We were all keying in on elk that day, as there was a lot of fresh sign and beds from the night before. We had an uneventful first three days to our trip due to rain and what it had done to our road to our favourite spots. I decided to find new ground on the third day and we found an area dry and with no hunters.
We hunted the morning there and found nine new beds from elk with lots of fresh sign. We had no success but wanted to go back for the late hunt.
Later, we did our elk calls but had no success so I told my hunting partner that I was going to do some moose calling. I started glassing inside a clearing in the bush and saw a moose at approximately 1200 or so yards. I could see the bright white of an antler from the sunlight reflecting down. I told my partner to look with his binoculars, which were good for 850 yards. It looked small from where he was and he was unsure how big it was.
I knew it was a moose so I cow-called twice over ten minutes to see if I could get him closer. Another ten minutes later we heard crashes through the bush and at 130 yards out from us he stopped.
I shot him with my Tikka 300 mag and he dropped, but he was only down for a few seconds and then up again and running. I hit him with a second shot behind his front shoulder and he was down again. I put a finishing shot to his head to make sure he wouldn’t suffer.
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| Darren with his impressive moose. |
What an experience and what a powerful animal! I have so much respect for their strength.
I hunt for meat not antlers, even so it did not dawn on me how big he was. I thought 47 inches wide... maybe. I will probably never see one this size again in my life and it is a memory I will hold forever.
I took this moose near Grande Prairie. The butcher had him at a dressed weight of 810 pounds and the official scored width is 58 1/8 inches.
I hope my dad is looking down and proud of the lessons he taught me. Those lessons made me love getting out with my boy now to teach him those same lessons and to respect the privilege we have to hunt in a free country with such truly amazing land and animals. ■
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