The Great Moose Hunt

[hrayton]

When I was living in Missoula, Mt. my college roommate Jeff, actually won one of the moose tags in Montana's lottery that year. While we had both been hunting for deer, and elk before, we had never before gone hunting for moose...Jeff was excited, I was excited(because I was going along), and on a bright fall morning, we headed off into the mountains in search of a moose. Jeff was a local so he knew some good spots where he had seen them in the past.
     Now, huntin' in Montana is a little different than in the midwest, and I have never quite gotten over just how matter of fact everything is, a lot of the time, folks just drive out to where the deer are, site over the back of the pickup's bed, and drop one, dress it out, and haul it back into town. I had grown up with tree stands and blinds, and waiting for hours for a deer to come along....so this almost seemed too easy!
     Moose hunting was no exception....we were bouncing and banging along on a rocky, mostly dirt logging road just west of Lolo, when I spotted a moose out the passenger window! Jeff slammed on the breaks, and with a shudder and a skid, the truck came to a halt. We got out, Jeff grabbed his rifle, and waited for a clear shot....a young bull wandered into view, and Jeff took his shot. I was watching the moose, and saw dust puff out right behind his left foreleg, and honestly it was a clean shot, but the moose took off anyways, with us running downhill in hot pursuit!
     We found it another hundred yards down the mountain, tangled in some deadfall, and the midmorning sun was hot, as I turned to look back up at the logging road, I realized just how downhill we really were from the truck, and how MUCH moose we were gonna have to carry back up. So I looked at Jeff and said, "Well, you got him. Now, how are we gonna get him out?" We had no rope, otherwise we could have tried that, there was NO WAY the truck was gonna come down to us.....so, we started butchering.....we'd cut, and haul, cut and haul, back and forth, up the hill and down the hill, until finally we were done, about 11 hours later. Here's the thing, even a small moose is a big moose, and it took forever....so, not speaking at all towards the end, we returned to the truck a final time, covered in dirt, grime, and gore from hauling meat, Jeff looks at me and says, "Ya know, I just thought of this....we could have probably rigged something with some small trees and just pulled it up...." Then it hit me, we COULD have made a travois, and neither one of us thought of it until we were done......all I said was, "I am never going hunting with you again." Jeff just laughed, and laughed.....we finally got home, unloaded the truck with about 800 pounds of moose, took showers, and felt the onset of how sore we were gonna be for the next few days. His folks had a meat locker, and once we had all of it processed into steaks, and burger, and roasts, jerky and sausage, we ate good for the whole next year. And every time I took a bite of something made out of that moose I thought to myself, "We EARNED this!"

[Bulldog lady]

Trout  Great story- VERY interesting to find out how folks "hunt" in different areas! Again great story,

[voyageur1688]

  Even a small moose is alot of meat and alot more work than the un-initiated would ever be able to realize.  Got mine on my honeymoon and enjoyed the meat very much--in fact enjoyed the meat much much longer than I enjoyed the marriage. Meat was still a pleasure after a year but the marriage was a nightmare after a few months.
Voy

[NAULTRICK1]

  should'a married the moose and....No That's Just Wrong  jus kiddin 

[Bulldog lady]

Lots of thought come to mind  But best not go there,  all can add is you learn from each experience   glad you just simmered that moose slow and made it tender,.   hdslpI   should just keep my mouth shut, Always enjoy your advice to these young'ns!  On round two myself- you'd have thought after 40 yrs, I'da thought twice about taking on a badger 

[voyageur1688]

  The moose would have been less ornery and violent.Once was enough for me. Aint plannin ta do that again.
Voy

[DandJofAZ]

Even a deer can be a job....14th day of hike we ran out of food...passed on the biggest bear I ever saw and later in day shot a mule deer...ate well...
In the AM we packed up our camp and hiked down to river-8 miles and 5300ft lower,  set up camp and hiked back up  with pack frames (8mi/5300ft) to get deer.
Course we left our rifles at river...got back to deer and interested bears (had 5 around us that day), loaded up and headed back (8mi/5300ft) closest bear-10ft.-farthest bear, almost 100yds.  Finally back to camp to scarf more deer meat...now only 5 more miles up river to were truck was parked...and you wonder why I didn't want to shoot 700 lb bear?? Plus we had already gotten a 350 lb bear on river earlier in week.  I was in somewhat better shape then than now...
Doug   

[voyageur1688]

  More work and hikin than Id wanna do.
Voy