Opening Day Moose

[BimmerBob]

Hi all,

Just got back from a hunting trip up north and thought I would share a picture to keep your hunting juices going. This one met his maker on opening day at 6:30 AM and dressed out about 600 lbs which was a lot more than I expected.

https://byfiles.storage.live.com/y1p9T7eAFe8MJ7Tyn55hv-J_zX5cs0rBBykx9xQ-bsGogGpa9SolIDbUhr_2C3zxDs1Wtl1soCUfRc/IMG_0046.jpg

[landphil]

You didn't waste any time there did you? Congrats on a fine swamp donkey!

[greenhorn]

Congrats!! What area were you in??

A group of us just got back from the Peace and the hunting was TUFF!!

[moose2]

Nice looking bull , those August moose are great eating congratulations.
Mike

[BiG Boar]

Congrats Bimmer! Looks like someone already filled their freezer! Tell us more about the hunt.
Looks awesome! Dave

[Blainer]

As indicated,August moose are great eating & 600 lbs dressed is huge!
Good way to start season.

[fearnodeer]

Got to like it when a plan comes together, congrads. Looks like a head shot what cal did you use ?

[BigfishCanada]

Thats fantastic, congratulations on what sounds like a wonderful hunting trip.

[Mikey Rafiki]

Got to like it when a plan comes together, congrads. Looks like a head shot what cal did you use ?

I would also like to know more about that shot.

Looks tasty!

[fusion]

You are right, got my juices flowing. Nice moose-congrats. A few more sleeps and the kids get to go out for deer!

[Steeleco]

So that's what he looked like with skin on LOL Damn those things are heavy. Blainer, I'd have to say it was real close to his estimated weight, his two hind quarters we're hanging in my cooler and we're F'n heavy!

Nice going Bob.

[fester]

awesome!!!!!

[markt308]

hey right on! nice lookin bull

[BimmerBob]

Thanks guys, to answer some of the questions...

We left on the hunt August 8th, arriving at our planned hunting camp on the 9th. Camp set up nicely with my new wall tent and accessories and with a few days of scouting to see where things were moving. We provisioned for a month long stay and were going to hunt elk and deer in September depending on the weather.

Day 1 of hunting (Aug 15th) saw quite a lot of hunter activity but not a lot of success (except for me getting very lucky). I was on my planned spot just before 5 AM, at about 6:00 I heard some activity in the bush, started to get excited but then nothing for about 15 minutes. As I began to relax, more noise to keep me alert and after 15 more minutes this fellow walked into the lick and stood nicely for a vitals shot from my 300 WinMag. After the shot, he jumped forward and turned towards me walking to within 20 feet, not seeing me at all. I knew it was a solid shot and he was going to bleed out in a minute or two but my need to put him down quickly got the best of me and I decided to shoot him in the head to put him out of his misery.

Well... that was probably not the best idea, the first shot to the head seemed to be a miss, no reaction from the big guy except to stand in front of me dripping gobs of blood from his mouth and nose and continuing to wobble on his feet. A second shot to the head quickly followed with a reaction from my quarry of slowly walking up hill angling away from me to a spot where he lay down.

I figured good, he is down and will die in a nice recovery spot.

Well, be damned if he didn't get up and start to slowly walk deeper into the bush. I waited for him to stop (seemed a long time but was probably only 30 seconds) his slow wobbly walk and when he did and turned his head slightly, aimed another at his brain cavity. He went down in a crash, kicking all fours and I walked over and cut his throat to ensure a good bleed. Blood gushed out in big clots from his windpipe as I did it so I knew the first shot was deadly and my impatience was just a waste of 3 shots.

It worked out that all shots connected, the first being a double lung and the head shots all on target but only one hitting brain. In retrospect I have always figured, no matter how close an animal is, that head shots are a bit dangerous as the kill zone is very small and a wounded moose/deer/elk with one in the head is going to suffer an agonizing death if the kill zone is missed. My "head" shots were all within an inch of my aim and only one would have dispatched the animal immediately, the other two would likely have been a day or two tracking job with a likely loss of the animal.

Day 2 thu 4 of the hunt showed no further success for our 2 man camp with my partner putting in early mornings and late eaving time on likely spots.

Day 5 saw the arrival or three more hunters to our camp with an action plan to increase our chances of further success. No luck on this day.

