A Yukon Delta Moose Hunt

[Akcabin]

Nice. You're story brings back memories. I had a similar hunt out on the Stony river. We were stranded there for 7 days as we were in a mountain valley. It was clouded in and rained hard all week. So planes couldn't make it over the mountain n down into the river valley. Great trip except a grizzly bear took my antlers.
Also nice your taking your dad and are able to do a moose hunt like that. And harvest some nice moose

 

[MTGomer]

The cows eventually fed off and no bull came out. I slowly snuck up to where I could see all the terrain the cows had been in, ready to shoot.
No bull.

I headed back to the direction that I had last seen the bull. I figured he just continued to head away from the lake and was just going to be back in the alders a few hundred more yards from where I’d glassed him.
I made my way that direction. Seeing nothing, I let out a cow call. It was immediately answered by some glunking that only a bull moose makes.
I quickly cut the distance from where I thought the noise came from in half and sat down.

I called a few more times and hear a few more grunts. It started to rain. I put on rain gear. It quit raining. I ate some trail mix and cow called again. The bull moose is coming noise that a bull moose makes when he is coming your direction is unmistakable. That’s the noise I heard. From the alders came a bull, hidden behind a few closer alders. I could he was large, had multiple browtines and therefore must be the bull. He was moving very slow.
For about 20 minutes he stood beside a willow and occasionally raked it. An alder blocked my view.
Multiple times, I thought to myself that next time he rakes, I should jump up, conceal myself behind this little rise and run over there and shoot him from about 8 yards. I also thought, don’t be dumb, he’ll come out.

He eventually did just that. Very slowly he ambled out from behind what was concealing him. I double checked that it was indeed a good bull and likely “the bull”. As I put my scope on him I noticed a wound on his hind quarter and that he was limping.
When his front leg went forward, I shot him, then I shot him in the same spot again. He turned around and headed back toward the tree he had been raking. Knowing this was in a low spot that was likely full of water, I shot him again, then loaded the final round from my magazine and again shot him, this time in the neck (grandpa and my mom love that shot). He dropped dead.

I collected my things, walked up to him in a bit of disbelief and again very thankful he died on solid ground.

 

[MTGomer]

As you can see, the bull from the night before had 4&5 brows. This one has 3. Not the same bull.

That was okay though. This was a great bull. He’s heavy, has some age and the more I looked the more injuries he had. At first, I thought the hole on his neck was from my shot until I realized it was scabbed and full of puss.

I took a handful of pics, then headed to the boat to get my father in law. It would be much faster to spend the time to go get him than try to process this thing alone.

When I got back to the boat, the bull that I was originally after was standing 120 yards from it.

 

[MTGomer]

Murphy’s law or whatever. We hiked back into my bull, and as we were working to break him down, kept coming across holes in him, infection, puss and bloodshot not caused by my shots. He was gored badly right in the stomach

This bull, unlike the previous bull we killed, had almost no fat on him.

I don’t know how resilient these things are, but I have to imagine going into winter with no fat, a bunch of infection and a limp is not the recipe for success.



I got one load out that day, and the other 6 the next.
Type 2 fun!

 

[morley.tyler]

What an epic memory builder. Good for you!!

 

[noharleyyet]

Cool ride-along Gomer, thanks.

 

[geetar]

Congrats! Looks like 7 year wait club isn’t a bad place to be.

 

[Irrelevant]

Those are dandy moose. Congrats @MTGomer

 

[Elmacho]

That just made my morning! Great story and hunt. I get to go next year, first-timer, cant wait!

 

[Jwill]

Very cool, congrats on the moose!

 

[BradA]

Congratulations! Great bull and tons of fun I’m sure. Some great memories.

 

[jabber]

Congrats!!! Great bulls, story and pics. Thanks for sharing with us.

 

[EYJONAS!]

Great adventure congrats buddy.

 

[MarvB]

VERY cool write up and accompaniment on the pics! Makes we want to be “young” again ( my knees are sim to your FIL) and redo my bucket list! Grats Gomer

 

[MTelkHuntress]

What a cool hunt and story! Congratulations!

 

[Akcabin]

Congratulations man! And you did it with family even better

 

[ZMT588]

Hell of a hunt! Congratulations!

 

[kansasdad]

Megan Rapinoe-Faucci (your avatar pick) would be so proud of you and your dad. Thanks for sharing the adventure

 

[Deleted member 16014]

Awesome write up, thanks for taking the time.

 

[Oak]

That's a pretty sweet hunt.