# A Cupcake Breaks Hearts



## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

My little Cupcake killed her first big game animal yesterday and I'm a proud (sore) papa today.

After years of brainwashing and months of reinforcing the idea that she was going to shoot a calf, she broke my heart last weekend when she passed on solo calves and declared that she wanted to shoot a "big, giant, mama moose". I about cried in shame. Where did I go wrong?! Cupcake broke my heart with those words.

After a few failed stalks last weekend while Grandpacake was visiting, the plan was for me to go sea duck hunting with Ava yesterday 12/10.

But no. With temps in the small negatives on the coast and 4-5' seas, duck hunting got cancelled. So what to do? Load up and head to the mountains to hunt moose. Oh, and those mountains just got another +30" of powder this week, on top of the 30" from 10 days ago. My snowmobile ain't a powder sled, so we'd have to hunt like the poors.

The morning started out brisk at -8F at our house, quickly dropping to -22F as we made our way to the canyon.

Once it warmed up to -14F I finally let her put the stalk on a group of 2 cows and a calf. She tried a 125 yard iron sight shot, and I swear I saw that draft horse flinch. As we watched those moose trot off into the trees I began to hate my decisions in life that morning.

Leaving my Cupcake in the running truck to stay warm I stupidly went out to look for signs of a hit.

I did 800 yards in powder that routinely was over my waist following their tracks, without a drop of blood or a chunk of hair to show for it. It was -18F when I got back to the truck, and delivered the bad news. She missed. But that cow's flinch was stuck on repeat in my head.

We went up the road a few more miles, and turned around. As we got back to the scene of the shot I convinced myself I needed to check again. Maybe I missed something. And besides it has warmed up to -10!

This time I did 1.27 miles following every set of tracks I could find, but still nothing.

As I floundered back across the frozen creek I noticed a cow standing in the road 30 yards in front of the truck, with my Cupcake yelling out the window for me to hurry. Very helpful.

Gasping I help her grab her gun, load it, and start walking, trying to push the moose to the creek side of the road instead of the forest. It did not oblige.

We quickly ran up to where we could see it 20 yards off the road in the deadfall timber. I step off the road and immediately sink to my arm pits in the powder. I can just barely see the top of the moose's hump. After wiggling a hole a whisper for Cupcake to join me. I lift her onto a fallen log up by my ear, hoping that will let her see the moose. As I stabilize her she lines up for a shot, but tries to shoot through the brush. That doesn't work very well with a 100gr .243 bullet.

Thinking she might have hit it, I followed it's tracks for .2 miles without a drop of blood.

Exhausted, I limp back to the truck and delivered the bad news. But hey, it warmed up to -7F!

We head back up to the top of the road where there are some switchbacks that give you a great view into a wooded slope with some clearings.

Sure enough, there were 2 cows and a calf at just over 200 yards (turned out to be 227). I carve out the snow berm to make a flat spot, lay out a couple gun cases for a rest, and set up my grandpa's .270 for her to use. The .243 just wasn't gonna cut it at that distance. She lay down and started looking through the scope.

"Can you see the moose? Do you want me to make them bigger in the scope? Here let me----"

BOOM!

The cow hunches up, clearly hit hard.

"I got the momma! Yes! Dad, can you finish her off so she doesn't run away, I'm freezing" Cupcake chattered.

I took the gun, racked another round, dialed it up from 3x to 9x, and waited for the calf to clear. Oh why couldn't she have shot that beautiful baby?! As soon as the calf stepped clear I sent a round into her and the cow dropped. She lifted her head and I put another round into the base of her skull. I didn't want to risk her moving off into the trees while we figured out how to get to her. It was 2:21, and we had about 2hrs until dark. -7° at the truck and the magnitude of my stupidity began to set in. I sent a couple buddies a message begging for mercy, and miraculously they both said they'd be there in 1.5hrs.

