When I got up to the area I had in mind, the plan was to get on a river and get into some good country, however, my canoe take out point could not be accessed due to a road being private land, that I thought was public. I still decided to go down the river for a ways at my put in point and see how things were. I went down three miles, but with limited moose sign, I paddled back up and looked for new areas. The next morning I had a cutover in mind that bordered the river. I checked out one end, but it didn't look to be the right habitat so I moved down the cutover where I could see there was some poplar bluffs on the edges. I got up on a high spot where I could see down across the cutover. I gave a cow call, and almost immediately heard a bull thrash a tree with his antlers. Moments later, I could see two paddles moving out of the timber. My 1st impression, at 300yds was he was an average bull, but I could see a large droptine coming off his brow palm. At that point another young bull and cow emerged 100yds from him. It soon became clear he wanted me to come to him, so I thought I better make him mad. I was wearing black and decided to not stay completely hidden. I started bull grunting, and he immediately started to get worked up with more thrashing. In a couple minutes he started cutting across the cutover. The wind was perfect, and it gave me a good idea of where he would pop out as he attempted to cut my wind. While he was coming through thick spots, I adjusted my position to be ready for where I thought he would end up. By this point it was clear he was actually one of the best bulls I've ever see. Soon he popped out at 90 yds, moving to the general spot I had anticipated. Right away he was a little over 60 yds and we were both staring right at each other, as we both grunted. I practice out to 70 yards, but I don't typically shoot over 50 on animals. At that moment I figured since he still was grunting while he starred me down, he clearly thought I was the bull. With this in mind I started walking toward him to clear a little bit of brush and get perfectly broadside. He stood perfectly still and grunted at me. At 57yds I told myself to take my time with a well placed shot, and it would be fine. I adjusted my site, pulled back, and released my arrow. It hit slightly high but got good penetration. He ran around 15 yds, then stopped. I heard a cough and could see lots of blood. Not knowing how much lung I had, I pulled back again and let a 70 yard follow up shot go. This one hit nearly the same spot. He went another 20 yards, started to wobble, and then crashed to the ground. It was an incredible moment, and I couldn't believe how blessed I was to take such a nice bull on my first Ab moose hunt.
After doing some photos, I headed back to camp to eat some food and get gear. The best i could do was get the side by side 500 yards from him, so I had a huge day ahead. While at camp, a local elk hunter popped by. We chatted and he said he would be happy to help me get the bull out once he set up his elk camp. At noon just as I was finishing up butchering I heard his quad coming. He was able to drive right too my bull. It was a huge blessing that cut many hours off my day.
I hope you enjoy the pictures. The one with the blood shows how much he was leaking after the 1st shot. Obviously there was no reason for a second shot, but at the time I didn't know how fatal it was. It's not quite over, but it's been an amazing 1st season of learning a new province.
Congrats on the Bull and breaking into your new environment with a big (red) splash.
Thanks for sharing with us.
Scott
Congrats!
