He Started Really Big For His First Kill

It’s customary for a young person who wants to become a big game hunter to start with a deer, even a doe deer, and then work up to the most impressive animal of the forests, a giant bull moose.

Benjamin P. Conley, 20, of Spokane, reversed the traditional procedure. He started with a huge, black bull moose.

He not only started with the biggest game animal of them all, he did it the hard way. He downed the bull with a muzzleloader, not a high powered modern rifle.

He also aced a couple of younger brothers who periodically reminded him that they had shot deer and that he hadn’t been successful.

Conley, son of Pat Conley and grandson of John Conley, founder and owner of the White Elephant stores in Spokane, is telling his friends and anyone else who will listen how he, while hunting in northeast Washington with his dad and Cliff Hamilton of Spokane, brought the giant moose down.

When he got lucky and drew a permit to hunt moose in the 49 Degrees North area, he hoped he’d be successful. After all, he had hunted deer since he was 11 years old and had never been successful in tagging one. Meanwhile, his brother, Adam, 16, has killed deer for three successive years and his brother, Joe, 17, has tagged two deer. He was acutely aware of the sibling rivalry.

Conley’s memorable hunt began during the only week he’d be able to spend hunting for moose. Mid-term exams were ahead at the University of Idaho and he needed time to study. He was relieved that his dad and Cliff Hamilton, Pat’s long-time hunting partner, would spend several days in the mountains with him. Hamilton is one of those rare hunters who senses what a game animal will do.

For three days, the three plowed through brush so dense that they often couldn’t see an animal a few feet in front them. However, they did see eight cow moose, one of them so close that Ben couldn’t have missed.

But Ben wanted a bull moose and he wanted to take it with his .50-caliber in-line muzzleloader. His permit was for either a cow or a bull moose.

On the fourth morning of the hunt, the three men used flashlights to reach a place where they decided to hunt. Suddenly, Hamilton tripped on a deadfall and tumbled about 30 feet down the steep hill. Pat Conley, concerned about his hunting partner, ran and stumbled down the hill.

Hamilton didn’t know it at the time, but he had broken three ribs and damaged three others. He insisted on continuing to hunt.

Later, Hamilton suggested that the three hunt in a different spot. They plowed through dense brush along a 45- to 50-degree slope.

“We were hiking along,” Ben said, “when we saw what we thought at first was a large black bear. Then we realized it was a moose, but we didn’t know whether it was a bull or a cow. Its hair was incredibly dark. The moose started up the hill and further into the thicket. I ran around to get a better view. It stopped and I got out my binoculars. The moose turned its head and I saw the big antlers.

“At first, I couldn’t shoot because of the thick brush. I called with a cow moose call and the bull answered. Then I saw his hump and front legs. I aimed and fired. I couldn’t see him because of the smoke from my muzzleloader. But I was able to hear him running through the brush.

“We started up the steep hill. I’d stop long enough to use the cow call. He’d grunt. Maybe he didn’t know he was hit. Finally, he stopped in a clearing and I fired again. And once again the smoke obscured what had happened. We ran up the hill. I called him again and he would grunt. We found him about 50 yards from us. He was on the ground. It took two more shots to put him down permanently.”

Later, the hunters discovered that Ben had hit the moose twice, almost in the same spot.

Fortunately for the hunters, the giant bull moose was only a few hundred yards from a forest road. The meat weighed 550 pounds, the head about 200 pounds and the hide about the weight of one of the quarters.

Now, Ben Conley has accomplished something his brothers might envy.

“I’ve done something that only a few people in this state have done,” He said. “In my family, only my great grandpa and great uncle had killed moose. Now, I’ve done it. The hunt gave me a page in the family history book.”

So what’s next? “I’ve been telling my dad that it’s time now for us to head up to Alaska so I can get something bigger,” he said.