ZERO days till Moose Talk…

I dont have a lot of time to say the details..Maybe Melissa will sign up since she has recovered from the Elk mishap Congrats babe!

Awesome!

C’mon details!

Whats the story Web?

WOWSER!!! That is a Monster!!!

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I dont have a lot of time to say the details..Maybe Melissa will sign up since she has recovered from the Elk mishap Congrats babe!

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Recovered…….I’d say recovered is way understated. That bull is huge. Congrats. CHEERS

Holy BIG BULL BATMAN !!!! That things gotta go 60″ plus Story please….

That is a giant for MN. I know we are a sleeper state, but wowser!! Congrats!! Story please!!!!!!

Wow. Im not even into moose hunting but would still love to hear the story behind this one.

thats a BIG critter congrats

AWESOME

sign her up and lets hear the story

Congrats, Kids !! You make the ol’ man proud !

SIMPLY AWESOME!

Congratulations Melissa!

We want the hear the story behind this incredible bull moose!

Is that BEAST from MN?

Holy smokes! That is a HUGE MN moose! Congrats!

I dont want to steal too much of her thunder but after 2 full days of moving him around I still cant get myself to sleep through a full night, guess I’ll hit the stand in a few hours.

We planned a very short 4 day hunt as I am swamped at work and have a Montana trip coming up next week so we knew we had our work cut out for us. We had agreed previously that if we were going to do this we were going to give it all we had and hold out for a big boy or go home empty handed. Little did we know it was going to rain on us 24 hrs a day and the weather never topped 40 degrees the entire weekend. I will say after 3 changes of clothes in one day, the doubt can set in pretty fast. I was very surprised that there was so much road hunting going on and not many people out and about on such a great experience. But, it left all kinds of untouched country for us to explore. We decided we were going to put our time in and cover as many miles as we could, wet or not. Heck, we even got lost to the point where we walked a complete circle and started a pretty good spat with each other. Then Meliss pulled this line, “Bear Grylls says that moss only grows on the north side of trees.” With-in 5 minutes we were back on the right track and my ego was completely brought back in check. It was my fault anyway that the compass was left in the pack which was too heavy to carry (wet clothes) and left half way back to the truck.

With Bows in hand Day 1 turned out to be almost a complete dud, as my secret little spot that had me so worried about hunting pressure (as it was a for-sure big bull spot 3 weeks ago with a ton of sign) turned out to be completely exempt of both hunters and any sign to speak of. Every single track from 3 weeks ago was the latest sign we saw and had pretty much eroded away. All of the freshly eaten twigs and buds had turned black and no fresh twig tops to speak of. We covered many miles on our first run of clear cuts and ended up back in a low lying 10 yr old stand of trees that was unlike anything I have ever seen. It didnt seem to matter which direction we went, everything blended together and cloudy wetness set in so hard by 11 am that we completely lost all bearing of where we where and what we were doing. The next two hours turned into a battle of just trying to get back to the sweetness of a warm truck. We finally made it and decided we deserved a 30 minute drive to Isabella for a change of clothes and frozen pizza from the bar. Just like that we were completely revitalized and ready to get back out, and low behold among 500 different hunting outfits, Meliss forgot her extra pairs of hunting boots! Boy did I give her the wilderness speech at that point…But, like a champ she put on her soaking wet hunting boots and off we went for round 2…New spot…

This spot was not part of the plan as I had never seen it but the road hunters were driving it over and over as there was 3 days worth of tracks on the road from a dandy bull, and I thought, if they arent going to get out and go after him then we will. With-in 1 hour we had 3-4 trucks pull in to glass our clear cut, probably mad that we were pounding their chance to kill a moose from the truck because they just kept driving back and forth over and over again. Needless to say, there bull is still there, because again after a 4 mile walk or so and a few calling sequences, we came out empty handed and wet. This was a good spot but was a huge area that I think would have taken days to figure out. I realized here that these bulls in rut dont just walk a few miles in there home area as I know we saw his same tracks again about 5 miles up the road all the way on the other side of a pretty vast hillside. He was a monster bull and was definitely making the rounds. I really hope he doesnt get shot from the road…

On the way back to camp right at dark, Meliss says “Holy $#%T, what is that?” and just ahead of the truck a small 2 1/2 yr old bull was walking down the middle of the road. This was very exciting to see because Meliss really got a first hand look at the shear size of these animals. This little bull was trotting ahead of the truck for a mile and would not get out of my way. Just for reference, for the guys that havent seen many moose, as I drove behind him in my full size truck, his gonads where right at eye level! He was all of 8′ to the top of the head and he was a small linky moose…

Off to bowstand…(in the rain)

WOW , that is one big sucker Big Congrats Melissa

Keep it coming Web, nice read so far!

