Friday, June 9, 2023
No Result
View All Result
SUBSCRIBE
The Chimney Rock Chronicle
58 °f
Broadway
59 ° Wed
63 ° Thu
61 ° Fri
64 ° Sat
64 ° Sun
  • Home
    • About Us
    • Pickup Locations
  • Columns
    • All
    • Book Notes
    • Eating Well in the Real World
    • Faith
    • Fishing with Mike
    • From the Potting Shed
    • Fulks Run Follies
    • Gobbler Sports
    • Headlines from Plains Museum
    • Hiking With Ray
    • Local Business
    • Local Legends
    • Musings from the Woodpile
    • Personal & Professional Development
    • Randy's Ramblings
    • Reflections from a Fuller Life
    • Sarah's Recipes
    • The Gospel Vault
    • The View From Here
    • The Wandering Wilkins
    Photograph of Wes Dove

    Investing in Change

    The Wandering Wilkins

    The Wandering Wilkins

    The View From Here

    The View From Here

    Randy image

    Randy’s Ramblings

    Hiking with Ray

    Hiking with Ray

    Plants with history

    Plants with history

    Bass Fishing with Mike – December 2021

    Fishing with Mike

    Understanding the Holy Spirit – Part 4

    The Importance of Fellowship

    john coffman in alaska

    Our 11,635 mi camping trip to Arctic

    WLTK Logo

    Gospel Vault

    Spiritual Fitness Is Crucial

    The Proof Is In The Doing

    Photograph of Ronnie Fulk

    Fulks Run Follies

    From the Potting Shed

    From the Potting Shed

    chicken scratch bakery

    Home Baked Goodness!

    Crunch Time

    Crunch Time

    Trending Tags

    • Entertainment & Events
    • History
      • All
      • Bev's Historic Notes
      Plants with history

      Plants with history

      Paul Saunders, Singers Glen’s Hero of WWII

      Paul Saunders, Singers Glen’s Hero of WWII

      Cullers Run School in Hardy County, West Virginia

      Cullers Run School in Hardy County, West Virginia

      The Chimney Rock VFW Celebrates 75 Years of Service

      The Chimney Rock VFW Celebrates 75 Years of Service

      HEADLINES From Plains District Memorial Museum

      Highlights from the Plains District Memorial Museum

      Bad Roads

      Revolutionary War Service

      Mattress Shopping

      Retta’s Column

      HEADLINES From Plains District Memorial Museum

      Headlines from PLAINS DISTRICT MEMORIAL MUSEUM

      The Miller Family of the Genoa Area

      The Miller Family of the Genoa Area

    • Our Sponsors
      • Advertising
    • Home
      • About Us
      • Pickup Locations
    • Columns
      • All
      • Book Notes
      • Eating Well in the Real World
      • Faith
      • Fishing with Mike
      • From the Potting Shed
      • Fulks Run Follies
      • Gobbler Sports
      • Headlines from Plains Museum
      • Hiking With Ray
      • Local Business
      • Local Legends
      • Musings from the Woodpile
      • Personal & Professional Development
      • Randy's Ramblings
      • Reflections from a Fuller Life
      • Sarah's Recipes
      • The Gospel Vault
      • The View From Here
      • The Wandering Wilkins
      Photograph of Wes Dove

      Investing in Change

      The Wandering Wilkins

      The Wandering Wilkins

      The View From Here

      The View From Here

      Randy image

      Randy’s Ramblings

      Hiking with Ray

      Hiking with Ray

      Plants with history

      Plants with history

      Bass Fishing with Mike – December 2021

      Fishing with Mike

      Understanding the Holy Spirit – Part 4

      The Importance of Fellowship

      john coffman in alaska

      Our 11,635 mi camping trip to Arctic

      WLTK Logo

      Gospel Vault

      Spiritual Fitness Is Crucial

      The Proof Is In The Doing

      Photograph of Ronnie Fulk

      Fulks Run Follies

      From the Potting Shed

      From the Potting Shed

      chicken scratch bakery

      Home Baked Goodness!