There was a road below her that looked closer, so we got the truck and trailer parked in a nearby pullout, loaded up the jet sled with the chainsaw, sawzall, and shovel. I started breaking the trail, but after 5 yards I took my Cupcake and Ava back to the truck to stay warm. This was gonna suck. Big time.

After an hour of swimming and shoveling, I reached her moose. 147.5 yards from the road. Minimum 60" of powder base. Holy balls that sucked. I made three trips on the trail stomping and shoveling more before I went and got my Cupcake. Hey! It was now 0°F! No wonder I was sweating like a pig in a sauna.

Cupcake managed to make it up the hill to her prize, and all the efforts and pain to get there were forgotten.

































My knights in shining armor arrived shortly afterwards, having each brought a kid similar in age to my Cupcake. We left all of them under Ava's watchful care in my running truck and headed up the hill to do the hard work. Two hours after they showed up, we had everything back to the truck, and as a bonus, it had warmed up to 14F in preparation of the major snowstorm that was coming in the next day.

The heart told the story. Her shot and my first follow up were 2 inches apart. She had no need to worry about me doing a follow-up--that cow was already dead before I sent any copper flying it's way.









We kicked Mamacake's car out of the garage for the next week to let everything hang and relax a bit.








I'm in agony today, but we both can't stop smiling! She's definitely hooked, so I'll forgive her for not killing a baby moose. This time.


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## 3arabians (Dec 9, 2014)

Wowzers! Congrats to you and your cupcake! That is hardcore. That’s a tough cupcake you got there man!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## middlefork (Nov 2, 2008)

Nothing like a moose to ingrain how much effort is involved after the shot. Congrats to all the cakes!


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

middlefork said:


> Nothing like a moose to ingrain how much effort is involved after the shot. Congrats to all the cakes!


This was the closest moose to a road I've been involved with by a lot---second closest was just over a mile. 

But that 60" of snow was ROUGH. I needed it to be only 30" or less and I could've used my snowmobile and made it easy peasy. But no. I'm a moron and kept taking her up into the mountains despite massive snowfall. Supposed to get another 20-30" between now and tomorrow.


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## CPAjeff (Dec 20, 2014)

So awesome - congrats to you and your daughter on the moose!


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## one4fishing (Jul 2, 2015)

Wow she really did break a heart. Congrats


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## AF CYN (Mar 19, 2009)

Congrats to you and cupcake! I'm glad you survived!


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## BigT (Mar 11, 2011)

That is so cool!!! Congrats


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## pollo70 (Aug 15, 2016)

Way cool .. congrats! to the both of you.


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## Airborne (May 29, 2009)

Aside from your failures as a father in the baby killin biz, That is Awesome!!  That amount of snow is crazy! 

I assume the Ptarm's just stick it out and live in the pine trees? In the winter do they eat pine needles like our grouse?


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## caddis8 (Sep 10, 2007)

How old is Juniorettecake? That's so awesome. Great shooting- heart shot, so awesome. What we'll do for our children. But 60" of snow is terrible. And cutting trail in that snow is terrible-er.


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## colorcountrygunner (Oct 6, 2009)

Nice work, daddycake. The cupcake will come around as a baby killer, I'm sure of it. Your day sounded like the perfect combo of bliss and misery.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

Airborne said:


> Aside from your failures as a father in the baby killin biz, That is Awesome!!  That amount of snow is crazy!
> 
> I assume the Ptarm's just stick it out and live in the pine trees? In the winter do they eat pine needles like our grouse?


The ptarmy bastages rarely go into/below tree line. They just bury into the snow up in the alder and willow brush (or even higher up in the rocks). All winter long they eat dwarf willow, dwarf birch, and alder buds. 

My girlycake is 9, she'll be 10 in March. We're going to do Hunter's Safety this winter so she can have her own tags next season. She's applied for the Alaska Draw for next year already, so given beginner's luck I fully expect her to draw a bison or muskox tag.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

So glad we got that done Saturday! We've got another 24" overnight and it's still coming down. Supposed to stop this afternoon, but then another storm hits tomorrow with 18" forecast. It's gonna be an epic winter in the Northland!


