Well I've told this story many times since it about 10 years ago but this is the first time I've written it down so this will be an adventure in it self.
After completing my government obligations at the Embassy in Muscat, Oman in 2001 we moved to Alaska to follow the outdoorsmans dream. I tried to get stationed in Alaska for many years but to no avail. Anyway we had the gov drop everything we had at the port of Anchorage and figured we would figure it out when we got there. And we did for 14 years.
Anyway, I had been on several hunts in Alaska and already bagged a few caribou from the interior and a nice elk from Afognak Island. That is another story..... however, I joined one of my hunting buddies for a few days about 3 hours north of Anchorage on the Glenn Hwy. He had a caribou tag so I stopped of at the store to pic up a moose tag while I was there. The area was a four brow tine or fifty inch minimum area, meaning the critter needed to have at least four brow tines on one side and at least fifty inches at the narrowest part of the paddles. So... it had to be a big moose. Tags were cheap in these areas because the quantity of moose and minimum requirement justified an open area during this period of time. It was in the fall.
Se we loaded up our wheelers and headed north late in the day so we camped in the camper on the truck and woke up early to hit the trail, yes on wheelers. As the daylight began to poke us in the eyes we started glassing from our wheelers about every 10 minutes. With his caribou tag and my moose tag, we were looking for anything with ears. I think his tag was for any caribou where my tag was bull only with the minimums listed already. Hoever, I later learned that he always picked up a moose tag too. You never know.
The terrain was very hilly and the lower areas between the hills all had marsh. Not something you want to get stuck in or your will waste a lot of time winching each other out. The trail we were on went back to a drainage called the Little Susitna known as lil sue. It was about 21 miles from the paved road with lots of creek and mud crossings. Yuck! But that is where we were headed until... at about nine miles in, while glassing the distant hills for any movement or color variances, I spotted a monster across the valley from our location and above tree line. it was all alone and west from our location so the light hit his rack and just lit up my pulse like never before. The thing is I was seeing this without my optics. It had to be 70"+. It was about a half mile to a mile away. I know.... And I could see it without optics. Crazy.
I talked with my bud and we made a plan to ride to the base of the hillside but south of the critter due to wind direction. We rode down through a nasty marsh and got treed out pretty quick so we parked and headed up through the trees. Like any wooded area there is always countless trees laying on the ground that prevents any wheelers from going right up the side. I know... if only the trees were there. Anyway, it was a trek and I couldn't stop thinking of that monster.
We reached a spot high enough to start heading across or north towards the beast where we took a short water break while staying quite of course. Then we spotted something moving about 200 yards ahead sticking up out of a ravine. We watch for about 15 minutes when a cow popped out then another.... Well these cows were between me and my monster is all I could think. And time was ticking. We moved to get a better look when a bull popped out behind them. There were five cows in all and this bull. But it was not "my" bull I was sure. But what to do...
Now my eyes are not the greatest and improve somewhat with optics but still not great. This bull was 200 yards and just gazing on some willows as were the cows. I started to fixate on this bull and forget about the monster. I kept trying to count the brow tines and could get to three and he would move his head again. He was just at the edge of the tree line and north at 200 yards. I was now looking through my scope to try an count to four to no avail. My buddy was getting impatient and said "you are going to loose him if you don't shoot." I asked if he had a good count on the brow tines. Now there is a huge fine for taking critters that are not legal so I was pretty nervous as always about taking a legal bull. The fish&feather people set up check points all over the place during hunting season.
Well I had the critter standing broadside at 200 easy yards with my 300 Win Mag pointed down range when my buddy made his final comment and warning. "If you don't shoot, I will". Seconds later I fired and hit him in the shoulder only to spin him 180 degrees for me to hit him in the other shoulder. He went down on the spot. I was not even thinking of the monster anymore but later wondered what if.... After the waiting period we walked over to the beauty and still couldn't see the horns to well until we grabbed the paddles and lifted the brow tines out of the tundra. And wow it was a 5x5 brow tine. Five long tines on each side. He tine spred is 46" and the paddle spread is 54.5". Wow those tines....
We hiked back to the wheelers and had to ride around the ridge to another trail about 7 miles around before we started to work. We left everything on the stick after gutting and pulling the cape. It was dark when we headed out with the first load on both wheelers with hopes that we would not return early in the morning to a bear meal. I could hardly sleep but managed to get a few winks before heading back to bag the rest of the harvest. I processed it about 5 days later after letting it air hang at my house. It filled several freezers and gave me this fun story to tell. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed remembering that famous line that I kid him about to this day. If you don't shoot, I will.
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Originally Posted by CastingFool