      Crunch Time

      Crunch Time

      Trending Tags

      • Entertainment & Events
      • History
        • All
        • Bev's Historic Notes
        Plants with history

        Plants with history

        Paul Saunders, Singers Glen’s Hero of WWII

        Paul Saunders, Singers Glen’s Hero of WWII

        Cullers Run School in Hardy County, West Virginia

        Cullers Run School in Hardy County, West Virginia

        The Chimney Rock VFW Celebrates 75 Years of Service

        The Chimney Rock VFW Celebrates 75 Years of Service

        HEADLINES From Plains District Memorial Museum

        Highlights from the Plains District Memorial Museum

        Bad Roads

        Revolutionary War Service

        Mattress Shopping

        Retta’s Column

        HEADLINES From Plains District Memorial Museum

        Headlines from PLAINS DISTRICT MEMORIAL MUSEUM

        The Miller Family of the Genoa Area

        The Miller Family of the Genoa Area

      • Our Sponsors
        • Advertising
      No Result
      View All Result
      The Chimney Rock Chronicle
      Subscribe
      Thank you to our Sponsors! Thank you to our Sponsors! Thank you to our Sponsors!
      Home Columns Local Legends

      The Midnight Ride of Paul Reve …the Moose Hunter

      A true story by John M. Coffman

      John Coffman by John Coffman
      December 30, 2022
      in Columnists, Entertainment, John Coffman, Local Legends, Sports
      Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

      It was 11:00 p.m. and I and (let’s just call him Paul) my hunting companion were sitting in our hunting cabin getting ready to go to bed because tomorrow was moose season in Alaska. We were going to hunt Alaska Yukon Moose the next day and the subject got on our heart problems. Both of us have heart problems. I had just recently had a quadruple open heart surgery operation. I noticed him sitting there wringing his hands and acting uneasy. I remember him asking several questions about if I ever used the nitroglycerin pill they give you in case you think you are having a heart attack. I told him that I had never had to use any, but I carried them all the time with me. He said, “I don’t think I am feeling well”. I ask him if he wanted one of my pills and he said he didn’t. We sat there a few minutes longer and as he rose from the chair he said “I think I had better get to the hospital in Fairbanks. Wow! That was a mouthful. How!? We were 15 mi. from the main road across the Alaska tundra by 4-wheeler at 11.30 at night.
      It was about 11:30 p. m. and pitch dark. We were in such a rush to get moving the only thing I remember was hearing a wolf howl in the distance. I got my coat and hat on, forgetting my gun, something you never do in Alaska. I was using a Mod 700 Remington XCR, cal. 338 Rem Ultra Magnum, yes, a big one, and left it hanging on the wall in the cabin. Never thought once about meeting a grizzly with a sore butt. So we jumped on our 4-wheelers and took off.

      Also, I was not used to running a 4 wheeler let alone in pitch blackness. I had never operated a 4-wheeler before except getting to the cabin. The territory between our cabin and the highway were full of deep gullies and the worst obstacles were the three bottomless mud areas you had to cross. When going to the cabin we got stuck in all three. You have to have one 4-wheeler to pull the other one out.
      When coming onto a gulley your headlights would shine across leaving the bottom in the dark. You wouldn’t know what was in the bottom until you started down, by then it was too late if you did not want to continue.

      We got to the parking lot at approx. 3:00 a.m., loaded the two 4 wheelers on the trailer and headed north to Fairbanks, with me driving. All the way up the road we saw spectacular displays of the northern lights. None like I had ever seen before. I would have liked to have photographed them but there was no time for that.

      We got to the hospital at approx. 5:00 a. m. His wife was there waiting as we had called her earlier. She went in with him as I stayed in the truck to get a few winks.

      They emerged at about 6:30 from the hospital. Everything checked out O. K. False alarm.

      We went on to his house and slept until about 3 p.m. We then headed back to the cabin. We hunted all the next day and for 3 more days without seeing a moose big enough.

