Post by wildwillalaska on Sept 12, 2012 21:24:31 GMT -5
Just got back from a couple weeks in Kotzebue up north of Nome for those unfamiliar with our little neck of the woods. Great trip, minus the weather. It blew crazy hard and tons of rain for most of the trip, had one good day on the opening of moose season and a couple at the end of the trip. Saw tons of huge bull moose, but all stayed up the valley too far to pack out, like 2.5-3 miles. We hiked over one day and got some cool footage through the spotting scope, but too far to pack it out through the willows.
I got a nice eating size bull on opening evening, almost 51" wide with huge sword-like brow tines. Sadly I lost my camera for a few days--actually spent over an hour at the kill site the following day looking for it between pack loads and assumed lost for good until I found under my cot a couple days later--so no pictures of dead moose. I will get a shot of the rack here shortly.
We ended up having a fairly large bear find the kill site (several hundred pounds of guts and boned out spine all that was left) within 48 hours but the willows were just too thick to get a decent shot at him, although we were close a few times. The kill site was only about 200 yrds from our water source--smart huh. Anyway, by the end of the trip we figured he had gone since we hadn't even seen any birds down there and with all the leaves falling off the willows we were able to see better. Last morning, he came in and that was that. My hunting partner put a good hit on him, we both had follow-up shots to finish things off without any need to track a wounded bear in thick stuff. Beautiful bear, green scored 26 1/8" when he had it sealed yesterday--big for grizz.
Here are a couple photos. The huge brush pile is where the bear looks to have spent hours burrying the moose carcass and guts. No, thats not a VW bug under there, just a little moose from my success on the 1st. The birds quit coming around since everything was so buried they couldnt get at it any longer. And no, I did not put a shot in the bear with the Linebaugh Vaquero. We were far enough out that we used our rifles. I had the Vaquero when we went to skin and pack him out and just couldn't resist a quick photo. Beautiful bear and gun, so seemed like a good photo op combination.
I got a nice eating size bull on opening evening, almost 51" wide with huge sword-like brow tines. Sadly I lost my camera for a few days--actually spent over an hour at the kill site the following day looking for it between pack loads and assumed lost for good until I found under my cot a couple days later--so no pictures of dead moose. I will get a shot of the rack here shortly.
We ended up having a fairly large bear find the kill site (several hundred pounds of guts and boned out spine all that was left) within 48 hours but the willows were just too thick to get a decent shot at him, although we were close a few times. The kill site was only about 200 yrds from our water source--smart huh. Anyway, by the end of the trip we figured he had gone since we hadn't even seen any birds down there and with all the leaves falling off the willows we were able to see better. Last morning, he came in and that was that. My hunting partner put a good hit on him, we both had follow-up shots to finish things off without any need to track a wounded bear in thick stuff. Beautiful bear, green scored 26 1/8" when he had it sealed yesterday--big for grizz.
Here are a couple photos. The huge brush pile is where the bear looks to have spent hours burrying the moose carcass and guts. No, thats not a VW bug under there, just a little moose from my success on the 1st. The birds quit coming around since everything was so buried they couldnt get at it any longer. And no, I did not put a shot in the bear with the Linebaugh Vaquero. We were far enough out that we used our rifles. I had the Vaquero when we went to skin and pack him out and just couldn't resist a quick photo. Beautiful bear and gun, so seemed like a good photo op combination.
Freezers gettin low so this year the long guns coming along. Besides, there's griz running around as well and I'll be solo.
That looks about like the one I chased around the woods last year and missed with the 45 Colt BisHunter. 
