SurfCutter
New member
Now as I have written earlier the moose in the road was my first time with them as of yet we did not figure out why things were happening as they were....
The following day John meet up with us at the rented cabin in Jackmen Me. and we made plans to hunt the hollow in front of the look out just before getting in to town. I will skip over some of the weeks hunt details but for the most part it was Larry's turn to have the moose for company until the last day and it is this day I will relate to you all here .
We had hunted hard all week with very little luck and this was our last day to hunt. As always we each picked a direction to hunt and Larry took right , I took the middle and John headed off to the right.
I got in between two old clear cuts and found a run and then found a place to seat down and waited , after about an hour or so I had the good fortune to see a small doe walk by me on the run not having a doe permit she passed and I got up to stretch the legs and to find a better spot to seat (bad idea )
I walked up the run until I came to a place were it forked to which I backed up the run I came down on the left to a blow down and a very comfortable . Well that only means I was soon fast asleep and snoring up a storm.
I woke up a short time later and very slowly looked around , catching movement off to my right I slowly turned to see that it was a good size deer , and it has Horns !
I sit very still and wait I figured it would pass up the fork to the right and after it got by me it would give me time to get the scope covers off my .308 Rem. 700 Varmint special heavy barrel with a 6.5x20 Leuop.(set at 6.5) and drop him with my hand loaded 150 gr Sierra boat-tail .
Well as things would have it he did not take the right fork , but followed the left one and that put him not 3 feet away from me when he winded me .....So there we were him looking at me and I can see every eye blink , every muscle twitch every breath he makes and him the same on me . I have the gun a cross my chest barrel up and scope covered still on , again dumb me I figured he would keep going if he took off so I slowly start to move to bring the gun to bear , he wheel and heads back the way he came < i jump up and this is were I find out how badly the new jump suit fits , or to be correct the hood it covers my face so I pull that off snap open the covers and try to find deer , I do , but it is the whit Flag bouncing down the trail it then stops and looks back but I can not get it settled in the scope ,, (to much scope for this type of work ) and after seeing he is not followed and no shots fired he just walks off , ... William the Harmless keeps his name and Rep ....the rest of the day was very quiet after this until it was time to get out the logging road and back to the truck .
As I was waiting I see John coming up the road walking very funny like and what looked like blood down the front of his jump suit. I double check my gun to see that I had unloaded and then started down at a fast walk / slow run to meet him expecting to see trouble when I got to him ...
As I got closer I could see what I thought was blood was dirt / tree bark stain but what I did see John was in a lot of pain .
It seemed John left us and followed the logging road to the right it soon gave way to just a cut for a road that turned and headed up to the right and the large hill that formed one side of this hollow / valley we were hunting . this cut had started to grow back in and was covered with small trees and bushes. John soon found a pine tree with branches that came down to the ground and formed a natural blind so he put his pack down and taking his rifle and do a quick scout of the area to see if it was a good place to set up and wait .
One thing he had noticed was a large amount of moose droppings in the area and on the climb up this hill. As john climbed high up the hill he noticed that there was a large birch tree blown over at about 30 drg's and that as he when high up the trees got smaller . It was about now he noticed across the cut something flash in the morning light so he stopped but could not see what it was or make out what it could be .
So he stood and watch and he would see something but still could not figure out what it was and as he watched it seemed to move down the hill and on the other side of the cut from him . it was only when it was directly across from him did he see it was a very large Bull Moose ..
It was at that moment that the Moose turned and put its nose to the wind and look directly at John then start across the cut right toward him.
John started to run down the hill but know at the speed the moose was coming he had to find something for cover about that time he saw the blown over birch tree and he made for it . The Moose had by now reached the same side as John and was coming down the hill after him .
john got to the base of the tree stopped long enough to put the rifle with it's sling over his head and started to walk up the trunk of the tree , What I did not tell you all earlier was that it had rained that night or to be correct more of a small ice storm in which most surfaces had a coating of ice .
By now the moose had gotten to the tree and John was about 8' up off the ground when ,,,
He Slipped and came down on either side of the tree trunk..
at the time he said he did not feel any thing in that the moose was now under the tree and John was trying to shimmy up higher in the tree and to breath as his rifle now just around his neck was making that very hard and to hold on to the ice coated trunk . The Moose now looked up and tried to sniff his feet or to be more precise the drag rags he always tied to his boots and coated with fresh buck lure ......
John pulled his legs up and kept climbing and was up as far as he could go only to have the moose ever so gracefully raise up on it hind legs to try to get a better sniff of his boots . All the time he had a death grip on the tree and the rifle still making breathing hard . The Moose then set to feeding from the rest of the morning and a good part of the afternoon not more than 50 yards away and never out of eye sight . John did not feel any pain this whole time he was in the tree and after what was third attempt to climb down and only to have the moose come back John finally made it to the ground after the moose was gone for good . It was about the second step away from the tree that the pain of how he had landed kicked in and the fear of the moose's return made him get back on his feet and down off the hill minus the drag rags .....
