2014 Moose Hunt part 2

With one bull already hanging in camp (see previous blog: part 1) and a few days left to hunt, we went out to see if we could call in any more bulls. With my tag, I had to either shoot a yearling bull (spike or fork antler) or a large bull with either at least 3 brow tines or wider than 50 inches. It's tough sneaking up on them with a tape measure, so usually you need to get close enough to count the brow tines. We packed the camera along, expecting that any bull we called in would not be legal, but at least we could get some cool pictures or video.

After getting to our calling spot, I let out a couple of soft cow calls with the birch bark moose call I made in camp (basically a cone to amplify the sound). Almost instantly, we heard a bull in the brush start raking his antlers against the brush and breaking branches. He wasn't far away, maybe 150 yards. We ran away from him across the clearing hoping to call him out into the open to get a better look. 

After one more set of soft cow calls this monster bull came out of the brush. I was pretty certain he was greater than 50" wide, but couldn't get a good look at him head on. He stopped behind a clump of trees about 50 yards away and all we could see was his right side that only had 2 brow tines. He stared right at us for what seemed like forever. With those big antlers they can really pinpoint the location of where the call is coming from. He finally turned his head briefly, but long enough to see that he had 3 or more brow tines on his left side. We decided to get a closer look. 

He ended up measuring 59" wide. 

Luckily, we were only about 200 yards to the edge of the water where we could get the motor boat.

You need to get creative when trying to butcher an animal that weights over 1000 lbs. 

Since this was such an awesome trophy we thought about keeping the head attached for a mount, but later decided we probably couldn't fit it all inside the float plane door. Besides, our house isn't big enough for a whole moose head. 

We had to get a second float plane to come in and pick us up with all of that meat and our gear. We left a couple of days early so that we could start butchering meat. It took us about 3 days to get both moose butchered, cut, wrapped, and to the shop for hamburger and sausage.