I have the great pleasure of reporting a successful hunt! Photos are linked rather than embedded for the benefit of my friends who might not appreciate photos of a dead moose. And many thanks to Jason and my father-in-law David for the guiding and the cleaning and all the hard work that comes after the hunt itself is over, and being ever so patient with the fact that I was slow with the shooting!
On to the story. We had been out and about for a few hours in the frosty morning in an area that Jason had never had the opportunity to explore before. He had heard it was a great place for cow moose and he was going to help me find one! We drove in, hiked an hour or two, drove some more, and it was coming up on 10am when Jason spotted a bull moose (NOT shootable with my tag) bedded down across a draw we were driving around the top of. We stopped and walked in for a closer look, getting to approximately 150 yards away before deciding to drive around to the other side where the road was only 40 or so yards from where he was, though above some heavy brush, and see if we could get in close for some video and pictures. While moving down to him we spotted a small cow moose bedded down across the draw, only 20 or so yards from where we had been just a moment before!! Now I am not naturally gifted with any steadiness in my hands and have found I am only a decent shot with a stand--and we had left it back at the truck. By the time Jason got back with the stand the cow was up and walking and I was shaking with my ridiculously high adreneline that I am prone to. And another cow moose had popped up and they both were quickly leaving the vicinity. By the time I had gotten them in my scope there wasn't a good shot, as all I could see was a couple hind ends headed up the ridgeline.
And now I had a couple somewhat frustrated companions. That had been a fantastic setup for any somewhat experienced hunter. A shot less than 150 yards. A barely moving animal. A moose!
We hopped back in the truck to head back where we had just been to see if we could find them settled down over the ridge. After driving only a few yards we spotted the bull up and moving down in the draw, wait, there are two moose! Our bull has a cow with him and she is huge. Bigger than he is! Quickly we quietly sneak out of the truck and several yards down into the brush, this time with my stand--yay!--and I settle in for a sitting shot. Wait. The brush is too high. Jason, I can't see, raise the stand! I can't see David but I can sense a certain level of 'Take the shot already' behind me. Now I'm kneeling and can see her through the scope and I'm all over the place. Calm down. Deep breath, and out, and now. CRACK!
"You got her", I hear. "Great shot!", I hear. Well, that is what I think I would have heard, but truely I have no idea what I heard except that I did, in fact, get a perfect shot off, so I started setting the gun down while watching her to see where she'd stop and fall over. "Shoot her again!" I hear. Really heard that one and I had no idea I was supposed to keep shooting so now I'm all worked up and I really don't even know if I was still using the stand or not but I shot again and it went right in front of her nose (so much for good shooting), serendipitiously causing her to stop and turn, setting up the fact that I could get a more reasonable shot off the next time I heard "Again!". I took aim and fired again and that dropped her immediatly. You'll have to get Jason to tell you about what he thought of that shot. It's full of terminology that really just belongs to guys.
Wow. I pulled it off! And Jason is pretty excited. That would be an understatement in fact. And the bull is not leaving. Still not leaving. Eventually we just start walking down there all casual like and soon he gets the point and trots off. Jason had to film me walking up, being excited like he was, but still when I got there she was just HUGE and I remarked "Holy cow, Jason!", to which he said, "Yes, she is". Ha ha.
And then the guys started with the hard stuff. It was some incredible foresight I had something like 12 years ago when I got Jason to promise me that he would do the cleaning on any animal I shot. Absolute genious. He was up to his shoulders at one point trying to disconnect organs. And David really did the most of it. Wonderfully nice guys! Did I mention she was HUGE? The both of them could not even drag her a foot. So we headed home to pick up the kids and get all then necessary boards and winches and pullies and everything to manouver her into the pickup.
So there's my story. The rest of it is Jason's - he's the cleaner and chef of all things meat. If you have a real interest in trying some moose meat, let me know. And here are the pics.
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