Late to this thread and the bull is not poll size in the context of some of the bruisers shown in the thread (I had the story in another thread earlier), but here's an Ontario contribution.
Monday morning October 17 first day of our hunt my hunting partner and I went up the lake about 25 minutes in the dark and reached our spots on the river just at legal light. He dropped me off at my spot and then putt-putted back 3/4 km down river to his. By the time he was getting out of the boat the bull and cow were down.
After he had dropped me off I tossed my life jacket on the beach, laid my pack by a tree, uncased and loaded my rifle, slung it over my shoulder and went to the shore to look west, upriver. As I then looked north where I expected the moose to be, the bull was following the cow out of the tree line. They must have heard me (the wind was in my favour and moose don't see that well) because they were looking hard my way. I made a soft cow call which seemed to calm them both. After a five minute standoff, nerve wracking for me as they were in cover, she led him out of the brush and into the open.
I figured that he would hang around if I dropped her first so when she offered me a perfect broadside at 187 yards I took it. She humped up so I knew she was hit hard, but she turned 90 degrees and started walking away from me towards the trees. When she offered another broadside a second shot anchored her down.
He, meanwhile, stood and watched her. He started to move away from me to the tree line but turned and offered a broadside at 232 yards. One shot, he wobbled, turned 90 degrees to the trees again, teeter-tottered and dropped.
Our crew's "hunt" was done. A few hours later we had both animals back at camp. As luck would have it, there was a rented excavator there for some bush road work and it made much easier work of getting the moose from the boat than it was getting them in.
I used a stainless Browning BLR Lightweight PG in 308 Winchester. Cartridges were 165g Federal Fusion. The shots on the cow were through and through, the shot on the bull passed through the ribs on the far side but did not exit the hide (not recovered though). The Fusions did their job very well on the lungs but I'm not certain they would hold together if they hit bone bigger than ribs.
Both critters butchered and wrapped out to 700 lbs.
They came from the tree line.
Big body, smaller rack.
I was in the spruces behind me.
The 308 BLR.
- although it doesn't showcase the antlers perfectly, I like this one the best.