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## BGD (Mar 23, 2018)

JC you are certifiably nuts! But sometimes that is exactly what it takes to make memories that will last a life time. I am sure she will never forget it. Congrats to cupcake on the moose.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

This is my favorite thread.


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## jewbacca (Jan 27, 2020)

Love it. I've been trying (unsuccessfully) to convince my wife that we should move to Kenai. Your experiences are partially to blame. I have an almost-7 year old daughter, a 5-year old boy (and one or two other stragglers), and I dream of raising them on wild Alaskan game


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## bowgy (Oct 10, 2007)

That is so awesome, is that workout in the snow helping to build your lung capacity up from the covid loss? I got tired just reading your post.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

bowgy said:


> That is so awesome, is that workout in the snow helping to build your lung capacity up from the covid loss? I got tired just reading your post.


I do ok when I'm just snowshoeing, and I can lift the big chunks in place, but when you mix the two I'm almost as useless as my 56lbs daughter. It's rough still, and probably doesn't help that I'm at the tail end of a chest cold turned pneumonia that I came down with the day after Thanksgiving


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## colorcountrygunner (Oct 6, 2009)

johnnycake said:


> I do ok when I'm just snowshoeing, and I can lift the big chunks in place, but when you mix the two I'm almost as useless as my 56lbs daughter. It's rough still, and probably doesn't help that I'm at the tail end of a chest cold turned pneumonia that I came down with the day after Thanksgiving


Just imagine if you were still lugging around that 30 or however many pounds of tallow that you lost.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

colorcountrygunner said:


> Just imagine if you were still lugging around that 30 or however many pounds of tallow that you lost.


Yup.


But I found another way to solve my problem. I'm buying a powder sled tomorrow that should be good to go in the deep fluff.


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## bowgy (Oct 10, 2007)

johnnycake said:


> Yup.
> 
> 
> But I found another way to solve my problem. I'm buying a powder sled tomorrow that should be good to go in the deep fluff.


What we do for our kids.
But you may need to get this with all the game you are able to hunt up there.


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## bowgy (Oct 10, 2007)

I do have a cow elk tag for the Panguitch unit, I will have to go out this weekend and see if the snow has moved the elk into my area.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

After hanging for 5-6 days, now I'm having some fun making fancier cuts than I usually do with hunted game. Not that often that I can bring out the whole carcass to play with.


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## wyogoob (Sep 7, 2007)

johnnycake said:


> After hanging for 5-6 days, now I'm having some fun making fancier cuts than I usually do with hunted game. Not that often that I can bring out the whole carcass to play with.
> View attachment 154975
> 
> View attachment 154977
> ...


The best!


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## caddis8 (Sep 10, 2007)

Those are awesome tomahawk steaks. Are you going to continue to age or just cook? I had moose a very long time ago. I wouldn't anticipate it to be gamey, especially from Alaska since there isn't sage brush to eat. Alders, willows, and grasses, with perhaps some lichens mixed in? Juniorettecake should be happy with that. Super fun.


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## johnnycake (Jul 19, 2011)

caddis8 said:


> Those are awesome tomahawk steaks. Are you going to continue to age or just cook? I had moose a very long time ago. I wouldn't anticipate it to be gamey, especially from Alaska since there isn't sage and brush to eat. Alders, willows, and grasses, with perhaps some lichens mixed in? Juniorettecake should be happy with that. Super fun.


No crazy aging on this one, no need. She's probably a 4yr old cow (gotta take the lower jaw to adfg today and will find out for sure). Just hung long enough to fully relax out of rigor mortis and be ready to cut. The samplers we've done have all been perfectly tender and just excellent flavor. 

Brought some seared tenderloin trim from the chain and a bit of trim from the ribeye roast end to the work party and it was inhaled in minutes---and only one other person at the office hunts. The provided main course was prime grade beef tenderloin and the unanimous consensus was the moose was both more tender and better flavored.


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