My 2025 Once In a Lifetime Shiras Moose hunt. Recap

[RaggedHunter]

On May 27th I received the news we all dream of during draw season. I got a notification that my card had been hit for $375.97.. I couldn't believe it. I anxiously updated my email inbox and finally received the email confirming that I had been drawn for my once in a lifetime shiras bull moose tag. To this day it is still hard for me to believe that I actually drew this tag and had the opportunity to hunt a moose in my home state of Colorado, something I have dreamed of doing as long as I can remember.

Of all the years to draw a tag of this caliber, this made for an extremely challenging year to put the time into the tag that I felt it deserved. I have a young family, and it is a strain on my entire family for me to be away from home. But my wife knew how much this tag meant to me and she selflessly manned the fort to allow me as much time as possible to make good on this tag. I am forever grateful for her and all she does day in and day out for myself and my family.

As soon as I drew the tag I buckled down getting ready. I cleaned up my diet, I cut out all sugar, I cut out all alcohol, and I ramped up the workouts & cardio. From the day I drew the tag to opening day I dropped 25lbs.

Scouting trips were tough to pull off. I wanted to be in the unit scouting every free second I had. But The unit I drew was about 4 hours from my house. And it was already asking a lot of my family to be away for extended periods of time during the season, to add multiple weekends throughout the summer on top of that was tough. I had to get creative to squeeze in scouting trips. Some weekends, I would put my kids to bed, help the wife cleanup the house. Then I would drive to the unit in the middle of the night. I would sleep in the back seat of my truck for a couple of hours then wake up and hike to glassing knobs. Once everything was bedded for the morning, I would drive home so I could spend the afternoon with my family. Some weekends I was able to spend multiple days backpacking and scouting. And luckily I had a handful of great buddies that set aside time in their busy schedules to help me scout. This goes without saying, but I am forever grateful for all the friends and family that went out of their way to help me out, from scouting, to hunting and everything in between.

I will go through a day by day breakdown of my entire hunt journal including scouting trips etc. It certainly lived up to everything I could have hoped for on a once in a lifetime tag, it was filled with ups and downs and is no doubt one of the most memorable adventures I have ever embarked on. I hope anyone reading will enjoy following along as I take you through it.

 

[RaggedHunter]

Scouting day 1: July 12th.
- I finally got to set foot in the unit. I had done tons of looking over onx and google earth and all the research possible. I had a list of areas to start checking out. A quick summary of this trip will suffice. I did not see a moose on this trip, but I did learn a number of roads and glassing points. I learned where the very limited camping areas in the area were located.

Scouting trip #2. Friday August 1st.
- the first evening glassing session I saw 1 young bull in the first area on my list of places to check. This was encouraging. But not a bull I wanted to focus on.
- the next few spots I checked I saw a couple of cows & calves but no other bulls.
- On Saturday My good buddy Josh arrived and we backpacked into a basin that was high on our list. We glassed that basin that evening and again on Sunday morning. Only saw 1 very small bull several miles down the drainage. This basin was a bust and concluded this scouting trip.

Scouting trip #3. August 23rd.
- I drove over in the middle of the night. Arrived at the trailhead around 2:30am. I slept in the backseat for a couple of hours. About 430 am I woke up and hiked out to the glassing knob I wanted to be on at sunup. Once the sun came up I was busy behind the glass. I had a huge area I could look at.. But after about an hour of glassing I had yet to turn up a single moose. Bust.

- I decided to bail of of this basin and try to make it over into the next basin before it got too late in the day. I got over to the next basin around 9am and started glassing. It didn't take long and I had moose spotted. I could make out what looked to be a good bull, but I was several miles away. He was bedded, so I moved around the basin to get a closer look. Once I got to within about 800 yards I could see the bull well. He definitely had my interest. He was a pretty nice bull, he had multiple brows on each side and definitely one I wanted to keep an eye on. Glassing the willows around him I turned up 2 cows, and then I caught a glimpse of another bull.. This one was a dandy. Bull #2 only had single brows, which I knew would hurt his score.. But man he sure looked impressive. I knew the first bull would likely score better, but both were good bulls and got me very excited.

-As I was watching the bulls and eating some lunch. All the moose suddenly jumped to their feet and bailed into the timber. As I watched, I saw 2 big grey objects bolting through the willows chasing after them. My first thought was "Wolves!" I got a closer look at them, and they sure did look like wolves.. But upon closer look I thought I could make out collars.. Then I could hear a guy yelling.. He was standing on the ridge calling after them.. Turns out the hiker was walking through the basin with his 2 big "wolf like" dogs, and they saw the moose and took off after them. I was pretty irritated with this. I decided this basin was blown out and I would have to check back in a couple of weeks to see if the moose returned.

- That evening my good buddy Travis came up and we went to check a couple of other basins. We saw 6 different bulls this evening. 4 were young bulls. 1 was another really nice single brow time bull. and 1 was a really big split brow bull. But the big bull was in a location we knew we couldn't hunt him, so we didn't spend much time on him. But he sure was cool to see.

