yotebuster

Just finally got my act together enough to write about my hunt! It turned out to be one of the most memorable hints of my life! Day one started out by hiking into a walk in area. I called a small bull in that night, which was the first moose I'd ever called in so I was relieved to know I was making the proper "moose noise". The second day I called in another small bull, a 2x2 or 2x3. Definitely not one that I was concerned with shooting. The first two days were spent in the few foot accessible areas in the whole unit. The next day a friend we had met on our scouting missions agreed to float us on a 15 mile stretch. I was really optimistic going into this day as I had had luck calling in two Bulls already. We spotted a cow in the first hundred yards of our float so I was REALLY optimistic!! We spent the rest of the day floating and calling in the prettiest moose habitat I'd seen without seeing or hearing a thing! The scenery alone was worth the trip though!! The next day we elected to float the same stretch as I had scouted it prior and knew it had to have some Bulls in it. I was worried after the previous day not seeing anything. This was the 8th day we had spent in here and still hadn't seen a bull with more then 3 pts on a side. I was really worried as our friend could only float us one more day and then we'd be left hunting on foot or from our pack rafts for the remainder of the hunt. The day started out great, we saw 5 cows and one small bull by noon. The sun was up and we were pretty sure we were done for the day but had a few miles of river left. We stopped on an island that I knew had to hold some moose and had my fiancé push it towards a funnel area. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a nice bull and two cows come trotting out of a tiny little cottonwood grove in the center of the island. The bull was the exact bull i was hoping to NOT see. He was probably 30" wide with 5 or 6 pts on each side and no front forks. Not the kind of bull I should be passing after seeing only 2 and 3 pts in 8 days of hunting, but not the kind of bull I was hoping to get for my once in a lifetime tag! About the time I was thinking about pulling the trigger the big boy popped out behind them and started heading my way. He needed no thought, judging or counting!!! This was my bull!!! He was moving in an odd run walk that only moose seem to do. He started at about 60 yds and was closing toward me. I remember thinking "I wonder if I grunt will he stop?" Then I thought "he's 30 yards and I have a shotgun with 4 slugs in it!" I swung on the crease in his shoulder and shot twice into his ribs. He didn't even break stride. He just plodded along. I swung forward a few inches and shot a third time breaking his shoulder. This turned him directly toward me. He was coming up the gravel bar at about 15 yds right at me!! My last shot went right in the chest and toppled him over on his back dead as a hammer!! What a rush! I couldn't believe how we had gone from zero to hero in a few seconds!! I text my fiancé that we had a monster down! She came running! We had a photo shoot and a cold beer (one of the perks of hunting from a boat!). We spent the next 3 hours skinning, caping and butchering. We brought a cordless sawzall with a bone blade in it and were able to take ribs, neck, and the entire short loin to be cut into tbones later. It was a chore! We were so lucky as he died 10 yds from the boat so we had a short pack!!! We loaded everything on and floated him out. My fiancé had bought me two pack rafts for my bday that we aired up and floated along the boat with. This proved crucial as we would never have gotten all of the meat and all of us on that boat! I can't think of a more incredible experience in my life then floating out on that raft with the moose on board!!! He ended up taping out at 42" wide which is a pretty solid shiras moose from what I hear. The biologist told me he was an old bull when he checked him in. They don't take a tooth to age them so I may look at having it done myself as I'm kind of curious. He said it was one of the bigger ones to come out of that unit. It was such an awesome time, met some new friends and got to spend time in some beautiful country with my fiancé for almost two weeks what more can you ask for!!! Oh. Did I mention the t-bones!!!

I've never had that issue and I was shooting 125gr blackhorn by volume. Seemed like I was shooting cci magnum 209's though. Maybe I just didn't pay as much attention though! The bore was always waaaayyy cleaner then when I used 777

What primers are you using?

Had one fly in the window while elk hunting in Utah a few weeks ago!!

Good eatin! "Very short shot" and 400 yds are two separate things in my world!

You guys are killing me! Antelope is the best game meat there is!! No jerky, no sausage, no bacon or buttermilk, it's so sweet and wonderful with just a little salt and pepper on the grill!! Save the other stuff for deer and elk!! Ok ok. It makes good jerky and sausage too, but if gladly trade anyone deer, elk or any other game for antelope!!

I thought it changed the NR cap from 10% to 5%?

Looks like a classic mainframe 6 to me?

Short fronts or no fronts that's a pig of a bull Bob!! Congrats!!

+1

I got out Saturday for the ND opener. It was hot and the mallards weren't hitting the barley fields yet but we made out just fine shooting a pass between two lakes. 2 drake redheads 2 drake cans 1 woodduck drake a greenhead and two blue wings! We have a bonus teal limit this year so you can shoot 6 ducks for s normal limit and then two bluewinfs on top of it. Our bluewings rarely stick around for opener so it's a nice bonus! Good luck to everyone on the upcoming openers! It's the most wonderful time of the year!

I'm subscribing to this thread as I wanna learn everything I can. I'm going for stag, chamois, tahr and paradise ducks in May 2017.

Here's a few pics from the scouting trip.

Sorry guys I got side tracked! We saw 3 small Bulls and a few cows. Learned a ton though. Figured out that a lot of the places I had scouted on Google earth didn't have access to the public as I had hoped. All of the roads accessing them are blocked by private. Also learned that the river is far too fast and shallow for my boat and outboard. We floated the river with a fishing guide one day and learned about rowing. I think we are gonna rent a drift boat a few days of the hunt and hunt the few walk in spots the other days. We leave tomorrow to hunt until the following Sunday. Hopefully that's enough time to get one knocked down! Getting excited!! Ill try to post some pics of the scouting trip in a bit. Hopefully I'll have some pics of a big bull by next week!!

Nice bucks! I was worried this was gonna be another hybrid thread!

See any moose? Headed out in a week to float it and shoot one!

Kill a big boy BoB!! Send me pics!

As long as you strap it to the top of your car and get a pic you'll be ok.

Looks pretty big to me. The thing I've always noticed about Bears is that up close they look really small compared to at a distance. So if it looked like a big bear it probably was.

Awesome buck!!

No Stairway, denied.

We use electronic calls in ND for spring snow geese. I have a recording of mallards, Canada's and cranes on it to use when they fly by. works really good! Can't shoot anything but snows but it sure is fun bringing them in. The specs are really suckers for it!!

show me where it is illegal!only illegal for migratory birds. James He said "yes" to it being legal.

Thats some sick top mass!! Congrats!