Day 7 - I was awakened by one of our new arrivals saying not to get too comfortable as he had one down on a slash about 4 km from camp. Recovery operations were underway quickly and another fine bull was brought in to camp, just slightly smaller than my earlier animal. The gut pile from this kill was staked out with a trail cam to see if we could get some bear pics.

Day 8 - was another awakening to moose down as our other arrivals had put down an immy and a larger bull that were hanging out together and walked in to their hunting spot. This meant the start of 8 hours of work to get them back to camp and hung up in our portable cooler, misshaps with the borrowed game trailer made it a lot more effort than it should have been but trailering was new to all of us and it did work out in the end.

Day 9 - was a promising morning but did not bring any further success. The evening was just waining as my partner got the message back that he had one down on the trail and needed our assistance to bring it back to camp. We were able to pull a quad trailer right to the spot and loaded this last beast whole for a return to the hanging pole and skinning and splitting. Nice animal just shy of 500 lbs dressed.

So that was it, 9 days of hunting and 5 moose on the poles, time to plan the return trip home, 2 weeks earlier than original plans but we felt it was too warm to stay with animals hanging in the cooler and nothing to "hunt" for the next week or so... Recovery of the trail cam, was a real eye opener on bear activity. A blackie was on the site for nearly 24 hours, taking parts of the gut pile away and returning for more. Then the arrival of a sow grizzly with 3 young who proceeded to make a mess of the site over about 36 hours with continual activity, joined by a large boar part way through for a 5 grizz family outing. When we retrieved the camera there were 650 pics of bears over the 3 days with the blackie being there just 40 minutes or so prior to retrieval of the camera, looking forward to my buddy sending me the pics for a detailed review on my computer, hope to post a few good ones later.

Location of the hunt was Northern BC (sorry I can't be more specific but my hunting partner has made me promise not to disclose the local area as he has been hunting it since the mid 90's with great success and does not want to increase the pressure any further than it already is)

Hope that answers the questions folks may have, and hope my memory serves correct in telling our moose hunting story for 2011!

Take care all, Bob

[greenhorn]

That's cool. I was just wondering what region (Peace, Cariboo, ...) but whatever.

[BimmerBob]

That's cool. I was just wondering what region (Peace, Cariboo, ...) but whatever.

It was the Peace Area, that much I can share ;)

[moose2]

Great story and great success I am looking forward to the bear pictures
Mike

[srupp]

great job of getting er done...cant get any better..well done..

Steven

[nano]

Well done, congrats Bob!

[buckguy]

Good job! Nice looking moose. Starting to salivate.....can't wait for my moose season.

[Fisher-Dude]

Great bull BB! It warms my heart to see the quads right at the kill site! :wink:

[d6dan]

Way to go BB!. That looks like a Great eating moose..Congrats..

[jackpine]

nice shot placement!

[BimmerBob]

Just got the pictures sorted from the trailcam and thought you would all be interested in these grizz pics... Looks like a total of 8 different grizz on the gutpile, I did not know there were so many in this area, kind of an odd feeling thinking back.

Here is Moma and her 3 young...
https://byfiles.storage.live.com/y1p7QKOEGR9RQTDd4vnfVt_TOACr6XDOVjTDQxcC1HDCdnPZfN QS_inh53qZdXyZuQixInFS4YFI64/DSC_0350.jpg

And papa

https://byfiles.storage.live.com/y1pKH8OI0QFcOODxu5om1o02Nx6hYxNpBRLt37LIRs-GTLAdX7YUgnPahyTWhuT_BXKa-o-33LYPQo/DSC_0399.jpg

And the 3 amigos...

https://byfiles.storage.live.com/y1pZFhS1ek44FUOHcA8s43kbqtrQRMqW_5u8dgBvQFtEGOTmLO vqJKiIgwtF-vXjs1RRPeBFfvLMXM/DSC_0599.jpg

[pappy]

I had the chance to shoot a spike moose last friday in the thick peace area bush, but it also was a head shot and I wasn't comfortable with it so I passed on the shot. Now I have to go back in a couple of days and hope nobody has got him. Just for the reasons mentioned I will not do head shots unless I have already got a good shot into the animal. Nice moose and a great story, thanks for the pics.

[kennyj]

Beauty!
kenny