- I had to drive home late this night. Travis stayed up and did some more looking on Sunday. On Sunday he was able to relocate the big single brow bull that the dogs had chased the day prior. The bull had moved about a mile away and was feeding in a big patch of willows. He then moved over and looked into another basin we had not yet looked at. He caught a brief glimpse of a bull. He sent me a grainy photo from a long ways off. He said he only got a brief look, but he said this bull looked really good, and he was definitely worth a closer look.

This was the first bull I spotted with multiple Brows.

This was the first big single brow tine bull.

This was the second nice Single brow bull.

 

[RaggedHunter]

The following weekend myself and my buddy Garren made the trek back to the unit for more scouting. This was the weekend before season opener. We left late that evening and got to a spot to throw out a pup tent around 2 am. Our first priority was to try and get eyes on the mystery bull that Travis had spotted the weekend prior.

We got a couple quick hours of shuteye then got up well before sunup to make our way to a master vantage point that should give us a good look into the basin the bull had been spotted in. As day broke, glassing was limited. Everything was fogged in, at times visibility went to virtually zero. We waited out the storm and would frantically glass in the brief windows where the fog would break. We spotted a moose very close to where the mystery bull had been seen, but we had yet to get a good look at him. Then we spotted another moose not far from the first. But with all the fog and rain, we could not tell what either moose was..

Finally the weather broke and we were able to get a good look at both moose. Both were bulls and good bulls at that. I recognized the first bull. It was the split brow bull that had been chased by the dogs a week prior, he had bumped into this basin after being buggered. The second bull was the mystery bull. It took a while for him to give us a good look, but when he did, I knew this was an exceptional bull.. He had it all, he had split brows, long paddles and an absolutely enormous body. We decided to call these 2 bulls Big John & Lil John (YEEEEAH!). Hoping some of you that grew up in the nineties and early 2000's catch that little gem..

We watched these bulls all morning learning their patterns. That afternoon we moved and checked out 2 new spots and struck out in both locations. By this point I had decided that Big John was the bull I wanted to put all my effort into. So we headed back to the basin they lived in and planned to watch them again on Sunday morning, trying to learn their every move.

We located both bulls again Sunday morning, feeding in a willow patch about half a mile from the one they had been in on Saturday morning. Big John was stripping his velvet. We watched him all morning as he raked and stripped his antlers. This was incredible to watch and experience.

We watched them until they bedded. Marked bedding locations on onx. And then headed for home. It was back home for 3 days, then I'd be heading back over to set camp and then hopefully baby sit Big John for a couple of days until the opener.

Big John

Big John

Big John & Lil John

Big John Stripping Velvet.

 

[RaggedHunter]

The next 3 days were grueling. All I could think about was getting back on the mountain. I was nervous that since Big John was already stripping his velvet. That he was going to move out of the basin and into the timber. I was worried that since archery deer and elk seasons started 4 days before moose season, that deer or elk hunters might bump them out. I was worried that some hippie with wolf dogs might decide to hike through that basin... Needless to say, I could not wait to get back up there.

Thursday finally arrived, I loaded up the truck and hit the road. My good Buddy Josh met me on the way up and together we made our way to where we were going to camp. We got there about mid day and got camp setup. We got a quick bite to eat, then made our way up to the glassing knob to glass for the evening. The anticipation was killing me. I was hoping and praying with everything I had, that they were still in there.

It didn't take us long before we had them located. They were right in the same exact willow patch where Garren and I had seen them the previous Sunday. What a huge relief.. We watched them until dark, and then made our way back to camp. We ate some dinner and turned in for bed.

The next morning we made our way back to the glassing knob. And as soon as it was light enough to make out anything through the glass, we had them spotted again. This time they were back in the Northern willow patch where we very first located them.. I was noticing a pattern.. The bulls seemed to be alternating between the northern and southern willow patches every day. I told Josh, I bet you those bulls are back in that southern willow patch tomorrow morning.

We watched the bulls until they bedded. Then decided to peak over into the neighboring basin to see if the big single brow bull was still around. It didn't take us long and we had a bull located. We moved around to get a closer look, it was not the single brow bull, but rather an even bigger bull with split fronts.. this was a very nice bull. I would have been more than happy with this bull, but I already had my heart set on Big John. We took some photos of him and decided to keep him in our back pocket.

Around mid day, the rest of the guys rolled into camp. Garren, my father in law, my grandpa, Garren, and Curt all showed up. We all made our way up to the glassing knob and watched big John & lil John until dark. They were still in the northern willow patch, but seemed to be working their way to the south.

I doubled down. I told the guys, that my bet was they would be in the south willow patch at first light.

It was a long sleepless night. The anticipation the night before opening day is always high. But this was more so than I have ever experienced.

Back Pocket bull in neighboring basin. (Can't see the split fronts from this angle but he was split).


Big John: all cleaned up night before opener.

 

[Jbehredt]

Hopefully lil Jon doesn’t give no lip to Big John.