ashersdad
Well-known member
Just got back from a week of hunting and it was great. My Utah moose hunt started on the 15th so I headed out on the 13th from Oregon. I scouted the day before the opener but didn't see anything. On the opener we got up early and got to where we wanted to be at first light. We ended up seeing some cows but no bulls. That night we also saw a few cows but again no bulls.
The next morning we split into two groups to cover more ground. My cousin and I went to a good vantage point to glass while my brother and other cousin went to check out another area.
While we were glassing we heard a bull raking his horns on a tree. We tried calling and grunting but we could not locate him in the trees. It turns out he was just over the ridge with two cows but we were too low to see him. When my brother and cousin came to find us they saw the bull bedded from the top of the mountain. So they hurried down and got us and we headed up to where we could see the bull. Right when we got to where we could see the bull we saw four hunters appear on the same ridge the bull was on.:BLEEP: We weren't sure if they were moose, elk, or grouse hunters but they started walking right toward the moose. It was pretty cool in that we got it all on video. They walked within 20 yards of the moose and never saw them. Well the moose moved down the mountain away from the other hunters and luckily they moved right down toward us. So we hustled down the hill to a good vantage point and got set up. As I got a rest, the first cow went through an opening. My cousin ranged the opening and it was 396 yards. We hadn't really had time to judge the bull but he looked like a shooter. So I got ready and as the other cow and bull came into the opening we all grunted to get him to stop. He stopped perfectly and I have to admit I was pretty excited. I squoze off and hit him a bit low. He moved down and came through another opening and I hit him again. When we got over to where he was we spotted him in the brush about 20 yards away and I had to put one more in him to end it.
I was so pumped. He was a beautiful bull. In our scouting we had never seen this bull. He is 46 wide. We were all excited. I was glad that it worked out that we were all together when we shot him and we got it all on video. We debated on going out for the horses but decided that since we were "only" a mile from the trucks we would pack it out in the backpacks. |oo Needless to say it was a huge pain but we got him out in 6 trips (one for each quarter, the head, and backstraps, loins, rib meat, and neck meat). When we got him into the truck we drove up to a nearby rest stop where we had cell phone reception so I could call my taxidermist and meat cutter. When we pulled in there were two tour buses in the parking lot.
Within a minute we had a ton of senior citizens surrounding the truck. They thought it was the neatest thing they had ever seen (they were from Florida). One old man even asked if he could climb in the truck and hold up the head and have us take his picture. It was pretty cool.
So I took Monday off to rest and decided to head to Wyoming on Tuesday as the hunt there had also opened on the 15th. This ended up being one of those marathon days. We got up at 2:00 AM and left so we could be hiking by 4:30 AM. Needless to say the hike was intense and I was still sore from packing out the moose. But we made it to the ridge line by first light and started seeing bucks. We spotted two small bucks in one drainage. Then we spotted five bucks in the next drainage with a pretty cool freak buck. They were probably 1000 yards away so we decided to keep hiking up to see if we could watch them bed. As we got higher we spotted four bucks and one had a huge body. We broke out the spotter and could tell he was a "decent" buck. My cousin had first shot as I had already shot my moose. He decided to pass on this buck as he has more days to hunt Wyoming because he lives in Utah. He asked me if I wanted the buck and I said, "heck yeah". So he set up the video camera and we ranged him at 382 yards. I took my time as they had no idea we were there. When I fired he dropped and started to roll. :BLEEP: I guess it was steeper than I thought. Unfortunately when I got over to him he had busted up 3 of his points.
He ended up being 27 inches. He also had a beautiful cape. Luckily my taxidermist is awesome and should be able to fix the busted up tines. So we loaded him up and started the pack out. I was on cloud nine. It was a week of hunting that I had dreamed about for months. I am so thankful to have had my brother and cousins help with these hunts. Especially the moose hunt. I couldn't have done it without them.
The next morning we split into two groups to cover more ground. My cousin and I went to a good vantage point to glass while my brother and other cousin went to check out another area.
While we were glassing we heard a bull raking his horns on a tree. We tried calling and grunting but we could not locate him in the trees. It turns out he was just over the ridge with two cows but we were too low to see him. When my brother and cousin came to find us they saw the bull bedded from the top of the mountain. So they hurried down and got us and we headed up to where we could see the bull. Right when we got to where we could see the bull we saw four hunters appear on the same ridge the bull was on.:BLEEP: We weren't sure if they were moose, elk, or grouse hunters but they started walking right toward the moose. It was pretty cool in that we got it all on video. They walked within 20 yards of the moose and never saw them. Well the moose moved down the mountain away from the other hunters and luckily they moved right down toward us. So we hustled down the hill to a good vantage point and got set up. As I got a rest, the first cow went through an opening. My cousin ranged the opening and it was 396 yards. We hadn't really had time to judge the bull but he looked like a shooter. So I got ready and as the other cow and bull came into the opening we all grunted to get him to stop. He stopped perfectly and I have to admit I was pretty excited. I squoze off and hit him a bit low. He moved down and came through another opening and I hit him again. When we got over to where he was we spotted him in the brush about 20 yards away and I had to put one more in him to end it.
I was so pumped. He was a beautiful bull. In our scouting we had never seen this bull. He is 46 wide. We were all excited. I was glad that it worked out that we were all together when we shot him and we got it all on video. We debated on going out for the horses but decided that since we were "only" a mile from the trucks we would pack it out in the backpacks. |oo Needless to say it was a huge pain but we got him out in 6 trips (one for each quarter, the head, and backstraps, loins, rib meat, and neck meat). When we got him into the truck we drove up to a nearby rest stop where we had cell phone reception so I could call my taxidermist and meat cutter. When we pulled in there were two tour buses in the parking lot.
Within a minute we had a ton of senior citizens surrounding the truck. They thought it was the neatest thing they had ever seen (they were from Florida). One old man even asked if he could climb in the truck and hold up the head and have us take his picture. It was pretty cool. So I took Monday off to rest and decided to head to Wyoming on Tuesday as the hunt there had also opened on the 15th. This ended up being one of those marathon days. We got up at 2:00 AM and left so we could be hiking by 4:30 AM. Needless to say the hike was intense and I was still sore from packing out the moose. But we made it to the ridge line by first light and started seeing bucks. We spotted two small bucks in one drainage. Then we spotted five bucks in the next drainage with a pretty cool freak buck. They were probably 1000 yards away so we decided to keep hiking up to see if we could watch them bed. As we got higher we spotted four bucks and one had a huge body. We broke out the spotter and could tell he was a "decent" buck. My cousin had first shot as I had already shot my moose. He decided to pass on this buck as he has more days to hunt Wyoming because he lives in Utah. He asked me if I wanted the buck and I said, "heck yeah". So he set up the video camera and we ranged him at 382 yards. I took my time as they had no idea we were there. When I fired he dropped and started to roll. :BLEEP: I guess it was steeper than I thought. Unfortunately when I got over to him he had busted up 3 of his points.
He ended up being 27 inches. He also had a beautiful cape. Luckily my taxidermist is awesome and should be able to fix the busted up tines. So we loaded him up and started the pack out. I was on cloud nine. It was a week of hunting that I had dreamed about for months. I am so thankful to have had my brother and cousins help with these hunts. Especially the moose hunt. I couldn't have done it without them.
