2008 - Largest moose shot at Wildhurst Lodge

November 25, 2008 • Voyageur Press

Darrel Bruggman started applying for a once-in-a-lifetime moose hunt in 1971, and after 37 years, he finally shot the moose of a lifetime.

“It was worth the wait,” Darrel said in an interview at his deer hunting shack near McGregor. 
Not only did Darrel finally get a chance at a once-in-a-lifetime hunt, but he made the best of it and shot a very large moose with an antler spread of 58.5 inches. It was the largest moose shot among the 18 that were registered at Wildhurst Lodge and Campground near Finland, and it might be one of the biggest shot in Minnesota this year. 

Darrel’s hunt turned out to be an enjoyable experience. The only discouraging aspect of the whole hunt was his electronic moose call. For about a week Darrel used that call but only managed to call in another hunter. “It sounded so realistic,” said the hunter. 

The hunter wasn’t exactly what Darrel was hoping to attract, but he continued to try the device. 
Darrel hunted for most of the first week in the spots he picked out with his two friends, Paul Gelhar and Alroy Strand. The electronic moose call didn’t appear to be working, and all Darrel could think about was a spot he picked out two weeks prior with his son-in-law Shawn Hoover.
Darrel really liked a comfortable spot he and Shawn found the first time they scouted two weeks prior to the season. “I needed an easy spot, because I can’t walk very far, and this was a spot I could drive right to and get out of my car.”

The location included a large pile of paper birch tree tops that were left from logging. “It was a nice spot,” Darrel said. “I could take two steps up, sit on one log and lean on the other.”
The day Darrel saw that spot, he told Shawn he was going to shoot a moose there.

Darrel recalled moving to the spot on Friday when he and Shawn discovered that none of the other hunters were going there. “Friday morning Shawn and I went over to that spot, and with the electronic call, we had three moose coming in on us.”

“It was so exciting. They were grunting and knocking trees down, but they wouldn’t come out of the woods.”

Shawn had to go home, but Darrel was persistent and returned to the spot that evening, trying the electronic call again. 

“In the meantime, Paul Gelhar stopped by and said, ‘Just mouth call.’ So I did it a few times, and he said it sounds good.” 

That evening Darrel rolled up some birch bark and taped it together with some electrician’s tape. “That night, I practice by myself in the camper for a couple of hours before I went to bed.”
The next morning Darrel returned to his spot on the birch log and started calling at 7:00 a.m. At 7:45 he happened to notice a couple of paddles in the brush. “Wow, I never saw that before, so I put my gun up and here’s this big head. He is looking right at me, and he turned his head real slowly while I had the scope on him.”

The moose looked back, and Darrel took the shot. “They told us in our class that a straight-on shot is not a very good shot on a moose, because you really don’t have a very big target.”
Darrel wasn’t taking any chances. “It was too tempting. I don’t know if he’s going to turn around.”
“When I shot, he took off running like a Volkswagon going through the brush. I said to myself, ‘Wow, this thing is huge.’ It was running really fast. I shot again and he disappeared.”

Darrel didn’t wait. He headed over to where he had shot, then in the direction the moose headed. As Darrel approached he saw that big, light-colored antler sticking up. “It was almost as tall as me,” Darrel noted. “I said to myself, ‘What is this?’ I was like, wow, it was a good day today.”

Darrel’s not sure if he hit the moose on the first shot, but the bullet pierced the lung. After Darrel poked the moose with his gun and realized he was dead, he said to himself, “Now what do I do?”

“Shawn’s at home, and I’m here all alone. My first thought is to go call Shawn and then I will go find a few of the hunters in the area.”

Darrel recalled the two old-timers that were hunting nearby. “I met them the Friday night before hunting started at the restaurant,” Darrel recalled. “I thought they were buddies, but they turned out to be brothers – the Dernberger brothers.”

The Dernbergers had also applied for a moose license for many years. They were 80 and 82 years old. “I saw them every day,” recalled Darrel. “They would go by, and they would stop and ask how it was going. Finally, the day before I shot the moose, I met up with them and said, ‘I found a really good spot, and I’m going to get a moose. Then I am going to turn my spot over to you guys.”

