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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Buckmaster81" data-source="post: 260030" data-attributes="member: 202">I was fortunate enough to draw an any moose tag for M6 and put a ton of time into scouting and trailcams. I was able to track down 7 different bulls. My number one choice toyed with me over archery opener hanging out in plain sight on the one property in multiple townships that I could not access. After that the big bull decided it would be fun to disappear for the remainder of the season with only a couple rumored sightings scattered throughout a 6 townships. I was never able to catch up with him even through the 1st week of rifle season. With the terrible wet conditions and opening weekend blizzard delaying all harvest and the chance of any corn or sunflowers coming off before the end of moose season I made the decision that the next decent bull I had a chance at would have to be good enough or I would very like end up eating my tag. The next day was Saturday I started out scouting an area and walked a bunch of slough edges and tree rows looking for sign. While walking I recieved two solid leads and made the choice to pursue the closer of the two leads. Within a 35 minutes of hitting the road I was looking through my Viper HST at what would be the final moose of my ND moose hunt. He stood 200 yards out in a lower partially stunted area of a standing cornfield that the landowner (good friend) had granted me permission to hunt. I studied the moose through the corn and settled my crosshair and let the 7mm Rem bark. The 162gr ELD-X hit its mark with the loudest KaaaWumpp I had ever heard and the moose gave a small buck and charged hard towards better cover. When he reached the better corn he stopped standing 3/4 broadside to look back towards me. I looked him over through the scope, all of the vitals were covered by the corn. The only parts of the moose visible were the head and top 12-15" of his shoulder/hump. I settled the crosshair at the lowest point of his hump and let her buck. THWWOOOOP and down he went! I gave it a few minutes and conferred with a couple friends that were watching it all play out and they confirmed he dropped hard on the second shot! I headed out to get my hands on him but had to keep telling myself "slow down you're approaching a 1000lb animal in heavy cover". When I got to the bull he was down for the count. The first shot was a tad high but still hammered the lungs and the 2nd was a spine shot explaining the instant drop. Even with all the scouting and coming within 20 yards of other moose I was truly in awe of the stature of the bull as he laid there in front of me! His antlers weren't quite as big as the bull I spent the archery season chasing, but he fully exceeded what I had envisioned having an opportunity to harvest in M6 when I applied for the tag!!!! As I went through my pack in search of my tag a lot of thoughts crossed my mind: thankfulness for the experience, relief that I was able connect with a good bull after so much time and effort, and sadly a small amount of disappointment that my once in a lifetime hunt was over! When notching the tag I I thought to myself "OK I got him now what?" The bull went down with in 200 yards of a township road...Great!!! 185 of those yards were through 18-25" of water and mud....NOT SO GREAT!!! I walked back around to my pickup and found there was no dry way to get to the moose.... I spoke with my buddy who was still there and he said if the landowner would allow it he believed we could pull it out with his tracked Ranger. I called the landowner and told him our plan and I told him I would pay for any crop loss he said go ahead. I stayed with my moose and my buddy headed home to get the Ranger and reinforcements. To my disbelief his Ranger pulled the big bull right through the water and muck with only a tiny bit of track chatter. We got the bull to the shoulder of the road unhooked turned the Ranger around backed up the tilt deck trailer backed the UTV on and winched the moose up on the trailer. SLICK!!!! I am very lucky to have great friends and drawing a moose tag that allowed me to harvest a bull within 30 miles of my home![ATTACH]38909[/ATTACH][ATTACH]38908[/ATTACH]</blockquote>

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