Contributors to this thread:
My son drew a Moose tag in Unit 28 this year. I am going to be along on this hunt and most of the scouting trips towing my camera, binoculars, spotting scope and any calls that we may need. I thought I'd start a thread that will include updates and pictures on how its going. I'm sure he'll contribute some thoughts as well. Obviously, any help either spotting bulls or suggestions of areas to scout would be much appreciated, feel free to PM me anytime. We will be scouting a lot from end of July through August. He drew the only archery tag, but 4 Muzzy's did draw. Most of our hunting will be the last nine days of the season, as the Muzzy guys vacate the unit.
We were up in Winter Park in June. Even though most of the higher roads were still to open June 15th, we did manage to spot a few Moose.
Not sure if you could tell how big they will grow to. But Maybe a good one?
Here's a moose I took a picture of while elk hunting in 2014. Would like to see him this year I believe
A cow in the early morning
Great pics! I also drew a moose tag! Mine is for archery cow in unit 6. I'll be following your thread here. So - PLEASE post lots of moose pics!
There is a new Archery hunter in 28 traded rifle tag
Mathesshootr2 It's a big unit. We should exchange contact info, so if one does fill his tag, we can check in with info for the other. Feel free to pm me if you wish
KC, IMHO it is a hugh mistake not to hunt every day of the season from opening day until you kill one. This is a once in a lifetime tag so your son should make the most of it, around opening day the Moose really start moving around so they may not be in the areas you have been finding them in or not as many of them anyway.
Rock, If it was my tag, absolutely, I'm retired. My son has limited number of vacation days(He's taking 5 off already). He'll be driving up after work a few days before the last nine days. Hopefully we can get er done.
I agree with Rock.
He can always get another job he may never get another moose tag.
^^ He could always ask for the time off - even if it's unpaid. I don't know what he does, but surely his supervisor will understand the position he's in with a once in a lifetime tag.
A guy paid 22K for a Governor tag a couple years ago and told his guide the day before opener that he only had a couple days to hunt because he was going on a black bear hunt in AK.
The guide had been watching a legit 180 bull all summer. I saw him up close a number of times, as did a couple other knowlegable moose guys, and we all agreed he was right there. He had it all, and was pushing 58".
Opening morning the guy walked away from it, saying he had a bigger AK-Yukon moose at home. His guide tried to explain the distinction but he wanted to look for one bigger. I'm not sure if he ever killed a bull, but at least in his case he can afford to buy another $22K tag.
If I was your son I'd do everything short of divorce to get the whole season, and come back to work early after he scores.
He's getting it worked out. 11 of the 16 days the season is open, he will be able to hunt all day. The other 5 his boss is going to allow him to work from our cabin in Winter park, and pick his 8 hour shift. So he could go 9 to 5 from there and get a few hours in before and after. He could also go 11-7 on those 5 days and get a good hunt in the morning, or 6-2 and get a good hunt in the evening. Which would be best for Moose, I'm leaning towards hunting the mornings?
Brandon is the paid guide, I just do it for friends and live with them. But that season, given the choice, I'd pick mornings because that gives the opportunity for a stalk. In the evenings they may not appear until right before dark.
OTOH, sometimes those big bulls get into an evening travel pattern from bedding to feeding and can be ambushed easily if you figure it out.
This Guy may go down as antlerless
This Guy may go down as antlerless
Just got back from a couple days. This trip was designed more to get to know the lay of a few areas, not necessarily to spend time looking for moose. I spent a lot of time driving and a little bit hiking. I did manage to see a few moose, elk and some deer. I did camp along a dirt road one night and listened to a group of elk mew all night long, pretty awesome. Next scouting trip in a couple weeks will be to look at a few more areas and to start looking for those glassing spots. Thanks to all who have helped so far.
And this little guy/gal
And this little guy/gal
Back from our(my son and I) third scouting trip. Would classify it as very successful. Found 3 or 4 real good glassing area's, two or three promising meadows full of willows that are not the normal meadows. Saw over 30 moose and 15 different bulls in the four days. Saw what we think are 3 or 4 good bulls, would love any advice on these bigger ones. Are they 40" or better, Colorado shooters? These 3 Bulls were together, but the next two were 20 miles apart.
Couple more
Couple more
I'm carrying the camera, so I need to add a couple other shots
I'm carrying the camera, so I need to add a couple other shots
KC9, it looks like you have your work cut out for you... just deciding which one to shoot! I think the first one standing looking to left or the single bull with the long bell (after your 20 mile apart comment) are the 2 that might score the best. They both are very nice bulls. They should start peeling soon.
