D-Mac
Well-known member
Well I have officially punched all my tags for the 2023 season! Not that hard maybe when there are only two. With family in town I had to miss out on opening day of the moose rifle season. But I made it out Thursday at first light. Thankfully the unit I drew is only about an hour from my doorstep and I was able to do some summer scouting and I’ve spent a fair amount of time in previous years hiking and fishi through the area.
Unfortunately (fortunately), this year I drew a Mtn Goat tag and that took up my free scouting weekends from July on so while I had a good idea of where they would be, I had not actually been in the unit since June. I knew the drainages where I had seen them before and knew where I wanted to be. First light saw me hiking up full of hopes and dreams.
Thursday I slowly worked all the way up a real pretty drainage, looking for sign and expecting to see a moose at each bend. But I saw no animals at all, and very little fresh sign. Once while at the head of the drainage I got a whiff of carcass and heard what sounded like a bear “whoofing” but I never could find anything.
I worked my way over a saddle and stopped for a few hours to glass both sides. I still never found any game animals. I was surprised, I figured I would at least see a deer or some elk. I worked my way down that drainage still not finding any sign that made me excited. I did find two moose carcasses that looked like they were from either archery or muzzleloader hunters.
I think I’ve heard this called “the best sign you can find in the woods” I can vouch that I had the drainage to myself at least that day!
That next day I started out working up a different drainage, but with similar results. I stopped and talked to some other cow hunters. We both had a similar hunting plans so we deconflicted those. Super nice folks. They reported they had been hunting a few days and just hadn’t been seeing anything. We both lamented that the “archery crowd” had messed them up from our summer scouting.
I found a nice valley to overlook and spent most of the day just glassing.
I had ample time to think and OnX scout a little. I figured that these drainages I was going up sure did look like classic moose habitat, but seemed to be devoid of any moose. I found a few small meadows on OnX that borders established campsites and the edge of legal hunting grounds. They looked small enough that I hoped maybe they had been overlooked.
I figured I had little to lose, so I would spend the evening sit overlooking one of them. I’m glad I did.
With about 30 minutes of shooting light left, when the shadows were already starting to get longer and the air cooler, I finally found a cow.
Unfortunately, but as expected she showed up on the side I can’t hunt, just needed her to cross the stream. So of course she just stood there staring instead of walking over. Felt like forever, was probably 5 minutes and this starring and scanning all the meadow. Then all the sudden she started walking and crossed right over. She was not trotting, but man can they cover ground fast with those long legs.
I lined up a shot and she hunched a little and turned to cross back over. On no you don’t. I lined up and sent another one into her. She stood still, kinda wavered and then tipped over!
10 yards away from unit border! With just enough light I walked up and breathed a sigh of relief. Truly humbled by both the opportunity and the size of her! I did a quick gutting job and left her cavity propped open with some sticks.
The best part of this was that I was 230 yards to the road! It was uphill, so there’s that. Took a couple hours the next day, but we have plenty of meat for this next year now!
Didn’t leave much for the coyotes.
For inquiring minds I weighed a back ham, it was 93 pounds. It’s super easy to overestimate the weight of animals and I like to actually know. Know if you ask me three years from now, the pack out will have grown to .5 a mile and each quarter will be over 100 pounds! Haha!
Unfortunately (fortunately), this year I drew a Mtn Goat tag and that took up my free scouting weekends from July on so while I had a good idea of where they would be, I had not actually been in the unit since June. I knew the drainages where I had seen them before and knew where I wanted to be. First light saw me hiking up full of hopes and dreams.
Thursday I slowly worked all the way up a real pretty drainage, looking for sign and expecting to see a moose at each bend. But I saw no animals at all, and very little fresh sign. Once while at the head of the drainage I got a whiff of carcass and heard what sounded like a bear “whoofing” but I never could find anything.
I worked my way over a saddle and stopped for a few hours to glass both sides. I still never found any game animals. I was surprised, I figured I would at least see a deer or some elk. I worked my way down that drainage still not finding any sign that made me excited. I did find two moose carcasses that looked like they were from either archery or muzzleloader hunters.
I think I’ve heard this called “the best sign you can find in the woods” I can vouch that I had the drainage to myself at least that day!
That next day I started out working up a different drainage, but with similar results. I stopped and talked to some other cow hunters. We both had a similar hunting plans so we deconflicted those. Super nice folks. They reported they had been hunting a few days and just hadn’t been seeing anything. We both lamented that the “archery crowd” had messed them up from our summer scouting.
I found a nice valley to overlook and spent most of the day just glassing.
I had ample time to think and OnX scout a little. I figured that these drainages I was going up sure did look like classic moose habitat, but seemed to be devoid of any moose. I found a few small meadows on OnX that borders established campsites and the edge of legal hunting grounds. They looked small enough that I hoped maybe they had been overlooked.
I figured I had little to lose, so I would spend the evening sit overlooking one of them. I’m glad I did.
With about 30 minutes of shooting light left, when the shadows were already starting to get longer and the air cooler, I finally found a cow.
Unfortunately, but as expected she showed up on the side I can’t hunt, just needed her to cross the stream. So of course she just stood there staring instead of walking over. Felt like forever, was probably 5 minutes and this starring and scanning all the meadow. Then all the sudden she started walking and crossed right over. She was not trotting, but man can they cover ground fast with those long legs.
I lined up a shot and she hunched a little and turned to cross back over. On no you don’t. I lined up and sent another one into her. She stood still, kinda wavered and then tipped over!
10 yards away from unit border! With just enough light I walked up and breathed a sigh of relief. Truly humbled by both the opportunity and the size of her! I did a quick gutting job and left her cavity propped open with some sticks.
The best part of this was that I was 230 yards to the road! It was uphill, so there’s that. Took a couple hours the next day, but we have plenty of meat for this next year now!
Didn’t leave much for the coyotes.
For inquiring minds I weighed a back ham, it was 93 pounds. It’s super easy to overestimate the weight of animals and I like to actually know. Know if you ask me three years from now, the pack out will have grown to .5 a mile and each quarter will be over 100 pounds! Haha!
