Ronald Torpey writes, "After just a couple of years of applying for a moose tag, I was fortunate to draw one for the 2005 season. Prior to drawing a tag, I had researched the general area I wanted to start looking for moose and where I wanted to set up camp. A week later, I was notified of the drawing results and prepared myself for the late September/October Bull Moose hunt, which was to my first.

I had taken a week off from work to make sure I had everything I needed so I wouldn’t have to come out of the hills unless I had successfully bagged my moose. I traveled to the designated area I was allowed to hunt and set up camp at the spot I had chosen prior. Accompanied by my uncle, who agreed to come down from Montana and assist with the hunt, we set out on ATV’s to look for sign or heavy activity from moose.

We had little light on the first day because of the late start leaving home, but we managed to find a large herd of elk and jumped a couple of nice trophy whitetails within a couple of hours.
Unfortunately, no moose sign.

The first night was spent setting up camp and making dinner and talking and planning the morning hunt. I know I didn’t sleep much that night and I’m sure my uncle was just as excited. We both crawled out of our tents around 4 am and decided to trade breakfast for a couple cups of campfire coffee and then set out.

The entire second day was spent watching steep clear cuts and meadows near water sources and even a few longer walks to try and spot a nice bull, though the weather was nice all day, we didn’t see any moose. I’d say it was about two hours before dark when we had decided to head back into camp for the day. My uncle had rode down before me because my curiosity got the best of me and I had wanted to check out just one more draw before I quit. I rode up this old skid trail that overlooked an open hillside, but before I could reach the top, I spotted a small bull moose rubbing his rack on a small pine tree. I sat and watched the bull, which by most standards was a nice trophy moose, I guessed his inside spread to be about 43 to 45 inches and he had 8 points on each side of his paddles. I had thought about shooting this animal, but decided to watch him walk away in hopes of seeing a bigger one.

Just as the bull walked out of sight, another bull stepped out of the same brush line and was acting pretty much the same way. At first sight this bull was nice, but I seriously considered passing this one by as well. I had to stand on the seat of my 4 wheeler just to see over the weeds and just as soon as the second bull stepped out into the open, I realized just how big he was. He gave me a broadside shot at about 60 yards and I started to think it was now or never.

I took aim with my 300 Win. Mag. and dropped the bull right where he stood with a direct hit behind the animals ear just splitting the top of the spine. I knew the shot placement was a sure thing when I saw paddles tip my way and just like that the big boy was down and out. After a couple of “woo-hoos” and some self high fives I made my way through the brush and found my trophy.

I had no idea just how big he was until I came up on the beast lying on the ground. The monster was well over 1,000 pounds on the hoof. Though the bull was only a 7x8, the paddles were wide and the inside spread came to exactly 49-3/4 inches."