There are nicer bulls than that in 28, take your time and look a few over......and head about a mile south of where those pictures were taken.
There's a decent bull that hangs around St. Louis Campground. I saw him last weekend. Dumb as rocks. I walked up to within bow range, 25 yards, before he walked off. He's used to seeing campers who probably take pictures of him and talk to him.
Just to update. Things have been going ok. We have seen a handful of Moose that would be good to go after the last two or three days of the hunt. My son's still looking for that right one to try and get. Any help from the elk and deer hunters in the unit would be greatly appreciated.
You have 2 less moose hunters we are done 1 booner 1 nontyp
We know two of the other 3 ML have filled also, we ran into them. One shot a smaller bull, the other a pretty good one. Post pics if you can, love to see them.
KC9 - What does the far right bull in the top pic look like on his fronts? His right palm looks pretty good. Does his left match?
His left was weak. But it's 1:30AM and we just arrived back. Meat is hanging and head is caped out. Story and pictures to follow in the next couple days. Work to do now. Quick thanks to all that helped.
looking forward to story and pics!! Congrats!
Sandbrew - As mentioned the left side of that bull was weak (only 5 total points including split brow) and the fronts were both split but just barely (right at the top).
Congrats! Cant wait to read the story!
Sept 8 (Day before the opener) I left our Wyoming elk hunting camp at 6 AM and headed for home. Arrived around 10:30 AM and just had enough time to wash clothes, mow the lawn, make an appointment and head to Winter Park around 6 PM. I was meeting my son and his family along with my daughter and her family at our cabin in Winter Park. I arrived around 8:30. We sat around and planned, talked and discussed where we should go in the morning.
In our unit, from what we could tell, there would be my son and one other archery hunter, along with 4 ML hunters. We knew of one area where we had seen two pretty good bulls, but we also knew this was easy access and most likely we would run into other hunters who had also seen them. So the decided to lay off the easy access place and go to one of our glassing spots.
The season for his moose had arrived.
Picture of the ML Moose
Picture of the ML Moose
Our glassing spot for the morning
Our glassing spot for the morning
Day 1 AM My son decided that he wanted to start this hunt at one of the glassing spots we had found during the summer. We knew from the stats on line, that some nice moose were shot in this area. So from our place it would be an hour+ drive, 30-40 minute hike to the glassing spot, so at 4:15 am we were up and on our way. We got out of the cabin 10 minutes later than we wanted, yet were sitting down and ready for glassing at first light. As the morning developed, all we spotted were a cow and a calf. It was a great morning, so even though we had seen several moose in here when scouting, we were not discouraged.
Around 10 AM we made the decision to hike down and head back to the cabin for lunch with the family. We drove back through a very popular Moose area. We had seen a couple good bulls when scouting, but we also know any other hunters I'm sure had seen these bulls, since it was easily accessible and there had been many a kill there. The first thing we see when we hit the big meadow, is 3 guys standing around a dead moose. A ML hunter had downed his moose, and our first thought was one of the nice ones was down. When we pulled up, it was not the moose we thought, it was smaller than my son would take, and it meant one less hunter in the unit. We did talk with the hunter, and asked if he'd seen that bigger moose up here scouting. He had, but not this morning. He did say an elk hunter went by two hours after he shot his moose and told him of the big one just up the road. As we would find out later, one ML hunter passed on that larger moose and another ML hunter shot it. The decision to go elsewhere was a good one. We congratulated the hunter, and headed back for lunch.
Our afternoon glassing spot
Our afternoon glassing spot
Day 1 PM Upon arriving for lunch, my son in law realized he didn't have his cell phone. So we called it, and an archery hunter had picked it up off the road, along with his binoculars. His comment was, the phone is fine, but the binocs took a hit. They were now monoculars, as one eye piece had busted off. We felt lucky, as the phone was worth much more than the binocs. He was great and agreed to meet us back where he found them that afternoon, as he was hunting up that way. My son in law realized he had set them on my bumper to tie his boots after returning to the truck, grabbed a water and forgot to grab them.
So, our original plans changed, and we decided to head back to that area, and go to a different glassing area a few miles away, Spend the night in a tent and decide where to go in the morning.
That afternoon, we met for the phone, set up a tent and headed to glassing area #2. We hiked up around 3:30 PM. glassed till dark, and again saw just a cow and calf. All in all not a great day, but we were not discouraged.
