![\"This](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Moose-hunt-bull-9.20.26.jpg\")
This gigantic Shiras moose bull is pictured here on Sept. 10. The day before, bowhunter Zach Key bagged it. (Zach Key)Decoys to the Rescue<\/p>\nHear the words \u201cWyoming moose archery hunt,\u201d and it will likely conjure up images of a hunter sneaking through thick willows or hiding in thick, dark timber.<\/p>\n
After waiting 18 years to draw a once-in-a-lifetime moose tag, Zach Key found himself trying to figure out how to get within bow range of two huge bull moose hanging out in a wide-open southwest Wyoming alfalfa field.<\/p>\n
He ended up faking out the bulls by holding a realistic 2D cow moose decoy in front of him and simply walking right into the field.<\/p>\n
And after the larger of the two bulls dropped, the second bull decided to try \u201csparring\u201d with its fallen comrade, Key said.<\/p>\n
An unusual hunt that Key will never forget, for sure. Which matters, because moose hunts in Wyoming are a once-in-a-lifetime deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if you don\u2019t end up killing one, that\u2019s it. Once you draw a moose tag, you don\u2019t get another chance,\u201d Key said.<\/p>\n
This gigantic Shiras moose bull is pictured here on Sept. 10. The day before, bowhunter Zach Key bagged it. (Zach Key)Decoys to the Rescue<\/p>\n
\u201cI was hunting in a huge hay pivot (field), with absolutely no cover on it,\u201d Key, who lives in La Barge, told Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n
Crawling into the field and trying to lure the bulls toward him by imitating moose grunts, or \u201cglunking,\u201d wasn\u2019t working.<\/p>\n
Then he had an epiphany: What about using a cow moose decoy, or two?<\/p>\n
He had one 2D decoy rushed overnight from the Montana Decoy Co. and borrowed another from a friend.<\/p>\n
He hunted on the morning of Sept. 11 with no luck and then went to his son Parker\u2019s football game.<\/p>\n
That afternoon, he entered the field, holding one of the decoys \u201cin front of me like a shield\u201d and walked at a normal pace.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was basically standing straight up and walking. They (the bulls) didn\u2019t even raise their heads from feeding. I can\u2019t believe they couldn\u2019t figure out it was a fake moose,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He got to within a reasonable distance, set up the decoys, and hunkered down about 30 yards away, hoping for the best.<\/p>\n
![\"Bowhunter](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Moose-hunt-Decoy-9.20.26.jpg\")
Bowhunter Zach Key held a 2D moose decoy in front of him to cross an alfalfa field during his hunt for this huge bull moose in southwest Wyoming. (Zach Key)![\"After](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Moose-hunt-Zack-2-9.20.26.jpg\")
After trying 18 years to draw a moose tag, Zach Key wasn\u2019t sure how his hunt would go. He ended up dropping this trophy-sized bull in an alfalfa field. (Zach Key)![\"After](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Moose-hunt-Zack-1-9.20.26.jpg\")
After trying 18 years to draw a moose tag, Zach Key wasn\u2019t sure how his hunt would go. He ended up dropping this trophy-sized bull in an alfalfa field. (Zach Key)Arrow leftArrow rightThe Long Wait For A Tag<\/p>\n
Just drawing a moose tag is a feat.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a game of building up preference points, which can be purchased, at the rate of one each year, after the annual Wyoming hunting tag draws.<\/p>\n
Key had to deal with \u201cpoints creep,\u201d or the number of preference points required to have a reasonable chance at a moose tag continually rising because of fluctuations in the moose population, the number of tags allocated, and other factors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I started, I needed 10 points. Then 12 points, and eventually 18,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
After 18 years, he\u2019d compiled the 18 points needed for the best odds and drew his tag.<\/p>\n
His father, Pat, had drawn a tag in the same southwest Wyoming moose hunt area around 2013.<\/p>\n
Pat arrowed a bull with antlers that scored 164 5\/8 inches. That\u2019s well over the 155-inch score required for a bull Shiras moose to be entered in the coveted Boone and Crockett Club hunting trophy record books.<\/p>\n
Shiras are Wyoming’s only moose species. They\u2019re considerably smaller than Alaska moose but are still massive, easily outclassing elk.<\/p>\n
Despite his father previously bagging a record-book moose there, the hunt area Key drew a tag for isn\u2019t especially known for huge bulls.<\/p>\n
The Snowy Range in southeast Wyoming is best known for producing monster moose. But that hunt area requires 25 preference points.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t want to wait 25 years to draw a tag. Waiting 18 years was bad enough,\u201d Key said.<\/p>\n
![\"Zach](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Moose-hunt-Pat-9.20.26.jpeg\")
Zach Key\u2019s father, Pat Key, bagged this trophy-sized Shiras moose in southwest Wyoming in 2013. It fell in a river, and they had to use their truck\u2019s winch to pull it out. (Zach Key)![\"After](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Moose-hunt-tagged-9.20.26.jpeg\")
After trying 18 years to draw a moose tag, Zach Key wasn\u2019t sure how his hunt would go. He ended up dropping this trophy-sized bull in an alfalfa field.\u00a0 (Zach Key)Arrow leftArrow rightA Local Tip<\/p>\n
Once Key had his moose tag, there was scouting to be done.<\/p>\n
