Well anyway, Babe and I seemed to have survived another year without being mauled by marauding bears. I dunno how we make it, no pistols in both hands, no frozen fear in our hearts, no pee in our pants.


The weather for this moose hunt was mostly poor. I drove the jet boat up river in the rain, down river in the rain and skinned the moose in the rain.

Nuts.


Occasionally the sun would shine and the birds would sing. I seem to remember hearing and seeing mostly lesser Canada geese in previous years, this time it seemed to be Speck's.



A month or more ago these three visited around my place. We all know roughly how high the tailgate on a Toyota is off the ground and the ladder rack on the top that much more.



Friends, the last hour of the last day of the season this fellow came to the call after four hours of what I believed to be a futile attempt at calling. I heard him rake the brush first with his antlers and thought it was the hood of my jacket on the tree behind me. Then I heard him grunt several times and as my grunt tube was at my side, I knew that time it wasn't me.



Odd hoof on the rear and although this one was the longer of the two, both rears seemed abnormal.



Defects aside, we packed him to the boat and intend to eat him for the next twelve months or so.



Babe of course remains little interested in fur and much prefers the feathers.

Nice moose lots of good eating.

Congrats, Scott - well done!

Scott, that is some damned hard work there. Nice job. Did you kill him with a Model 8?

Scott,

This gets increasingly boring. One big moose after another. Actually I'm quite jealous as moose hunting is what I miss most about AK.

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
Scott, that is some damned hard work there. Nice job. Did you kill him with a Model 8?

No Bill it wasn't. I've had this idea in mind since I picked up that Model 8 that I'd use it on a float hunt, ala, come around a corner in the river, there's some bull standing there knee deep in willows or blankly staring at me trying to figger out what I am and I open up with the big .35 Remington.

This time I used a .458 win mag with 450g TSX's. The bull came in behind me and stopped down wind behind a tree, looking for the source of that bad smell about 30 yards away. I got propped up on the tree I mentioned earlier and waited for a few moments for him to show me his shoulder. Being a little impatient I decided to grunt at him three times and that was all it took for the bull to say, "F--k this and f--k you, That's a load of baloney and I'm out of here!" Well he stepped forward and away in order to boogie and I pasted his quartering away. The bull went in like a load of bricks. The TSX made it unseen by me all the way into the Cabela's meat grinder last night and stopped it like the power went off.

Mark, if it makes it seem a little more entertaining, I came out of "The Moose Spot" in my 18' Jon with the 65hp Yamaha jet loaded with two chubby hunters, Babe, the entire moose, Cabelas 6 man Alaska Guide tent, dual fuel Colman stove and the rest of camp. our designation was AK1988AF HEAVY. We wrecked something like six or eight times and had to rope hoist out the last.

Great story! You make moose hunting look easy.


I can't wait to show Renee the photos.

quote:

Originally posted by Scott King:
The TSX made it unseen by me all the way into the Cabela's meat grinder last night and stopped it like the power went off.

Did it hurt the meat grinder?

Glad your hunt paid off.

That hoof disease is more common south of you, check out this on Washington's G&F web site.

http://wdfw.wa.gov/conservation/health/hoof_disease/

Scott,

You did have a load on the old Jon boat. I remember a few wrecks myself when we had to go all the way to the Stuyahok river to consistently get into caribou. Lots of work but at that time it was all part of the adventure.

Mark

Very nice Bull Moose Scott..Congratulations

Congrats. Nice moose!

That hoof looks more like a sitatunga than a moose... But still will eat great.

quote:

Originally posted by JBrown:
Great story! You make moose hunting look easy.


I can't wait to show Renee the photos.

quote:

Originally posted by Scott King:
The TSX made it unseen by me all the way into the Cabela's meat grinder last night and stopped it like the power went off.

Did it hurt the meat grinder?

I don't think it hurt the grinder. Theres a small chip missing from the TSX, but I used the grinder to finish the neck meat after removing the bullet and all seemed fine.

The bull is eating good. I've had tenderloin sandwiches at lunch the last couple of days and will be sending some of him off to the Big City to be made into sausages.

It seems to me unusual, but ever since we got home its been clear and quite cold. There was snow here last sunday and its still showing in the mountains a little. The result has been theres been no hurry to process the carcass and I still have a rear leg and both ribs hanging. I think I'll be after the ribs shortly, but if I can get the leg to last 'til the weekend I will.

Scott,

Your moose with "Fairy Slipper" hooves suffered from copper deficiency. It's been well documented over the last 25+ years and occurs in some areas (Kenai Peninsula) much more often than others but there are documented cases across a broad area of the state. In some cases, all four feet display it. The cases I've seen mostly have both parts of each foot affected, not just one as shown in your photo. In severe cases, there are other affected organs including abnormal teeth.

quote:

Originally posted by vicvanb:
Scott,

Your moose with "Fairy Slipper" hooves suffered from copper deficiency.

Scott administered a 450gr copper supplement. I guess the moose died before it could take effect....