Yahoo!
After work went out to scout an area and go for a boat ride. My wife, ten year old daughter and seven year old son were the ones that wanted to go. Got on the river about seven, beutiful day, 60 deg, a few clouds and no wind. Cruised down the Yukon to Driftwood Slough that parallels the river, like a little slice of the Yukon with an upper end with water flowing in and out the lower end, and went up the slough. Saw a couple of eagles, beavers, an owl, an osprey, a red fox and moose tracks.
We cruised up to this "Shortcut Slough" that connects the Yukon and Driftwood Slough and putted out to the Yukon. I parked the boat and my kids fished, my wife and I stretched our legs and snacked on some of our King Salmon strips we made last month. It was almost nine o'clock when we got going to head back home.
We were putting back to Driftwood Slough and half way thru I noticed a root wad drifting towards us. I said "Whats that" and gave my wife the binoculars. She looks and says "Its a moose!" The kids imeadiatly wanted to look, I'm driving, she's trying to shush the kids and get my scoped, AR/Bushmaster that she likes. I'm shushing the kids and driving as quietly as possible, Mr Moose keeps on swimming towards us, at least a hundred yards away.
She gets the kids quieted and "assumes the position" as port side gunner. I tell her not to shoot because we're under power and the moose is swimming, both no-no's. She says " I'm not going to. I'm looking at the antlers. Yep it's a bull". Oh Yeah!
Mr. Moose finally sees us and stops to look better, then turns around and heads for the far shore, I'm still putting quietly trying to will the boat faster. I didn't want to increase the RPM's and get louder, and spook Mr. Moose into a mad dash. We get to the end of the shortcut where I run the bow into the mud bank and kill the engine just as Mr. Moose starts to climb th far bank. I had grabbed my Rugger 06, set the kids in the seat behind my wife and assumed the bow gunner position, looped up and had my reticle on Mr. Moose in three heart beats. Yes I counted.
Mr. Moose had stoped and was pointed away from us, but he had his head turned and was looking at us. I hear my wife say "Ok, shoot". I had the reticle on his neck, behind his head, so I did. I recovered from the shot and Mr. Moose was down, just dropped where he stood.
My wife goes "I don't think I shot. I heard your shot and something hit me in the shoulder". She had grown up eating moose and cutting up quartered moose. Women "traditionally" haven't hunted, or touched "mens weapons" a taboo. Her eyes were just round. She didn't really believe she had shot a moose.
We left Mr. Moose and went and gathered firewood, then came back to Mr. Moose. I beached the boat and made sure he was dead, cut a bunch of young willow to stand on and started gutting him. We finally had him gutted about one thirty this morning. The kids were getting really whiney and it was late enough so we came home. We didn't get home untill three thirty.
This morning at 11:59
we headed back to quarter him. We have visitors from other villages that are attending a conference staying with us. They were real excited for my wife, her first kill. First kills are given away, the hunter can't even have a taste.
Oh well, they will enjoy Mr. Moose, a nice young bull still in velvet, not even close to rut.
After work went out to scout an area and go for a boat ride. My wife, ten year old daughter and seven year old son were the ones that wanted to go. Got on the river about seven, beutiful day, 60 deg, a few clouds and no wind. Cruised down the Yukon to Driftwood Slough that parallels the river, like a little slice of the Yukon with an upper end with water flowing in and out the lower end, and went up the slough. Saw a couple of eagles, beavers, an owl, an osprey, a red fox and moose tracks.
We cruised up to this "Shortcut Slough" that connects the Yukon and Driftwood Slough and putted out to the Yukon. I parked the boat and my kids fished, my wife and I stretched our legs and snacked on some of our King Salmon strips we made last month. It was almost nine o'clock when we got going to head back home.
We were putting back to Driftwood Slough and half way thru I noticed a root wad drifting towards us. I said "Whats that" and gave my wife the binoculars. She looks and says "Its a moose!" The kids imeadiatly wanted to look, I'm driving, she's trying to shush the kids and get my scoped, AR/Bushmaster that she likes. I'm shushing the kids and driving as quietly as possible, Mr Moose keeps on swimming towards us, at least a hundred yards away.
She gets the kids quieted and "assumes the position" as port side gunner. I tell her not to shoot because we're under power and the moose is swimming, both no-no's. She says " I'm not going to. I'm looking at the antlers. Yep it's a bull". Oh Yeah!
Mr. Moose finally sees us and stops to look better, then turns around and heads for the far shore, I'm still putting quietly trying to will the boat faster. I didn't want to increase the RPM's and get louder, and spook Mr. Moose into a mad dash. We get to the end of the shortcut where I run the bow into the mud bank and kill the engine just as Mr. Moose starts to climb th far bank. I had grabbed my Rugger 06, set the kids in the seat behind my wife and assumed the bow gunner position, looped up and had my reticle on Mr. Moose in three heart beats. Yes I counted.
Mr. Moose had stoped and was pointed away from us, but he had his head turned and was looking at us. I hear my wife say "Ok, shoot". I had the reticle on his neck, behind his head, so I did. I recovered from the shot and Mr. Moose was down, just dropped where he stood.
My wife goes "I don't think I shot. I heard your shot and something hit me in the shoulder". She had grown up eating moose and cutting up quartered moose. Women "traditionally" haven't hunted, or touched "mens weapons" a taboo. Her eyes were just round. She didn't really believe she had shot a moose.
We left Mr. Moose and went and gathered firewood, then came back to Mr. Moose. I beached the boat and made sure he was dead, cut a bunch of young willow to stand on and started gutting him. We finally had him gutted about one thirty this morning. The kids were getting really whiney and it was late enough so we came home. We didn't get home untill three thirty.
This morning at 11:59
we headed back to quarter him. We have visitors from other villages that are attending a conference staying with us. They were real excited for my wife, her first kill. First kills are given away, the hunter can't even have a taste. Oh well, they will enjoy Mr. Moose, a nice young bull still in velvet, not even close to rut.
I'm also curious to know what the subject of the inter-village conference is.