smarandr
Well-known member
My wife was able to draw a cow moose tag close to our house, and we went out opening day to see if we could find one.
Shortly after first light I saw what I consider to be a really nice bull moving across the mountainside. The way he was moving I thought he was probably looking for love, so I suggested to my wife that we follow him with the idea that he'd lead us to a cow. After trailing him for a mile or so he met up with a solitary cow and they started courting. Unfortunately, they both were still pretty high up on the mountainside, and having been involved with a couple of moose pack-outs I really wanted them to be as close as possible to the road. So, we drove around to the other side of the mountain, I hiked up the back while my wife went back to the front side to setup in hopes that I would push the cow down to her.
It took a while, but I crested the ridge and both moose were still close to where I last saw them. Not trying to be sneaky I approached them making a lot of noise and succeeded in scaring the bull one direction and herding the cow down the mountain towards my wife but into some really thick maple cover. I could follow her track for a while, but eventually I lost it and just tried to make a lot of noise hoping that I would keep driving it down. By the time I got to the bottom I still hadn't heard a shot from my wife, and I was concerned that the moose had found a nice thick spot to hunker down in and we'd never see her again.
After about 45 minutes I rendezvoused with my wife, and from her vantage point it looked possible for the cow to sneak out the bottom of a draw whose opening was obscured. I suggested we check that out before moving on to locate another cow, and sure enough we found the moose at the bottom of the draw. At first we didn't see her, what caught our eyes was a flock of wild turkeys milling around while the moose stood still among them. Kind of crazy something that big standing in the shadows only a hundred yards away could be overlooked. Anyway, once we spotted it my wife set up, touched off a shot, and the moose went down. Luckily it was close enough to the road that with about a hundred feet of rope, a couple of 2x4 studs and a come-along we got the carcass loaded up in the truck bed whole.
Shortly after first light I saw what I consider to be a really nice bull moving across the mountainside. The way he was moving I thought he was probably looking for love, so I suggested to my wife that we follow him with the idea that he'd lead us to a cow. After trailing him for a mile or so he met up with a solitary cow and they started courting. Unfortunately, they both were still pretty high up on the mountainside, and having been involved with a couple of moose pack-outs I really wanted them to be as close as possible to the road. So, we drove around to the other side of the mountain, I hiked up the back while my wife went back to the front side to setup in hopes that I would push the cow down to her.
It took a while, but I crested the ridge and both moose were still close to where I last saw them. Not trying to be sneaky I approached them making a lot of noise and succeeded in scaring the bull one direction and herding the cow down the mountain towards my wife but into some really thick maple cover. I could follow her track for a while, but eventually I lost it and just tried to make a lot of noise hoping that I would keep driving it down. By the time I got to the bottom I still hadn't heard a shot from my wife, and I was concerned that the moose had found a nice thick spot to hunker down in and we'd never see her again.
After about 45 minutes I rendezvoused with my wife, and from her vantage point it looked possible for the cow to sneak out the bottom of a draw whose opening was obscured. I suggested we check that out before moving on to locate another cow, and sure enough we found the moose at the bottom of the draw. At first we didn't see her, what caught our eyes was a flock of wild turkeys milling around while the moose stood still among them. Kind of crazy something that big standing in the shadows only a hundred yards away could be overlooked. Anyway, once we spotted it my wife set up, touched off a shot, and the moose went down. Luckily it was close enough to the road that with about a hundred feet of rope, a couple of 2x4 studs and a come-along we got the carcass loaded up in the truck bed whole.
