October 17, 2007

     As we tried to sneak up on the monster bull, he was staring right in our direction trying to figure out what we were.  He seemed ready to spook at any time.  We were trying to be very careful, and get into a good position to make the killing shot.

     This hunt all started back when my husband, (Loren), put me in for this draw-only Idaho moose hunt.  I did not even know about it until I got the tag.  To be honest, I was not really that impressed with getting the tag.  I was thinking about all the time and money we would have to spend on the hunt, and I was a little discouraged.  I didn’t even know if we would be able to go, but we started making tentative plans just in case.  It finally came together that we could go hunting on the 15^th of October. 

     We had a small caravan on the way up.  My in-laws, (David & Lorene Alley), my sister-in-law, (Dalina), her husband, (Kevin), and their 5 children all went to camp with us.  Loren & I took our youngest daughter Brooklyn, (almost 2 yrs. Old), with us.  The older girls, (BreAnna, age 11, & Brittney, age 9), both stayed with my parents, Ken and Carol Watson.  THANKS.  Brooklyn stayed in camp with my mother-in-law while we went hunting.

     On the first day we saw a decent bull, but he was definitely not a shooter.  He was about 36-38 inches wide.  We also saw a cow & calf that first day.  The next morning, (the 17^th), we saw 3 moose.  A cow & calf, and we were not sure about the other one because it bedded down without our being able to tell if it had antlers.  So we came back in the afternoon and as we were glassing to find this moose, we saw the big bull down below us.  It was about 500 yards down in a canyon.  As we were figuring out how to get to the bull, 3 elk hunters showed up and were watching the bull with us.  We decided it would be best to go down a different draw and then come up over the ridge and hope to have a clean shot.  When we crept up over the ridge, there he was, just staring at us.  We were concerned that he was going to spook, but when he finally saw us, he just went back to eating.  I had a broadside 200 yard shot.  I was shooting my husband’s 270 Remington Model 700, with 150 grain Remington Core LOKT Bullets.  Four more hunters had gathered on the road to watch and see if a lady could make the shot.  There were a total of 10 guys watching me shoot my moose.  Most of them thought that the bull would be only about 38 inches wide. (It turned out to be 45 inches wide).  When I shot, I hit him in the spine right behind the shoulders, and he went down in the hindquarters and then traveled down hill about 20 yards.  He was mine!  See, women can shoot too.  It took 8 hours to get it pulled up to the road in the snow, sleet, and rain.  What a great hunt!  What a wonderful time I had on this hunt!  Guys, take your wives hunting; they just might enjoy it.  But don’t get upset if they out shoot you.  LOL.  I want to thank my husband for spending the time with me and helping me get a great Shiras Bull Moose.  It net scores 159 B.C.  It has 9 points on each side.  The right brow palm tine is 21” long.  What a monster bull.  It was an amazing hunt. 

                                                                                                      Until next hunting season,

                                                                                                                               Lori Alley