Hike Hunt Harvest
The thought of being impaled by a 1400-pound wild animal was rushing through my head, all I wanted to do was get the rifle out and ready in case it charged. Unlike my father. All he wanted to do was get closer and get an unforgettable photo. But at what cost? Growing up being a female hunter, you learn many things that you think will help prepare you for this moment but nothing truly does when that moment truly arrives.
The start this particular journey with my moose hunt started out as a normal day with my now-husband, Cody. We had just finished going shopping at Sportsman’s warehouse when I got a call from my father. I could barely understand my dad over the phone, he kept yelling, “The moose tag!” and “It’s the Idaho unit 70!” I kept thinking my father got a moose tag again, and he was just excited. Then he asked me why I’m not excited, and I said something along the line of well that’s great but you have gotten moose tags before. Then he started yelling, “No Karen, YOU got the tag!” and at that moment I was stunned, I couldn’t scream, I couldn’t breathe, I was in so much shock Cody had to take the phone from me and talk to my father. The entire ride back to my parents’ house I sat there shocked, I couldn’t believe what I had just heard. I tried to process the fact that I am going to be hiking in the mountains of Pocatello Idaho, looking for a 1400-pound male bull moose during the rut and having to not only try and scout for it but also somehow harvest this animal.
My father and I showed up to Pocatello, Idaho, and started our scouting and trying to make sure all of our online and map information we had been studying the past few months was truly accurate. We spent the first two days scouting all over the unit. The first few days we saw only two bulls and a few cows but nothing we were able to hunt, until the night of September 26th.
It was twilight now; the new moon was just a few days away. We came down off a mountain in our UTV from scouting that certain area. Then just as we came around a bend, there they were. Just 50-60 yards away from us was a bull and cow moose behind him. Dad wanted to get a picture and kept driving closer to the moose with the headlights shining on them to try and get a good picture. That’s when things got spine-chilling. The 1400-pound bull moose put his head down as if he was going to charge and started to grunt. I will never forget the feeling, hearing this enormous wild beast grunt, seeing his head drop in anger and protection, and the urge to find the rifle for self-defense. Things around me were getting hazy, I could only hear my heart beating quickly in my ears, I couldn’t even get the words out to my dad to drive away quickly.
All I could do was hit my dad’s arm to get to safety and keep my eyes on the bull and pray that he doesn’t charge at us. Dad finally started to reverse the quad slowly, and in doing so the bull’s head came back up and they walked across the trail. My heart started to settle. All I could think about still was what if he did charge? I would have been impaled first then my dad. Who would know where we were on the trail? I contemplated these thoughts, and more on the way back to camp worried I may not be able to kill a moose when the time comes.
That night I laid there thinking. All I wanted to do was call Cody and ask for his advice, and hear him tell me that I could do it, that I had been training for this all my life. But there was no service in the woods. I spent most of the night wide awake reliving the experience, trying to comprehend why I was not able to move to get the rifle. Was I scared of being impaled? Or was it the fact that this creature weighed roughly 1400 pounds? Or was I just too scared? Maybe it was because I thought I didn’t deserve to be called a huntress. But I also couldn’t help but thinking why didn’t the bull charge at us? The morning finally came, dad and I got our packs all ready to go and ate some breakfast, and started up the UTV. We got a few miles down the road, still thinking to myself if I really deserved this once-in-a-lifetime hunt. All of a sudden dad slams on the breaks and my head hits his pack. Dad is hitting my arm hard and quickly which is our code for hurry and grab the rifle. Before I’m looking around at my surroundings like a good huntress should do, I quickly unpack the rifle from my pack. I look up into the ridgeline across the way about 250 yards to see the aspen trees moving. I was so confused, why were these trees moving so much? There was no wind. And it only seemed to be moving to the left of us. Then it hit me, what could make aspen trees move that much? It was a moose. We get the binoculars out to try and get a better look. Next thing you know my dad is pinching my arm, which means it’s shootable. At that moment everything changed.
Before all I could think about was how much I screwed up and was scared about hunting a moose, but now all I felt was excitement and adrenaline. In all my years of hunting, I have never had such a rush before. My hands were shaking beyond control, my heart was pounding in my ears, I could barely catch my breath. I tried to get my rifle on the tripod carefully. I loaded the 7mm round into the chamber. And pushed the bolt into place, now the round was in the chamber. All that was left was for me to look through the scope and pull the trigger. The moment that I put my face to the stock of the rifle and looked through the scope everything went quiet. I couldn’t hear my heartbeat anymore, no more water rushing over rocks below, no more heavy breathing. I put my finger over the trigger, put the crosshairs behind the shoulder blade of the bull. I breathed in once, and BANG!!!!
The shot rang out through my body, the kick threw me back into the world getting my heart racing again. Once I realized what I had done I looked through the scope again and loaded another round into the chamber ready in case something went wrong and I needed to shoot again. When I realized the moose had not moved and was still standing there my heart sunk, I thought I had failed the shot somehow and asked dad what went wrong. He said I shot it but to relax and keep on him, he said it was a kill shot but it takes longer for the body to shut down like it does a deer. I sat there rifle still on my shoulder, eyes focused on right behind the shoulder blade in case I needed to shoot again. Then the moose’s butt decided to sit down then slowly the moose laid down. I couldn’t keep the excitement in, I jumped up and screamed with excitement. I, Karen Vallauri, at the age of 21 had just shot and killed a Shirah moose in the third-best location to hunt moose in the world.
With the smell of fresh blood lingering in the air, mixing with the smell of the swamp-like creek below, we started cutting into the hide of the freshly harvested moose. As I neiled there next to the moose I realized I really could do anything if I just believed in myself. Here laid in front of me a 1400-pound wild animal. Later that night we realized this moose was actually the one from the night before, I was able to hike, hunt, and finally harvest it. I am a huntress in today’s world. The fact that I can actually scout for the animal myself, be able to load and know how to shoot and where, and lastly be able to harvest the meat myself truly means I can do it ( and so can anyone else if you practice and learn). After all that worry about not being good enough, and focusing on my doughts, there in front of me laid the proof. Dad and I were able to quarter the moose with ease once the adrenaline finally wore off, but the mission was still not over. We still had to pack the meat out and get it safely over the swampy water without ruining the meat. But that’s a story for another day. I learned a lot about myself on this trip. Nature will always be a part of me no matter where I am in my life. From taking our honeymoon in Alaska soon enough, going wheeling in the dessert of Nevada with family for a week, to taking our future children out hunting and watching them grow up the same way I did, I could not imagine who I would be if it was not for being an outdoorswoman.
Moose hunt was fall of 2016
