New Brunswick moose hunt is in the books. it was a bit of a gong show, but got it done about noon on the last day of the five day hunt. I was so swamped with family and work stuff, that I didn't manage to do any load development- or even verify zero. In the end, I grabbed the 7 Shamwow with the 120 TSX load that I've shot forever. That rifle/ammo combo has been rock solid for years, so I figured I was safe. More on the later. The rut really hadn't kicked off on opening day. We saw one good bull for roughly 30 seconds on the first morning, but couldn't get a shot. After another 2 days of scanning clear cuts, we finally figured out that they were in the strip cuts. I finally got a shot on day 4. 40yards. Supported. Air ball. WTF? I was definitly excited, but really? I wrote it off to shooter error, and moved on. Day 5 morning, same thing happens, but this time I was much more confident in my shot. We finally set up a target. At 25m, I'm a full revolution of the M1 elevation turret high. Well, that certainly explains some things! At this point I'm felling pretty stupid, and dejected. Everthing we've seen up until this point has been fleeting, and numbers are way down. Even locals are shooting cows, and I'm not at all confident we'll get another chance. Then, an hour later, there's a decent sized moose, broadside in a strip cut at 70m. Head was down, so I had no idea if it was a bull or a cow, and didn't really care. I made a good lung shot, and we walked up on a 5 pt eater bull. He went 10 yards. Loonie sized entrance and exit, with lots of lung damage. To say I was relieved is an understatement, and 120 TSX at 3350 sure did the job.
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