Hey guys, Just got back from my moose hunting trip, and it was a blast. We left tues night, and came back today. We were hunting the boulder area, and it was great, no clouds, no rain, just sun and clear sky. Every morning we would hike the mountins and glass down, the first day, we saw a 50+in moose, but as I was drawing down on him, I got blind rushed by a pissed off cow. so we beat a hasty retreat across a field, and fired into the air to shoo her away, then stalked the bull again but never saw him again.

The second day, we drove our ATV's down the valley and into a second drainage, and hiked that one, My buddy got a small spike fork. (now before you go bitching about this shot, know he has a highly custom rifle, is an army sniper, and puts 4-500 rounds down range at Long range a year, if you dont like the shot, quit reading.) The bull spotted him, and took off at a dead run up the far side of the valley from us, he layed down over my pack, and as the bull turned to climb a hill. It stoped for just a second, and he droped it with 1 shot at 425 yds. the rest of the day was spend cleaning and packing moose back to our quads.

The third day, our friends arrived and we spent the whole day setting up, and talking, then as dusk drew closer, we went for a walk back up the mountin to the hill to the first kill, and we spotted a small black bear feeding off the kill, so at 289 yds my friend braced off and killed the bear with 1 shot through both sholders.

The fourth day, we got up at 6:30 and went our ways, I went down the valley to a small clearing, and to my supprise, there were two small bulls feeding on the other end of the clearing, as I drew my rifle, I layed it over the back of my rear rack bag, and got my binos out, I was could see one was a small spike and the other a double fork, as I released the saftey, someone came flying up, layed on his brakes, and yelled to me, "you see them moose" as he drew his rifle, well ofcorse the moose didnt stay in the same valley after that gag, and I drove back to camp for some food. Just as my other buddys left for the afternoon, I was walking down to get some water from a small river, when I see my small double fork run up the other side of the creek. I double timed it back to the quad, grabbed my enfield 375 ICL from the gunboot, and threw it to my shoulder, I checked his horns one last time to make sure it was legal, and then put the C-hairs on his shoulder. as I pulled the trigger my gun went click, I threw the bolt, and tried again, click. By now the bull was 75-90 yds away and still trotting way, I threw the bolt closed and he stoped, with just his neck exposed around his rump, so I aimed a few inches low and put a round into his neck, as I bring the rifle down from the recoil, I see the moose standing on his nose, the round had whipped his head around, and brought his body with, he floped over, and then stood right back up, and shot into the woods away from me. as he hit the woods, I put 1 round through his lungs/heart/off side shoulder, and it threw him down, he fell against a tree, snapped the tree and fell on his side, then rebounded to his feet and took off again. I threw my bolt open, and started reloading as I ran up the creek, then I jumped it, still thumbing rounds into my gun, and climbed the bank after the moose, I had run the short route ahead of him, and cut him off, he stoped dead in his tracks and looked at me, I put the cross hairs right on his chest behind his front leg, and fired, click, I threw the bolt, click, again I worked the bolt, and BOOM a perfect broad side hit, it threw him down, at 50 ft I could see smoke pouring from the exit wound, and he again tried to rise, but I could see he wasnt getting up again, I looked at my gun, 2 rounds left of the 10 I was carrying, I closed the bolt one last time, and walked to him as he kicked trying to regain his footing and put a last shot into his head, just below and behind the ear angling forward. Although he was just a double fork, and he took me 4 rounds and I'm getting a ton of crap for it, he was a great bull, and I wouldnt trade him for a record bull any day.

PMC ammo, loaded with 270 grn Xblts, however, will never be fired by me or any one I know, as of 10 times I pulled the trigger this weekend, 6 missfired and that is just not going to hack it, never again will I use PMC, and I will never recomend.

Sounds like a really memorable hunt! Thanks for sharing your success with us.

Sounds like that bull gave you all he had! How long did it take for your heart rate to get back below 100 bpm??

Tim

Edit: Forgot to ask...were the problems with the ammo confined to misfires? Did the X bullets function as expected?

[ 09-15-2003, 16:00: Message edited by: tarbe ]

Fantastic!! I just returned from 20E, 9 days saw no Moose, no Bear, no Wolves, was way dry The 22 pistol did account for 10 Grouse

Have a Good one, & Congratulations on the Moose

Good story!!!! Happy you got a moose, I've been out three separate times and nothing!! And too bad on the rifle / ammo problems, are you sure the ammo is at fault and no problem exists with the rifle? Glad you were not hunting grizzly, the story could get REAL INTERESTING!!!

yes, it was the ammo, over 300 rounds of other ammo has gond through without a hitch, this stuff just won't work in my gun, but the bullets themselves worked wonders.

it probably took until we finished gutting the big thing for my hear rate to reach normal levels, I was sure he could hear me I would have made a drum solo sound quiet.

I was in 20 E for bou, and we saw a shit load of game, no bou, but everything else was there

Congrats. I just got back from a week in 25D. I live there and used my boat to access some good areas. We didn't get a bull or even see one. There was plenty of sign and we worked hard at calling/scraping but the only thing we called in were bears and cows/calves. Part of the problem is all of the cows that are being shot.

Would that be the boulder area up on the glen

yep