So we had to come out of the woods for a few days for work. School for my son and guiding for me. Client was a great guy. Helped me get my sled running. He was very anxious. Pretty much had to sit on his rifle the first night.

He ended up killing a decent buck. The area produces better, but he liked the buck he killed.



He headed home this morning. Wife has a tag. Found her the Beto buck that has been hanging around. Had to chase him a bit. It was fun.



I'll kill something tomorrow, ship calves Sunday, then head back to the moose brush.

So I killed a cull buck on Saturday, shipped calves Sunday, then packed up and headed back to moose camp.

We hunted hard from Monday to Thursday, without a lot of sign. We learned 2 moose were killed in the area I had scouted. That might've been all of them.



We got a tip about moose up high. We checked it out and saw maybe 1 set of tracks. Found a bunch of elk.
Ended up looking closer after ruling out the other places we saw sign. There were moose there, they just were not moving. We had walked all the way around a couple of moose on our first trip.

Friday after narrowing down where we thought they were, we were on the road BS'n with some elk hunters when this guy hustles out of the woods saying he just bumped some moose. We check it out. Find a ton of sign in a very small area.



Looked but didn't find them, decided to let them be and come back in the morning.

The next morning we went in and zig zagged through the whole area. Found where they had bedded Friday. (50 yards from our tracks). We were getting tired, so we got to a higher point an a bit of a clearing (the only clearings were because of a blow down. Deadfall. Lots of deadfall.). We had been there eating our snacks for probably 20 minutes when we see another hunter in the woods below us. That hunter caused the moose to stand up, and my son saw it!

It had been 80 yards from us the whole time!





We were both running out of steam as we worked on her. Had her quartered and skinned. One shoulder boned our when I started shaking in a low blood sugar way. Very dangerous with the knives I use, so we packed the loin and tenderloins in my day pack and headed out for lunch.

Didn't have enough gas, so ran to town and sent a few pictures. My buddy Jerad hit me back asking if we needed help. We could do it, but if you are bored, sure. Jerad is an outfitter. He packs stuff.



Huge shout out to these guys at West Elk Outfitters for taking time to help my kid.


The wood stove in the tent was welcome every night.


Hunter has a bonfire to celebrate his success.



It didn't last long. We were tired.




But he got up and made me breakfast. That was pretty awesome.



Being a goof while packing up.

That's the stuff we're here for. Great hunt and great report.

And you're definitely raising that kid right.

Good work, Pop.

That sleeping bag picture is great. Exhausted sleep without real-world responsibilities to worry about the next morning. I'm sure he'll take it for granted like the rest of us did.

We got the time.

That is freaking awesome.

I started cutting up the meat today. I had a couple of deer to do first. The meat seems courser than any I have worked with before.

Taste test in a couple of days.