Finprof
AH veteran
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- Jan 16, 2022
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Last year I got a 9 point Buck weighing 185 pounds (field dressed) in Idaho on a property leased by my buddy Ray Kagel. He suggested that I put in for a moose tag since there were moose on the same property.
Idaho has a lottery for moose tags but only allows one nonresident tag in each hunt unit. Looking at the odds I guessed that it would be 7-10 years before I drew a moose tag.
I was very surprised to get a moose tag on my first application. I set up a trip to Idaho from Oct 8 to Oct 15 hoping that 5 days if hunting would be enough since it took longer for my buddy to get his moose several years earlier.
I got into Idaho Falls at 9 PM in Saturday. Sunday morning I went to church with my buddy and his wife and then got ready for an afternoon hunt.
We arrived at the property about 4 PM and walked about 1/2 mile through thick willows and got to one of his stands at the far end of a 130 yard long clearing.
The stand was only about 15 feet high but the distant spacing of the tree steps was a challenge. The stand itself was very comfortable because the tree leaned back a bit.
To my dismay the wind was coming from behind and to the right of me and was going right across the clearing.
About 6:15 my buddy and I were texting back and forth. He had changed stands at 6 PM and got into a stand at the far end of the field and was downwind of the clearing. I texted him that I heard branches breaking behind me.
About 6:30 the bull moose came out directly below and slightly to the left of my stand. I did some mental geometry and aimed high behind the right shoulder. He stumbled and took a few steps to the right. By the time I worked the action he was standing 20 yards to my right in a perfect broadside shot. I put another slug behind the right shoulder about 6 inches below the first. We found the slug below the skin in the offside shoulder.
My buddy and I (mostly my buddy) gutted out the moose and propped open the belly with three sticks just before dark. He called his wife to bring some tmowels and tarps to cover the moose. He walked back to her truck to lead her in while I stayed with the moose to fend off coyotes. It didn’t take long before there was a pack of coyotes in a semicircle around me howling 20 yards away.
The next morning the moose had not been touched by coyotes because it was covered with human scent items. My buddy enlisted two friends, one with two horses, to help bone out and pack out the meat. We loaded three horses with meat and took out the head and cape on a sled.
Two of us hauled the head and cape but I had to go back to the gut pile to retrieve a set of branch loppers to widen the trail through the willows. That was a long half mile.
The owner of Downwind Archery let us leave the head and meat in his cooker. We took the head the next day to get it checked in at Fish and Game and to take to the taxidermist in Salmon. The biologist said that it was the biggest moose checked in that year and guessed it was 5 1/2 years old.
Although I shot the moose it was a team effort that included my buddy and his wife and the two friends and horses that helped us pack out the meat.
Idaho has a lottery for moose tags but only allows one nonresident tag in each hunt unit. Looking at the odds I guessed that it would be 7-10 years before I drew a moose tag.
I was very surprised to get a moose tag on my first application. I set up a trip to Idaho from Oct 8 to Oct 15 hoping that 5 days if hunting would be enough since it took longer for my buddy to get his moose several years earlier.
I got into Idaho Falls at 9 PM in Saturday. Sunday morning I went to church with my buddy and his wife and then got ready for an afternoon hunt.
We arrived at the property about 4 PM and walked about 1/2 mile through thick willows and got to one of his stands at the far end of a 130 yard long clearing.
The stand was only about 15 feet high but the distant spacing of the tree steps was a challenge. The stand itself was very comfortable because the tree leaned back a bit.
To my dismay the wind was coming from behind and to the right of me and was going right across the clearing.
About 6:15 my buddy and I were texting back and forth. He had changed stands at 6 PM and got into a stand at the far end of the field and was downwind of the clearing. I texted him that I heard branches breaking behind me.
About 6:30 the bull moose came out directly below and slightly to the left of my stand. I did some mental geometry and aimed high behind the right shoulder. He stumbled and took a few steps to the right. By the time I worked the action he was standing 20 yards to my right in a perfect broadside shot. I put another slug behind the right shoulder about 6 inches below the first. We found the slug below the skin in the offside shoulder.
My buddy and I (mostly my buddy) gutted out the moose and propped open the belly with three sticks just before dark. He called his wife to bring some tmowels and tarps to cover the moose. He walked back to her truck to lead her in while I stayed with the moose to fend off coyotes. It didn’t take long before there was a pack of coyotes in a semicircle around me howling 20 yards away.
The next morning the moose had not been touched by coyotes because it was covered with human scent items. My buddy enlisted two friends, one with two horses, to help bone out and pack out the meat. We loaded three horses with meat and took out the head and cape on a sled.
Two of us hauled the head and cape but I had to go back to the gut pile to retrieve a set of branch loppers to widen the trail through the willows. That was a long half mile.
The owner of Downwind Archery let us leave the head and meat in his cooker. We took the head the next day to get it checked in at Fish and Game and to take to the taxidermist in Salmon. The biologist said that it was the biggest moose checked in that year and guessed it was 5 1/2 years old.
Although I shot the moose it was a team effort that included my buddy and his wife and the two friends and horses that helped us pack out the meat.
