Roamer
Active member
Just meant to happen
On September 17 I was 15 mi. south of Leadville hunting deer with my muzzle loader. We drove out Tuesday afternoon to go up north of Leadville and do some glassing. When we got cell service, I checked my phone. I had a message from the C PW. It said someone turned in a all season moose tag for unit 41 and I was the next one on the list. If you call me back by 2:36 tomorrow afternoon you can have this tag if you want it. If I don’t hear something from you by then, I will go to the next person on the list. It was 515. I told my two hunting buddies about it and said she was probably already gone from the office, but I was gonna call and see if I could leave a message. I called. She was there 10 minutes later I had a moose tag.
Needless to say, I wasn’t into glassing for deer that evening. Spent most of the time on my phone. My two buddies told me that they thought they might want to come over and hang out with me chasing moose instead of finishing out there muzzleloading deer season. We got back to camp that evening. I told the other two guys we were hunting with I was leaving in the morning.
The next morning came I had all my shit packed and was at the DOW office in Glenwood to pick up my paper license at 10 o’clock in the morning.
I asked the lady at the counter if any of the wardens for any of the units my tag was good for we’re in the office. Of course they weren’t. It was right in the middle of archery and muzzleloading season. They were all out. She gave me a couple of phone numbers and said I could leave a message and they would call me back. she also told me that someone told her about seeing a bull moose up Garfield Creek. I said thank you and headed home to start making some phone calls and get my camper ready to go.
My original plan is to take my camper and four wheeler up on top of the grand Mesa and start putting in some miles up there.
I called Game Wardens and left messages. I called and talked to outfitters about packing. I called people I knew spent a lot of time up there fishing, etc.. Went down and talked to the guys at the local sporting goods store.
I called the division of wildlife office in Grand Junction and talk to the head moose biologist in the state. She told me that when they transplanted moose on the grand Mesa 20 years ago, they thought they would spend most of their time on the top in the swamps lakes, etc. Turns out the moose spend 90% of their time between 7500 and 9500 elevation in the Oak brush. Not much time at all on top of the Grand Mesa. After hearing that I decided to have a change of plan instead of taking the camper. I decided just to hop in the truck. Take the four wheeler up and check out Garfield Creek that evening.
I stopped at the gate started heading up the trail. I only got about 3/4 of a mile and started cutting some moose sign only a couple of days old. I went a little further and there was plenty of sign so I picked out a spot. Did some calling for about 20 minutes with no luck.
When I gotten off my four wheeler and got my gun out of the case, it seemed like there was a little condensation On the barrel. So I decided just go ahead and head out. Shoot my gun before I got back to the truck. Be back before first light in the morning. I drove my four wheeler about halfway down to the truck got off to shoot my gun and damned if it wouldn’t stay cocked. I messed with it for a couple of minutes. Couldn’t get nothing to happen so I decided just to hold the trigger. Pull the hammer back and, shoot it that way. It worked. I got the load out of the gun, but there was no way I was hunting with my muzzleloader in the morning. Luckily my dad had given my wife his muzzleloader when he decided to quit hunting so I decided to just use it in the morning.
The next morning, I was up early instead of taking the interstate for 10miles. I decided to just drive the frontage road. i’ve gone about 3 miles and all sudden traffic was stopped. There were only a couple of vehicles in front of me so I walked up talked to the cop. There was an accident ,road was going to be closed for a while. I couldn’t get my truck turned around with the four wheeler trailer on it. So I sat there and waited with daylight getting closer by the minute. 15 or 20 minutes went by and they got one side of the road open so they let us go through. I was about 2 miles from where I was going to park my truck and take the four wheeler when I had a low tire warning come up on my truck all the tires looked OK so I decided to drive on up. When I got there I got out. I had one tire that was going flat normally almost 50 pounds down to 30. I decided to hop on the four wheeler and just go hunting deal with the flat tire when I got done.
By then it was light enough to shoot so I thought I should at least take one shot with the muzzleloader. I picked out a tree about 40 yards away. Shot walked up to the tree not mark on it. At that point, I decided to blow off my morning hunt.
I dealt with the tire got back to town got it fixed went to the sporting good store and they gave me the phone number for a gunsmith. I called him. Luckily he had nothing going on so I took my gun over He had it fixed in an hour.
So that afternoon, I drive back up to the parking spot take the straps off the four wheeler go to put the gate down on my trailer and one of the hinges on the gate is broken so I can’t unload my four wheeler. I thought about just unhooking the trailer driving my truck up because the road is not that bad It’s just a lot slower in the truck. Instead, I decided to just say the hell with it,that some one or some thing was telling me I shouldn’t be in the woods that day.