      The next day I saw my moose for the first time. We were on this ridge where we had been since getting back in moose country. When we first saw him, we couldn’t believe he got to that spot without us (2 people, 4 eyes) seeing him. He was thrashing the black spruce trees with his big antlers trying to remove the velvet. After a while he began moving away from us. It was time to get down from the ridge and try to head him off. We rushed to where he should be and on us coming out in a little clearing, we saw him. Huge! He was broadside to us and he turned his head to the right to look at us. All I heard was “Shoot him”. I rested the .338 R.U.M. on a limb of a small spruce tree and centered the crosshairs behind his shoulders and putting a little more pressure on the trigger and …BOOM! The gun erupted. Oh No, he didn’t move! I couldn’t have missed, as big as he was. He was only 208 yards away from me. I hurriedly bolted another shell into the chamber …BOOM! Still no movement like he was hit. I couldn’t believe it. That is a big gun. That gun has a muzzle energy to equal a .375 H & H Mag. I bolted another round in the chamber and again fired…BOOM! We stood there in amazement for a few seconds. Then I remembered reading a story a couple of years before in a hunting magazine about something. Moose sometimes keep standing on their feet after their brain tells them they are dead. I didn’t see any need to shoot him again. The shells are too expensive, $2.75 ea. at last count. I might need them later to save me from a grizzly. Before the thought got out of my head, we started to see his rear slowly starting to fall. Since then, I have heard of that same thing happening two or three different times.

      On butchering him we saw the bullet holes. All 3 shots were in a 6 in circle right where I was holding. That moose was dead on the first shot. That’s why he didn’t move. The gut pile was huge. A lot different than field dressing a deer. It took two people to lift a hind quarter up on the 4-wheeler. I am told Alaskans only take the four quarters of a moose leaving the rest for the bears, foxes, wolves and wolverines. I don’t know what the Eskimos do.

      We were very fortunate to shoot him at a place where he could be reached with the 4 wheelers. I would hate to have to carry him (1700 lbs.) very far. Getting the horns to Virginia was a fight in itself in the lobby with Alaska Airlines in Fairbanks. Another short story, maybe sometime. I will try to remember this when I run out of stories. When my computer crashed last summer, I lost most of my moose hunting photos. The few that I had printed on paper is all that I have.

      I have to stop, my story is getting long enough, see you next month. John

      John Coffman

      John Coffman

      John is knowledgeable about history, hunting, fishing and other subjects.

      Next Post
      Local Scouts Learn Flag Folding Procedures

      Local Scouts Learn Flag Folding Procedures

      Popular Articles

      • Eldon Layman: Retired Educator and Book Creator

        Eldon Layman: Retired Educator and Book Creator

        0 shares
        Share 0 Tweet 0
      • STUDIO 259

        0 shares
        Share 0 Tweet 0
      • Morel Hunting Season Is Here!

        0 shares
        Share 0 Tweet 0
      • Hottinger Family

        0 shares
        Share 0 Tweet 0
      • The Lantz Family

        0 shares
        Share 0 Tweet 0
      • Making Memories Without Spending Lots of Money

        0 shares
        Share 0 Tweet 0
      • Handy with Randy

        0 shares
        Share 0 Tweet 0
      • Home Baked Goodness!

        0 shares
        Share 0 Tweet 0
      • Fulks Run Follies

        0 shares
        Share 0 Tweet 0
      • Tackle Your Money Stress

        0 shares
        Share 0 Tweet 0
      • About Us
      • Advertising
      • Contact
      • Pick Up Locations

      © 2023 The Chimney Rock Chronicle - Website & E-Commerce by Bare Web Design, Broadway Va.

      No Result
      View All Result
      • Home
      • Columns
      • History
      • Sports
        • Thank you to our Sponsors!
        • Advertising

      © 2023 The Chimney Rock Chronicle - Website & E-Commerce by Bare Web Design, Broadway Va.