Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska First Moose!

Whacked my first moose on Saturday!

Chris (cwh2) picked me up at 4am on Saturday morning, and we drove 4-1/2 hours north to go looking for moose. Chris had an "any bull" tag, so we were hopeful we'd find something with antlers to shoot at. We arrived just after first light, and after gearing up, we started hiking in. Our plan was to hike in, get some high ground and start glassing. We packed in camping gear, food, tent, and sleeping bags. Chris carried his 7WSM Montana and I toted my 700 Ti in 7-08.

After about and hour-and-a-half hike, before we even got to our selected glassing location, I spotted a bull walking in a narrow clearing. We quickly dropped our packs and Chris lasered it at 500 yards. It was walking towards us, so I got out the video camera and videotaped a little while we discussed what to do next. After more careful examination with the binoc's, we both figured he would be bigger than 50-inches & had plenty of brow tines, which is a legal moose even without Chris's tag.

The moose hung up at about 300 yards and quietly slipped into the woods. The moose had impeccable timing, because Chris was already dialing dope and was going to whack him if he stayed put any longer and presented a clear shot.

After the initial, "Where'd he go?", we developed a plan. Chris would go right and downhill to get behind him, in case he slipped back into the clearing; I would go left to get in front of him and watch the next clearing. I put the video camera away and grabbed my rifle. I slipped down the little rise were were standing on, and immediately spotted antlers sticking over the top of the brush. At first, I thought it was another moose, since only 10 minutes had elapsed since we first spotted him. Man, those things can really cover ground at a leisurely walking pace.

In order to get above the brush to make the shot, I stood on my tip-toes on a nearby fallen tree. This got me high enough off the ground to see over the brush. I took a high shoulder shot, and he dropped immediately. The moose was only 50-60 yards away.

Chris came running right away, even before I let out a holler. I stayed put and kept an eye on the last known location of the moose, while Chris went forward to investigate. Once Chris had a bead on the moose, I advanced and put another shot into the bull to hasten the process.

So, with that, here is my first moose:




We both forgot to bring a regular camera, so the only pictures I have where taken with my iPhone. We both lamented that little nugget of misfortune. The bull has five brow tines on one side and six brow tines on the other. We later measured him at 53" wide.

A couple more:






While quartering the animal, Chris found the bullet from the first shot. It passed through both shoulder blades, clipped the spine, and stopped just inside the hide on the far shoulder. The bullet is a 120gr TSX.



As you can see from the picture, it was a complete bullet failure. I'm actually surprised the moose isn't still walking around.



A quick toss on the powder scale, after we got home, showed a bullet weight of 120.6 grains. I left the meat on, for effect.


We hiked out all four quarters the first day - 1.6 miles, each way, according to the GPS. Our second trip ended at 9:30 Saturday night, about an hour after dark. We left our camping gear near the kill site, so instead of hiking back in the dark, we decided to find a hot meal and a room for the night. To our surprise, it was lottery weekend for Denali National Park - where regular Joes can drive back into the park, versus taking a tour bus. Everybody and their uncle was at the park, so there wasn't a hotel room or cabin for 50 miles in either direction.

Spending the night in the truck wasn't a great option. It was 40-some degrees when we arrived that morning, and all our camping gear was in the woods. After a quick burger, we drove to Fairbanks (130 miles away) and stayed at a friend's house. We arrived at 1am, took a hot shower, spent a half hour in his hot tub, and went to bed at 2am.

The next morning we grabbed breakfast and drove back to the hunting area. Two more trips were needed to finish packing out the meat, our gear, and the antlers. A state trooper stopped by to check our licenses and offered his congratulations. We were back on the road at 8pm and arrived at home after midnight. Went to bed at 2am, after unloading the truck and hanging the meat. Talk about your long weekend!

Chris still has his tag, but neither one of us is all that interested in packing out another stinkin' moose.

Nice moose!

Nice story!!

Nice pics!!!

Nice going!!!!

BTW, be sure to show that boolit to Art - he ain't never seen one like that.

very nice! they look a lot bigger on the ground, don't they ?

Sorry that you were struck by that nasty bullet failure!

That is a lot of good eating on the ground! Congrats.

John

Wonderful stuff...great story and pics, congrats and thanks for the post. The tsx does it again

Congrats,great story and pic's!!!

I like prairie parkland moose. Furthest I've ever had to pack a moose is 40yds. Have always been able to get the truck close. The downside is I only get drawn every 8-10 years.

Nice moose BTW.

Fantastic - congratulations and thanks for shating.

Good job!!! Another person is one ahead of me on the moose count.

(I think I'm still tied with a few tho)

Kewl recovery on the TSX. They sure do suck . . .

Seems that any time I kill a moose, I always wonder what the hell I was thinking when I pulled the trigger! They do seem to get bigger and bigger the closer you get. When I shot mine, there were 4 of us working on him and we had the wheelers right next to him, still took us over 3 hours to get him tagged, bagged and loaded on the machines. Congrats on a dandy bull, will make some good eating this coming winter. Where did you take him to have him processed?

We've got the quarters cleaned up and hanging in fresh game bags, and we put a fan nearby to circulate cool air (thanks, Art). We'll finish butchering the quarters after they age for a few days.

We've begun the tedious process of cleaning up the misc. meat for grinding. We'll make burger and some fresh italian sausage out of some of it, and we're thinking of dropping a a fair-sized portion off to get made into moose sticks. Got any recommendations on Anchorage processors? I've liked the stuff I've had from Alaska Sausage & Seafood.

Try Indian Valley meats, they have a good selection of sausages and other goodies. They just started making moose bacon this year, I tried a piece of it and they are going to make me 20lbs of it, that tasted better than any bacon i've ever had. Their jalapeno/cheese dogs kick ass as well and I've got 40lbs of them coming. I had them put all my trim aside and I will package it into 2 lb packages then grind as I go, nothing better than fresh ground moose done that day!!

Now that's a thought I hadn't considered. Sounds good!

I've had the jalapeno/cheese dogs, too. They are pretty awesome.

Oh yeah, their moose pastrami makes awesome reubens too.

Congratulations. Nice story and pics. Thanks for posting. Those Ti's are nice.

Way to go Dan & Chris. Reminds me why I don't Moose hunt anymore. I always liked Alaska Sausage's seasoning better then Indian Valley. but every body's taste is different. There's a outfit in Eagle River I've been hearing good things about, but the name escapes me. Maybe Kurt will chime in. Any ways congratulations --- Mel

Congrats.

Beautiful bull, congrats!

Beautiful brow tines. Congratulations, and another vote for indian valley.