After returning from Mexico and finishing up baseball season (which never really ends). My first priority was finding a moose for dad.
Dad drew a Cache moose tag after 16 years of applying and we were all excited for him. Living 20 mins from the unit and everybody else living 4 hrs away meant most scouting trips would fall to me, which I thought was great. Over the years I have decided that the "hunt" is not just the day your season opens but rather the day you decide you want to hunt a species. I do research about certain areas, look at draw odds, access, trophy potenial, herd numbers. I scout and talk to others that are out doing the same. To me this is all part of the "hunting process" and I dont have to have a personal tag to enjoy it.
Well after doing all of these things I was a little concerned about dads moose hunt. The Cache is down in recent years as far as trophy potenial, however dad said he was not getting any younger and really wanted to draw a tag. So the Cache it was knowing I could spend the most time on this unit pre season scouting. When opening morning arrived I believe the total number of days spent scouting was over 20. In that time we had found 14 bulls in the areas that I had spent time in. Not a bad number of the bulls, but most where younger 2 to 3 yr old bulls from what I could tell. We had found one really good bull and one other bull that was maybe a first day shooter.
Well opening morning arrived and Mother Nature made the decision easy on whether to go after Mr. Big or look at other options. After a night of monsoon rain there was no way we were getting the horse anywhere near the trail head where Mr. Big had been seen. I really was not that concerned as I had not seen him for 3 weeks and never did end up seeing him again the rest of the fall. With the rain continuing we decided to drive out to a look out point I felt we could glass from if the weather ever broke. Well around 8:30 the clouds shut off and we set up to glass. Not long into glassing several cows and one lone bull were spotted. After watching him for several minutes in the spotting scope it was decided that we need to at least get a better look at this bull. There was a road that would take us with in about 1000 yards of the draw he was feeding in and we felt we could close the distance fairly easy. We hiked in and set up in the draw where we knew the bull had been, but after setting in the pouring rain for 2 hrs without a sign of him we decided to get a little more aggresive. We felt the bull was still in the draw but probably just holed up in the trees trying to stay dryer than the idiots looking for him. My brother and I dropped into the draw and made and attempt to push the bull out of the cover and give dad a better look. Well the plan worked perfect and two shots later dad had his moose. Although not a monster he was still a very nice bull compared to the bulls that I had been scouting. With a spread over 40" and 7 points aside, dad was happy, and thats what counts!!!
The whole crew of drowned rats!!! Great day when two grandsons get to see grandpa knock down a OIL!!!!