The bulls weren't talking a whole lot (at least during legal hours). I had a bull answer me after my 3rd sequence the first morning but couldn't get him to come in. If I played my cards differently I may have been able to get him wound up but decided to taker' easy. The rest of the day was spent slinking around cutlines without much action.
Next morning was dead quiet again. At noon I hopped on the quad and checked out some different cutlines and willow flats. After I was satisfied that I had a few more good calling locations in my back pocket I started to head back to camp for lunch and a maybe a nap in the fresh air. That didn't happen
. I ran into this young bull instead. Then it was go time...warm temps and solo hunting with a moose on the ground required some pretty swift knife work. He hit the ground at 12:40 or so and by 3:30 he was skinned, broke down, bagged up and being loaded onto the racks of the quad.
Rifle is a M70 Extreme Weather in .30-06 wit a Vari-X II 2-7x33 held on with Talley LWs. Load is a 168 gr. TSX over top of H4350. The first shot is the one you can see the exit wound of in the pic. He took a few steps and stood there with his head hanging down and blood leaking out. I knew it was a good hit but we all know where hit moose can end up in the boreal forest when they get a bit a steam behind them...so I put one more in him as he was slightly quartering away. That bullet went through the offside shoulder blade but did not exit. I imagine it was in the hide but I was moving quickly and didn't care to much about recovering the bullet. He took a couple more steps and fell over. I walked up and he was still holding his head up...he was dead, but I don't like watching that so I put a round through his head.
All in all it was a great few days in the bush. The elk were being very vocal throughout the night...so much so that they woke me up at 3:45am the first night...but it was great to lay in the tent and listen to 3 different bulls and a bunch of cows carrying on and crashing around in the bush. I did see two legal bull elk but this was a moose year and I have an antlerless elk draw to extend my big game hunting into the winter this year.
Other excitement was a lynx wandering on up to my camp and hanging out with me on the cutline and and watcing and listening to some great horned and great grey owls.
My apologies for the pic quality...I think my camera is on the fritz b/c whenever the lighting is dim or very bright the camera seems to wig out a bit...
Next morning was dead quiet again. At noon I hopped on the quad and checked out some different cutlines and willow flats. After I was satisfied that I had a few more good calling locations in my back pocket I started to head back to camp for lunch and a maybe a nap in the fresh air. That didn't happen
. I ran into this young bull instead. Then it was go time...warm temps and solo hunting with a moose on the ground required some pretty swift knife work. He hit the ground at 12:40 or so and by 3:30 he was skinned, broke down, bagged up and being loaded onto the racks of the quad.Rifle is a M70 Extreme Weather in .30-06 wit a Vari-X II 2-7x33 held on with Talley LWs. Load is a 168 gr. TSX over top of H4350. The first shot is the one you can see the exit wound of in the pic. He took a few steps and stood there with his head hanging down and blood leaking out. I knew it was a good hit but we all know where hit moose can end up in the boreal forest when they get a bit a steam behind them...so I put one more in him as he was slightly quartering away. That bullet went through the offside shoulder blade but did not exit. I imagine it was in the hide but I was moving quickly and didn't care to much about recovering the bullet. He took a couple more steps and fell over. I walked up and he was still holding his head up...he was dead, but I don't like watching that so I put a round through his head.
All in all it was a great few days in the bush. The elk were being very vocal throughout the night...so much so that they woke me up at 3:45am the first night...but it was great to lay in the tent and listen to 3 different bulls and a bunch of cows carrying on and crashing around in the bush
. I did see two legal bull elk but this was a moose year and I have an antlerless elk draw to extend my big game hunting into the winter this year.Other excitement was a lynx wandering on up to my camp and hanging out with me on the cutline and and watcing and listening to some great horned and great grey owls.
My apologies for the pic quality...I think my camera is on the fritz b/c whenever the lighting is dim or very bright the camera seems to wig out a bit...
