Tip, luck key to bagging record
The key to claiming the Washington state record moose last fall came down to the oldest and most reliable of hunting methods, said Jeff McKeen of Spokane.
“I got a tip from a friend and jumped on it,” the Burlington Northern Railroad conductor said. “Beyond that, I was just lucky to be in the right place at the right time.”
McKeen said his friend, Andrew Stenbeck, knew loggers and other workers who had seen a big bull in the forest north of Colville.
“I’d never hunted in that area, but I called the (Fish and Wildlife Department) biologists in Chewelah and he told me it was a good bet and that I should go up and start hiking up old logging roads and looking for sign.
“I got out one morning with my friend and we were walking down a drainage glassing the clearcuts like the biologist said. I had only gone a few hundred yards when I saw two cows and another bull.
“I didn’t see the big one at first. He was bedded down, but we saw the tips of his antlers. Then he stood up and I said, ‘Whoa!’ “
Like most hunters who draw a rare Washington moose tag, it was McKeen’s first moose hunt.
“I’d been putting in for moose tags for 20 years,” he said. “I’d waited until November so it would be cool and there wouldn’t be a chance of the meat spoiling. I got the bull on my fourth day of hunting.”
McKeen said he didn’t see any moose in the first three days of hunting.
“Then I called my buddy and it’s a good thing,” he said. “When the first bull got up I was going to shoot. My buddy said I should hold off because there might be a bigger one, but I’m thinking that one looks good to me.
“I’m glad I waited.”
Larry Carey, an official Boone and Crockett scorer in Spokane, measured the trophy this winter after the required 60-day drying period and gave it a score of 1684/8 points.
“According to all the records I have access to, it’s the largest hunter-taken moose in the state of Washington,” he said.
Carey has sent the paperwork to Boone and Crockett headquarters for final analysis.
Carey scored two other bull moose with antlers that spread wider than McKeen’s, but they scored lower, he said.
Ed Melvill, of Spokane bagged a bull with a 51-inch spread, but it scored only 130 Boone and Crockett points, Carey said, noting that he’s scored Washington bulls with antlers measuring as wide as 57 inches, but McKeen’s still outscores them.
“McKeen’s bull is only 44 inches wide, but the palmation and long tines make it score higher,” he said.
The previous Washington records included a 1606/8-point bull taken in Pend Oreille County in 1977, the first year moose hunting was allowed in Washington, Carey said. A 51-inch-wide bull scoring 1615/8 was tagged in Pend Oreille County in 2000.
The Washington bull moose with the largest recorded rack scored 175 points, Carey said.
“But it doesn’t count in the record books because it was illegally taken and turned over to the state,” he said.