To this day he will never use any type of deer lure ever again or drag rags ...
The following day John meet up with us at the rented cabin in Jackmen Me. and we made plans to hunt the hollow in front of the look out just before getting in to town. I will skip over some of the weeks hunt details but for the most part it was Larry's turn to have the moose for company until the last day and it is this day I will relate to you all here .
We had hunted hard all week with very little luck and this was our last day to hunt. As always we each picked a direction to hunt and Larry took right , I took the middle and John headed off to the right.
I got in between two old clear cuts and found a run and then found a place to seat down and waited , after about an hour or so I had the good fortune to see a small doe walk by me on the run not having a doe permit she passed and I got up to stretch the legs and to find a better spot to seat (bad idea )
I walked up the run until I came to a place were it forked to which I backed up the run I came down on the left to a blow down and a very comfortable . Well that only means I was soon fast asleep and snoring up a storm.
I woke up a short time later and very slowly looked around , catching movement off to my right I slowly turned to see that it was a good size deer , and it has Horns !
I sit very still and wait I figured it would pass up the fork to the right and after it got by me it would give me time to get the scope covers off my .308 Rem. 700 Varmint special heavy barrel with a 6.5x20 Leuop.(set at 6.5) and drop him with my hand loaded 150 gr Sierra boat-tail .
Well as things would have it he did not take the right fork , but followed the left one and that put him not 3 feet away from me when he winded me .....So there we were him looking at me and I can see every eye blink , every muscle twitch every breath he makes and him the same on me . I have the gun a cross my chest barrel up and scope covered still on , again dumb me I figured he would keep going if he took off so I slowly start to move to bring the gun to bear , he wheel and heads back the way he came < i jump up and this is were I find out how badly the new jump suit fits , or to be correct the hood it covers my face so I pull that off snap open the covers and try to find deer , I do , but it is the whit Flag bouncing down the trail it then stops and looks back but I can not get it settled in the scope ,, (to much scope for this type of work ) and after seeing he is not followed and no shots fired he just walks off , ... William the Harmless keeps his name and Rep ....the rest of the day was very quiet after this until it was time to get out the logging road and back to the truck .
As I was waiting I see John coming up the road walking very funny like and what looked like blood down the front of his jump suit. I double check my gun to see that I had unloaded and then started down at a fast walk / slow run to meet him expecting to see trouble when I got to him ...
As I got closer I could see what I thought was blood was dirt / tree bark stain but what I did see John was in a lot of pain .
It seemed John left us and followed the logging road to the right it soon gave way to just a cut for a road that turned and headed up to the right and the large hill that formed one side of this hollow / valley we were hunting . this cut had started to grow back in and was covered with small trees and bushes. John soon found a pine tree with branches that came down to the ground and formed a natural blind so he put his pack down and taking his rifle and do a quick scout of the area to see if it was a good place to set up and wait .
One thing he had noticed was a large amount of moose droppings in the area and on the climb up this hill. As john climbed high up the hill he noticed that there was a large birch tree blown over at about 30 drg's and that as he when high up the trees got smaller . It was about now he noticed across the cut something flash in the morning light so he stopped but could not see what it was or make out what it could be .
So he stood and watch and he would see something but still could not figure out what it was and as he watched it seemed to move down the hill and on the other side of the cut from him . it was only when it was directly across from him did he see it was a very large Bull Moose ..
It was at that moment that the Moose turned and put its nose to the wind and look directly at John then start across the cut right toward him.
John started to run down the hill but know at the speed the moose was coming he had to find something for cover about that time he saw the blown over birch tree and he made for it . The Moose had by now reached the same side as John and was coming down the hill after him .
john got to the base of the tree stopped long enough to put the rifle with it's sling over his head and started to walk up the trunk of the tree , What I did not tell you all earlier was that it had rained that night or to be correct more of a small ice storm in which most surfaces had a coating of ice .
By now the moose had gotten to the tree and John was about 8' up off the ground when ,,,
He Slipped and came down on either side of the tree trunk..
at the time he said he did not feel any thing in that the moose was now under the tree and John was trying to shimmy up higher in the tree and to breath as his rifle now just around his neck was making that very hard and to hold on to the ice coated trunk . The Moose now looked up and tried to sniff his feet or to be more precise the drag rags he always tied to his boots and coated with fresh buck lure ......John pulled his legs up and kept climbing and was up as far as he could go only to have the moose ever so gracefully raise up on it hind legs to try to get a better sniff of his boots . All the time he had a death grip on the tree and the rifle still making breathing hard . The Moose then set to feeding from the rest of the morning and a good part of the afternoon not more than 50 yards away and never out of eye sight . John did not feel any pain this whole time he was in the tree and after what was third attempt to climb down and only to have the moose come back John finally made it to the ground after the moose was gone for good . It was about the second step away from the tree that the pain of how he had landed kicked in and the fear of the moose's return made him get back on his feet and down off the hill minus the drag rags .....
To this day he will never use any type of deer lure ever again or drag rags ...
Great story Bill..........that was fun reading !
