The days off were only 9 days away for the annual moose trip, but first I had to go to Saskatchewan and work for 8 days. They kept me overly busy till the last day so I had no choice but to drive back after work, incognito. That gave me the day to get my gear in a row. Moose camp consists of hauling about a weeks worth of gear via atv and tub trailer into the middle of nowhere, just the way we like it, and who doesnt want to sit beside a fire every night and sleep in a wood stove heated wall tent? The 12 hr day followed by 850km drive was worth it.
The forecast was poor but the dates were book so that was that. The first morning and the coldest and calmest of the trip the first moose we saw was a dandy Jim Schockey moose. Without a doubt a shooter. Unfortunately he was way out there and would not commit to coming our way. There must be a real cow in heat down there.
We tried an interception as the wind picked up and the temperature rose but it was to no avail. After that it got really hot and really windy, like real relentlessly windy. My hunting partner with the draw passed on a few small bulls and after seeing that giant I don’t blame him as it would be hard to not try for the giant till the end. Experience taught us that anything could happen here.
There were at least 3-4 grizzly spotted everyday which was not the usual for the area, one had a permanent residence about 700m from the camp. Lucky for him he never bothered us is all I have to say.
We pulled out a day early as the forecast had a rainfall warning effect and gumbo hell takes the fun out of an already challenging week.
Back to work but a few random days allowed me to hunt for whitetail, wolves and check the cams.
The cams said the game was not up to their usual business and the wolves were pounding my honeyhole to death. Unfortunately, so far it seems I was either a day too early or late everytime out. I have 10 cams in the area so I have pretty good tabs on whats going on over about about a 10k area that has served us well.
There was a lot of blown over trees from the recent storms and with the lack of game sign I wondered if the productivity was coming to an end. I had just walked a 9 km loop and was a bit miffed. ****ing wolves.
I road the atv to were I had a commanding view to have a late lunch. No sooner did I pull up and I see a big mature buck staring at me. He didnt hear me approaching via atv because of the strong wind. A quick off hand shot at about 200m felt promising. There was good blood within about 10 m of the crime scene so I was getting pretty excited. Note to self, and I already learned this a bunch, anything can happen……
The buck was bleeding all over the place for the first 100m and I really expected a dead buck any second but then the blood dried up. I slowed down and saw his rack upright sticking out of the underbrush in a forest of big aspen. He was still alive. I tried to slowly circle right to get an better angle on him but in 1 smooth motion he was up and gone.
I gave him around 15 mins and took up the trail, but this time at a snails crawl. It took a bit to figure out the tracking as the blood was very spars. Again I see the tips of the rack sticking out of the underbrush. His head is wobbling and he keeps putting it down. I feel bad for the beautiful animal, but hate shooting them bedded as it can easily destroy shoulders, loins and such. Everything is all bunched up. I had no clear shot to the neck either. Again I tried to circle right to get a good angle on his neck. He seemed like he was just about gone but in the blink of an eye he was up and gone. ****. I tried to get him in the scope and let one go but it was a miss. I quickly reloaded and just swung the rifle like a shot gun and sent another as he ran behind a spruce. He piled right up. Hard to out run a bullet to the back of the head.
I admired him and took some pictures. He was the biggest bodied WT I have ever shot. Right around 300 lbs I figured, not a bad rack, but what a body, and so fat. Too bad its all tallow. I cut a trail in and wrestled the atv in. I gutted him and kept the heart and liver again. It was all I could do to get him on the back rack, he was obese but In great shape with no stink. Its was oct 31.
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Originally Posted by Husky7mm
