No bull: Friends stick together to get moose

Good thing they did all that homework last year.

It made this year's bull moose hunt that much easier.

On Saturday, Wayne Stockdale of Athol got a bull moose with a 47 1/2 inch rack north of Sandpoint in the Pack River area.

"This is the biggest thing I ever got," he said. "It's a once in a lifetime draw, the moose tag."

He shot the moose within a few hundred yards of where his hunting buddy, Rob Gravelle of Rathdrum, got his bull moose last year.

"We were both lucky enough to get our bulls in there," he said.

The two longtime friends scouted the area in 2009 when Gravelle received his permit. They posted cameras and determined where to set up for their best chances of success. It paid off then and again this time around.

"We did all the leg work last year," Stockdale said.

The 57-year-old established camp Friday, but "saw nothing" and was joined later by Gravelle.

That night, a bull moose wandered by the back of their tent, which got the two hunters fired up.

"It was pretty uplifting," he said.

The next morning they drove their motorcycles uphill, found a site to stop, and tried calling in their quarry.

A small bull moose came running, then retreated, and then four more came around. None was quite what Stockdale was after.

Then, they heard the one - and they knew.

"It sounded like a grizzly bear," Stockdale said. "I told Rob, 'I want to see that one.'"

It meandered out, 40 yards away and turned slowly toward the men hidden in the brush. When it got to within 30 yards, Stockdale aimed his Remington .300 Win Mag and squeezed the trigger. The shot struck the moose in the chest. It went down, got up, and ran about 30 yards before collapsing and dying.

For Stockdale, it was the hunt of a lifetime.

"It's pretty exciting," he said.

That was not the end of the fun, though.

It took some 30 hours of cutting and packing and three trips that day and one more Sunday to get all the meat out.

Stockdale said they were nervous about returning to the kill Sunday.

"There's grizzlies up there," he said.

Sure enough, they discovered a bear did get to the carcass, but the meat that had been hoisted high was safe.

Stockdale was glad he was there to help Gravelle last year, and his friend returned the favor this year.

"He's the best," Stockdale said.