Back in early October I was fortunate to get out with some friends and family on a moose hunting trip.A guy from my hometown was lucky enough to draw a moose tag so we all took the opportunity to get out in the mountains with him for a while. He ended up tagging a nice Shiras moose as the highlight of the trip.
Luckily there was a large group of us there when he killed this bull moose. We couldn’t see the action happen when he dropped it with his 300 Weatherby, but we were there for all of the celebration and work that followed.
The moose was out in a meadow that we’ve frequently encountered moose in before. Years ago, my dad and I were hunting this area a few days after another hunter killed a moose in the same meadow. We watched a big boar grizzly carrying the moose’s rib cage around while it scavenged the kill site. Not an unimpressive feat considering the size of a moose’s carcass.
We all pitched in to help bone-out the moose and pack it back to the vehicles. With the moose’s body being so large we all had room to work on different quarters simultaneously. That’s certainly not the case with the deer I’m more used to hunting.
Here we’re working on the second half of the moose. It was much easier with extra people around to help hold the giant legs out of the way and take turns working. This picture does a really good job of showing the size of a good bull moose.
After the moose was down, we went back to camp to have breakfast and grab some equipment. We also brought the dogs along – they thought it was heaven on earth. They also loved the lower half of moose legs as treats to chomp on. It’s comical as the dogs struggle to carry their prizes around but they’re as happy as can be.
Here we’re close to having the hide and cape completely removed from the moose. The hunter plans to do a shoulder mount, so the head and cape were packed out for taxidermy. Luckily, the guy working here is a former taxidermist, so he was the man for the delicate cutting around the facial features of the moose. Otherwise, it’s super common to leave the cape on the head and deliver it to the taxidermist to skin it how he wants.
I don’t know how much this pack weighed on the hike out, but it was enough. Luckily, we were just shy of 1 mile from the truck otherwise we would have had to take multiple trips out with the meat. With four of us carrying meat and one carrying the head/hide, the packs were still stupid heavy. After the butcher was done with the moose, there was about 340 pounds of processed meat for the freezer.
Significantly less exciting than a bull moose, I still couldn’t pass on the opportunity to bag a few mountain grouse. I prefer to shoot them with a 22 LR so we don’t have to dig for any shot pellets in the meat. They rarely fly more than a few yards away when they’re spooked, so it’s easier to use a rifle than it is to get them in the air for wing shooting.
I was shooting a Browning Buckmark rifle with a 2-7x Leupold rimfire scope for grouse hunting. I actually bought this rifle years ago from Shooter’s Supply Shop in Loveland, OH. If that sounds familiar, that’s because it’s the same shop Marky has featured repeatedly on the podcast and website. At the time I had no idea about the connection to John1911, it was just a neat gun store with a great selection of used guns. Small world.
There are worse places to spend your free time. I always love the mountain lakes, especially in the early fall when the weather is cool and crisp.
Chris is a former active duty Air Force EOD officer with a background in mechanical engineering. He owns a small gunsmithing business in Montana, Big Sky Shooting LLC, doing firearm repairs and semi-custom firearm builds.
