My Nonprofit Reviews

Wow...thats all I can say. *Warning Long But Good"

A little while back I was notified by Daniel Waite from Operation ReBoot OutDoors that I was selected as the recipient of a donated Bull Moose tag in Maine. Mr Gene White donated the tag and had final say so in who was going on this hunt. To say I was blown away would be the understatement of the century. A once in a lifetime opportunity had just presented itself and I was sure going to make sure I did my part.

Later I talked to Steven Morse and Matt Hamel about necessary gear and expectations and the plan was set. I needed to meet Steve's wife to pick up some gear and she had a few extra items, so I reached out to Matt to see what was going on. Somehow, he had service and turns out he locked his keys in his truck while out scouting for my hunt and I was only 50 mins from his house, so I took a detour to get his spare and back on the road I go.

We did some scouting on Sunday and found we had a daytime picture of a monster from that morning. We hunted that spot on the opener, but the wind swirld alot and it was warm. We didn't see or here any moose.

Tuesday, both of the other veterans in camp punched their tags on really nice bulls early so Matt, Chris and I stopped the hunt and went to help Steve get his beautiful bull out of the timber. After getting back to camp, I realized I didn't have my phone...I had lost it in the North Maine Woods somewhere between Steve's harvest site and Matt's truck!! This is significant in alot of ways not the least of which, THIS IS MY WAY HOME!! Chris jumped into action and a short time later returned with my phone. It fell out of my pocket when I jumped out of Steve's truck to get back into Matt's! Oh the relief!! Now to focus on the hunt!

Wednesday morning the wind was calm, it had been cold the last two nights and we knew the bulls would be talking. Wyatt had another bull on camera that he called "Triton" and we pushed in on him. We checked the camera on the way in...nothing...dang. But there was sign, and opportunity so we pressed on. A few hundred yards down the cut, we let out a cow call and got a response that everyone heard and immediately knew we needed to get set up. The bull was coming our way and we had a wind that we hoped would not shift even a little or he would have busted us. We made one more 50 yard move up to a maple that gave us a little better view of the end of this cut. This bull was grunting, raking, pushing down trees and putting on a show! Steve used the paddles, Wyatt grunted back at him, Matt was spraying the scents and Chris stood back and was breaking limbs and sticks while Cole Huff got it all on video! A true group effort.

This bull came in to 55 yards when I smacked him with the first shot out of my dads .30-06 (he passed last November), the bull startled and moved to our left, now at about 40 yards and I put another one in him and he instantly dropped!

The excitement, the emotion, the connection, the brotherhood all sealed forever in that moment. Ill be honest, I had a moment with my father...and I cried.

So many things had to happen for this to become a reality for me. I truely won the lottery! I will never forget the trip, the camp, the people, the organization, the volunteers, the donor of the tag and my wife for making this possible. Without all of you, this dream would have never become a reality.

The bull known as Triton had triple brows on both sides, was 50.75 inches wide and had 18 points (at the check station but we say 20) and there was 433 lbs of deboned meat dropped off to the processor so probably tipped the scales around 1000 pounds.

All I can say is "Wow"!!