Bringing Home Meat

Well once again the Kopp family has meat in the freezer that probably isn't in the freezer of anyone else in our social network. I (Chris) had a great time in Galena Alaska during the final week of Moose season with my two brothers (Greg and Jason), and my brother Jason's father-in-law Steve Pavish. Clint Bartlett, my good friend from north Louisiana came up on the trip as well, but decided that roughing it Alaska style was not his cup of tea and chose to go home two days into the eight day hunt.

Jason had done a fantastic job of making the hunt a very pleasant one. We had a canvas wall tent, equipped with deluxe cots and a wood burning stove. Let me tell you that that was posh living compared to normal moose hunting trips. The weather was perfect the whole time we were there. Now remember that perfect weather is kind of like beauty, it's all in the eye of the beholder. The highest temperature we had was probably 52. The lowest we recorded was 19. It snowed on us the very last day we were in Galena. Perfect. We saw a lot of moose, but were not able to get a shot on a bull until the last hunt of the last day. We're walking in a line down the trail to go out for our morning hunt, Jason, Me , Greg, and Steve. Jason stops and makes a challenge call. We wait and don't hear or see anything. We (Jason and I) take about 3 steps then BOOM!! We spin around to see what happened and Greg has his rifle shouldered pointing off to our right. We look and 27 yards to our right is a 36inch bull that has the look in his eyes of "What just happened?" Jason and I try to get our guns off our shoulders. The bull turns to run and Jason lands the second shot that drops the bull where it stood (I'll spare you the gore, but it was an impressive shot).
So I brought home about 130lbs of hamburger meat and back strap. One hind quater weighs about 120lbs on this moose. And he was not a big guy either. So here I am safe and sound back in Louisiana. Come pass by the house and we'll fix you a moose burger.