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Moose

Congrats Oak! That is a dandy bool!! I hope the moose magnet is still available if I get to go on a moose hunt.
 
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Can I ask where you aimed for the frontal?
No, because the lowest the scope goes on that rifle is 6.5x. 😁😳

He was just slightly turned to my left from straight on. I briefly thought about the neck (for about 0.8 seconds), but moved down and put it just right of center line, about 1/3 up from bottom. At the shot he jolted back, stumbled about 10 yards to my right, started circling and tipped over. When we skinned him there was no exterior bloodshot. I’m certain I didn’t lose 1/2 lb of meat. No exterior bleeding, but the chest cavity was full.
 
Epilogue:
Colorado allows you to hunt with all three weapons for bull moose: ML, archery, and rifle. I hunted all 9 days of ML season and killed on the first day of rifle.

About halfway through the ML season I told Dink that I can't believe people wait their whole lives to do this. I was not embracing the suck. Don't expect to see a ton of animals on a moose hunt. We saw 9 bulls, 2 cows, and 2 calves in 9 days of ML, and 2 bulls in 30 minutes of rifle.

Some of the obviously bigger bulls I posted were prior to the beginning of the season or on private land. The giant with 4 brows on each side that I posted was killed on private during the ML/archery season. I was looking for a different bull opening day of rifle, but knew about the one I shot and was not going to pass him up if I found him.

Big moose are really, really big. Have a solid game plan for moving it before you pull the trigger. I shudder to think of some of the places we hunted during ML season. I was super fortunate that my bull fell about 50 yards from a road. We packed out whole quarters. I called the meat locker on my way there and told them I was coming with moose quarters and all the trim. Told them I had probably 500 pounds. He replied, "you packed it out, so you think it's more than it is. For a Colorado moose you probably have 325-375 lb." When he pulled the first two quarters out of my truck he said, "this is the biggest moose I've ever seen. You told me you had 500 lbs and you just might be close." The 4 quarters weighed 319 lbs and the other meat sacks totaled 177 lbs for 496 total.

It ended up being a super fun hunt. Not sure how I would have felt if I had made it about halfway through rifle season. ;) And I'm not sure I'm going to continue to let my bank account take the abuse from WY every year, even with 20 points. Apply with care. Consider access, public recreation in the area, the time you have to apply yourself to the hunt, and be reasonable with your expectations.
 
Nice bull! Congrats! That's a lot of meat! Holy smokes. I've seen some of those shiras bulls that looked like tanks.
 
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Congrats on a great bull and thanks for sharing your story and all the great pics. A job well done.
 
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Epilogue:
Colorado allows you to hunt with all three weapons for bull moose: ML, archery, and rifle. I hunted all 9 days of ML season and killed on the first day of rifle.

About halfway through the ML season I told Dink that I can't believe people wait their whole lives to do this. I was not embracing the suck. Don't expect to see a ton of animals on a moose hunt. We saw 9 bulls, 2 cows, and 2 calves in 9 days of ML, and 2 bulls in 30 minutes of rifle.

Some of the obviously bigger bulls I posted were prior to the beginning of the season or on private land. The giant with 4 brows on each side that I posted was killed on private during the ML/archery season. I was looking for a different bull opening day of rifle, but knew about the one I shot and was not going to pass him up if I found him.

Big moose are really, really big. Have a solid game plan for moving it before you pull the trigger. I shudder to think of some of the places we hunted during ML season. I was super fortunate that my bull fell about 50 yards from a road. We packed out whole quarters. I called the meat locker on my way there and told them I was coming with moose quarters and all the trim. Told them I had probably 500 pounds. He replied, "you packed it out, so you think it's more than it is. For a Colorado moose you probably have 325-375 lb." When he pulled the first two quarters out of my truck he said, "this is the biggest moose I've ever seen. You told me you had 500 lbs and you just might be close." The 4 quarters weighed 319 lbs and the other meat sacks totaled 177 lbs for 496 total.

It ended up being a super fun hunt. Not sure how I would have felt if I had made it about halfway through rifle season. ;) And I'm not sure I'm going to continue to let my bank account take the abuse from WY every year, even with 20 points. Apply with care. Consider access, public recreation in the area, the time you have to apply yourself to the hunt, and be reasonable with your expectations.
This right here is a recap...as good as it gets.
 
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