Day 2 AM We slept well, great night for sleeping, broke camp and headed for an area that I had found my last day of scouting. It was an old logging road that was closed, and it looked promising on goggle earth. When I walked back in August, I immediately ran into a cow and calf. So our plan was to poke around this drainage for the morning. I had put out a trail camera in August, so we picked that up on our way. It had a couple smaller moose on the camera, and a nice bull elk. That morning produced nothing. We didn't see a moose. The start of the hunt was not off to a great start, but we kept telling ourselves, 14 and 1/2 days left and we will be up here for all of them if we need to be.
Back to the cabin for lunch with the families.
The three bulls that night
The three bulls that night
The bull on top
The bull on top
Him Standing
Him Standing
Bull we saw at last light-from our scouting trip
Bull we saw at last light-from our scouting trip
Day 2 PM My son had connected with an archery hunter who had lived and hunted out of Winter Park who was very helpful. He had many suggestions on where to scout and told my son he had quite a few buddies out hunting that would report if they saw a good moose. So around noon he got a text that he had seen 3 bull moose that morning, one of them was pretty good. So that evening, first on the agenda was to try and find that bull. We went to the area he saw it, and we immediately saw one of the moose. As we watched this moose for a bit, he kept turning back towards the woods. Knowing there were three this morning, we figured they were on there way out. After studying all three, my son decided it was not the right ones for the 2nd day of the season. So after talking we decided to run up the last hour to the big meadow that was easily accessible, and at this time thinking there were still 2 good bulls around.
So when we got there, we ran into a couple ML deer hunters and started talking with them. They said the just saw a real big bull just back around the corner, but it had walked into the woods. When we arrived there, we spotted it immediately, it had just laid down in the willows. It was not near as big as they described, so again my son passed. With little light left, we headed back. We were about out of the willows, when we looked up on the hillside and coming down the mountain was a cow and calf, followed by a good bull. We immediately recognized him from scouting, as he had a long bell, plus we were only 500 yards from where we had seen him while scouting. My son grabbed his bow and headed up, only problem was, there was 10 minutes of shooting light left. He closed the gap, but they veered off into the trees.
Tomorrow, we knew where we would be a first light.
The bull we believe was shot in the big meadow opening morning
The bull we believe was shot in the big meadow opening morning
Day 3 AM Morning came and at first light we where we had seen the bull from the night before. My son and I split up, but stayed fairly close in case I spotted him. Most of the morning we looked for that bull, but we saw neither him nor his cow and calf. This is when we ran into a guy who was helping out a ML hunter. He told us his buddy passed on the bull up in the big meadow opening morning, and another ML came up and shot it. So this morning, is when we found out that two of the 4 ML guys had filled. He also stated they had seen a good bull in the area we were at. Morning over, headed back to the cabin for lunch.
Day 3 PM My son decided we needed to go back to our first morning glassing spot. Even though before, we had only seen a cow and calf, we know some good bulls were shot in the past here. As we climbed to our glassing spot, the thunderstorms rolled in, and the rains came. We tried to hunker down under some pine trees, which did help, but didn't keep us completely dry. After nearly an hour, it finally let up. Then the wind picked up, which made it a bit chilly. We managed to stay and glass until about a half hour before dark, when we made our trek back to the car. We did glass a small bull, and a cow and calf. Hour drive back to the cabin, most of the talk was about tomorrow mornings hunt, and the fact that we still had 13 days left. Also we found out(Mathewshootr2 responded above) that his two guys had filled, which meant my son would be the only archer in the unit for the next 13 days, and 1 ML hunter left at most. We were still confident that things would come together.
Glassing point this evening-before we left
Glassing point this evening-before we left
Day 4 AM We decided to go to an area that I had found on goggle earth. It would require a hike in, but it was uphill, (which meant downhill pack if he arrowed his moose.) On the way to this spot, we decided to stop and take the short hike into the meadow we had seen the three bulls two nights ago, thinking maybe a bigger guy had joined them. The hike up, slowly move in...nothing. Back to the truck, and off to the new area. After sneaking around for 2 or 3 hours in the two areas we wanted to check out, seeing nothing, time to head back.
Day 4 PM We decided to head in to an area that we had scouted this summer, and looked promising. They were not huge drainages, but we had seen quite a bit of sign, and a cow and calf. On the drive in, about a mile from our parking spot, we ran into a ML elk hunter. He told us of a big bull he had seen opening day. He showed us a blurry pic of him he had gotten on his cell phone, and it showed us enough that we needed to try and find him and check him out. So basically thinking we knew exactly where he was talking about, we didn't listen too close to where he had gone. When we parked, we basically had our idea of where this moose would be from scouting. (Wrong-I looked it up on goggle earth, and found a small drainage I didn't know about) We got to the drainage we thought he had seen him, and seeing the fresh tracks and fresh moose poop, we thought for sure we had a good shot at seeing him, if not other moose. We hiked in and up to our glassing spot and settled in for the evening. The time ticked by with no sightings of moose. With about an hour of light left, my son suggested maybe we hike back to the 4 wheeler(15 min walk), drive to the other drainage we had scouted this summer, which would another 5/6 minutes, and we'd still have about 40 minutes of light left to at least check it out.
