23 April 2013, 05:56
BigUglyManMuskox!!!
This was a lucky break for me. The season for muskox here ends April 15th and I was running out of days. The weather was pretty crappy all winter and the one guy here that hunts was away during March. Luckily, three days after he was back the stars aligned and our good local friend was done working for a while so we headed out on a balmy -10C Thursday morning.We stopped about 45 minutes out of town and George tells me "This is good muskox country here". No less than a quarter mile later we came over a hill and there was a herd standing there shaking off the morning frost. We looked them over and I looked long and hard at the one bull. He was mature but his horns were still brown. Apparently with the older Barren Ground Muskox their boss turns white, which I think makes a better trophy. But I've always believed that, if you'd shoot it on the last day of a hunt you should shoot it on the first day. We moved on and for the next 20 minutes I doubted my decision. We stopped on the top of a hill and I almost asked George to turn around and go back to the first group. Then it happened. A couple of miles away a line of tiny black dots filed out of an unseen crease in the land and started walking parallel to our direction of travel. We watched them for a few minutes and saw which way they were going and then planned our approach.
We rode up ahead of where we thought the herd would go and shortly after they started to appear over the rise. The herd ended up coming right up and stopping on a rise just in front of us. They mobbed up and milled around. There were two nice bulls in the herd but they wouldn't give me a shot. Always another animal in behind or no angle, then they disappeared back into the herd. I got aroudn 30-40 yards from the herd and eventually the bulls re-emerged. The bull that I didn't want stood and gave me a shot but I managed to hold off until my bull presented a quartering on shot. The 30-06 delivered a 180 grain Nosler Partition through the top of the bull's heart and he reared up, dropped onto his back, got back up and went 10 feet before falling down for good.
A word of advice for you prospective muskox hunters...get someone else to skin the head out. They're BRUTAL!!!
I green scored it the other day while I was cutting the skull up to facilitate transport. 115 2/8" B&C and 69 4/8" SCI. Couldn't be happier.
And without further ado...the pics you'll all be clamouring for.
