Shiloh Rifle Forums

ironramrod wrote:Marathon man,

A couple of questions re: your axe, if you don't mind. Skinning and general purpose knives pose no transport safety problems in the field, but how do you carry an axe around safely in the field until needed? Additionally, I assume you're using a single blade axe for breaking down a carcass, but what size axe do you use for this job? Thanks.

Regards

IR

No secrets here. I use the axe my dad used and he's been stone dead these last 50 years since June. It's a big double bladed axe that I've used to chop clean through a moose leg bone or oak brush stump with one swing. I carry it after a kill has been made in my pack frame with the handle sticking out of the top. I suppose most any kind of size and carry could work.

Thanks for the question!

Stephen Borud wrote:Marathonman that would be fun to hunt antelope together! I need to start putting in for moose! It's a great animal to hunt! Thanks for info on your hunt area!

Stephen

Putting in for a moose tag and actually drawing one requires a bit of thought. I've drawn one in Colorado and one in Wyoming by being realistic about my expectations. It may take years to draw a bull and then finding one of trophy quality could well just be a pipe dream. I study the online data about such things and of course most people who are serious tag drawers do as well. I want the hunting experience more than trophy horns so I go for cow tags in the lower 48 states. A cow tag will provide all the excitement of a bull and you get to go hunting a lot more often! I've always said on trophy bull moose that the Alaskan Yukon variety is the only one I want. I know the price of a guided hunt there is about the same as buying a new truck but if that's what I got to have than that's what I would do. That's what I did do in fact for my B&C Alaskan brown bear and on the flip side do black bear hunts in the lower 48 by myself. Elk hunts are meat hunts for me in Colorado. I call them December grain field shoots. I've only killed one bull elk and he was taken during this time and he was a rag horn 5 point. What made him special was I didn't know if I would ever see clearly enough to hunt again and hunted the weekend before my double cataract surgery.

Don't encourage me. I can talk a starving dog off a gut wagon!

Marathonman,

Can't help myself, so I'm gonna encourage you to keep talking; starving dogs and all! Anyway, I like your philosophy of shopping and applying for tags in various areas; I do the same. Somewhere around here I have a picture of 17 MD does several of us shot on a damage hunt area all hanging in a big pine tree in Montana some years ago. Serious fun on a hunting trip.

Regards

IR

IR

I remember seeing old pictures prior to 1900 of hunts like the one you described. A group today armed with Sharps rifles could do the same legally. Some areas I know offer doe antelope tags 4 per customer plus a buck tag. The doe tags are dirt cheap! I have faith in modern big game management of the herds today, they do a great job in my mind. Growing up hunting here in Colorado I didn't see my first elk until my early 20's. Now you can't help but see them sometimes in herds numbering over 100 or 200 strong. Antelope in WY are like stray cats in an old ladies kitchen at feeding time!

Just picked up the cut and wrapped meat tonght. Way more than I hoped for and will be donating to various family and charity in the coming week before Thanksgiving.

Thanks to everyone and God bless !

Dan

Let me know how it tastes!

Stephen

Stephen Borud wrote:Let me know how it tastes!

Stephen

Positively the best wild game meat I've ever had. Not the least bit wild tasting. First time moose eaters at my table tonight loved it!

Marathonman wrote:

Stephen Borud wrote:Let me know how it tastes!

Stephen

Positively the best wild game meat I've ever had. Not the least bit wild tasting. First time moose eaters at my table tonight loved it!

Good, the bull I killed was absolutely the best wild meat I have ever sank my teeth into! I had to hide the moose rib steaks! Oh lord they were good!

Enjoy

Stephen