Darrel’s first step was to drive 18–20 miles back out to Lake Superior where he had cell-phone reception to call Shawn. On his drive out he saw the old guys’ pickup, but they were in the woods chasing a moose. 

Darrel called his son-in-law and headed back down the road, and just as luck would have it, there were the Dernbergers in their truck. “I pulled up beside them and told them, ‘You get my spot!’”

“Did you get one?” they asked.
“Yeah, I shot a really nice one.” Darrel replied.
“Oh good,” they replied back.
“But I have to find a way to get the guts out,” Darrel told them.
“We’ll help you,” they offered.
“So here I am crippled, and they are both old duffers, but they are the swellest guys.”

Darrel and the Dernberger brothers arrived at the site of the kill, and the challenge was getting the bull tipped over. It was wedged between two logs.

The Dernbergers came prepared with a come-along and rope, a hand saw and all kinds of stuff in the truck. “We got the moose tipped over and on its back,” Darrel said, “and I started gutting it.”

The next step was collecting blood samples, hair samples, hide samples, a liver sample, a tooth sample and a poop sample. “They have a kit, and we started the process. We started a little after nine, and it took us forever. They [the Dernbergers] thought I was going to pass out.”
When it came to the poop sample, Darrel handed Gene some poop, and he replied, “No, I’ll hold the bag, but I’m not holding that stuff.”

Darrel couldn’t believe the heart. “It was the size of a basketball . . . unbelievable. It was kind of a shame to kill that critter.” 

The heart went to the cook at the restaurant called Our Place. “The cook has a special way of cleaning and cooking the heart with Cajun mix. He deep fries them and gives them to the guys in the bar that night.” 

Shawn and his boys [Cole and Chase] finally arrived with a 4-wheeler that would assist in pulling the moose out of the woods, which, according to Darrel, was a whole ‘nother process in itself. 

Darrel recalled learning how to attach the antlers to the back rack of the 4-wheeler. They could then drag the moose from the brush. “The front end came off the ground of that 500 Polaris at first because of the logs, so we hooked another 4-wheeler to the first to hold the front end down.”

It was a long day, but an exciting one for Darrel.

The moose certainly was a large one. Darrel talked to another local resident, Kris Rinta, who shot a moose that is in the top 50. “He thinks the moose might rank in the top 10. It might even be the biggest one shot this year,” he said.

Colleen Teschendorf, owner and operator of Wildhurst Lodge and Campground, remembers Darrel talking about his moose-hunting story all the way back to when he first applied.
“As far as I know, the moose ranks right up there with the top in the area,” Colleen said.
After waiting 37 years for a once-in-a-lifetime moose hunt, Darrel has one big story to tell and a few other small tales. Like one of the first days he scouted the territory and was chasing a moose with his vehicle. They passed by two campers with their feet up on their chairs drinking wine. “They stared in amazement as we traveled down the road at 20 miles per hour,” Darrel said.

Or all of the stops Darrel, Shawn and the grandchildren made on their way home. At a gas station in Two Harbors they ran into a family from India. “They were up the North Shore looking at leaves,” recalled Shawn. “One of them said, ‘It’s a big catch!’” Another asked, “‘Is it still alive?’” Everyone laughed.

“You would have thought that he was running for president the way people circled around him and the moose,” added Shawn. “People were holding up their babies and taking pictures with the moose.”

By the way, Darrel did make a moose call for the Dernberger brothers and gave up his spot. “Gene actually sounded pretty good,” said Darrel who encouraged them to give it a try. “I called them up later and found out they didn’t get a moose. They didn’t use the call because they didn’t have enough confidence in their voices.”

Darrel did have the confidence to make his own call – and he has one of the biggest bulls harvested in Minnesota this year to prove it. 

“That was the ultimate experience,” Darrel concluded.

Editor’s note: The moose was later processed by Big Ed and Wendy Hamilton. Darrel was the first customer at their new processing building at their home west of McGregor.