2011 ND Moose Hunt: Once in a lifetime tag

[x1957x]

Scoot, thats why they call it hunting. Hunting because of desire and for the passion of it! Hang in there bud. Like I said and dont get discouraged, it took me 10 days of beating the bush HARD every day. It will happen if you keep persistant and dont get discouraged and over think things. With a little help from above it will happen! Rest assured!! 57.

[Scoot]

No moose again yesterday. I have "family stuff" to take care of today, but will be back out tomorrow after church. I'll hunt about 10 hours tomorrow, then I'm done for the archery season. I fly out of town on Wed for a work trip, so unless somebody calls me with a moose sighting on Mon or Tues, tomorrow is my last shot for the Sep season.

[Scoot]

After saying I wouldn't hunt today, I hunted today. I got a call around 1:00 PM from a friend of a friend who's cousin (how's that for a close connection?!?) had a bull on his trailcam two nights ago. Today, he saw the cow the bull was with in the trailcam pics and called me. I got out there a couple hours after the cow was seen and spent the rest of the day in the area glassing. Towards evening I went to the best looking and most likley area for the two moose to be in and did some calling. Long story short- nothing. I'll go back to the same area tomorrow and spend my final moose hunting hours there.

cbrooks, I hear her warming up her voice!

[Cheetah]

Scoot, any luck over the weekend?

[Scoot]

Last day of whining... um... I mean hunting.

Sun I went back to the same area as I was on Sat- no reason to cover all of the same empty countryside when I knew there'd been a cow and a bull in the area for the previous several days. After driving around the previous day, I was frustrated by the lack of ability to gain a decent vantage point to glass. I would stand in the back of my truck, which helped a lot, but a few more feet would give me a lot more benefit. Here's what I came up with on Sun.

LOL- let the ND jokes begin! It may be ridiculous, but it helped a lot and let me glass much more effectively. That few feet gained made a big difference. After not seeing anything I made my way into the area the cow and bull had been seen the past couple days. I found fresh sign, but no moose. Below is a pic of the only fresh moose track I saw the entire hunt.

Around 11:00 AM I packed up and headed home. I had family stuff to take care of and needed to start to pack for the upcoming work trip. That was it, my moose hunt had come to and end. Oh, almost- I managed to get myself a speeding ticket to add a little lemon juice to the cut...

This was a perfect ending to this hunt! After nearly 3000 miles, $800 in gas, countless hours of looking for moose that weren't there, and untold frustration, my ND moose hunt is over. I've looked back through this thread and my frustration and irritation has really shown through with what I've posted- my apologies to any and all who bothered to listen to me whine and complain. I've had a lot of tough hunts in my life, but never had a hunt I didn't enjoy... until now. The combo of driving, driving, driving and nearly complete lack of animals made for a really bad match to me. I actually hunted a total of about an hour and drove the other 80 or so hours of my effort. Again, this is what the moose experts strongly recommneded and I'm pretty sure they are right, it just didn't work out for me.

Such is life, I guess. I didn't take a moose in the archery season, but I did my level best to do so and don't have any regrets about my effort. Hopefully the corn will come off and the gun season (with my bow) will go better.

[Cheetah]

Sorry to hear it didn't work out Scoot. I know I would be pretty dang frustrated too after all the effort. Hopefully when the corn gets cut it will change things so you can locate some animals to hunt.

[mrklean]

it was still a great read, and thats why its hunting sometimes it just doesnt pan out thanks for the story

[DonBo]

Yeah, you've got every right to be frustrated. Kudos for keepin' at it though, we expectes nothing less from you. Maybe the late season will shine brightly for you.

The ticket? Ouch. Talk about adding insult to injury.

[WalleyeGod]

Really thought that Tundra had radar blocking and moose locating abilities. Computer code thing I would say. Not for lack of effort.

WG

[sticknstring]

Sounds like you had pretty darn tough conditions! I have a hunch we'll be hearing a much different part 2 of this hunt. Perhaps a gutless method tuitorial to follow?

[Scoot]

I just got back from my work/goof off trip and talked with one of the guys who's been trying to help me get a bull. He had three different bulls on his property over the past couple days and they are apparently rutting hard. One of the bulls was very nice with really well developed palms. Sounds like they are out and about all day long and looking for love. He's also received a number of calls from others with reports of moose. Apparently, things really kicked into gear the day after I left! Whatcha ya gonna do? I had to go on the trip- no choice (unless I don't value my marriage and my ability to pay my mortgage). Hopefully he'll be able to keep an eye on them until I get back out for the late season.

Dang moose- they've driven me completely crazy over the past month!

[cbrooks]

Obviously your boss doesn't doesn't visit this site. Work can be a pain in the but especially when you have a once in the lifetime moose tag. When you get your trophy it will make hunt all worth it. Thanks for keeping us posted. Good luck Scoot

[RumRiverRat]

Great Thread!

[Scoot]

Tomorrow starts the beginning of the "regular season" for moose hunting. "Regular season" basically means "gun season". I'll back out after 'em again, but I'll still have my bow in hand. I've received several calls about moose sightings over the past week and a couple of them came to me yesterday, so I've got some pretty up-to-date info to work with. I'm taking this afternoon off and hopefully going to scout a little before I hop in a tree stand in search of a buck. There's been a good bull seen near a spot I can hunt, so I'll try kill two birds with one stone today.

Tomorrow through Sun will be all about moose though. I'll take pics and report back as soon as I have something worth reporting.

[slimngrizzly]

Look forward to reading about it! Good luck Scoot! Im confident you'll put something together!

[nbadger23]

Good luck Scoot...keep the stories/reports coming!

[sticknstring]

With all the corn and foliage down, I have a good feeling about your 2nd hunt! Can't wait to see pics.

[DonBo]

Best of luck Scoot! We're all be looking fwd to story and pics.

[Scoot]

I really had a great time moose hunting over the weekend. I got some really cool pics and got in close on a critter. I'm working on tidying up some pics and getting a write up together, but it'll take me a bit due to several obligations I've got. However, I got some great pics and I think it'll be worth the wait...

[bmc]

Impatiently waiting Scoot!!!

Don't make me call Santa and get you put on the naughty list!

Brian

[DonBo]

You're such a tease....

[sticknstring]

Quote:

but it'll take me a bit due to several obligations I've got.

De-boning and vacuum sealing meat wouldn't be one of them would it???

[Scoot]

De-boning and vacuum sealing meat wouldn't be one of them would it???

The biggies are wife's b-day tomorrow, Thanksgiving Thurs, son's b-day Sat, b-day party Sat, running back and forth between three places over the next several days, cleaning up our mess of a house, work, etc...

Now my Photobucket account is freaking out and won't let me do anything. I'm stuck until that's fixed...

[DonBo]

Busy week huh Scoot? That's why you do these posts at work...like the rest of us.

[Scoot]

That's true, DonBo. However, with the amount of work I do at home at night and on weekends, I don't feel too bad about it...