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Opening morning of the Wyoming Archery season had come and I could not think of a better place to be than on the mountain. September is my favorite time of year to be hunting in the high country, perfect temps with warm days and cool nights.
I was on top of a long ridge that had a commanding view of the canyon below. It had just started to get light and I had successfully located a couple of Bull Moose that I had been watching throughout the summer. They were across the canyon on a long bench two to three hundred yards above the river bottom. The rain was slowly coming down and as I watched from above Moose, Elk, and Deer fed as they made their way to their bedding areas.
After some careful evaluation I made a decision to go ahead and try for a stalk. My bull was getting anxious and I knew this would be my only opportunity before they bedded down for the day. They left the bench and were making their way up to a small hidden lake just below a large rock slide. I made the decision to head out in the drizzling rain and attempt the stalk. The wet vegetation made for quiet walking and the rain helped to cover my scent as well, it was perfect. I tried several failed attempts to catch up to the bulls while they were on the move, but every time they were always one step ahead of me. Finally when I got up to their bedding area I got a break. The two bulls were now on a small game trail trying to find a place to lie down for the day. As I came over a small rise I immediately saw the smaller of the two bulls, he had me busted. I knew at only 30 yards it wasn’t going to be long before he took off and took the other bull with him. Just then the bigger bull stepped out in a small opening just big enough to slide an arrow through. What happened next was almost like going into auto pilot because I don’t remember anything about the shot other than my arrow making its way to the bull in record time, with a complete pass-through. The bull let a big grunt out and ran about ten to fifteen feet and stopped to look back to see what had just happened. At this point I was completely rattled! I didn’t know if he was going to run me over or run away. I did the best to pull myself together and carefully knocked another arrow. My second arrow caught the front shoulder and put the bull down for good.
When I got up to the fallen giant I was in awe. These animals are so massive; you really don’t realize it until you are right up next to one. Being on my own I set up for a few pictures and began capping for a full body rug. I could not lift or even roll him over by myself so I had to start capping as he lay.
Suddenly I caught movement down the draw in which I had just hiked up, a black bear had caught the scent of the dead moose and was on his way. Having a bear tag in my pocket I thought I might just get lucky and try to get an arrow into the bear. But just outside of bow range he caught a whiff of something he didn’t like and was out of their in a hurry.
I returned to the job at hand and four and a half hours later I had my moose fully skinned, quartered, and caped ready for the pack trip out. I left all the meat, head and cape and headed for town to get the horses and mules and pack gear for the pack out. After rounding up the horses, mules, and a couple of buddies we left the next morning for the pack trip in to the kill site. It was an enjoyable ride in with no issues, horse wrecks or any problems of any kind. We packed the bull up and were on our way back to the trail head in no time.
I want to thank my buddies who helped me with the pack trip out and to another friend who let me borrow his truck, trailer, mules, and pack saddles for the trip out. It’s great to have good friends you can count on, thanks guys.
Zach Clyde
About the Author:
Zach lives in Western Wyoming and loves to spend time in the outdoors with his family and friends.
Several times over the years the topic of variable scopes and ballistic reticles has come up. The question is whether these hold over lines are accurate as your crank the power of your scope up and down. In most cases the answer is no. 
I’ve had the MSR Hyperflow filter for about five years and have relied on it every year as my primary water source on backpack hunts, even horseback hunts. It’s very easy to use and pumps water fast. It’s rated at 3 liters per minute and weight 7.4 oz.
Imagine that you have drawn the limited entry mule deer tag for which you’ve been patiently waiting for over a decade. You’ve done your preseason homework and located a great buck. All the preparation and time that you have applied to this hunt finally pays off and you find yourself just at the brink of closing the deal on a trophy buck. 
The first thing I consider when packing for a hunting trip is the weather. I look up the forecast for the area and check the daily temperature, humidity, pressure and the moon phase. I can make do with most conditions but the two that I dread most are high winds and full moons. 
The Zeiss Conquest is truly one of my favorite rifle scopes. I've used it for a few years on my varmint rifle and it's seen some tough conditions but it has never let me down.
There's a few of these wearable cameras on the market now that can be a great way to start filming your hunts. They are simple to use and provide good video quality. The main downside is that the wide angle lens can't film a deer sized object at much beyond 50 yards.
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