My 15 year old got his first moose. We were out for 10 days also had my 6 year old for 9 of the 10 days. He unfortunately had to come out and go with mom and sister to her hockey tournament. And was not with us when we were blessed with this beautiful animal. Season started in a different area, where we getting stuck and wenching and shoveling way to much. The rain came in early afternoon and we were a full day in off the road. Could not find a spot to pitch the tent, so the 3 of us slept in the cab of the side by side. Too tired to cook so it was snacks. After a restless night when we stirred that morning, we all voted to change locations and spent the day getting back to the truck. We had around 6 weeks of rain this spring (every day) and it washed the banks pretty badly. Making our 4 creek crossings rough. Day three brought us here to our old haunt, where we finished the season. My little guy had as much fun as he could stand. Brother and I got to see just how awesome he is. I didn’t take enough pictures, we were able to get plenty of ruffed and spruce grouse. He got some extra birds on his way out, when we linked up with mom. Then next 5 days were the normal long day of hunting. In order to preserve where we hunt we camp a few miles away. Makes for some long side by side rides to start and finish each day. For those that don’t moose hunt they are like the other deer species. Hunting is morning and evenings, and lunch back a camp. We normally didn’t have breakfast and got back to camp between 9:30 and 11:00 pending on how things felt. We would have our big meal of the day, go hunt the evening. Back to camp and cook something fast like hot or sausage dogs or burgers. This filled or normal days, for our lunch break we brought or bows with us. So we shot those and played cards, ate well and back to hunting. Then the last three days we say a change in the animal behavior. Fall showed up over night. Grouse started drumming, red squirrels making haste cutting spruce cones and running every where with them. This the meadow we chose to hunt in, we had a few hang on stands a climbing stand as well as a ground blind. We hunted mostly from the ground, we had cut the brush off waist to chest high. Making a nice blind to hide behind. We left some uncut to keep it natural looking from the meadow. We started hearing moose respond to our calls first two of these days we didn’t see any but would come back each morning to fresh tracks. Last day of general season we came to the stand to find 6 of the saplings we had left standing all broken off thigh high and brush thrashed. All day was the same monotony with talk of planing fall and winter subsistence hunting to try and get a moose. We both were just enjoying finishing up this general season hunt in the best spirits we could. We were chatting about the good and not so much previous days and what/how to make the next hunt better. And there it was a Gluck followed by brush raking. I nudged Justin and we both perked up. I started mimicking what the bull was doing, this played on for 30 or so minutes. I was busy with raking and calling and told Justin to replace my rifle on the tripod with his. A few more minutes go by and Justin starts maneuvering down the path through the brushy meadows edge. He found a spot in the chest high grass behind a willow clump. The bull came out of the tundra straight across from us. Maybe 20-30 yards to the right of this photo, he was standing a few yards in the willows. Justin had to maneuver a few yards to our right to see in the pocket where the bull was held up. He seemed to be nervous that he didn’t see a bull across from him in the meadow. The flicking and brush raking continued for a few minutes I told Justin to wait as long as he could to see if the bull would come out more and present a better shot. I am 10-12 yards behind and about the same distance to Justin’s left and maybe 5-8 feet in elevation higher. As I noticed the bull start turning to its left as I told Justin to shoot, at the “t”. His 7 PRC launched a 160 Hornady CMX, the suppressed shot didn’t roll the expected hypersonic crack through the valley. I watched the bulls haunch drop to the ground as his front legs stayed stiff for a brief moment. As the momentum and head gear pull his rack over backwards and stuck in the dirt. It was around 1845 in the evening and had already started cooling enough that Justin couldn’t see what had unfolded through the heat plumb that the suppressor caused. He said just as the condensation was dissipating he saw the rake in its last foot or so of the fall. Already rechambered, we talked as we waited for any movement to warrant a follow up shot. Five or so minutes with us watching with only the one palm we could see sticking up in the grass and brush. I grabbed my rifle eased up to Justin and we started the move a few yards. Reasses and repeat we saw no movement as we crossed the meadow. At thirty yards he took his rifle off the tripod and we approached the downed bull. At five yards I had him stay ready at broadside for a follow up shot if he moved. Luckily the bull fell with his back to the meadow and. I approached at a angle coming to his nose to check eye movement. We had none and it was time to celebrate. Justin had just made a 119 yard single shot on his first moose. After the first selfie I texted that to mom and we called her. Celebrating over the phone with little brother and sister. Fortunately little man was ecstatically happy and not upset that he put in the work and missed out. We got to field dressing and had to break out the only headlamp that somehow made it out of came and with us. With no moon out it was jet black out and the heavens glowed with perfect showing of the stars. We made a “A” frame with a canvas tarp above our moose and cut brush and left hoodies and flagging all around. Back to camp was exciting replaying the event from our perspectives. We made a campfire and made Mountain House for our meal. As we continued to replay our memories, the flickering of the flames and the milky way and stars shining down on us brought us into midnight. And time to turn in for the mornings work to start. A quick brewing of coffee and off the work. Morning brought a tape measure to find that a 64 3/4 inch rack. (Reached the 30 photo limit more to come) This was also his first field butchering that was more than just hold that hand me… It took us about 6 hours to have it in the side by side. And for the return home at 2300. And now the work begins!
I found a left side shed about 10 feet behind where this bull laid. Definitely for the same gene pool, it also had 5 brow tines like the warrior we harvested.
Congrats to the young man. Great that you got to share the adventure with both of your sons. Great story. Thanks for sharing.
To help hold/pull on the hide while skinning. Sometimes it just to keep hair from getting on meat while working further down the hide. Up by the head hide is 3/4” thick and gets heavy.
I know nothing of Moose, but recognized this as a 'good' rack immediately based on what I've seen on the TV and whatnot. Thanks for sharing. I once wanted to move up there and live that life. Then I went and got old.
They are all trophy's. It's a really big animal, it will be a challenge to top this one. This is only the second one over 60 inches that we have gotten. What makes this one really impressive is this in one of the few Game Management Units that is a "any bull" area. Most of the state is 50 inch or 3 or 4 brow tine to be legal. As long as you're not in the cemetery, it's the right time to move up.