“ I got a new knee 10 months ago to say that it hadn’t healed all the way is quite the understatement” I still had to be very careful and pick and choose where I could and could not go.
So I drove home, fixed the gate on the trailer And I was ready to roll the next morning.
The next morning came and I was getting off my four wheeler just for first light. Another guy pulled in, but he was archery hunting elk so I started up the trail. Went up to where I had started seeing sign found a good spot to do some calling. After about 10 minutes, the elk Hunter came walking up the trail and walked by so I decided to head up the trail as well. When he realized I was 50 yards behind him, he waited for me and when I got there, he said I should get lead because if he walked around the corner and spook the moose, he wouldn’t be able to live with himself. So I thought that was pretty cool so we only went about 100 yards got to the trail He was going to take he and he cut off the trail I was on.
I continued on up the trail probably hadn’t gone a half a mile when I spot a bull moose head sticking out around the corner looking my direction. I froze for a minute or so and he just turned and walked away. So I started sneaking up the trail after about 20 yards. I saw a cow moose go across the trail and up the hill on the right and then I heard the bull gave a couple of grunts. I moved a few feet further up the trail. There was a small dead aspen tree laying next to it so I pulled out my moose antler and did a couple of rubs. The bull Started grunting back at me. Then I see another cow step out she was only 30 yards away across the creek. She was just feeding, not paying any attention to me at all so I started grunting back at the bull. He starts walking back-and-forth grunting, but I can’t see him at all. The willows are so thick. after about 10-15 minutes of this he started moving up the creek. The cow still only 40-50 yards away from me sometimes I could see her and sometimes I couldn’t. I started raking the hell out of a little tree again and he turned around and came right back to where he was, but I still couldn’t see him. After a couple of minutes, the cow started walking up the hill and after a minute, he followed. The hill was pretty steep at one point I could see him pretty good thought about trying to shoot him right between the shoulder blades, but decided this was only my second hunt and I still had a month to go so I was going to make sure I took a quality shot. when he got to the top of the little hill, I grunted a couple of times and he stepped out into the open, look down and grunted at me. I could see him pretty good. The only problem was there was a bush covering his vitals so same thing I wanted a good shot. I really thought my bullet would go right through it, but I didn’t want to take a chance. he stood there for 10 seconds turned and walked away. I decided to just let him go and come back in the evening.
On September 17 I was 15 mi. south of Leadville hunting deer with my muzzle loader. We drove out Tuesday afternoon to go up north of Leadville and do some glassing. When we got cell service, I checked my phone. I had a message from the C PW. It said someone turned in a all season moose tag for unit 41 and I was the next one on the list. If you call me back by 2:36 tomorrow afternoon you can have this tag if you want it. If I don’t hear something from you by then, I will go to the next person on the list. It was 515. I told my two hunting buddies about it and said she was probably already gone from the office, but I was gonna call and see if I could leave a message. I called. She was there 10 minutes later I had a moose tag.
Needless to say, I wasn’t into glassing for deer that evening. Spent most of the time on my phone. My two buddies told me that they thought they might want to come over and hang out with me chasing moose instead of finishing out there muzzleloading deer season. We got back to camp that evening. I told the other two guys we were hunting with I was leaving in the morning.
The next morning came I had all my shit packed and was at the DOW office in Glenwood to pick up my paper license at 10 o’clock in the morning.
I asked the lady at the counter if any of the wardens for any of the units my tag was good for we’re in the office. Of course they weren’t. It was right in the middle of archery and muzzleloading season. They were all out. She gave me a couple of phone numbers and said I could leave a message and they would call me back. she also told me that someone told her about seeing a bull moose up Garfield Creek. I said thank you and headed home to start making some phone calls and get my camper ready to go.
My original plan is to take my camper and four wheeler up on top of the grand Mesa and start putting in some miles up there.
I called Game Wardens and left messages. I called and talked to outfitters about packing. I called people I knew spent a lot of time up there fishing, etc.. Went down and talked to the guys at the local sporting goods store.
I called the division of wildlife office in Grand Junction and talk to the head moose biologist in the state. She told me that when they transplanted moose on the grand Mesa 20 years ago, they thought they would spend most of their time on the top in the swamps lakes, etc. Turns out the moose spend 90% of their time between 7500 and 9500 elevation in the Oak brush. Not much time at all on top of the Grand Mesa. After hearing that I decided to have a change of plan instead of taking the camper. I decided just to hop in the truck. Take the four wheeler up and check out Garfield Creek that evening.
I stopped at the gate started heading up the trail. I only got about 3/4 of a mile and started cutting some moose sign only a couple of days old. I went a little further and there was plenty of sign so I picked out a spot. Did some calling for about 20 minutes with no luck.
