Wrong size moose

[Okanagan]

Yesterday I drove 2 1/2 hours east over the mountains and hunted mule deer and moose up near timberline.  It is an antler restricted season for moose, so only a spike or fork horned bull is legal (one side has to have no more than two points).  The first thing I saw was the bull below, 250 yards from me in a pocket meadow by the road.  When I first saw him all I could see was a brow tine on one side sticking out, long, with a long deep fork, and I thought that maybe he was legal.  But when he turned his head he has palms with half a dozen long points on each side above the brow tines. 

Hand held camera zoomed to  24 power after two cups of coffee and a thyroid shake condition.  Sorry.  I didn't realize they were all blurry.







I drove on a little higher and at the end of a high elevation spur road I finally found three deer tracks so followed them into the woods.  Light snow coming down on a couple of inches in gorgeous open forest.  Called two deer without seeing them.  The wind shifted and one smelled me and snorted at me.  Squirrels tattletaled on the other one so I walked over afterward and saw its tracks in the snow where it had approached but not come into view.  Hit a smallish medium cougar track made sometime during the night and followed it several hundred yards but didn't get any response on a poor percentage call I tried.

We have a huge variety of game but it is thinly dispersed over a vast amount of country.  I never saw a single deer yesterday and the only hunters I spoke with had not seen any game of any kind.   The solution is to cover a huge amount of territory, usually by logging roads, and then get out of the vehicle and hunt when you find a pocket that has game at the moment, or find a specific animal to go after.  That means we often are hunting a location where we are unfamiliar with details of terrain etc.   Farther north, the sheep and moose guides cover vast territory by getting high above timberline and glassing, but if you think about it, there is a huge amount of land with no game in it that they cover.

I used to backpack and hunt above timberline a lot, but at my age, now I drive and glass a lot, looking for tracks or a specific animal a mile away in a clearcut and figuring out how to stalk it.  I'm not too proud to take a gimme by the road if it offers to go in my freezer.  Too bad this bull was the wrong size to shoot!

[KySongDog]

Nice story.   Might have been the wrong size but at least you saw something.  Much better than the alternative.  Wish we had that kind of country around here to hunt.   

Were you gun or bow hunting?   And did you drive up and back the same day?  5 hours of driving made for a long day, I bet.   

[Okanagan]

Were you gun or bow hunting?   And did you drive up and back the same day?  5 hours of driving made for a long day, I bet.

I was rifle hunting.  My plan was to start a bit later and not try to be there at daylight, and to stay overnight for an evening and a morning hunt.  But I woke up at 3:00 AM, took off early and got into a place to glass before daylight, so did my morning hunt first.  Then I got to thinking about family responsibilities this weekend (starting tomorrow).  If I shot anything later than last evening it would be tough to get the meat cooled and taken care of, so came home instead of staying out.  Normally I don't go that far for a day hunt. 

[KySongDog]

I know about driving to hunt.  I drive about 2 hours one way to hunt coyotes at LBL.  I go down in the early morning and come back in the evening so a little over 4 hours on the road.   But, of course, I don't have to fool with the meat (or the fur) if I get lucky and shoot one.      

[FinsnFur]

Sounds like an exceptional day to me. Minus the fact that you didnt connect with a legal Moose.
But still the only other thing that could have made that trip any better would of been to have your grandsons along I bet.
Awesome day and thanks for sharing it with us.

[Dave]

That sound like it's a lot of fun!
Thanks for posting.