Wyoming Lotto ‘23- Moose Draw
- Thread starter GoWyo!
- Start date
GoWyo!
Well-known member
Moved this to my thread, I accidentally posted it on Pam’s from 2021.
Well, after 9 days looking at a couple dozen moose (bulls and cows) I took my once in my lifetime Wyoming Shiras bull on Oct 4. He was in elk country, on the western edge of Jelm Mountain. I became known as the ‘guy with the moose tag’ in our Brooklyn lake campground. Just East of the Snowy range pass, I met some great people, heard some not so great stories, and eventually received a tip about my bull down by Jelm. I hunted solo; hunted with my son and also with my brother in law. In the end, both were with me, which was awesome and made this hunt very special. (Especially during the nighttime field dressing and packout, which thankfully was short and dry.)
We received a tip from some CO hunters that Id met in early September. They were back up and actually came to the campground looking for me to tell me of this bull they spotted a week before. We were headed to the Vedauwoo East of Laramie area to look around and just happened to bump into them. My son had texted me the prior evening he was coming up the next day after classes, I didnt get the text until our way down, we made a plan to meet up after we looked over Vedauwoo and came back to Laramie. We grabbed some fuel, lunch and headed SW. Jelm is @35 miles from Laramie. We parked Ryan’s Tacoma at the base
and were driving up the mountain towards the location where this bull had been seen a week prior. We met an airman, who was on his way down. He was deer hunting. ‘Do you have a moose tag?’ Yes, yes I do!
He had just seen him and offered to show us where, of course he wasn’t there. We hunted a couple quakey filled draws but never found him. We did find a smaller bull, but he wasnt even a candidate. We continued up the road and followed some Iowans up to the UW observatory. They were also deer hunting, and like us at the moment,sight seeing from the top. Incredible view of the Laramie plains!
We left them and headed back to hunt the general area we were in before. The Iowans met us again, and two were going to hike around the ridge to look for a buck. These guys were very polite and offered to back off when they saw us, I said more eyes the merrier! Indeed a half an hour later they came back up and said they spotted the bull. They led us down the mountain to a pullout, and told us where he was. They asked if they could observe, ‘Hell yes, you found him’ I replied. So six of us hiked along the circumference of the hill for a couple hundred yards until we reached the aforementioned draw. We located the bull near the opposite ridgeline about 250 yds away. He looked bigger than any of the bulls I’d seen up to that point, he had brow tines and I said this is him, especially considering that my son and bil were with me. I moved a few yards down the hill to a standing dead pine and chose my lane. I had to pick a shot thru the branches. As soon as he cleared the quakie patch he was in, I verified the range and put a 225 gr partion through his shoulders. I did not want him moving down the face of this mountain!! He dropped at the shot, my son let out a whoop and the ‘crowd’ started cheering! Just then my brother in law said ‘he’s moving!’ I put the crosshairs back on him and saw that he had gotten his rear legs under him. I put another round through his ribs and he was down for good. More celebrations ensued. We all drove back around to the other ridgeline and hiked down to ‘our’ bull. The warden at the check station said he had never heard of a bull moose…any moose taken off Jelm Mtn. I used my .338 Win mag Sako AV carbine, 225 grain partitions being pushed by RE 16. I found one slug stuck in the hide of his neck. This was the finishing shot.
Well, after 9 days looking at a couple dozen moose (bulls and cows) I took my once in my lifetime Wyoming Shiras bull on Oct 4. He was in elk country, on the western edge of Jelm Mountain. I became known as the ‘guy with the moose tag’ in our Brooklyn lake campground. Just East of the Snowy range pass, I met some great people, heard some not so great stories, and eventually received a tip about my bull down by Jelm. I hunted solo; hunted with my son and also with my brother in law. In the end, both were with me, which was awesome and made this hunt very special. (Especially during the nighttime field dressing and packout, which thankfully was short and dry.)
