The big bull was on the move, the second bull much smaller, followed behind. Over the first couple of days, we spotted nearly two dozen bulls, most young or less than 50", but this guy was looking good. Two miles out, we could not confirm legality, and watched, as they moved into the trees. Another clear sunny September day was appearing. It rained most of August. The months traded places this year. As the day grew warmer, and the bugs woke to rejoice in our presence, we decided to chase that bull.
Hiking toward the big guys last known location, we hoped to call him out. It was a gorgeous beautiful blue sky day, with cackling ravens and a few caribou. Spent hours in that area.
Later in the day, Kyle spots a nice bull, briefly, a mile and one half behind us. We watched as he walked into a finger of spruce trees. The hike was on! Up and down ravines, brush filled creeks. Arriving "In the zone" we settled down and scraped, bull grunted roughly every 45 minutes. After three hours he presented himself. Showed little interest in our manly moose grunts, just feeding and occasionally looking our way. Brush being very thick, all we could make out are bits of antler. As we advanced slowly, he faded into the brush. Naturally we followed up, and found this guy had bedded down. Not knowing yet if he's a legal bull, we moved in slowly scraping, to pop him up. Turns out one lucky moose! We played and danced with this guy at 6-7 yards for several minutes.
Evening was coming and we arrived back at camp just after sundown. Shirts, underwear, socks, all soaked. One hot sweaty day! As we are putting on dry clothes, cracking beers open, I see a caribou running full out across a ridge below. Kyle scanned the area for a reason and found, a very large bull moose was moving straight toward our camp! Thinking the day was done and caught totally off guard, we scrambled in our crocs and flip flops to unpack and set up the scopes. It was getting dark, this bull was on the move. Across a beaver pond, he turns and stops broadside, 120 yards out. Looking through my scope in poor light, he was a shooter. As Kyle was setting up a shot, I held up a moose scapula to hold his attention. Instantly this moose rose up on two hind feet, rotated 90 degrees and bolted at full run down the hillside. We watched this bull run full speed over a half mile until gone. Looking at each other "what the hell just happened?" Appeared to be the bull we had first chased early in the day. Dark out now, and back to the previously cracked opened beer.
