Mike, I suppose you're talking about how we actually got within shooting distance?
We had been watching this bull for about an hour from on top of the ridge (a distance of about 1.4 miles as the crow flies) while he was running off two smaller bulls. During this same time I captured almost 15 minutes of digiscoped video of two LARGE bulls fighting. They were at a distance of about 2.5 miles and were really putting on a show.
Anyhow, the key to chasing a bull like this one is to have a good idea about where he will be when you bail off the top of the ridge and cover a mile and a half getting close to him. If it looks like he's going to be moving on then you're wasting your time going after him. He can and will cover a lot of ground in the hour or so it takes you to get close enough to call. The bottom line is we liked our chances with this bull. He had run off two smaller bulls, was surrounded by 4 cows, and looked like he was going to settle down where he was. Off we went.
An hour or so later we're about 150-200 yards from where we last saw him and his cows. Lo and behold, laying on top of the tundra at my feet, is a moose scapula from what looked like a winter kill. I already had one but just out of serendipity I picked up this extra one and put it in my pack. We set up at this location and I raked and grunted. No response but I did see a cow move briefly about 200 yards away, across an open burn area. We picked up and moved closer.
I got within about 75-90 yards of where I previously saw the cow and was busted by one of the 4 cows. I was in complete Optifade camo from Sitka Gear including a balaclava (hope this stuff works!) and crouched down. I raked a willow with my scapula and she immediately relaxed and started feeding. We set up again. I raked and grunted. I moaned like a cow being run around by a bull she didn't like. I used both scapulas together to sound like two bulls sort of lightly sparring. In short, I tried every trick in my moose calling book. Nothing. Then Steve sees the bull and cows walking away. We thought the jig was up but decided to walk over to where they had been (about 90 yards).
Once we arrived there we saw the bull's palms shining. He was laying down about 80 yards from us. I put the binocs on him and actually watched him close his eyes. I raked and grunted and he wouldn't even look my way. The cows were convinced that Steve and I were just another interloper too small to come in and challenge the big guy, so they just went about feeding in a circle around the resting bull.
Finally I got tired of his lack of response and thought to myself - "desperate times call for desperate measures". I took out both scapulas (it must have been fate that led us to the second one), leaned my bow up against a tree and then said to Steve: "nock an arrow, get right on my a**, move when I move and stop when I stop. We're going to walk right up to that SOB and shoot him." We were in the middle of a completely open burn (the area burned in 2002 and is just beginning to recover with scattered willows and berry bushes) and had ZERO cover.
I held each scapula up against the sides of my head and started slowly waving my head side-to-side like a displaying bull. Grunting with each second step I/we started walking directly toward the bull, weaving around blow-downs as necessary. We closed the distance from 80 yards to 40 yards, walking directly between two cows who were looking at us wondering if we were a better bargain than the bull they were with. The larger of the two we walked between was beginning to make me uncomfortable since I thought she was staring at me with "come hither" eyes.
At 40 yards the bull got up, started grunting and raking his antlers on a nearby willow. He moved in our direction. At 30 yards I whispered to Steve "are you ready?". He said "yes". I stepped aside and Steve drilled the bull. After going 75 yards or so he was stone-cold dead.
I'm sure it has been done before, perhaps lots of times. But that's the first time I have ever impersonated a bull and walked directly up to one in order to shoot it. And besides the arduous carry out of the meat, that was that.
Topic: Longbow moose, Wrangell Mtns, 2009 (Read 5032 times)