We received a tip from some CO hunters that Id met in early September. They were back up and actually came to the campground looking for me to tell me of this bull they spotted a week before. We were headed to the Vedauwoo East of Laramie area to look around and just happened to bump into them. My son had texted me the prior evening he was coming up the next day after classes, I didnt get the text until our way down, we made a plan to meet up after we looked over Vedauwoo and came back to Laramie. We grabbed some fuel, lunch and headed SW. Jelm is @35 miles from Laramie. We parked Ryan’s Tacoma at the base
and were driving up the mountain towards the location where this bull had been seen a week prior. We met an airman, who was on his way down. He was deer hunting. ‘Do you have a moose tag?’ Yes, yes I do!
He had just seen him and offered to show us where, of course he wasn’t there. We hunted a couple quakey filled draws but never found him. We did find a smaller bull, but he wasnt even a candidate. We continued up the road and followed some Iowans up to the UW observatory. They were also deer hunting, and like us at the moment,sight seeing from the top. Incredible view of the Laramie plains!
We left them and headed back to hunt the general area we were in before. The Iowans met us again, and two were going to hike around the ridge to look for a buck. These guys were very polite and offered to back off when they saw us, I said more eyes the merrier! Indeed a half an hour later they came back up and said they spotted the bull. They led us down the mountain to a pullout, and told us where he was. They asked if they could observe, ‘Hell yes, you found him’ I replied. So six of us hiked along the circumference of the hill for a couple hundred yards until we reached the aforementioned draw. We located the bull near the opposite ridgeline about 250 yds away. He looked bigger than any of the bulls I’d seen up to that point, he had brow tines and I said this is him, especially considering that my son and bil were with me. I moved a few yards down the hill to a standing dead pine and chose my lane. I had to pick a shot thru the branches. As soon as he cleared the quakie patch he was in, I verified the range and put a 225 gr partion through his shoulders. I did not want him moving down the face of this mountain!! He dropped at the shot, my son let out a whoop and the ‘crowd’ started cheering! Just then my brother in law said ‘he’s moving!’ I put the crosshairs back on him and saw that he had gotten his rear legs under him. I put another round through his ribs and he was down for good. More celebrations ensued. We all drove back around to the other ridgeline and hiked down to ‘our’ bull. The warden at the check station said he had never heard of a bull moose…any moose taken off Jelm Mtn. I used my .338 Win mag Sako AV carbine, 225 grain partitions being pushed by RE 16. I found one slug stuck in the hide of his neck. This was the finishing shot.
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txco
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- Joined
- Apr 27, 2017
- Messages
- 285
Congrats! Great bull!
Carl 9.3x62
Well-known member
Awesome, congrats! Yeah you don't hear of too many moose coming off Jelm. I like your rifle.
Caseknife
Well-known member
Congratulations on an awesome animal. Seems there is always lots of deer and elk hunters that like spotting moose for the lucky moose hunters.
Khunter
Well-known member
congrats!
ashersdad
Well-known member
That's a beautiful bull! Congrats on a once in a lifetime hunt.
GoWyo!
Well-known member
Thanks Carl, I had this hunt in mind when I was offered this Sako.
SC Living Outdoors
Well-known member
Awesome. Congrats! That's a beautiful bull!
rogerthat
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- Joined
- Aug 29, 2015
- Messages
- 2,977
Nice bull! Hunttalkers are crushing the big moose this year!
littlebighorn
Well-known member
Well done GW! I think one of the best strategies of any special hunt is to be friendly and let everyone willing, join the party.
It sounds like you have some helpful new friends. Great bull!
BAKPAKR
Well-known member
fishing4sanity
Well-known member
I'd say that your bull is certainly worthy of a OIL tag, congratulations!
CPAjeff
Well-known member
Congrats on a great bull!
GoWyo!
Well-known member
Thanks everyone, I will be happy to see him on the wall for the rest of my days. Here are some pix of other bulls that I ran across minus a few. The bull in the thick stuff came very close to being my bull during the last days of archery season. He was bedded right off the highway with a cow. I pulled over 1/4 mile below them and walked up to a large tree to observe him, as I was returning to the truck to get my bow a mexican work crew/ truck pulled up and jumped out, they were excited, very noisy and ran up the road after I tried to explain that I was a cazador…the pair left the area while I was in the creek bottom. In the end, I’m happy they did.
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