I just came off the mountain from a 10 day hunt mixed bag hunt. With weather cool compared to the last few years the moose should have been calling. Bill a reired fellow from Alabama was going on his first guided hunt, expectations where high!!


Day one started with no moose we saw little sign of moose anywhere. After a 3200 mile drive Bill, my hunter was a little depressed. Day two was more of the same with moose but a stalk on a good buck kept our attention.

We woke up to another skiff of snow and a good bull posing 1/2 mile out. With little interested in the love sick cow calls he slipped into the woods and out of our lives.




Day four had an epic hike to find the seemingly disappearing moose. Another skiff of snow helped us locate 3 different bulls but no cows, the bulls again stayed hidden in the thick stuff. We ended the day with another stalk
on a 155 buck but again decided we would hold out for a bigger one.


With the weather warming abit we took some time to ride south and do a quick check for a goat as the tag in Bill's pocket was starting to get hot. Three hours on the horses and a quick walk we shortly had a good mature billy spotted. this old goat could not be in much better of a spot with the wind right a stalk to 150 yards looked to be easy. The problem was we did not have enough day light left to get off the mountain and back to the horses. Bill asked" what are the chances he will be there in the morning?" I answered "about 80% he will bed in the same spot tomorrow"

Day 6 we were prepared for the big day, a plan was made to come in from a different drainage to shorten the hike. As we crested the hill we were met with gusts of winds up to 60 m/h and driving snow.
After a good college try we couldn't find the billy and we tucked our tails and headed for the cabin. That 20% bit us right on the rearend.






With the sun sunrise of day 7 hidden behind the falling snow we where back on to the moose program. The morning was spent trying to call out some bulls but with no success we looked to change things up abit. So as the afternoon came and went we found ourselves sneeking into an area and settling down to do some calling. Two cow calls later finally a bull was on his way in!! At 70 yards Bill dropped the hammer from his muzzleloader on his first moose!


Day 8 was recovery of meat and a quick evening hunt for muledeer which came up empty.

With 2 days left we decided to try our luck again on finding the big billy.


After a day of glassing we dcided he had given us the slip and headed over the hill to greener patures.
One day left to hunt we made our move to find this goat which also would put us in one of my honey holes for mule deer
Two hours by horse picking our way into this deadend canyon we came over the ridge and we both stopped and looked at what appeared to be the rearend of a muledeer. 150 yards out a great buck, lots of mass, long points, chocolate brown somewhere in the 185 to 195 range stood hoping we would ride by.
I handed Bill his trusty 270 and told him to kill this buck as I continued with the horses, hopefully keeping the bucks attention.
The plan worked to perfection with Bill able to get a good rest and squeeeeeeze the trigger!!! Nothing happened!!! A new round chambered again a squeezed trigger and no noise!!, a third time, same result. At this point the buck had enough and stotted out of Bills' veiw.
A sad ride back to the cabin to pull the action apart and try to fix the problem pretty much left us with 2 hours in evening to fill another tag. Only one heavy beamed buck was spotted but not the one Bill had his heart on.
That old Winchester of Bill's had been his go to gun for 30 years, what a time to let him down.



A dirty spring and cold weather seemd to be the problem, hopefully when Bill returns he has ol Betsy good and clean.

10 days of hard hunting resulted on a lot of good memories for Bill and myself, a pile of good eating for Bill and a desire to come back and settle the score with a couple critters!

quote:

If you didn't have bad luck!!!!! What do you have?

Apparently, a dead moose, sounds like a great hunt, great pics

505 Gibbs you answered the question right!!

Thats Hunting, you win a few and you loose a few, at least he got a Moose and had a chance at a Goat and a nice Muley... Doug-- Good to hear you guys made it down safe...

Talk to you soon.

Doug,

Thanks for the report and the pictures. Unfortunately we cannot control the weather. First day of antlered archery was this past Saturday. I was in the tree stand at 5am and sweating (64 degrees). My wife hunted the PM shift and it was a cool 84 degrees at 5pm.

Doug,

that s a great adventure.

the snow is just coming around over here ...

It would have been a lot worse if you had just sat in the cabin and complained about it.

When one tries hard one still can have a good hunt.

That's why it is called hunting not slaughtering.

If one wants a sure thing a high fence placed is where one goes.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:
It would have been a lot worse if you had just sat in the cabin and complained about it.

When one tries hard one still can have a good hunt.

That's why it is called hunting not slaughtering.

You bet P Dog, we had an awesome hunt, who would think a trusted rifle of 30 years would miss fire on a buck of a lifetime. No regrets from either me or the hunter, we left it all on the table, thats foresure!
If one wants a sure thing a high fence placed is where one goes.

You sure put in the effort! Beautiful country!

I guess we define luck a bit different. If I was Lucky enough to spend some time in a place like that. Any animals taken would be just icing on the cake. What a beautiful place.
Leo

That is hunting! Pass on a 155 deer and not have your rifle prepared for northern conditions. That sounds like a gamble on a bigger deer ---- that worked and lack of proper gun preparation on the rifle!
Sounds like he did fine on the moose.

So... we all want to know for our own sake.

Was it the firing pin spring, safety/bolt sleeve, or trigger. Or... all three.

quote:

Originally posted by swarf:
So... we all want to know for our own sake.

Was it the firing pin spring, safety/bolt sleeve, or trigger. Or... all three.

greasy spring, to many years of oil. A quick clean and we were good to go.

quote:

Originally posted by 44magLeo:
I guess we define luck a bit different. If I was Lucky enough to spend some time in a place like that. Any animals taken would be just icing on the cake. What a beautiful place.
Leo

I feel lucky everytime the horses break into the alpine as we head to my cabin.

What an incredibly beautiful area! Must hunt BC one day!

Sorry about the gun, but that's part of hunting. Sounds like a heck of a hunt!

Greg

Here it is 2 1/2 years past the hunt and I finally see Dougs post about our hunt in '13.We had a great 10 days in some beautiful country and good company.Had never been on a guided hunt before, so didn't have many expectations-- but spending ten hard days in the wilderness with Slim, aka Doug, was more like hunting with a good friend than a guide/client relationship. For those of you not familiar with Doug's operation--he's a one man show. outfitter, guide, cook(good one),wrangler, good companion.Slim described our hunt pretty well and we came agonizingly close to a rare trifecta of a moose, mountain goat and world-class mule deer on the same ten day hunt.There are a couple of other things I want to say about the hunt--but I'll do them in separate posts--Thanks again to Skinner Creek for memories of a lifetime.

Welcome to the site Bill.

I talked with Darwin about your upcoming goat hunt and it sounds like you are in for a great time.
We did have a great time on your hunt and it was a pleasure to have hunted with you.