Limited Entry Moose and a great hunt

Grant

This year the government of Alberta was rather kind to the family. All of us got Mule deer draws and we also got two cow Moose draws for November, all between four hunters. With a nice bull Elk already in the freezer, a nice cow moose would fill every one's freezers nicely for the winter.

I took the first three days of the draw off from work and headed out for three hard days hunting.

On day one, we had an amazing evening stand. We set up on the Smoky River, my better half, her father and myself, in a spot with great moose and elk sign. (We still have two bull Elk tags to fill if we got the chance so setting up here was a no brainer) At 5:30 PM the first of the Elk came out and they just kept on coming. By the end, there were 18 cow and calf Elk out and we got to watch them for well over an hour. Two calves got to playing and it got several other Elk in on the game, what a show. (No camera, it was 100 yards away sitting in the truck, figures... Laughing

) That was a great evening.

Day two started out tough, really high winds kept everything back in the timber, nothing was moving. We made the move from the river bottom to a small isolated creek that has good, thick bush along it for several miles. There was great sign from the moment we got inside the tree line. We crossed the creek and proceeded to each take cut lines that were about 1/4 mile apart and paralleled each other. I took the farther cut line and the father in law took the first one. I turned to see him disappear around the corner and I started on my way. I didn't walk 100 feet when I spotted a big dry cow moose off to my left in the thick brush about 300 feet away. I was packing my late fathers favorite hunting rifle, Mk III Lee Enfield 303 with iron sights, I like open sights when hunting in thick cover. I had never harvested an animal with this rifle before so I have a feeling the old man was helping me out a bit that day. I raised the rifle, held on the heart and lungs and let'er bang, She turned, made maybe ten steps and crashed. The father in law came around the corner and said, "That didn't take you long! What did you shoot?" "That cow Moose laying there." I said...he just laughed. As we walked up to the Moose, a BIG bull Elk came running right at us down the ridge line, we couldn't believe it, both of us raised rifle and tried for several minutes to get a shot, but the big bugger only ever stood still behind trees and thick brush. The Elk finally must have walked into the downed moose cause he kinda grunted, jumped sideways and took off like he was shot out of a cannon. The father in law and I just looked at each other in dis-belief.... Laughing

After several hours hard work, we got the big girl out and back to the father in laws place where we needed to use his bail truck to get this big girl up in the air high enough to skin her out. Quite the adventure that day... Laughing

Pumpkinslinger

Wow! Congrats! Good story and picture too. I'd like to hunt moose someday but they're a little sparse around here. In fact, the only one I've seen locally is in the lobby of Bass Pro Shop...

cbsweeney · Member Joined: Jun 18, 2010 Posts: 197 Location: New York

Congratulations!
That is a great picture. I did go moose hunting once a long time ago in Maine. We weren't quite as lucky. Someday I'll get back there and give it another try. I'll have to remember to pack an excavator....

slimjim

Congrats on the large harvest! Yep, I'm trying to get into elk hunting and I'm worried if I get one how I will get it out. Large game like elk and moose are definitely hunts you do with a partner or you have the calvary standing by to support extraction.