replaced by a couple of hoofs coming up and then straight back down.

“Holy crap, did that just happen?” “Ya, I think so buddy! What a shot!” We gathered ourselves and gear and made our way across the creek, up past the V-pines and knew she must just be a few more yards ahead. I looked to the left, and there stood a huge black thing. I heard Mike chambering a round just as the big black thing swung his head toward us revealing a beautiful set of moose antlers. “Sorry about your lover, big fella!” He stuck around for a bit and then moseyed off.

A few more steps and there she was. “Um, looks like you ordered the extra-large!”



(Rifle looney notes: Sucks 700, McMillan classic, VX2 3-9 (the horror), 168TSX)

"We should write that spot down."



It was 30 minutes till dark, so we got right to work. Knowing temps would get to mid 20’s that night, we just dressed her out and elected to come back for the work in the morning. Mike re-remembered how large these things are. “Gonna put your whole arm up there, Doc?”




We propped her open and made the last ½ mile hike out in good time. Home to the Salt Lake house by 11:00. Mike started calling buddies, and I tried to get some shut-eye. Next morning, I headed early back to the moose while Mike waited until some help could be assembled for the pack out.


I found her unmolested just as we had left her and got to work. I took my time, trying to recover every bit of that beautiful pink meat as I could.






When Mike and two strong backed buddies arrived 4 hours later, I was just finishing up. While they took the first 3 loads out, I relaxed in the beauty that is Fall in the mountains. They returned a lot quicker than I thought possible. Assessing the remaining load, we determined if Mike took double, we could get it all. Oh, to be young and strong again. 370 pounds of meat out in basically two trips. Winning!




Knowing that the higher temps back in town wouldn’t do, we decided to process everything right away. That whole afternoon, from 4 until almost midnight, we made meat. We kept the grinder and vacuum sealer running almost constantly. Sure looks good when you’re almost done, tho.




Thanks for reading, hopefully we’ll have another moose tale to tell soon. Momma has a bull tag!

Dang cool. 3 shiras moose for a pretty young guy is something.

Can't wait to see Momma's bull.

Congratulations to your son. Great write-up and good photos. I didn’t think anyone could live long enough to draw 3 moose tags in Utah. I guess that “greasing the governor’s palm”....really can “pay-off” (pun intended) memtb

GREAT story and pictures. Thanks for taking the time and sharing with all of us.

Not a lot of time to write up the story, but we saw this guy right before he hid in some tall willow/alder brush.

After about an hour of trying to locate him, I volunteered to take a walk through the brush to see if I could get him to move. I ended up finding a bit of a hill that gave me a nice 200 yard shot. Couldn't pass it up.

cwh2, Congrats to you also....nice bull! memtb

Beautiful bull!

Nice!!!

My two shiras bulls from Montana (2010) and Wyoming (2018).

I'm not much of a story teller.

Great Moose in this thread! Gets me fired up.

Enjoyed the pics and the stories. Believe a little background detail adds infinitely.
Getting psyched for a late season hunt, in Maine, in a couple of weeks. My brother is the appointed shooter and I have much enjoyed watching him tune in his 8mm Rem Mag. Makes me laugh every time we're out. Shot my last moose with a 300 Savage.
The young dentist from Utah looks to have a pretty bright future... good luck and real skills are a formidable combination!

Thought I posted this earlier but I guess not. Archery bull from Fort Rich drawing tag. Solo hunt on a cold day, but luckily a bunch of folks showed up to help pack him out.

cwh2,
Quite an accomplishment.
Can we assume you were using Creedmoor tips?

I think 125 grain slick tricks on that one. 100 grainers on the previous.

SlickTricks : Archery = 6.5 Creedmoor : Riflery

cwh2 You're holding out on us. what about he maggot moose?

Unfortunately I don't have any decent pics of him. I chased him around in the brush for several hours, trying to make him legal. When I was finally able to count brow tines, it was a pretty straightforward ~80 yard shot as I recall. But then I wanted to go get the kiddo so she could see a moose up close. By the time we all got back to him, it was getting pretty dark and I wanted to get him field dressed before we took off. Resulting pictures are rushed and dark.



Another moose dressed out solo. The joy.


To make up for the crappy pics, here is a shot of the beginning of the pack out. Around that pond and down the hill to the moose. Not too bad, just brushy. Hard to beat the scenery or the weather, though it did try to rain on me that afternoon.

Speaking of terrible field photos...

2017 fork. (In most of the general season, a legal moose is a bull with either 50" antlers (that's fairly standard) or 3 or 4 brow tines (that part varies by unit) or either a spike or a fork on one side. Confused yet?) Anyway, I had missed a moose (yeah) in this swamp the year before due to what turned out to be a scope failure. Buddy was sick, so I just went and camped on that swamp until dark. Sure enough, here comes a nearly identical forky from nearly the exact spot as the one a year before. Got the spotter on him, confirmed legality, and knocked him down. Got back to camp, rounded up help and we had him hanging that night. Ok, early morning.... grin.

Nice to see the pics!
Heading out Sat morning for a moose hunt, in Maine, starting Monday morning. After 20 some years of trying ( I had 80 preference points), drew a tag in zone 1. Supposed to have a higher density of moose than Newfoundland! Looking forward to spending the week in the North Maine woods with my bro.
Allagash or bust!

Yesterday morning on the way to work there was a little bull on the side of the road, but he was behind a tree and I couldn't get a picture.

About 20 yards down the road there was a coyote, so tried to get video of him on the phone and ended up getting both. Can just barely see the coyote at the end.

Saskatchewan bull

Funny how things work...

Riley killed his first moose in a pond about an hour from town. About 10PM I called for help.
Okay, I whined like a sissy girl...
45 minutes later someone shows up with his wife all dressed to go and fully geared up. It was a miserable floating job.
About 2AM the wife swats me in the chest with the back of her hand and laughs "and some people don't think this schit is fun!"

Some can always expect help...

That is a wild looking moose, for certain!

One of my favorite moose hunt stories...

https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...of-moose-mistakes-and-misery#Post8100952

I read 2,000 words... enough already!

Curious looking head gear! Common up your way?

Sitka deer,
Since you left out the details, I can only assume the 2 pictured rifles were your Creedmoors?
Thanks for the pics & posts!

cwh2, nice catch on that video.

Awesome write up! Thank you.

Crazy looking rack on that sucker!

Newfoundland bull taken with a bow this last September.

No not common. We’ve certainly never seen one like it. Still had velvet in mid october so something wasn’t right with him. Never actually found out what.