Took a couple days off last week to hunt the last few days of moose season. A friend & I paddled several hours down a small river near here to where we've hunted & got moose before. Didn't get any moose, had a ~45" bull 30 yards from me, but we have antler restrictions here and he needed to be 50" antler spread or larger to be legal. Fun though. Here's some video/pics.
Picked a straight, flat section of river and set my paddle down & videoed, if you listen close you can hear my friends paddle going into the water.
(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh271/chinook907/th_MVI_0008.jpg) (http://s258.photobucket.com/albums/hh271/chinook907/?action=view¤t=MVI_0008.flv)
Here's a pic of a little opening I sat a few times early & late, and did some calling. It rained hard walking to the spot the second-to-last night and then quit. Out came a rainbow, a promise kept once again.
(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh271/chinook907/IMG_0018.jpg)
An hour & a half after this pic the only bull we saw stepped out of the spruce on the right.
Our campfire the last night, season closed. Take care.
Tim
(http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh271/chinook907/th_MVI_0029.jpg) (http://s258.photobucket.com/albums/hh271/chinook907/?action=view¤t=MVI_0029.flv)
Thanks for sharing. I wanna go moose hunting.
I can picture the conversation with your buddy, "Hey you paddle while I video. Don't whine this is important." Also, "Hey man, go get some more firewood, I'm videoing again. I said stop whining, you want to remember this don't you?"
Thanks John. Definitely a team effort, especially the canoe part.
thanks for sharing! iv got this thing inside me that wants for the wilds of Alaska, would love to hunt moose one day!
Very cool!!! Thanks for sharing.
Amazing country.
Hey, how do you ensure that it's 50" from 45"? That first moment, when you go up with the tape measure, must really be nerve-wracking...
Your pic with the rainbow is now my desktop....thanks for sharing.....terry
JStark: On marginal bulls it can be especially tough. Generally its 10" between the eyes on a moose, so you can visually do multiples of that and estimate the spread. Also, the mid 40" bulls generally appear as a real step down in size from a solid 50"+, kindof like the difference in a nice 6 point buck and a very solid 8 point. But its tough, and can go either way; a bull with big palms but short tines looks bigger, and one with skinny palms can have an odd long point on either side that makes it legal. Also, if they have 3 brow tines on a side they are legal, and counting them and determining what is a brow tine and what is an "other" tine is another whole discussion ! What you hope for is a lot of time to look him over and good visibility i.e. no obscuring brush etc.
Oneshot - Wow, thanks, I'm very flattered !