Colo Moose draw success

[Baerman]

Wow!

 

[poormanslam]

We'll the time has come I am headed out sat morn real early for two and a half days of scouting then the hunt starts on Oct 1st. They have had over 200 percent of normal rain this month so we will be up to our necks in water and mud. Can't wait I hope I bring some moose meat home. I am lucky I found a friend to accompany me little does he know what a dog I am when it comes to packing meat.

 

[Nameless Range]

That is a beautiful bull. Good luck and enjoy the hunt!

 

[sbhooper]

That is a great-looking bull. That is a rare pic with all of them together. Hopefully, he will be close to there come season and you will have to pack him out!

 

[MT_elk]

Nice pics. Good luck!

 

[Bwana]

Awesome looking bull and best of luck locating him when the season opens. Looking forward to the "after" pictures.

 

[poormanslam]

The roast was as good as I remember and we are trying the burger tonight. I hope to get the pics downloaded in the next day or two. Tough hunting but got real lucky.

 

[poormanslam]

Sorry to go back but I finally had a chance to get the scouting pictures organized as well. The second scouting trip was on my wife's birthday she told me that it would be fine to make the ten hour drive to Colorado and spend the time there how lucky am I. The city of Denver has water rights in this drainage and pipe a ton of water to Denver for the municipality quite remarkable when you see the network to transport the water. The picture of the cabin is ironic as I ended up killing my moose within a mile of it and the picture of the first bull in this sequence is about 300 yards from where I shot it. Now on to the hunt.

 

[poormanslam]

We were welcomed by the snow covered Indian Peaks Wilderness Area. When we got there the archery elk, deer and moose seasons were still running plus a lot of hikers and canoeists were in the area. When we started to set up our tents at over 10,000 feet in the snow the non-hunters were mystified.

 

[poormanslam]

We saw nothing the first night or morning so I decided to take a hike into Strawberry Creek where I found this dead moose. Bears had been on it and it looked like recently. The maggots had made their way into the 100% protein scat of the bears. When we got to cell range I called F and G and they gave me permission to go back in and pack it out. There was moose sign everywhere we went but we had a tough time finding them.

 

[poormanslam]

It was mid day by this time and we decided we needed to cover country to see if we could find bulls on the move as there was a fair amount of rutting sign. It did not take long and we found this bull about a mile from the main road. His dewlap is the best it hangs down to his knees. When he exited the trees he was within 10 yards of us. He had a cow and calf with him and now we had to figure out how to find him two days later on opening morning.

 

[2rocky]

Now that is a good lookin' Vandal!

A toad of a bull too! Ground check?

 

[RUT JUNKEY]

good luck. Looks like the one is a shooter for sure!!!

 

[poormanslam]

That night and the following morning were uneventful and another bull moose hunter moved in with a group of about 5-6 family members to help him out. They were real nice guys from Golden Colorado that were there for the duration, 14 days, if that's what it took. I hope they killed a monster.
I went back into the area where we had seen Major Dewlap and found a ton of sign and decided we should go after him in the morning. I had purchased an in-line several years ago and never hunted with it so I thought I would give it a try. I was set up at 0700 on the meadow closest to all of the sign I had found the day before. I called for 45 minutes and finally here he came no way to mistaken him as his Dewlap was dragging on the willows as he came through the meadow. He was grunting and rubbing the brush, I will never forget that one-two minute sequence what a great outdoor experience. I missed him twice clean with the in-line and later shot him at less than 100 yards with my 300 win mag. I was pleased that he died quickly within 20-30 yards of first being hit and we did not have to track him one inch. That night we celebrated and I came to the conclusion that I am not an in-line hunter and I do not know how to judge moose.
This was a wonderful experience and I feel lucky that I have the opportunity to apply for hunts with low tag numbers in massive public land areas. How great is my wife to accompany me on two scouting trips (one over her birthday) in the summer and my friend Rich who blocked off an entire week of work to commit to this hunt. Rich runs his own business so if he is not on the job he is not earning money. He helped with a goat hunt in Utah the week before and his good luck goat boots were the ticket for us. He may be open to renting them out. I hope you all have had a great season and good luck on the rest of your hunts. I feel blessed in many ways. Oh yea he did die 80 yards from the road and we did go back for the deadhead.

 

[Nameless Range]

What a great story and hunt. That is a beautiful bull in some beautiful country. Congratulations and thanks for sharing.

 

[Oak]

Great looking bull. Congrats.

That night we celebrated and I came to the conclusion that...I do not know how to judge moose.

Bigger than you thought? What are his stats?

 

[poormanslam]

Yes he is bigger than I thought. I had killed a decent bull in Idaho and thought this one was a little better and he is quite a bit better. The dead bull was 45 inches wide this bull was 47 inches wide and has 30 plus inch palms.

 

[Mica Man]

What an awesome hunt and story! Great looking bull not to mention the bonus dead head.

 

[poormanslam]

Thank you. I am not big on picking up stuff like that but it was in such good shape with no bleaching and absolutely no rodents had chewed on it. I am going to euro mount it I think it will look great.

 

[Dinkshooter]

WOW what a great bull and hunt. Green with envy on the deadhead, although I'm sure it is green in it's own way