When I gotten off my four wheeler and got my gun out of the case, it seemed like there was a little condensation On the barrel. So I decided just go ahead and head out. Shoot my gun before I got back to the truck. Be back before first light in the morning. I drove my four wheeler about halfway down to the truck got off to shoot my gun and damned if it wouldn’t stay cocked. I messed with it for a couple of minutes. Couldn’t get nothing to happen so I decided just to hold the trigger. Pull the hammer back and, shoot it that way. It worked. I got the load out of the gun, but there was no way I was hunting with my muzzleloader in the morning. Luckily my dad had given my wife his muzzleloader when he decided to quit hunting so I decided to just use it in the morning.
The next morning, I was up early instead of taking the interstate for 10miles. I decided to just drive the frontage road. i’ve gone about 3 miles and all sudden traffic was stopped. There were only a couple of vehicles in front of me so I walked up talked to the cop. There was an accident ,road was going to be closed for a while. I couldn’t get my truck turned around with the four wheeler trailer on it. So I sat there and waited with daylight getting closer by the minute. 15 or 20 minutes went by and they got one side of the road open so they let us go through. I was about 2 miles from where I was going to park my truck and take the four wheeler when I had a low tire warning come up on my truck all the tires looked OK so I decided to drive on up. When I got there I got out. I had one tire that was going flat normally almost 50 pounds down to 30. I decided to hop on the four wheeler and just go hunting deal with the flat tire when I got done.
By then it was light enough to shoot so I thought I should at least take one shot with the muzzleloader. I picked out a tree about 40 yards away. Shot walked up to the tree not mark on it. At that point, I decided to blow off my morning hunt.
I dealt with the tire got back to town got it fixed went to the sporting good store and they gave me the phone number for a gunsmith. I called him. Luckily he had nothing going on so I took my gun over He had it fixed in an hour.
So that afternoon, I drive back up to the parking spot take the straps off the four wheeler go to put the gate down on my trailer and one of the hinges on the gate is broken so I can’t unload my four wheeler. I thought about just unhooking the trailer driving my truck up because the road is not that bad It’s just a lot slower in the truck. Instead, I decided to just say the hell with it,that some one or some thing was telling me I shouldn’t be in the woods that day.
“ I got a new knee 10 months ago to say that it hadn’t healed all the way is quite the understatement” I still had to be very careful and pick and choose where I could and could not go.
So I drove home, fixed the gate on the trailer And I was ready to roll the next morning.
The next morning came and I was getting off my four wheeler just for first light. Another guy pulled in, but he was archery hunting elk so I started up the trail. Went up to where I had started seeing sign found a good spot to do some calling. After about 10 minutes, the elk Hunter came walking up the trail and walked by so I decided to head up the trail as well. When he realized I was 50 yards behind him, he waited for me and when I got there, he said I should get lead because if he walked around the corner and spook the moose, he wouldn’t be able to live with himself. So I thought that was pretty cool so we only went about 100 yards got to the trail He was going to take he and he cut off the trail I was on.
I continued on up the trail probably hadn’t gone a half a mile when I spot a bull moose head sticking out around the corner looking my direction. I froze for a minute or so and he just turned and walked away. So I started sneaking up the trail after about 20 yards. I saw a cow moose go across the trail and up the hill on the right and then I heard the bull gave a couple of grunts. I moved a few feet further up the trail. There was a small dead aspen tree laying next to it so I pulled out my moose antler and did a couple of rubs. The bull Started grunting back at me. Then I see another cow step out she was only 30 yards away across the creek. She was just feeding, not paying any attention to me at all so I started grunting back at the bull. He starts walking back-and-forth grunting, but I can’t see him at all. The willows are so thick. after about 10-15 minutes of this he started moving up the creek. The cow still only 40-50 yards away from me sometimes I could see her and sometimes I couldn’t. I started raking the hell out of a little tree again and he turned around and came right back to where he was, but I still couldn’t see him. After a couple of minutes, the cow started walking up the hill and after a minute, he followed. The hill was pretty steep at one point I could see him pretty good thought about trying to shoot him right between the shoulder blades, but decided this was only my second hunt and I still had a month to go so I was going to make sure I took a quality shot. when he got to the top of the little hill, I grunted a couple of times and he stepped out into the open, look down and grunted at me. I could see him pretty good. The only problem was there was a bush covering his vitals so same thing I wanted a good shot. I really thought my bullet would go right through it, but I didn’t want to take a chance. he stood there for 10 seconds turned and walked away. I decided to just let him go and come back in the evening.
