Thirteen years of going to the Yukon for the moose rut in mid September, to experience what I consider to be the most exciting moment in big game hunting; when you call in a giant bull moose to within feet of you. Most of these years I have been guiding other lucky hunters, but I have also racked up quite a few hunter pins in this time but have never connected on my dream bull, until now. 

Twelve days ago my cameraman Anthony Springer and I were dropped off on a small lake in Jim Shockey's territory, just a few days before the rut normally gets into full swing. 

I have honestly never been so jacked up about a trip in my life. My brain had been mush the days leading up to flying in. 

Arriving on the shoreline of the lake, I jumped off the float plane and made a dash for the cabin, to get my camera out of the rain. In high gear I leaped up on the porch of the cabin at about 27mph... Completely forgetting the fact that EVERY CABIN in the Yukon has BEAR MATS laid out in front of the doors!!!!!!!!! For those of you that don't know what a bear mat is, it's a piece of plywood that's plastered with three inch nails sticking out of it, POINTY END UP, that lays in front if cabin doors... When a bear comes snooping around, he steps on the mat, gets poked in the foot by a rusty nail, THROWS A HISSY FIT and heads for the hills. 

My foot comes down at lightning speed as an old weathered, rusty spike slides through the soul of my MUCK BOOT like butter and penetrates the meat and potatoes of my left dog... It happened in slow motion really... The nail had lost some of its edge over the years so it was quite dull, taking my first 100 pounds of weight to break the skin, but once broke through the first layer it was well on its way, threading the needle between tiny bones and veins before coming to a halt at the top of my foot, protruding the skin as if it pitched itself a tent for the trip. If it had been a NOSLER BULLET, one would be thrilled with the performance. A RAGE BROADHEAD one would be quite disappointed there was no exit. But, it was neither, it was a three inch nail that had just made sweet love to my foot, and blew out my four wheel drive just five seconds into my hunt!!!

Decision time... Kelsy informed me on the sat phone that my tetanus hadn't been updated since 1996... Hmm... Stay in and hunt moose and possibly risk die'ing of lock jaw... Or, fly out... Some of the best pirates in history only had one eye, why couldn't a moose hunter only have one foot?!?!... I stayed. 

I didnt think it would be a big deal since we were planning on hunting from an Argo. Turns out, we had wiring trouble with a new winch draining our battery and by day two we were on foot... Not feet. Foot. One foot. 

Our bad luck train just picked up speed from there... In seven days we never saw a moose, never heard a grunt...nothing. Every day that went by I felt more desperate that we had to try harder, walk farther and call louder. But no matter how hard we tried, nothing changed. 

On day four we had a GIANT grizzly walk past us at ten yards!!! Anthony captured AMAZING footage of him, but I couldn't shoot because Jim had shot a grizzly two days before, in another camp, filling his quota for that zone. 

Having to let the bear of my dreams walk by, that close, and watch him fade away into the timber, combined with the fact we hadn't seen a moose the whole trip was ripping my insides out, knowing that we were striking out in the promise land. A trip and an opportunity that doesn't come around everyday. 

We hunted right down to the last day. We had run out of food. We were on one last hike before waving the white flag. At this point I wasn't even thinking about a giant old bull anymore... I was thinking about getting home to see Kels and wrapping my arms around her. 

We came over a rise, looking over a small grassy valley... Two hundred yards away there was a black object that looked out of place in the grass. Above the black object were creamy coloured spikes going every direction... I knew instantly what it was but just couldn't accept it until I focused my VORTEX binos on him... It was the bull of my dreams!!! 

He's 66.5" wide and the most gorgeous moose I will probably ever see in my life. 

This hunt just goes to show that you never know what's in store for you. And you always gotta believe that something great is just over the next rise. 

Jim Shockey,

From the bottom of my heart, Thank you for this opportunity. It means the world. 

P.S Stopped at the taxidermy shop in Whitehorse. Saw your moose... I think mine is bigger!!! He he