Moose Hunt 2018
This fall we finally got to focus on moose hunting. This has been a dream of Casey's for quite some time, and while he has been on quite a few successful moose hunts helping others, he had never harvested a moose for himself. We went in September, the rut was just starting to really kick off, and the fall colors were in full swing.
On our very first day, the moose hunt turned in to a bear hunt, and Casey harvested this beautiful interior grizzly bear. He used his new Kimber Mountain Ascent chambered in 300 Win Mag topped with a Vortex Razor LH 3-15, and at 300 yards, it definitely did the trick.
The aurora was very active while we were in the field, which made it hard to want to go to bed.
Day 2: With the grizzly bear packed back to base camp, it was time to spike out for moose. We took 3 days of food with us, and headed out. The day had started off right, with us spotting a 45" bull from base camp. It was tempting, just for a moment, as it was a legal bull within 200 yards of the air strip. Even though we were in an "any bull" area, we wanted to hold out for something a little bigger.
Later in the day, we set up to do some calling. We brought in a younger bull from 1,200 yards to 85. Again, he was a little small, but its always fun to call critters in!
We kept moving, and found a good spot to camp for the night.
Day 3: At mid-day, we spotted a bull bedded down in the timber about a mile away. We began to call. Over the course of a couple hours or so it came in to about 600 yards. At 7:00pm, just an hour before dark, we were finally able to get a clean shot at 310 yards. Casey got his bull.
Success!
Two happy hunters, with a lot of work ahead of them.
As we began to cut up the moose, darkness fell. We were in for a long night, but that was fine by us. We had a moose on the ground, it was cold but clear, and we had plenty of firewood.
We ended up spending the night there at the kill site, feeding the fire till dawn.
The sun finally rose and we kicked out our fire, made up our packs, and headed back to spike camp. The area was surprisingly devoid of water, and we had not planted on spending the night out under the stars. By the time we made it back to camp, we had not eaten, drank, or slept in almost 24 hours. We finally found a small puddle in a low area. It tasted like bad eggs, but we each drank about liter on the spot! A Heather's Choice meal with some M&M's for dessert went a long way towards making us feel whole again.
Another trip in the memory bank, and another moose in the freezer. -JW