Hey guys I am going to try to be a little more succinct than the hubby, JJ.

Day 2~
With my boots still wet we started out heading for Plan B spot only to find a truck already parked, so it was off to Plan C. With only a brief scouting of this area we decided to give it a try as in previous years 2 additional moose were harvested there. Given the bleak previous day JJ had convinced me to leave my DXT at the cabin and carry the 30-06 instead.

We headed back into the clear-cut and immediately noticed a lot more sign than the other areas. After a 1 hr stint of calling and waiting we decided to walk the edge looking for a more “moosey” area. About halfway around the clear-cut we found a cattle-trail leading into the nearby swamp. We decided to follow the trail and set up on the edge of the swamp joking about how much work it would be to actually get a moose out of there.

JJ and I set up on a large rock and began to do some calling. I kept trying to convince him to use the “moose trumpet” but he was resistant as it was so loud and we weren’t exactly sure of what we were doing. Anyway he eventually listened to his smart wife and within 5 minutes I was staring at 2 paddles approaching through some trees. I immediately tugged on JJ’s pants and said “holy s$*t theres a moose!” He turned just as the moose stopped and I said “I thought I saw a moose but now I am not sure, what do you think?!” JJ started to slither off the large rock we had been sitting on and said “oh yeah thats a moose, get ready and get your scope on him!” He was about 15 yds back in the trees staring out at us directly down wind of us. JJ ranged him at 89 yds but he didn’t have a shot. I asked if he wanted to try to sneak up on him and get a shot with his bow, since that had been our plan all along; to kill a moose with our bows. He said he would give it a try but to keep the scope on him. Out of the corner of my eye I saw JJ making all these crazy movements, with his bow above his head, and calling. He stalked to within about 75 yds of the moose, got behind a bush and started thrashing the bush wildly. This only encourage Mr. Moose to step out 10 yds and start thrashing a willow. At this point JJ and the moose were in a stare down and I had a perfect broadside shot. JJ then stated “if you have a good shot take him” before he could finish that sentence I let the lead fly!

The moose looked unphased after the 1st shot so JJ said “hit him again!” I again let another shot fly and, to me, the moose looked perfectly healthy. JJ said “thats good” but I was worried and did not want this monster to get away so I let a 3rd shot go and JJ said “he’s done!” As apparently he dropped dead in his tracks a few yds away and I thought he had just walked away. After my 3 shots were over and JJ informed me that he was dead I began shaking uncontrollably and couldn’t walk to JJ through the swamp without sitting down a few times because my legs kept buckling and wouldn’t allow me to move.

Walking up to this enormous creature was unreal. I knew that moose were big animals but standing next to one gave me a real appreciation for these amazing animals! Two days later JJ and I are still on cloud nine and can’t believe what an amazing experience that was!!!

The wildlife biologist figured that he weighed between 1100-1200 lbs. His spread was 54 1/4″. He has 20 scoreable points and his longest eye-guards were 22″ long. They guessed his age to be 6-8 yrs. His hooves were bigger than my hand. His head was much larger than a horses and it took 2 people to prop his head up so I could hold him up to take those pictures!

Again it would have been amazing to get him with a bow, but the opportunity just wasn’t there and we didn’t want to miss a chance of a lifetime. We know he is well over 135″, which is a P&Y but definitely short of the 185″ required for a B&C. Either way I am extremely pumped…now its back to bowhunting those whitetails and JJ is off to Montana this Friday for Elk hunting!! We have had a GREAT fall!!

Just a couple more pics

Incredible Antler Queen Guessing my knees would get a little weak too after that How are you gonna top it ????

welcome to IDO AQ

thanks for sharing the moose story and congrats on an awesome bull

Great story and Moose , Big congrats and welcome

Wow, great story, great photo’s. Welcome aboard Antler Queen. So do you have a spot picked out on the wall???

What a treat it must be to share that with your spouse.

Sweet! Great pics and Great Story

Congrats Antler Queen on one incredible trophy!

About time you signed up and got the ball rolling! Thanks for sharing your adventure with us!

thanks for the welcome guys! can’t wait to get him back from the taxidermist!! we’ll either have to put it above the bed (so its the last thing i see before i go to bed ) or in our stairway/hallway that has a very tall wall!!

any other guys hunting moose out there this season? there is still time left!! good luck!!

Or you could let your father-in-law “store” it for you.

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Or you could let your father-in-law “store” it for you.

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Might as well, He is “storeing” a few other whitetails and fish of mine. Has been for 12 yrs now!

Hey now!! Wait til you get the bill for dusting them all this time.
Congrats on a “helluva hunt!”
Has either one of you thought about being novelists? You are both quite the authors! Very well written!
DAD