And boy, were we glad we did....................
1st bull we saw in the meadow
1st bull we saw in the meadow
So we hike back, jump on the 4 wheeler. I let my son drive so we made the 6 min drive in 4 minutes. We come out of the trees to the bottom of the drainage and 1st thing we see is a bull. We jump off the 4 wheeler, he grabs his bow from the case, and I whisper don't think he's a shooter. We glass closer and he's not. So we ignore him( I did get a pic of him) and start walking farther up the edge of the willows. We go no more than 150 yards and we both spot him almost at the same time, in the willows. He says shooter and I glass quickly and totally agree. He's in an area for a good stalk. Tall willows with shorter willows around also. As he moves out and around, I can't see the bull, but he starts hammering(raking) the willows. Now I can't see my son or the bull but I know he's got to be getting close. I hear him shoot and whack. The bull takes off across the meadow towards the trees. I can see the arrow, he's hit him higher than he wants (lower scapula area) but I can tell he's struggling. Penetration looked ok. The bull got to the trees but did not want to attempt to go up. He was slowly walking the edge and stopping often. I then see my son swinging around him up high in the trees, I'm watching the bull through my binoculars maybe 200 yards away. Then whack, my son puts the second shot where you are suppose to. The bull then heads back across the meadow, goes approx. 100 yards and goes down. His head is up for a moment, then all we could see was his rack sticking up from the willows. We waited till nearly dark (maybe 15 min) before approaching him, to find a once in a lifetime Colorado bull moose lying in front of us.
Wife's request, a picture without the hat
Wife's request, a picture without the hat
My son is elated. It is a better bull than he could of imagined. We had a great time on this hunt, from the scouting to the meat cutting. He's having a shoulder mount done, and will be a reminder of a great time. I'm sure he will chime in here sooner or later. I want to thank all who helped on this hunt, maybe someday we both can return the favor.
Back at the house with the bull
Back at the house with the bull
As my dad mentioned, I can't thank everyone enough for all the tips and suggestions. I learned a lot about moose this past year where up until I drew the tag, I had next to no knowledge. I also want to thank him for spending so many weekends scouting and making notes when being with a young family I didn't get up as much as I'd like. A few pics from after the kill and memories that will last the rest of my life.
Awesome! Looks like a good one!!! Way to be patient, you were both rewarded handsomely! A little surprised a ML tagged out on the smaller one so quickly.
Dad and daughter cutting up meat
Dad and daughter cutting up meat
Great Bull KC9!! looks like it will go well into the books, if you plan to enter it, and if you do the CPW has a list of OM. Again Congrats on a great bull!
Congrats on a great bull and awesome hunt. Looks like that bull has everything split brows, lots of points and good palm width and overall width. How wide is he? Sandbrew
Sandbrew - Measured 43 and some change for spread...we had 13 x 12 for points, 4 brows on left, 3 on right and definitely full palms compared to what we had seen. I talked with a guy up there that was a scorer and he said he only got 12 x12 for points (must have been too short) and without actually measuring just taking a couple quick measures he guessed it to be in the 150's.
Ucsdryder - I completely agree, being only 30, I think I'd have rolled my dice in the draw again if that one walked by even the last couple days... but a friend of mine said it best... a trophy is in the eyes of the shooter...
Awesome story and great bull! Congrats!
Neat story! Congratulations on your bull.
Congrats. What a great bull!
Awesome story, great bull... congrats fellas!
Well done and deserved...
Congrats, great story & bull!
Congrats guys! Great pics and story!
This thread is from 6 years ago, but my brother was lucky enough to draw a bull moose tag this year in 28! I'm curious to see what the all season does to the archery moose season (do more rifle hunters come out to bow hunt??). Been scouting some more, have our spots picked and ready for the opener next week. If there are any elk hunters in area 28 near winter park/Fraser that come across a good bull moose then private message, we should get in touch! Thanks!
Last season I saw 19 moose while elk hunting in 28. Nothing so far. Been here for 4 days. I will keep you posted. Good luck!
Sounds good Todd, if you are still up there middle of the month maybe we can share a campfire (hopefully you have tagged out by then though!!)
Congrats! Thanks for sharing