And it wasn\u2019t only a matter of finding moose but also finding bulls in a place where he could get permission to hunt.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Game and Fish (Department) cautions hunters who apply for moose tags there; the area is almost all private land, and hunting access isn\u2019t guaranteed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Key scouted for the day and \u201clooked over about 70 moose and spotted two bulls that I thought were big enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he couldn\u2019t get permission to hunt on the land those bulls occupied. \u00a0<\/p>\n
The meaning of \u201conce-in-a-lifetime\u201d for his tag started to sink in.<\/p>\n
\u201cI started to have this weird anxiety,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Would all the years of anticipation of drawing a moose tag turn out to be for nothing?<\/p>\n
Then a local game warden gave Key a tip about \u201ctwo good-sized bulls hanging around a strip of willows next to a hay pivot\u201d on a nearby ranch.<\/p>\n
The landowner granted him permission.<\/p>\n
![\"After](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Moose-hunt-Zack-3-9.20.26.jpg\")
After trying 18 years to draw a moose tag, Zach Key wasn\u2019t sure how his hunt would go. He ended up dropping this trophy-sized bull in an alfalfa field. (Zach Key)\u2018Everything Happened At Once\u2019<\/p>\n
After walking in behind his decoy and setting up, Key tried grunting and glunking to get the bulls\u2019 attention.<\/p>\n
Even with the decoys there, it still wasn\u2019t working, and daylight was fading fast.<\/p>\n
The legal shooting light ended at 8:05 p.m. At 7:25 p.m., he made another attempt at calling.<\/p>\n
And the bulls started coming, straight for the decoys.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest bull kicked the littler bull out of the way and kept coming. Every step he took, he was \u2018chuckling\u2019 at me,\u201d Key said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter so long of nothing happening, everything happened at once,” he said.<\/p>\n
When the bull was about 10 yards away from the decoys and 30 yards from him, Key drew his bowstring.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe must have caught my movement in his peripheral vision, because he jumped a little bit and turned like he was going to leave. So, I grunted at him again, and he stopped,\u201d Key said.<\/p>\n
His shot was true. The razor-sharp broadhead missed the bull\u2019s heart but devastated both lungs.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe went about 30 yards and stopped, wobbled around for a little bit, and then tipped over,\u201d Key said.<\/p>\n
A leader in his church had offered a prayer for Key to have a successful hunt that evening, and he\u2019s sure the intervention of faith tipped things in his favor.<\/p>\n
Picking A Fight With A Dead Bull<\/p>\n
Key thought the drama was over, but then the smaller bull approached.<\/p>\n
He was aggressively tilting his antlers toward the fallen bull.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was like he was trying to spar with the bull that was down on the ground,\u201d Key said.<\/p>\n
He noted that he\u2019s seen similar behavior in white-tailed deer bucks.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere have been times when I shot a buck, and another buck would come up and start trying to lock antlers with the one I shot,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Such behavior actually is common among ungulates, biologist Kevin Monteith told Cowboy State Daily.<\/p>\n
During mating season, males establish a pecking order. Sometimes that\u2019s through direct fighting, but that carries the risk of injury, said Monteith, a biologist with the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming.<\/p>\n
Lower-ranking males might have to await other opportunities, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsequently, when a male perceives a weakness in another male, especially if he was higher ranking, the lower-ranked male will not hesitate to take advantage of the situation and achieve rank above the weakened male,\u201d he said. \u201cNever a missed opportunity to gain rank and access to female ungulates in the rut.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n
Volleyball-Sized Heart<\/p>\n
After the second bull finally trotted off, Key called a couple of friends to come help.<\/p>\n
It took until 2:20 a.m. to get the bull skinned, quartered, and loaded into his pickup.<\/p>\n
Key has bagged plenty of deer and elk, but processing a moose carcass was at another level.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s incredible how fricking big they are,\u201d he said. \u201cThe heart\u2019s the size of a damn volleyball.\u201d<\/p>\n
With the bone still in, the moose\u2019s carcass yielded 565 pounds of meat, Key said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m betting he weighed 900 to 1,000 pounds on the hoof,” he said.<\/p>\n
The antlers are 42 inches wide, and Key hopes that it might even surpass the score of his dad\u2019s moose.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m guessing it will score about 165 inches,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He\u2019ll get the antlers officially measured after a mandatory 60-day drying period.<\/p>\n
Key plans to have the meat processed at a local butcher shop.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had people tell me that moose meat is really good, and I\u2019ve had other people tell me that it sucks,\u201d he said. \u201cThat hanging period is important to cure and tenderize the meat.” <\/p>\n