OMG...Now what?

[AKBorn]

I’ve killed quite a few moose but I made a pact that if I couldn’t get a 4wheeler within 50 yards I wouldn’t shoot it.I passed on a several good bulls over the years that were standing tits deep in water. Had a buddy kill one in a swamp one time and it was the worst experience of my life butchering that thing in knee deep water. I could never understand why guys I knew would do fly out hunts for moose knowing good and well they might be packing them miles, PHUCK that , moose are too damn big for that to be any fun at all. I never didn’t kill a moose when I wanted to using much easier methods. The best pack out I ever had was the bull I arrow’d in my neighbors yard and it died in the dry ditch at the edge of our road. Backed the truck up right to it and only had to haul it 100 yards home......by truck!

My Dad was the same way – he wouldn’t shoot a moose unless we could get a vehicle or ATV right beside it. This was back in the 60s and early 70s in Alaska, so moose hunting was simpler and less crowded – we usually got a bull hunting the Denali Highway or Hatcher Pass country.

One year we were hunting the Denali Highway, on the trail to Osar Lake at about the 36 mile marker – that was our favorite Denali spot back then, very little competition once you left the main highway. My Uncle John was with us, recently out of the military, about 27 years old and new to Alaska.

We saw a bull about 1.5 miles across the big swamp on the east side of the trail back to Osar Lake. Dad said “I can’t get my Jeep across that swamp, no way to do it. And, I’m not willing to pack one back from over there.”

Uncle John volunteered to hike across the swamp and try to drive the bull toward us. He put on an international orange windbreaker, so we could track him through binoculars. Worked like a charm, and my Dad shot the young bull about 150 yards from the trail, and drove the Jeep right down to him. Uncle John did all the work, and Dad did the easy part. We had him mostly broken down by the time Uncle John got back from a wet slog through that swamp.

 

[jhm2023]

My first moose was actually spotted by my buddy so he had the shot. It was about 300 yards slightly down hill after I called the bull in. He missed and I watched where it went down into a willow thicket along a small creek. What I thought would be a good idea at the time, I told my buddy to post up on a small hill and I would attempt to push the moose out for him to shoot. Well it didn't work. I found the moose at 11 yards right about the same time he found me. All I remember seeing was him drop his antlers and lunge at me, at which point I pointed my 300 WM in his general direction squeezed the trigger and ran. I stop after I got behind a small spruce tree and turned to find him wedged down in the creek which was the same width the moose was long. The creek was about 3.5 feet deep with cut banks that went straight down. My buddy came busting down the hill to see what all the commotion was about. Seeing a bull down in person for the first time and realizing it was wedged in a creek certainly inspired the" holy crap what have I done" thought. The bull died just over 2 miles from the road in a non-motorized area. After a trip to the truck we returned with a 2 ton come-along, 100 feet of climbing rope, and some chest waders. The 2 ton come-along couldn't budge the moose until I removed the 2 exposed quarters, ribs, and viscera. Not a pleasant task learning to take apart a moose while standing in a partially frozen creek up to you stomach. All said and done, from the shot to all meat and antlers back to the truck was 28 hours. The 180 gr. Barnes TSX went through one of the antlers , busted the spine in its neck and was found under the skin on the opposite side shoulder. Many lessons were learned on this hunt.

 

[Kevin Dill]

You know the saying:

Experience is the hardest kind of teacher. She gives the test first and the lesson after.

 

[Beendare]

One moose I shot many years ago...[before I knew better] was swimming across a small lake. I ran as fast as I could to ambush it when it was getting out of the water- bad idea- Perfect first arrow at about 30 yds but the bull jumped back in the water and proceeded to make it about 70 yds into deeper water before dying. We had to swim out and drag him in. Shallow water didn't help as his rack was getting stuck in the muck on the bottom. We tried hooking up a rope from shore but it got so shallow he was dragging bottom.

We had to process him half in the cold water....not something I wish to do again.

 

[oenanthe]

You know the saying:

Experience is the hardest kind of teacher. She gives the test first and the lesson after.

Yep. And along those lines, it has been said that:

Experience is what you get when you don't get what you want.

 

[LongWayAround]

I've never got in on a moose but we had a tricky cow elk a couple years ago.

A quick off hand shot in an aspen grove had a cow elk limping away from us with a blown up shoulder. We trailed her down the ridge, up the opposite face, and back down again... to a beaver pond. The pond was partially frozen and she was in the middle of it. My buddy posted on the hill above while I circled around and tried to drive her out. She wouldn't budge. Now I have a hypothermic, wounded elk in a half frozen pond in the middle of November. I couldn't watch her stand there and shake any longer, I dropped her in the water and crossed the beaver dam.

WTF do we do now?

I had 50 feet of 550 paracord and an idea. We started going to the timber and dragging deadfall to the pond. A bridge of sorts was built to the floating elk. A lasso of pararcord around her neck with a forked stick and we started to pull, and pull, and pull. It turns out that there's a lot of stretch in 550 cord. It also turns out that a HUGE cow elk, soaking wet weighs about a literal half ton. We got her to the shore and out of the pond. It was exhausting. Getting her quartered was almost easy compared to the extraction.

The entire time I was hoping no one had seen the debacle unfold but it all worked out in the end. Luckily, we were only about a mile from the truck. Unfortunately, the first half was about straight up out of the bottom...