I am back from hunting. I didn't shoot a moose but I spotted the one my buddy shot... one is enough for us split 3 ways...
We just got back from a 9 day trip...
We had a great hunt. Cold, a little snow right away then it cleared off but stayed cold... which is good to get the moose moving around. We did not have a draw so we could not hunt our favourite spots and we could only shoot an immature bull.
One late afternoon two of us walked into a small remote slash and Gary was making the cow call trying to get a response from a bull. The first thing we heard when he called were several wolves that were spread out in the timber below us… hard to say how far away, it could have been 500 or a 1000 yards. They yapped and short howls and communicated with themselves and then shut up… a few minutes later Gary called again… immediately the wolves started making noises again but they were closer together with one wolf sounding like it was out to the right of the pack a ways. Then quiet again. In about 5 minutes Gary called again. Right away the pack responded with more “barking” and short noises ending with a sharp response from the wolf out to the right… and then silence. In a few minutes Gary called again… and there was complete silence. No response from the wolves at all. Gary and I looked at each other and Gary said, “They are coming”. It was an eerie feeling to think a pack of wolves was headed right to where you were. We stood side by side behind an old log pile about 4 feet tall, with the old logging drag trail crossing through the slash in front of us from one end to the other, left to right. We expected the wolves to come into the slash from the direction we heard them, the edge of which was about 125 – 150 yards away. Gary was facing left and had called again; I was facing straight ahead and listening. All of a sudden on the trail to the right of us, about 40 yards away the pack was coming at a full lope. Man do they move fast. The grass was spotty and high in places on the trail so you could not see all of them, nor did they see us… I, fairly excitedly, was whispering to Gary, “Gary – the wolves are here!”
They either heard or saw us and stopped. The lead wolf (very white) was about 15 feet in front of 4 possibly 5 other wolves and behind some tall grass. A couple of wolves were visible and staring at us. I had my scope on one wolf and was about to shoot when the lead wolf stepped ahead of the tall grass and stared at us. I quickly took a bead on it and fired (35 yards), the rest then scattered like coyotes. Gary took one shot and missed as they were at high speed. I didn’t even chamber another round and just watched them go.
The lead wolf was a large (larger than a German Shepard) young female, very white with excellent teeth and quite skinny.